Love Monkey [TV Series] (2006)

Created by Michael Rauch, the hour-long dramedy series Love Monkey was based on a novel by Kyle Smith, though it also owed quite a lot to the Tom Cruise film Jerry Maguire. Tom Cavanagh headed the cast as music agent Tom Farrell, an A&R rep for big-time Goliath Records. After experiencing a sudden attack of integrity, Tom was fired by his sharkish boss, Phil Leshing (Eric Bogosian), at which point our hero went to work for a tiny independent record label. Other characters included Tom's best friend, Mike (Jason Priestley), his platonic girlfriend, "Bran" (Judy Greery), ex-baseball star Jake (Christopher Wiehl), and the entrepreneurial Shooter (Larenz Tate), as well as two characters obviously intended as "breakthroughs": Tom's main client, Wayne (Teddy Geiger), a John Mayer wannabe, and Tom's literal "dream girl," Julia (Ivana Milicevic). Utilizing a wealth of p.o.v. camera shots, off-camera narration, unexpected flashbacks, and funky original music, Love Monkey was described by some critics as a male Sex and the City. The series made its CBS debut on January 17, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi