New Media Strategies
Pew: Creating Content No Longer 'Elite' Endeavor
By Yung Kim | June 5, 2006
Walk into any bar with a smattering of youngish males wearing fashionably tattered jeans and expensively weathered T-shirts, and sooner or later the demand will ring out.
"Let's hug it out, bitch!"
Jeremy Piven, who plays super agent Ari Gold on HBO's hit series "Entourage," made hugging it out the hip way to work out disagreements for the young and inebriated as well as the seasoned executive.
"Any bar, frat house, even boardroom, 'let's hug it out' gets dropped," said Pete Snyder, founder of New Media Strategies, an online business intelligence company that tracks the hottest trends.
With its third season debut set for 10 p.m. Sunday, the series is poised to make the leap from popular show for the young and cool to outright hip in the "Sex in the City" and "The Sopranos" mold.
"It took to Season 3 for 'Sex and the City' to be a phenomenon," Snyder said. " 'Seinfeld' took a year or two."
And like every "it" show, "Entourage" has an "it" line -- "Let's hug it out, bitch."
With Web sites, T-shirts, even remixed house beats, male-to-male affection has never been cooler. And not in a "Brokeback" sort of way.
"LHIOB" has reached the pantheon of television show one-liners, joining the ranks of "What you talking 'bout, Willis?" and "Don't have a cow, man."
"The recipe for the "Entourage" success is straightforward, according to Snyder:
A show about a young Hollywood actor, Vincent Chase (played by Adrian Grenier), making it big demands a large, good-looking cast. There's the best friend-manager Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly); the older brother -- who still struggles with a not-so-hot, past-his-prime acting career -- Johnny "Drama" Chase (Kevin Dillon); and the New York-to-the-core buddy Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), who also drops a fair share of classic one-liners. "A woman's right to choose" takes on a whole new meaning in "Entourage" speak.
Mix in witty, razor-sharp dialogue, hilarious plot lines and for good measure, add cameos from famous actors poking fun at the establishment by playing themselves -- which this season will include James Woods and the return of James Cameron.
The show winds up a combination of MTV's "Cribs," "Real World" and "Pimp My Ride," with a little "E! True Hollywood Story" thrown in.
And the cherry on the concoction is Piven's character Ari Gold, the cantankerous Hollywood super agent with a J.D./M.B.A. from Michigan who can be counted on to unleash a torrent of expletive-filled put-downs and one-liners every episode.
"Hands down, [Piven] has the most heat," Snyder said. "Ari is not even the focus, but he had an increased role last season and I definitely expect him to have a much larger role this season."
According to Snyder, the show is smoking hot with the coveted 18- to 34-year-old male market, but also has a strong female fan base.
Alison Prato, executive editor of Giant magazine, said that her own crew has been watching since Episode 1 and that Sunday's Season 3 premiere is receiving star treatment from her mag.
She only expects bigger things from the show.
"I think 'Entourage' has really become an instant classic show," she said. "Everybody watches it, quotes from it and loves it. It's got that mass appeal and goes well beyond a coveted demographic."