Studio 60: Trying to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, while live blogging on the Sunset Strip

Updated throughout show.  Wrap-up and smart reader commentary below.

9:45 Just tried to explain to the ten year old why I've been frustrated by Studio 60.

He watched the last season of The West Wing and he got to like Bradley Whitford as Josh and he was sorry to hear Studio 60 wasn't going well for him.  I told him that Whitford's fine.  He's doing an excellent job.  All the leads---except for Sarah Paulson, and she's trying---are doing fine work.  It's the writing, I said.

The scripts stink? he asked.

No.  No.  It's not that they stink.  It's that...It's like watching a good pitcher throwing a good-looking curve ball.  The pitches come in, breaking beautifully, hitting the same spot every time, pitch after pitch, except they're all six inches outside.

Every pitch is perfectly delivered, and every one misses the plate.

Anyway, good evening, folks.  Mannion here.  My special guest blogger couldn't make it.  He said it was due to work.  I think he thinks he has a chance to get laid.  Whatever.  He'll be here another night.  For tonight, I'm back on the bridge, and my plan is to try to find positive things to say about the episode.

The rest of you down in steerage can be as snarky as the mood takes you.

9:55 Heroes.  Doesn't look like they're doing a good job of saving the cheerleader.

9:58.  How many heroes are there?

Ok.  To be continued.  I wonder if this show is as interesting as the last few minutes of every episode have made it seem.

10:00  We're on.  Oh good.  Ricky and Ron are back.  Conflict.

Jessica Simpson's guest hosting.  Praying for peace in the Midwest to fill 37 seconds.

Ricky and Ron seem to have pretty low status responsibilities for head writers.  They oversee the cue cards?

Matt thinks the show tanked.  He's probably right.

That was it.  Harriet was naked.  It's over.  I'm turning it off now.  You guys go on without me.

10:07  I'm over it.  That wasn't all that sexy, was it?  Guess it wasn't meant to be.  It was meant to be cute.  I don't need any more cute in my life.  I wanted sexy.  Has there been a sexy moment on Studio 60 since it premiered?

10:09  She's still naked.

Now she's got a bathrobe on and is talking to sexy chick.  I think we should have seen sexy chick in her underwear.

Still cute, not sexy.

Thinking about it, has there been a sexy moment in anything Aaron Sorkin has written?

Macao again?  When are we going to get a plot that has something to do with the characters and the show they're producing?

Oh, layoffs are in the works.

Is this a show for business majors?

It is.  Aaron Sorkin wants to teach us how to run a television network.  There'll be a quiz later.

I'm beginning to think that Sorkin's mind isn't really on his own premise.

"Muncie State?"  Somebody couldn't bring himself to write Ball State but still wanted the inside joke about Letterman's alma mater.

Now we're going to examine contract law.

Hold it!  Hold it!  Simon and Tom are trying to talk her out of doing the lingerie spread?

No, Tom, there is no general interest in seeing Harry undressed.

Danny had a healthy feature film career in which he never had to think about product placement.  He was doing art films in Eastern Europe.

10:26  Danny and Matt.  They're the show.  Trying a little too hard to be Hawkeye and Trapper here though.

But if Ricky and Ron quit then there's no creative conflict.  Danny and Matt's victory is complete.  Where do we go from here?

Maybe the lawyers will interfere.  Suits on the march!  Now that's drama.

If Sorkin had been writing for MASH, he'd have given us scripts about the logisitcs of supply.

Brit girl is back.

Brit girl is gone.

If Sorkin wrote for Cheers, we'd have had episode after episode about the economics of brewing beer.

10:35.  Oh good, another opportunity for Harriet to get on her high horse.  Sarah Paulson is so appealing when she's self-righteous.

10:37.  30 Rock did a product placement show last week. It was funny and made the same points in three lines.

10:38.  Danny has great timing, doesn't he.  "You're about to be fired."  Commercial break.  How did he know?

This Ricky and Ron and Peripheral Man plot might be interesting if Matt's really acting out of spite and not out of artistic integrity.

