Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip - Season One (1 Viewer)

[DanielCo]

Righto Ken. Not Ms. Smith. I apologize. Still, 4 prominent West Wingers so early in the run? That seems like an attempt at association with past success to me.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I had to look up a few of them to even remember. Prominent West Wingers? Evan Handler? It took me a minute to even remember Timothy Busfield ("CJ's" reporter, Danny). And Matthew Perry was hardly a West Wing centerpiece. He's a "Friend" who had a guest appearance (arc if you will) on The West Wing.

Anyway, you answered my question. It's unfortunate that the fact that some of the actors who had guest appearances on The West Wing interferes with your enjoyment of Studio 60. To me, the show stands on it's own, and if the PTB feel that a given actor can successfully convey a given character, I'm ready to accept that. The fact that some of the confidence comes from having worked together before is something I consider a plus, not a minus. BTW, did seeing The American President interfere with you enjoying The West Wing?

 

[Jeff Pounds]

Right... and I don't know about everyone else, but if I see some faces from West Wing, I associate it more with Aaron Sorkin than that particular show. It's obvious that there are certain actors he has in mind for certain roles, given some of the recurring faces from A Few Good Men, The American President, SportsNight, West Wing, etc.

I can't wait for Joshua Malina to join the cast in Season Two.

 

[Josh Dial]

You do realize that Aaron Sorkin enjoys, perhaps even prefers to work with actors with whom he was worked with on previous projects? The ones I can think of off the top of my head:

Joshua Malina - A Few Good Men, Sports Night, The West Wing, Malice, The American President (so basically everything Sorkin does)

Rob Lowe - The West Wing, A Few Good Men (new stage production)

Martin Sheen - The American President, The West Wing

Janel Maloney - Sports Night, The West Wing

Various non-major players like Timothy Davis-Reed - The West Wing, Sports Night, etc


Not to mention what i'm sure is a countless number of crew, and of course Thomas Schlamme.

Doesn't seem like anything other than wanting to work with friends and skilled actors as much as possible.

cheers!

Josh

 

[Patrick Sun]

Liked this episode more than last week's.

If only you could get 2 good minutes from any current episode of SNL these days...sigh....

Why was Matt leaving the party so quickly?

The shot of Ron and Rick at the party was great. As was Jordan catching herself grabbing a drink after getting the good ratings news.

 

[joshEH]

"Wells-Fargo Presents: 'Al Pacino Attempts to Check His Bank Statement' "?

Give Hader probably two more years, and he'll be leading off the entire cast.

 

[Joe_H]

Anyone else notice that Matt didn't buckle his seatbelt? I guess the reason it stood out to me is because of the speech that Danny gave Jordan.

I thought it was another good episode.

And, I know this is off topic, but as for the poster above me, I thought the Al Pacino sketch wasn't very funny at all.

 

[mattCR]

Ugh. I don't know, I think I'm giving up on it. The idea of a show behind the show really wasn't that entertaining to me at the beginning, but I generally like Sorkin's writing. But this show just seems to deal with the same basic concepts every week and I just don't get anything out of it. The writing seems formulaic from previous outings. I catch it late on TiVO anyway after the MNF game is over. But I think it's time to drop it from the TiVO.

 

[David Williams]

I'm giving the show one more episode to wow me... I really want to like this show (TWW's first two seasons are some of the best I've ever seen), but I'm not finding much to care about amongst the characters and storylines. I like a good jab at zealots anyday, but do we really need three storylines in a row? Most of the cast is still coming off as non-entities, while I can name every member of the extended Walker family on Brothers & Sisters from memory right now and that's like 12 people. Could Sorkin please spend a bit of time on anyone whose name isn't Jordan, Danny, Matt, Jeanie, Simon, Jack or Harriet?

Fingers crossed for next week.

 

[Derek Miner]

Wow. Tough room.

For me, the episodes keep getting better. This week they filled in a little backstory on Ricky and Ron. Sarah Paulson's Holly Hunter impression was great. The power going on and off reminded me of the kinds of technical glitches Sorkin's SportsNight crew would encounter. The new subplot about Jordan's past seems intriguing. Brought to mind that stuff that came out about Jeri Ryan when she got divorced, with her ex wanting her to go to sex clubs.

And to those who correctly stated we would not see the "Crazy Christians" sketch... I was wrong. Just don't make me wear a t-shirt at the after party.

 

[teapot2001]

That's it for me. Not a bad show or anything, there just isn't really anything there to keep me watching.

~T

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The best part was Timothy Busfield's recap of the situation to Danny. (I'm going to keep mixing and matching actors and characters until I know all of the characters).

I thought this week's show actually played a little bit on the other side of the issue. The thing about the town switching plays being a cheap gag was nice. Loved the little cut away to D.L. Hughley as the Taliban and Rob Reiner as the stereotypical Jew. Really, really liked that Danny was the one to put the patriotic question into the focus group questions. Though Sarah Paulson did a hell of a Holly Hunter. And I loves me some Holly Hunter. I also think Ron's going to be an interesting character as Ricky is clearly the dominant one yet Ron didn't hesitate to stick it to Ricky when Ricky was trying to wiggle out. It doesn't hurt that I remember Carlos Jacott fondly from the "Firefly" pilot.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think this show can be offputting because it's basically a show about the creative process and creative conflict, and it's not everyone's cup of tea. I wonder if last night's episode had a 90% retention...

 

[Jason_V]

Enjoyed last night's more than the last two, I think. The only part that seemed terribly cliched was the ending, in which the overnight ratings come in and are out of this world. I hope that they do an episode down the line where the ratings absolutely plummet for whatever reason...sports program, blackout, whatever...to show the other side of the equation.

I especially liked Danny going after Ron and Ricky about their work. The bits about Bush's approval rating being what it was (can't remember the exact line) and them jumping on the bandwagon instead of leading it were great. They both had that "deer in the headlight" look when he was done with them.

 

[TravisR]

How many shows have highlighted their supporting charcters in the first three episodes?

 

[seanOhara]

The show needs some comedy writers to help with the show-within-the-show, because I'm having a hard time believing it's even half as funny as the current run of SNL -- which isn't funny at all. Apart from Rob Reiner, none of the sketches we saw were particularly funny, and I have a hard time believing that these great comedy writers aren't trying to make each other laugh when they pitch ideas.

Really, the 30 Rock commercial with Alec Baldwin thinking he was on an Aaron Sorkin show was funnier than anything the regular cast members did on Studio 60.

 

[Jason_V]

I do think that's a bit harsh since we haven't seen a whole lot of the actual comedy show. What we did see last night was covered as a montage with a music track over the dialogue.

30 Rock is supposed to be a comedy; Studio 60 is not. It's a drama, pure and simple, with comedic elements. Comparing the two shows, while inevitable, is like comparing ER to Desperate Housewives.

 

[Scott-S]

Last night's episode was the best so far for me. I am glad to see them focus more on the behind the scene stuff instead of the corporate stuff.

I am also starting to see what others have against Jordan. There is something about her that I don't like. I don't know exactly what it is, but it is bugging me.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Remember the line Danny had about her looking like one of "them" but acting like one of "us"? I think she's a little too in sync with the creative people. She's smart and well-read enough to get whatever Danny and Matt throw at her, but she's also just enough of a snob to look down on those who don't. I love what she represents - she wants to make NBS succeed by offering something high-quality, rather than by offering a broad-appeal mediocrity - but she's got a tendency to look down on those that don't share her lofty standards, even if she disguises it well.

 

[David Williams]

I could name many, but that's not really the point. If they are in the cast they should have had enough character moments in the first 3 episodes to even have name retention. Nate Corddry & Timothy Busfield's characters have had so little screen time I would bet that at least 75% of the audience couldn't tell you even their first names or anything about them other than their very basic job description. DL Hughley's Simon doesn't fare much better. Only Harriet, Jordan, Danny & Matt seem somewhat fleshed out.

Contrast this with shows like Alias, Lost, The West Wing, etc. Think about how well fleshed out the cast was by the end of their third episodes. The West Wing, in particular, had already given it's main cast members memorable character moments and was already working on secondary characters like Admiral Fitzwallace.