Watching Studio60

According to the More4 site, “Nevada Day, Part 2″ was the episode broadcast last night in the U.K.; it originally aired last November in the U.S. For those who want to read what was written about this episode when it was first broadcast, here are links to reviews, recaps and forum discussions on:

• Entertainment Weekly
• TV Squad
• Television Without Pity (recap)
• Television Without Pity (forum — read only)
• Studio 60 Guide

The pair of “Nevada Day” episodes won John Goodman an Emmy, and also inspired TV Squad writer Brett Love to ask, “Would you watch Pahrump, NV?” In a post published after the two-parter aired, Love proposed a sit-com based around Goodman’s Judge Bebe and his Red State crew, writing:

“While I think we might have our quota for serialized drama filled right now, there is still room for a quirky ensemble comedy. Pahrump would be the perfect setting for that. Aside from Judge Bebe, the D.A., and the smarter than he seems deputy that we have already met, there are all kinds of directions they could go with the rest of the cast. Of course, there has to be a brothel.”

If Aaron Sorkin was involved with it in some way, I’d probably give it a go. Just not on NBC this time, okay?

_{Photo: NBC.com}

Studio 60, NBC, Nevada Day Part 2, John Goodman

Another guest-starring gig for a Studio 60 alum: Sarah Paulson, who played Harriet, will guest on Desperate Housewives as the sister of Lynette, played by Felicity Huffman.

Huffman, of course, appeared on the first episode of Studio 60, playing herself as the guest host of the show-within-a-show. That made her three-for-three on Sorkin TV shows, since she starred as Dana on Sports Night and guested on The West Wing as a political advisor who outsmarts Toby in “The Leadership Breakfast.”

Which Studio 60 cast member will find gainful television employment next? If you’ve heard of any TV gigs for the gang, share them in the comments.

Steven Weber will be popping up on NBC again this season, this time as a guest on Law and Order: SVU. A guest-star promo video on NBC’s SVU site includes Weber along with such other guests as Cynthia Nixon, Elizabeth McGovern, Gloria Reuben, Melissa Joan Hart and Aidan Quinn.

I like Steven Weber, and I wish him well, but … ugh. Who takes pleasure in watching this show? The video confirms my impression that it’s just nothing but women in peril, week in and week out. And yet it thrives while Studio 60 is, well, brutally murdered. Who’s going to investigate that?

Studio 60, NBC, Law and Order: SVU, Steven Weber

Studio 60 vs. 30 Rock. That seemed to be the showdown last season, didn’t it? For all the talk about there being room for two “behind the scenes of a late-night comedy show” shows, it did seem that if you liked one, it was sort of disloyal to like the other.

It did to me, anyway, especially as Studio 60 started taking so much abuse and 30 Rock got praise. Sometimes, it seemed like maybe people were loving on 30 Rock as yet another way to dis Studio 60. So I never really watched much of that sit-com. I saw the first episode, and thought it was really mediocre. And as reports circulated that it had greatly improved — usually accompanied by sneering that Studio 60 was doing the opposite — I continued to stay true to my crew.

So it really tickled me to come upon this review for the 30 Rock DVD that pans the show and compares it unfavorably to Studio 60. Writes reviewer Clint Morris: “How did Aaron Sorkin’s wonderful Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which was customarily solid and immerse with terrific moments, manage to get the chop when the lesser show, 30 Rock, still airs?”

How, indeed.

Were you able to watch and appreciate both Studio 60 and 30 Rock? Or was a choice between the two unavoidable?

_{Photo: NBC.com}

Studio 60, NBC, 30 Rock

If Studio 60 is remembered for nothing else, it can now claim a footnote in history as the show for which John Goodman finally won an Emmy.

The actor garnered the trophy last night at the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony, which comes a week in advance of the primetime award show next Sunday. His win came in the category of Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Judge Robert Bebe in the two-part “Nevada Day.”

According to IMDB, this was Goodman’s tenth Emmy nomination, with seven of the earlier nods coming for his role on Roseanne, but the first time he’s actually won. In doing so, he beat out another Studio 60 nominee, Eli Wallach, who was recognized for his guest appearance in “The Wrap Party” episode.

Also getting beat were Studio 60 nominees in the categories of casting and cinematography. The show has one more chance to score next Sunday with the Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series nomination for Thomas Schlamme. Meanwhile, though … we got one! Congratulations to John Goodman.