Just for the record, I understand why Tom and Simon are tying to talk Harriet out of the lingerie gig.  What I don't understand is why she was dumb enough to agree to do it in the first place?

10:43.  Danny just recapped last week's episode.  The most dramatic moment of this week's episode is a recap of last week.

Tom and Simon are making it clear they are pro-female nudity.  I am too.  I am not pro repeating the same conversation we just had five minutes ago.

She's taking her clothes off to spite other Christians?  Couldn't she just want to show off?

Brit girl.  I like Brit Girl.

That kiss was sexy.

I don't want Ricky and Ron to go.  Don't go, Ron!

Damn, they went.

But Brit girl and Darius are going to get more work.  Will they get more screen time?

10:53  Busfield's back.  There can't be a fourth OT in that basketball game.

NO!  He's saving the day!

Janitor sweeping up for the last shot?  A Carol Burnett reference?

Ok.  We're done.

Sigh.

That one wasn't even a case of  Sorkin walking every batter.  He never came out of the bullpen.  He spent the whole show warming up.

They never got to the party.  Oh wait.  I get it.  They never got to the party.  The basketball game never finished.  Tonight's show was a metaphor for itself.  It was all about how things are going nowhere.  Lots of talk, lots of seeming activity, but at the end, the score's still tied, nobody's got a drink,  Amanda Peet doesn't know if she still has her job,  Harriet and Matt didn't kiss, and Matt isn't even sure if tonight's show really sucked.

A TV show can't go into overtime, and live blogging shouldn't.  So I'm done for now.   Thanks for stopping by.  Carol Burnett will be here in a little while to mop up the stage.

Wrap-up.  Four-thirty Tuesday morning:

Woken up out of sound sleep by the sudden realization that my baseball metaphor's all wrong for last night's show.  I'm now thinking football.  Sorkin played last night's episode without his passing game.  He threw for no long yardage but did still manage to move the ball down the field.

Ricky and Ron and their crew of writers are gone.  Now the show belongs to Matt, but more importantly opens up the way for Sorkin to introduce the new members of the writing staff , Darius and Brit girl, as characters.

We finally got to see Jordan at work being a network suit.  Sorkin still has her doing work that seems to me to put her about two boxes down the flow chart, but what do I know?  Harriet is turning into a character; she was much less of the stick figure Conservative Christian and more of an actually conservative person---conservative in her attitudes and behavior and not in her politics---and Sarah Paulson seems to be getting more comfortable with the character.  She's allowing Harriet to be not as "smart" as Sarah Paulson.   Harriet shouldn't be a dummy, but she can't be a thinker.  She's all heart.  In the first few shows, Paulson seemed to be afraid that if she made Harriet more emotional and reactive she'd be insulting the character and Christians by implying faith is only possible to have if you don't think.  But Harriet can only survive in show business and keep that kind of faith intact if she doesn't think too hard about what she's doing.

And Harriet and Matt, which is to say Paulson and Matthew Perry, finally had a scene together in which they managed to convince me that they liked each other.  I still don't believe that they have had or ever will have sex.  It was wrong for Sorkin to leave out of Harriet's decision to pose for lingerie spread any physical vanity on Harriet's part.  She was doing it to prove to Hollywood producers she had sex appeal and to get back at some Christian group she felt hat let her down.  She should also have been doing it because she wanted to see herself in a garter belt and because she wanted Matt to see her too.  She should want to be thought sexy for the sake of being sexy.   As it turns out she's not someone whose faith has her resisting normal human temptations.  She's just a prig who's also careerist with a wounded ego.

As for her being the star of the show within a show, that side of her may never get shown convincingly.  The character as Sorkin has written her and as Paulson has been playing her and as the other characters have been treating her could be the star of a TV show---a show like The West Wing or even a sitcom, where being an actress, as opposed to a comedian, carries the day and where the kind of stardom she appears to enjoy is more likely to be the reward for good work.

I had some more but Victoria says it all, with fewer words and more pith, starting with answering my question about the janitor shown sweeping up at the end of the episode:

Sweeping Janitor just means Very Late Night After Everyone Is Gone - and these three are still upstairs trying to clean up (understand) after their bad show, just like the janitor is cleaning up below.

