Hey, kids! After perusing this fine page I came to notice that not one of the talented staffers around here were covering the best new show on TV, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. So, being the hotshot I am, I immediately called up Murtz to complain. I mean, can’t Kevin Wong cover a seventh show? Murtz told me to put my money where my mouth was. If the show was so good, he said, why didn’t I cover it?
Me and my big fat…
But hey, you’re not here to read about my interzone squabbles with the brass, are you? You’re here because you recognize a quality show when you see it. And if Aaron Sorkin’s name is on the show, you know it’s going to be good. I mean, he’s only the man behind one of the most criminally underseen comedies of the past 20 years, Sports Night, as well as one of the most beloved and acclaimed shows of the past two decades, The West Wing. So when I heard Aaron was coming back to television with a show combining the talents of Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, Steven Weber, Ed Asner, and DL Hughley, I was in, no questions asked.
And I’m proud to say that Studio 60 has surpassed my admittedly lofty expectations.
Here’s a brief synopsis of the first six episodes, for those of you who may not be familiar. Matt Albie (Perry) and Danny Tripp (Whitford) are former staff members of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”, a sketch comedy show on NBS in the vein of Saturday Night Live. After leaving the show over the cutting of a controversial sketch, they’d gone on to become a well-regarded writing and directing team, making critically acclaimed money-making movies. But they’re asked to come back and take over “Studio 60” by the new head of the network, Jordan McDeere (Peet), after the show’s producer, Wes Mendell (Judd Hirsch) loses it on live television. The show is an incredible glimpse into the backstage creative process of making a TV show, and should be one of the highest rated things on the air; instead, it’s been suffering dwindling ratings since the vast majority of television viewers have the IQ of a can of chick peas.
But hey, you’re not here to listen to me rant about the intellectual capacity of the American television audience, and besides, the show does a much better job of that than I can. So let’s get into this week’s episode.
“Nevada Day Part 1” is, as the title suggests, the first part of a two-part episode. Tom Jeter (Nathan Corddry), one of the stars of “Studio 60”, finds himself in jail in Parumph, NV after a series of strange events. Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson), the Southern Baptist star of “Studio 60”, was asked by a newspaper about her views on gay marriage, and the newspaper only ran part of her quote where she says that the Bible considers it a sin, omitting the second half of her statement where she said the Bible also said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
The night before the show, Harriet, Tom, and Simon Stiles (DL Hughley) are leaving a diner when Harriet is accosted by a group of gay men who harass her for her quote in the paper. Tom and Simon hustle her out of there, and in the process, Tom shoves one of the men to the ground in order to get Harriet into the car. The next day, while rehearsing a new sketch Matt’s written where Jesus (played by Tom) is the network head of Standards and Practices, two West Hollywood cops show up to arrest Tom for assaulting the gay protestor the night before.
The situation doesn’t seem that serious until it turns out Tom’s got a bench warrant in Parumph, NV for doing 120 in a 65 MPH zone and failing to appear for his court case. Since the charge was reckless endangerment for driving so fast, the charge was upgraded to a felony when Tom failed to appear, thus making it an extraditable offense. So Tom’s carted off to Nevada, and it appears that he’ll be stuck there until Monday, since it’s Nevada Day, a state holiday celebrating the state’s joining the Union, and all state and municipal employees are off for the day.
To complicate matters further, Tom was wearing Simon’s jacket because he was cold, and when Simon finds out Tom was arrested he panics because there’s half a joint in one of the coat pockets. Simon scoops up Danny and they plan to head out to Nevada to bail Tom out, leaving Matt behind to rewrite the show in case Tom (and possibly Simon) was unable to make the start time. As if the situation wasn’t chaotic enough, the head of NBS, Wilson White (Ed Asner), is trying to close a deal with a Chinese billionaire that would give NBS global coverage through Chinese satellites, and the billionaire is leaning towards doing the deal with NBS because his daughter is a huge Tom Jeter fan.
When the daughter asks to meet Tom, and network chairman Jack Rudolph (Steven Weber) finds out about Tom’s predicament, the result finds Jack, Danny, Simon, the Chinese billionaire and his daughter, and an NBS lawyer flying out to Parumph to liberate Tom from jail. Standing in the way of Tom’s freedom is one very annoyed judge (guest star John Goodman), whose fishing trip was interrupted by a call from the governor of Nevada and doesn’t care much for Hollywood types.
This episode continued the run of strong writing that’s always the hallmark of an Aaron Sorkin-written show. The core of the show is the relationship between Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, and seven episodes in they’ve already got the same comfortable familiarity with each other that Whitford had with Richard Schiff and Rob Lowe on The West Wing. When you think about it, it’s not that big of a surprise; Perry and Whitford had great chemistry together when Perry made some guest appearances as a White House Counsel on Wing. But Sorkin neophytes like Paulson, Hughley, Peet, Corddry, and Weber are completely in the groove, rolling Sorkin’s dialogue off their tongues like they’ve been doing this for years.
It’s one of the new season’s biggest disappointments that this show isn’t doing better in the ratings. It’s not a new situation for Sorkin; the same problem occurred with Sports Night. Who knows, maybe it shouldn’t be following up Heroes (the season’s other great new show); the two have completely different tones and attract different audiences. Personally, I’d think it’d be a perfect complement to the Thursday night comedy block, but ER has owned that slot for years and isn’t going anywhere. Here’s hoping that NBC gives Studio 60 the time and nurturing it needs to find a solid audience.
See you next week!
