Watching Studio60

Last night we were entertained by the first of the annual awards shows - The People’s Choice Awards. Not only does this begin the run of these shows, but it is also different in that it is truly a reflection of the people’s favourites. In some ways that makes me a little sad because looking at the list of winners, not many of my favourites were in there, so that begs the Question - Am I out of the main stream? or Who are “The People”?
Here are the winners in the different categories:
MOVIES
Female star: Jennifer Aniston
Male star: Johnny Depp
Leading lady: Cameron Diaz
Leading man: Vince Vaughn
Female action star: Halle Berry
Male action star: Johnny Depp
On-screen matchup: Johnny Depp & Keira Knightley
Movie: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”
Movie drama: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”
Movie comedy: “Click”
Family movie: “Cars”
MUSIC
Female singer: Carrie Underwood
Male singer: Kenny Chesney
Group: Nickelback
R&B song: “SexyBack” by Justin Timberlake
Hip-hop song: “Shake That” by Eminem
Pop song: “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira
Country song: “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood
Rock song: “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” by Bon Jovi
Song from a movie: “Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flatts from “Cars”
Remake: “Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flatts
TELEVISION
Comedy: “Two and a Half Men”
Animated comedy: “The Simpsons”
Drama: “Grey’s Anatomy”
Competition/Reality show: “American Idol”
New Comedy: “The Class”
New Drama: “Heroes”
Female star: Eva Longoria
Male star: Patrick Dempsey
Talk show host: Ellen DeGeneres
OTHER
Funny female star: Ellen DeGeneres
Funny male star: Robin Williams

No mention of Studio 60 or Men in Trees. Not even a nod for Helen Mirren or Mel Gibson. And what does it mean when the winners in the music categories are mainly Rap and Country and Western artists? Oh Well! It will be interesting to see what happens at the Golden Globes and the Oscars, and to try and analyize the results.

It seems that Matthew Perry made the most of his hiatus from Studio 60 to make a new movie called “Numb”
It stars Matthew Perry and Lynn Collins as the two main characters and Barry W Levy, Kevin Pollack and Mary Steenbergen also star. Below is the description from iMDb:
“Screenwriter Hudson Milbank suffers from acute depersonalization disorder. So alienated from his own life that he makes the chronically depressed look perky, Hudson lives alone, watches The Golf Channel all day, can’t hang on to a relationship, shoplifts in order to get his adrenalin up off the floor, fears that thinking about his dad’s death will bring it to pass, loathes his mother, and in general, is as nutty as a crapshack in a peanut farm. Obsessed with the underlying sadness that infuses his wretched existence, Hudson is a man in hell, but he thinks that his long catalogue of dismally unsatisfying and mutually self-destructive relationships is over when SARA stumbles into his life. He knows she can save him. She knows he has to save himself. Together they save each other. And it’s funny too.”
I have to confess to knowling very little about the movie but as an avid watcher of The Golf Channel myself, I immediately fell empathy! I am glad that Matthew kept himself busy and found gainful employment, although it is hard to imagine he actually needs the money having made so much from Friends. Still - I am glad we can look forward to this movie. I have no release date as of now - but I will keep looking out for it and post it as soon as I can.

We have to wait until January 22nd for the next new episode of Studio 60, in which we understand the Show will continue to battle the FCC and Matt and Harriett will also continue to battle. No insight as to what is happening with Danny and Jordan.

Meanwhile I caught another blog about the show but this time I completely agree with the opinions being expressed. It seems that the latest fad is to slam the show for being smug, taking itself too seriously, not being funny etc. But I never saw the show being billed as a comedy. It is an hour long drama that follows the lives of people who happen to work behind the scenes of a comedy show. Just because their TV job is to produce comedy, doesn’t mean that the show itself is a comedy. Was LA Law a law show - No! It was an hour long drama about a group of people who worked for a Law Firm. So - why the expectation that Studio 60 should be funny? I believe I have said it before but it bears repeating. This is an intellectual drama, with great dialogue, great acting and a serious study of human nature. I also think that in order to catch all the dialogue it is necessary to watch each episode a couple of times. The interaction between the main characters is delivered at speed, but every word is meaningful and pertinent and needs to be heard and understood to get the full impact of the show.
So - remember not only to watch the show on January 22nd but to record it as well, so that you can watch it again and again until you are sure you have heard every word, understood every reference and can appreciate the very clever writing and plot setting that is Studio 60.

I understand that the TV networks need to know how many people are watching the different shows, and that this information allows them to set the advertising rates for the various commercials as well as giving them insight into what America is watching, so they can provide better programming and set better schedules. However, what I find really scary, is that apparantly they can now not only track what we are watching real time, but also when we play back and watch shows that have been recorded on various DVR devices. How do they do that? If I record a program onto my DVR, and play it back at a later time, how do they track my playback? I don’t know about you but I find that very Big Brotherish, not to mention, intrusive.
However, the up side of that is that Studio 60 viewing numbers apparantly benefits from this intrusion, upping the viewing numbers every week - as this quote from Zap2it web site tells us:
“The first-year series from “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin is the most “time-shifted” series on television this season, according to ratings provider Nielsen. That means a greater percentage of its viewers record the show and watch it later than anything else on the broadcast networks.
At the beginning of 2006, Nielsen started tracking two different ratings systems as a way to measure the impact of digital video recorders. “Live plus same-day” ratings — the ones reported on Zap2it every morning — measure the number of people who watch a given show as it airs or within the next few hours. In “Studio 60’s” case, that number hovered around 8 million people for much of the fall.
Nielsen also tracks “live plus seven” ratings, which includes people who watch a recorded copy of a show within the next week. “Studio 60″ adds nearly 11 percent to its total audience in those ratings; including reruns, its average is closer to 9 million viewers for the season”

WHile I am delighted that more people are really watching the show, I am still freaked out by the thought that what I record and play back can be tracked. I would really like to know how they do that? Do THEY also know what DVD’s I rent and view? Do THEY know what I eat for breakfast or wear to bed? Is America really becoming a Big Brother nation, or has it been all along and I was just blissfully unaware?

I came across this book while browsing for after Christmas bargains, and thoroughly enjoyed the read. I have taken the liberty of reproducing the description from Amazon.com to give you an idea of the content.
“Aaron Sorkin is one of the most notable voices in Hollywood, attracting millions of weekly viewers with his television series The West Wing and scoring box office success with films like A Few Good Men and The American President. With a musician’s sense of rhythm and writing skills honed in the theater, Sorkin crafts dialogue that brings characters to life. His crisp, tight language is both exciting to listen to and poetic in its beauty and power: but what lies behind the slick, sophisticated exchanges between Sorkin’s characters? Does Sorkin’s ability to captivate viewers with rapid-fire, humorous dialogue lull them into overlooking an inherent political agenda, a sense of elitism, and gender bias prominent throughout his work? Aaron Sorkin’s skill as a writer garners him accolades, even from his critics: complex, nuanced, sometimes subtle but often forceful, Sorkin’s work is best understood when viewed from a variety of perspectives. This collection of essays on the work of Aaron Sorkin affords greater insight into the complexities of his writing, drawing connections between the film and television output of today’s most prominent and influential screenwriter. Scholars from various fields: film, literature, art history, political science, and more, examine the thematic content and rhetorical strategy of Sorkin’s writing. Eleven essayists explore the subtle, pervasive and often contradictory messages woven throughout Sorkin’s work, from politics to portrayals of women, and consider his impact on film, television and culture. An interview with Aaron Sorkin precedes the essays, each of which has notes and a bibliography. An appendix covering film and television credits is included. ”
I found this book to be a riveting read and a great insight to the mind of one of today’s most acclaimed screen writers. I hope you find it as enjoyable.

In the aftermath of an over-indulgent Christmas, and as we wait with baited breathe for the hot shows to start running new episodes, it seems we are about to get hit with a new wave of reality TV - although why it is called reality is beyond me - Just what is Real about living on an island with 11 strangers for 39 days?

Anyway - that aside - what is in store for us:
Fox - bringing back American Idol - Jan 16th.
NBC - bringing back The Apprentice, although the new series is set in LA, - Jan 7th
NBC - Grease - You’re the One That I Want - a search for the leads for the Broadway production of Grease - January 7th
USA - bringing back Nashville Star - Jan 11th
CBS - Armed and Dangerous - new - Jan 10th - takes celebrities and turns them into cops

Well that does it for the new reality coming our way.

I also came across another interesting article about Studio 60. Ten Reasons to Watch Studio 60 - Check it Out!

And so - 2006 is in the history books and I thought we should take time to reflect on the year.
We saw a ton of good new TV shows introduced with the fall season, among them of course Studio 60, but also - Heroes, The Nine, Men in Trees and Justice - just to name my absolute favourites. Not all of them are doing so well in the ratings but with a little luck we can keep them on the air through 2007. We also had the return of some old favourites - Grey’s Anatomy, the ubiquitous CSI franchise, Law and Order, in three flavours, Lost - again just to name a few.
We lost a few great people in 2006 - Lou Rawls, Shelley Winters, Wilson Pickett, Chris Penn (younger brother of Sean), Peter Benchley (author of Jaws), Don Knotts, Dennis Weaver, Dana Reeve (wife of Christopher), Gene Pitney, Billy Preston, Aaron Spelling, June Allyson, Red Buttons, Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter), Robert Altman, Lizzie Bowden (the world’s oldest woman - 116 years old), James Brown and Gerald Ford. For the full list go to: 2006.
On a personal note - I had an very up and down year. I think I have mentioned before that I managed to get to Greece after a lifetime of wanting to see this ancient country. It was somewhat impacted by being caught in the travel fiasco that hit Heathrow airport in August - I lost a day of my vacation but managed to get there nonetheless. I also returned to England and caught up with some old friends who are now serving 2 years in Ethopia as VSO volunteers - that is the equivalent of the Peace Core - so it will be a while before I see them again. I also went to New Orleans and although I was somewhat disappointed with the French Quarter - I am glad I experienced at first hand the wonderful hospitaltity of the local population and was able to infuse a little money into that economy. I would encourage anybody who can, to go there and experience it for themselves.
On a work front - my company went through a tough year and we laid off some employees, among them some old friends who I was devasted to see leave. I lost a manager and gained a new one - and also manged to find this wonderful bloggin job that gives me an outlet NOT related to my everyday job.
And so - we turn our faces to 2007. What will it bring? I believe I have also mentioned in a previous entry thay my two main resolutions are to be out of debt and skinny by the end of the year. We will see how successful I am. In the meantime - I wish each and everyone of you a Very Happy New Year and may it being you everything you hope for.

So I was being a couch potato Saturday evening and I caught the movie - A Lot Like Love. As it starred Amanda Peet I thought I would watch it to see her work before Studio 60. It was a cute movie - a little predictable but I am a sucker for Happy Endings, so I was happy. If you haven’t seen the movie then you probably dont want to read on as I may give away some of the plot.
The leading couple - played by Amanda Peet and Ashton Kucher, meet when flying to New York - him to stay with his deaf brother, her to stay with her father and step mother. Through a series of coincidences, they continue to meet and get to know each other over the next 6 years. Of course the timing is never right although they do manage to comsummate their relationship a couple of times, meanwhile establishing their careers and, of course, dating others. Finally, he decides she is the one - but she is engaged to another. When she breaks off the engagement because she decides he is the one, she learns that he is about to be married - so she goes to his house and of course we find out that the sister is the one getting married and boy and girl live happily ever after. As I said a cute movie. I liked the older Amanda Peet although I didn’t care for the early version with the short, black hair. I also preferred the older Ashton as well, shorter hair more styled.
If you like cute, easy to watch, movies with a happy ending, well acted but wont require too much deep thought - then this is a good movie to rent on a rainy evening. It also stars Kathryn Hahn (Crossing Jordan) and Ali Larter (Heroes)