Now, about finding positive things to say:

The two remaining rookie writers are both interesting and there's a lot they can do to take this cast in interesting directions by filling out the stable.

I thought the scene between Matt and Harriett was one of their best so far - I disagree that there's no chemistry there. Something about their mouths...there's a similarity that makes me believe in them as a potential pair. Now, if only the conversations coming out of those two mouths were a little more scintillating and surprising...

Whitford, Perry, and Busfield are working their asses off and I enjoy everything they do. Hughley is interesting to watch, too, with a lot of excellent tiny gestures. The Dylan character was pretty sweet in his Santa scene last week, killer smile. Plus Darius and the Lucy. And Weber has Perfect Pitch. That's a lot to work with.

Sorkin has been quoted in interviews as saying he does dialogue and character, but is weak on plot. Sports Night could slide without much plot in just a half hour. The White House gave him enough matters of import + plausible visiting outsiders to make it feel like there was more happening, even when it wasn't a whole heck of a lot. This show is a challenge in that regard.

Pray for the Plot Fairy.

Comments

[blue girl]

With that description, I would bet $100 I know who that guest live blogger was gonna be.

Funny how you can get to know someone over the Internets so well!

[blue girl]

Mannion, you know you're not gonna have a really high comment count tonight like you did last week, right? Cuz you're not gonna be down here droning on and one about the Brit chick, right?

[Jaquandor]

I saw this episode last night, folks, and aside from some boring Harriet crap (as always!), this one's actually pretty good. Maybe the best one yet. (Although I liked that "wrap party" episode with the blacklisted comedian, which lots of folks thought was Teh Suck, so what do I know.)

[blue girl]

I want that LIFE poster with Bogie and Woody for my Wall of Cool.

Christmas is coming people!

[charlie]

What do you call the first two minutes of the show before the credits?

Ouch. I just saw her naked.

These VW ads are better....

[blue girl]

Yeah, I said I was going to be descriptive, but there's not much to say about it ... them ... whatever.

[James Wolcott]

"Accentuate the positive?" Why, that's just crazy talk!

Given that SNL featured geysers of fake blood in sketches back when pterodactyls owned the air, I really doubt the producers here would have been thwarted getting all the gore they needed for a Tarantino sketch.

[breadbox]

and there I was reading the blog and I missed her
nakednessitude....

oh well....

D'you think the wonderbeagle will make it back into this weeks episode?

[blue girl]

I thought you weren't going to be all about Harriet in her underwear, Mannion?

Dropped that cover pretty quick.

[blue girl]

I'm sooooo glad Tom isn't still wearing the Jesus garb.

[charlie]

that is about an exciting as the topless scene from All in the Family...

[breadbox]

Now why would the CIA want Harriet? Isn't torture illegal????

[blue girl]

I love Matt. Chanandler Bong.

[M.A. Peel]

Can we please get a Steve Weber moment soon. Please please please

[blue girl]

They're writing a pilot script

Oooooh! Intrigue!

[charlie]

OK, so let me get this right. In the age of Maxin, FHM, every internet site geared at 15-25 year old males --- which I think is the audience of a comedy show -- it is bad idea to pose in a magazine?

Hello? have you heard of Paris Hilton?

[blue girl]

charlie,

Edith or Gloria? Or Weezy?

:)

[James Wolcott]

Amanda Peet explaining debt-to-equity ratio...let's just say L & O: CI handled EBIDTA far more deftly in that episode involving insider share-dumping.

I wish somebody on this show apart from Timothy Busfeld would talk like a normal person and not like a gumball dispenser.

[breadbox]

Oh goody. zingers about debt to equity ratio over long term interest.
Huh?
Long term interest? In this show?

[blue girl]

I wish somebody on this show apart from Timothy Busfeld...

I agree. Timothy Busfeld is totally likeable and good on this show. I'm glad he's back on something.

[charlie]

money shots of the church girl? Yuck.

[James Wolcott]

Gee, I wish they'd get to the party already.