_{Photo: NBC.com}

Studio 60, NBC, John Goodman, Emmy Award

The good news is that Studio 60 got 10 nominations in eight categories for the 2007 Tubey Awards on the Television Without Pity site.

The bad news? Most of the categories are negative.

The two that you may want to actually sign up and vote for, to give our show a thumbs up and its network a thumbs down, are the Dead Before Its Time Award for Studio 60 and the Worst Network Meddlers for NBC. Given all the heat that the show’s taken on TWoP, it would be nice to have a big show of support for its too-soon-gone status.

The rest of the categories? Maybe go on and vote for somebody else on these, to keep Studio 60 from a backhanded win:

• Worst New Show
• Most Overrated Show
• Least Favorite Character (Studio 60 nomination: Danny Tripp)
• Worst Relationship (Studio 60 nomination: Matt and Harriet)
• Worst Chemistry (two Studio 60 nominations: Danny and Jordan, and Matt and Harriet)
• Most Redemptive Character in an Otherwise Sucky Show (two Studio 60 nominations: Jack Rudolph, and Tom Jeter)
• Most Ludicrous Plotline (Studio 60 nomination: “Jordan falls for Danny after he stalks her and has total strangers fax her personal recommendations”)

Good luck to the show for that “Dead Before Its Time Award,” and bad luck for everything else.

_{Photo: NBC.com}

Studio 60, NBC, awards, Television Without Pity

According to the More4 site, “Nevada Day, Part 1″ was the episode broadcast last night in the U.K.; it originally aired last November in the U.S. For those who want to read what was written about this episode when it was first broadcast, here are links to reviews, recaps and forum discussions on:

• Entertainment Weekly
• TV Squad
• Television Without Pity (recap)
• Television Without Pity (forum — read only)
• Studio 60 Guide

The “Nevada Day” two-parter was a departure for the show, getting the cast out of Hollywood and into the small town of Pahrump, Nevada, for a little culture-war skirmish. And at the center of all the trouble, improbably enough, is sweet Tom Jeter, who in the YouTube clip above makes another in a series of well-intentioned moves that backfire big.

Studio 60, NBC, Nevada Day Part 1, Tom Jeter, Nathan Corddry

Maybe the experience of being in a show that had such high expectations and was so cruelly criticized has taught Steven Weber to dream small. In a short interview on the E! website, the actor who played NBS head Jack Rudolph on Studio 60 reveals his ambitions for a script he wrote:

“It’s called Filthy Dirty Twisted Lust. And now I’m going to go forward and try and get it made. My credo is that so much mediocre crap is being made—what’s wrong with my mediocre crap? My mediocre crap is just as mediocre and crappy as the things that are being made, so why not make it?”

Hey, if he keeps talking like that, they’re going to make him a network executive for real.

Studio 60, NBC, Steven Weber

The blog TV Squad had an interesting post the other day about actors from the movie Revenge of the Nerds who have had successful careers in television. One of the five featured was, of course, Timothy Busfield, who appeared on Trapper John M.D. before the movie and thirtysomething afterward before joining “the Aaron Sorkin farm team” with roles on The West Wing and Studio 60.

Funny thing about that farm team — as the TV Squad post points out, Busfield’s not the only Nerd grad on it. Others from the franchise who have appeared in Sorkin shows include John Goodman, Ted McGinley, James Cromwell (if you count a one-shot as an ex-president on The West Wing) and Bradley Whitford (if you count Revenge of the Nerds II).

TV Squad writer Richard Keller wonders if Sorkin watched the movie to get casting ideas. Sounds like more of a coincidence to me, but a funny coincidence. Can you think of any more actors that overlap between any of the Sorkin shows and any of the Nerds movies?

Studio 60, NBC, Aaron Sorkin, Timothy Busfield, Revenge of the Nerds

Amazed congratulations to Thomas Schlamme, Studio 60 executive producer, and Christine Lahti, who played reporter Martha O’Dell in a few episodes, as they celebrate a whopping 24 years of marriage today. That’s pretty amazing even by the standards of ordinary mortals, but all the more impressive for creative types. They could have each had six or seven failed marriages in that amount of time. (Thanks to It’s All Good … Gossip! for the reminder.)

Studio 60, NBC, Thomas Schlamme, