A gushing fanboy review of the Studio 60 pilot
Ah.... another Aaron Sorkin television series. As I explained earlier, I'm watching it online, which is okay. There's still commercials, the video size resembles a postage stamp, but it's free.
The teaser is everything that leads up to the main title sequence. It's also called a "cold open". It's usually two or three minutes, maybe five at the most. This must have been the longest teaser in the history of network television, because it was a full ten minutes before you saw a 5-second title. The core of the teaser, and by far the best part of the episode, was Judd Hirsch, as Studio 60 executive producer Wes Mandell, giving a rant straight from the film Network. Even though the result is that Mandell is fired, I do hope Judd Hirsch returns, despite his commitment to Numb3rs. He certainly has got the elder mentor role down pat, even though it can be used to awful effect, such as in Independence Day. I wonder if Lorne Michaels will parody it on Saturday Night Live, but that might just be a bit too recursive and incestuous. And if you didn't know it was an homage to Network, in typical Sorkin-style, the viewer is beaten over the head as the script tells you that it is from Paddy Chayefsky's Network.
Paddy Chayefsky is mostly known for writing Network and the famous speech about the state of television, and "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." Peter Finch would posthumously win an Academy Award for Best Actor for giving that speech. During filming, he could only give one full take of that speech because he was already ailing. I think the second-greatest speech in Network was by Ned Beatty, expounding on globalization. Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and it must have been for that speech because that was his only scene. However, the more important thing is that Paddy Chayefsky was once television's greatest writer. He basically created the television drama. But he turned on television, or maybe television turned on him, which led him to Hollywood and eventually Network. Network is a eulogy for what television was. Studio 60 is about restoring a television show to what it once was. One might be tempted to think Aaron Sorkin as the new Paddy Chayefsky.
The rant over television is nothing new. It wasn't even new when Network opened. And there's certainly been recent versions of the rant, such as in America: The Book: The Audiobook. However, I don't think it's trite. Judd Hirsch can deliver it, and the content that television seeks the lowest common denominator certainly isn't dated. Indeed, its current references to "eating worms for money" (Fear Factor) and "wanting to be Donald Trump" (The Apprentice) are directly leveled at NBC. If people need to be reminded, it only means that they aren't paying attention.
I have read a lot of criticism saying that the writing places too much emphasis on the rant, that it isn't a realistic reaction. People would see it on YouTube and shrug it off. After all, if a miniseries on September 11th doesn't rouse people, what would an off-kilter producer on live television be? I do think it would be a phenomena because of the Internet, YouTube, and TiVos. Things on the Internet have a way of building up and up until it explodes out of all proportion. Look at Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire. No one watches Crossfire, which was proven by its cancellation, but everyone knows that Jon Stewart went on Crossfire to draw swords with Tucker Carlson. I still remember Sinead O'Connor tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live. And of course, there was Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl. Live television is when the crazy stuff happens, and crazy stuff gets talked about.
Even though everyone knows that Studio 60 is by the same creative team that made the West Wing, the title cards in the same exact font and size as in the West Wing, if you had any doubt. And for those you so anal that you pay attention to the typeface used in the credits, Tom Del Ruth and Chris Misiano and all the other usual suspects are back too. I wonder who I need to meet and perform acts for to be a part of this clan.
All of Sorkin's work is part autobiography and part wish fulfilment. One writer even called him a Mary Sue writer. And it's true. Aaron Sorkin writes about his own life and what he thinks the world should be. The West Wing was about a good liberal President who makes good on his promise and wasn't pulled down by a moral scandal. Sports Night was about the idolization of television writers. Studio 60 is about when the director and head writer get booted off their own show and come back to save it. Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme were booted off West Wing and the series became a shadow of its former self. So Studio 60 is what would have happened if NBC begged Sorkin and Schlamme back. And indeed, NBC has, by running Studio 60. A character in the series premiere a lowly production assistant asks the previously exiled writer, "Are you coming to save us?" I interpret this as NBC asking Sorkin and Schlamme to save the network. Because certainly Saturday Night Live ain't going to save it. It's falling apart right now, with performs being cut left and right because of budget cuts.
I did not watch Friends so I did not associate Matthew Perry with the character of Chandler Bing. Him as Matt Albie was definitely likeable. In fact, I wish he was James Bond. He was rumored to be up for the part, but now we have Daniel Craig, and from the trailers of Casino Royale, I'm not liking Daniel Craig. Supposedly, Sorkin wrote the part of Matt Albie with Perry in mind, but Perry declined. Sorkin begged and Perry relented. He has definitely joined Aaron Sorkin's troupe of actors. Sorkin tends to reuse actors, among them, Felicity Huffman, Janel Moloney, Timothy Busfield, and Joshua Malina. Joshua Malina has been in every single Sorkin production from A Few Good Man to The West Wing. It's only a matter of time before he shows up in Studio 60. In fact, according to Sorkin himself, "Everytime Nate Coddry screws up a take, Perry puts him on Josh Malina Watch." Malina once saved Sorkin's life by performing the heimlich when he choked on a hamburger, so Sorkin may be eternally paying off a debt.
By the way, Timothy Busfield and Joshua Malina are each other's brother-in-law. Busfield married Jenny Merwin and Malina married her sister, Melissa Merwin.
I was impressed with Steven Weber. I only know him as being the lazy slacker Hackett brother on Wings. Weber, as Jack Randolph, is the exact opposite. He's a hardass who doesn't have a second to waste on fools, like those who think 3/4" video tape fits in a 1/2" video tape deck. He's a guy who gets the job done, and I have an infatuation with competence. So far, he's my favorite character of the series. And I know he's only going to get better, because Sorkin usually tries to expand his "evil" characters beyond one-dimensionality, albeit not alway successfully. Everyone loves the heavy and Rudolph is the heavy. Weber hits it out of the park with his portrayal. And Aaron Sorkin is so ingrained in my mind I'm using baseball metaphors now. Sailing metaphors are next.
I'm not happy with Amanda Peet and her character, Jordan McDeere. She's supposed to be a hotshot media executive, part NBC President Jeff Zucker and part young female ABC entertainment president Jamie Tarses. Tarses actually is a consultant on the show. However, I don't buy it. The only time I could believe it was when she was walking with Steven Weber as Jack Randolph, trying to find her office. In that scene, she showed she was smart and quick, could stand toe-to-toe with any man, and didn't have any concern for Randolph's ego. For the rest of the episode, and she was in a lot of it, she is just a pretty face whose job is to giggle, twirl her hair, and basically act like a little schoolgirl. It was pretty insulting towards career women actually. And what was the point of her hitting Randolph's car, other than to say she's clumsy and doesn't take things seriously? Since Sorkin is taking his notes from Network, I would like McDeere a lot more if she were more like the thoroughly unlikeable and amoral Network programming executive Diana Christensen. She was a flighty woman who was well aware of her sexuality, and she was believable. Frankly, I hope that Sorkin repeats himself and Jordan McDeere goes the way of Moira Kelly's and Rob Lowe's characters, dropped from the program without nary a mention and just pretend the characters never existed.
I can't say much about Sarah Paulson, D.L. Hughley, and Nate Coddry, since they were secondary for these episodes. Sarah Paulson's character, Harriet Hayes, is too tempting as a straw man for attacks on Christianity, but I loved her line, "So until you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior or make somebody laugh, why don't you talk to somebody else?" However, I can say Sorkin still has his love of the Ivy League. In Sports Night, Dan Rydell was from Dartsmouth and Rebecca Wells was from Penn, though she only referred to it as the Wharton School of Economics. Typical Whartonite elitism. Josh Lyman graduated from Harvard and Yale. Sam Seaborn graduated from Princeton and Duke Law. And in Studio 60, D.L. Hughley's character, Simion Stiles, is from the Yale School of Drama. Jordan McDeere graduated from Yale Law. Sorkin himself is a graduate of Syracuse University, which is not part of the Ivy League.
Only one episode has aired, but episode two has already been made available to critics. The episode apparently involves Matt Albie struggling to come up with a "cold open", the opening sketch of the episode, and it's some spoof of Gilbert and Sullivan. Aaron Sorkin loves Gilbert Sullivan. This critic in the New Jersey Star-Ledger thinks it falls flat on its face and make the series unbelievable because it's just not funny, while a reporter for the New Yorker believes it succeeds perfectly.
The teaser is everything that leads up to the main title sequence. It's also called a "cold open". It's usually two or three minutes, maybe five at the most. This must have been the longest teaser in the history of network television, because it was a full ten minutes before you saw a 5-second title. The core of the teaser, and by far the best part of the episode, was Judd Hirsch, as Studio 60 executive producer Wes Mandell, giving a rant straight from the film Network. Even though the result is that Mandell is fired, I do hope Judd Hirsch returns, despite his commitment to Numb3rs. He certainly has got the elder mentor role down pat, even though it can be used to awful effect, such as in Independence Day. I wonder if Lorne Michaels will parody it on Saturday Night Live, but that might just be a bit too recursive and incestuous. And if you didn't know it was an homage to Network, in typical Sorkin-style, the viewer is beaten over the head as the script tells you that it is from Paddy Chayefsky's Network.
Paddy Chayefsky is mostly known for writing Network and the famous speech about the state of television, and "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." Peter Finch would posthumously win an Academy Award for Best Actor for giving that speech. During filming, he could only give one full take of that speech because he was already ailing. I think the second-greatest speech in Network was by Ned Beatty, expounding on globalization. Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and it must have been for that speech because that was his only scene. However, the more important thing is that Paddy Chayefsky was once television's greatest writer. He basically created the television drama. But he turned on television, or maybe television turned on him, which led him to Hollywood and eventually Network. Network is a eulogy for what television was. Studio 60 is about restoring a television show to what it once was. One might be tempted to think Aaron Sorkin as the new Paddy Chayefsky.
The rant over television is nothing new. It wasn't even new when Network opened. And there's certainly been recent versions of the rant, such as in America: The Book: The Audiobook. However, I don't think it's trite. Judd Hirsch can deliver it, and the content that television seeks the lowest common denominator certainly isn't dated. Indeed, its current references to "eating worms for money" (Fear Factor) and "wanting to be Donald Trump" (The Apprentice) are directly leveled at NBC. If people need to be reminded, it only means that they aren't paying attention.
I have read a lot of criticism saying that the writing places too much emphasis on the rant, that it isn't a realistic reaction. People would see it on YouTube and shrug it off. After all, if a miniseries on September 11th doesn't rouse people, what would an off-kilter producer on live television be? I do think it would be a phenomena because of the Internet, YouTube, and TiVos. Things on the Internet have a way of building up and up until it explodes out of all proportion. Look at Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire. No one watches Crossfire, which was proven by its cancellation, but everyone knows that Jon Stewart went on Crossfire to draw swords with Tucker Carlson. I still remember Sinead O'Connor tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live. And of course, there was Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl. Live television is when the crazy stuff happens, and crazy stuff gets talked about.
Even though everyone knows that Studio 60 is by the same creative team that made the West Wing, the title cards in the same exact font and size as in the West Wing, if you had any doubt. And for those you so anal that you pay attention to the typeface used in the credits, Tom Del Ruth and Chris Misiano and all the other usual suspects are back too. I wonder who I need to meet and perform acts for to be a part of this clan.
All of Sorkin's work is part autobiography and part wish fulfilment. One writer even called him a Mary Sue writer. And it's true. Aaron Sorkin writes about his own life and what he thinks the world should be. The West Wing was about a good liberal President who makes good on his promise and wasn't pulled down by a moral scandal. Sports Night was about the idolization of television writers. Studio 60 is about when the director and head writer get booted off their own show and come back to save it. Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme were booted off West Wing and the series became a shadow of its former self. So Studio 60 is what would have happened if NBC begged Sorkin and Schlamme back. And indeed, NBC has, by running Studio 60. A character in the series premiere a lowly production assistant asks the previously exiled writer, "Are you coming to save us?" I interpret this as NBC asking Sorkin and Schlamme to save the network. Because certainly Saturday Night Live ain't going to save it. It's falling apart right now, with performs being cut left and right because of budget cuts.
I did not watch Friends so I did not associate Matthew Perry with the character of Chandler Bing. Him as Matt Albie was definitely likeable. In fact, I wish he was James Bond. He was rumored to be up for the part, but now we have Daniel Craig, and from the trailers of Casino Royale, I'm not liking Daniel Craig. Supposedly, Sorkin wrote the part of Matt Albie with Perry in mind, but Perry declined. Sorkin begged and Perry relented. He has definitely joined Aaron Sorkin's troupe of actors. Sorkin tends to reuse actors, among them, Felicity Huffman, Janel Moloney, Timothy Busfield, and Joshua Malina. Joshua Malina has been in every single Sorkin production from A Few Good Man to The West Wing. It's only a matter of time before he shows up in Studio 60. In fact, according to Sorkin himself, "Everytime Nate Coddry screws up a take, Perry puts him on Josh Malina Watch." Malina once saved Sorkin's life by performing the heimlich when he choked on a hamburger, so Sorkin may be eternally paying off a debt.
By the way, Timothy Busfield and Joshua Malina are each other's brother-in-law. Busfield married Jenny Merwin and Malina married her sister, Melissa Merwin.
I was impressed with Steven Weber. I only know him as being the lazy slacker Hackett brother on Wings. Weber, as Jack Randolph, is the exact opposite. He's a hardass who doesn't have a second to waste on fools, like those who think 3/4" video tape fits in a 1/2" video tape deck. He's a guy who gets the job done, and I have an infatuation with competence. So far, he's my favorite character of the series. And I know he's only going to get better, because Sorkin usually tries to expand his "evil" characters beyond one-dimensionality, albeit not alway successfully. Everyone loves the heavy and Rudolph is the heavy. Weber hits it out of the park with his portrayal. And Aaron Sorkin is so ingrained in my mind I'm using baseball metaphors now. Sailing metaphors are next.
I'm not happy with Amanda Peet and her character, Jordan McDeere. She's supposed to be a hotshot media executive, part NBC President Jeff Zucker and part young female ABC entertainment president Jamie Tarses. Tarses actually is a consultant on the show. However, I don't buy it. The only time I could believe it was when she was walking with Steven Weber as Jack Randolph, trying to find her office. In that scene, she showed she was smart and quick, could stand toe-to-toe with any man, and didn't have any concern for Randolph's ego. For the rest of the episode, and she was in a lot of it, she is just a pretty face whose job is to giggle, twirl her hair, and basically act like a little schoolgirl. It was pretty insulting towards career women actually. And what was the point of her hitting Randolph's car, other than to say she's clumsy and doesn't take things seriously? Since Sorkin is taking his notes from Network, I would like McDeere a lot more if she were more like the thoroughly unlikeable and amoral Network programming executive Diana Christensen. She was a flighty woman who was well aware of her sexuality, and she was believable. Frankly, I hope that Sorkin repeats himself and Jordan McDeere goes the way of Moira Kelly's and Rob Lowe's characters, dropped from the program without nary a mention and just pretend the characters never existed.
I can't say much about Sarah Paulson, D.L. Hughley, and Nate Coddry, since they were secondary for these episodes. Sarah Paulson's character, Harriet Hayes, is too tempting as a straw man for attacks on Christianity, but I loved her line, "So until you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior or make somebody laugh, why don't you talk to somebody else?" However, I can say Sorkin still has his love of the Ivy League. In Sports Night, Dan Rydell was from Dartsmouth and Rebecca Wells was from Penn, though she only referred to it as the Wharton School of Economics. Typical Whartonite elitism. Josh Lyman graduated from Harvard and Yale. Sam Seaborn graduated from Princeton and Duke Law. And in Studio 60, D.L. Hughley's character, Simion Stiles, is from the Yale School of Drama. Jordan McDeere graduated from Yale Law. Sorkin himself is a graduate of Syracuse University, which is not part of the Ivy League.
Only one episode has aired, but episode two has already been made available to critics. The episode apparently involves Matt Albie struggling to come up with a "cold open", the opening sketch of the episode, and it's some spoof of Gilbert and Sullivan. Aaron Sorkin loves Gilbert Sullivan. This critic in the New Jersey Star-Ledger thinks it falls flat on its face and make the series unbelievable because it's just not funny, while a reporter for the New Yorker believes it succeeds perfectly.
posted by Pettifogger | 5:26 PM
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