[M.A. Peel]

Is product placement in primetime tv really an issue for anyone???? Sorkin, what can we do to help with sorting out issues for you--

[Victoria]

Being on the west coast, I decided to do something useful - so I went looking for blue girl's poster. I think you have to buy the March 21 1969 magazine and have it blown up to poster size - Here you go:

http://cgi.ebay.com/LIFE-Magazine-March-21-1969-Bogart-Woody-Allen_W0QQitemZ7018859646QQcmdZViewItem

OK, who is going to be a mensch and give her the dang Christmas gift?

[charlie]

OK, is the phone intergration thing (talking about Nokia, then the phone ringing) funny? And talking about Jessica Simpson and then running a national DirecTV commerical?

[blue girl]

Those two boys need a real woman to kick their behinds...in a rhetorical way. Don't they?

Do I hear agreement here?

Do I?!

Who is Peripheral Vision Man, for crying out loud? See? They overdo stuff like that.

[M.A. Peel]

Brit chick--yea

[charlie]

Uff, I just saw a Mac. And Brit girl.

[blue girl]

No, Harriet, you are not like Jackie Kennedy.

[charlie]

This really is just an All in the Family episode.

When is the last time a female star from SNL was in a layout?

But at least they are using the Jesus suit guy a bit more.

[shayera]

Okay, so I must leap out of lurkdom to say that Brit chick has been on before last week's episode. Mostly a line or two out of the writer's pit.
And she's played by Lucy Davis, who was Dianne in possibly the greatest zombie movie ever: Shaun of the Dead and she was on the British version of The Office.

[charlie]

elephant and dwarves? I laughed for the first time....

[blue girl]

You're about to get fired!

More intrigue!

[James Wolcott]

Maybe they're never going to get to the wrap party, like in one of those existential plays/movies.

Is this the kind of patter Aaron Sorkin and Maureen Dowd shared during their beautiful interlude?

[charlie]

OK, ipod mention in the show = national ipod commerical.

[blue girl]

Victoria! You're so sweet!

Love that!

[M.A. Peel]

Ok--ipods in the balcony at the opera to the coat ipods--overthetop

[M.A. Peel]

okay--the ipod opera reference to the ipod coats commercial. Overthetop

[charlie]

Matt Perry is doing a great cheesy job.

[charlie]

There is the Heineken...one more placement.

[James Wolcott]

Nope, we never get to the party.

And Matthew Perry's going to write a weekly live comedy show with all by himself with only a staff of two rookies--does Aaron Sorkin really need to be vainglorifying himself this way?

[breadbox]

Oh goody: in the previews they show us the one funny line *and* give us a new creative tension plot point.
Or two!

[breadbox]

There is something really strange going on here (at least on my computer) with the timechecks for comments tonight. They seem to bear no relation to real time.... anywhere.....

[Kevin M.]

Actually waiting till the end--that was a very nicely done episode. Convincing arc, good energy, genuine confrontation, a couple of credible reversals. Ricky and Ron gone? Just makes me look forward to what Sorkin has in hand. The wise guys are of course right about this show's fate, but it'll be a pity to see it go, warts and all.

[James Wolcott]

I think the floor-sweeping janitor at the end was supposed to be like the gravedigger in Hamlet, only without dialogue. A reminder of our mortality, that all of us in time are swept away.

I guess everyone gets to act clammy on next week's episode.

[blue girl]

Oh. I must've killed the comment thread thinking Harriet and Matt had a moment.

But, let me say...Victoria! Thank you for that link.

I just bought that magazine. Yay for me!

But, not Yay! to everyone else here who could've bought it for me for Christmas. Bah humbug to them!

Sniffle.

(Thanks, Victoria!)

[Lance]

BG,

You didn't kill the comment thread. Typepad's been publishing the comments out of sequence.

[blue girl]

charlie,

You're anti-Cleveland and anti-MAC?

Pshaw!

[M.A. Peel]

"That's how a SORKIN man talks"--yikes

[blue girl]

If Sorkin wrote for Cheers, we'd have had episode after episode about the economics of brewing beer.

Great line, Mannion. You're so right.

I don't want to be entertained by economics!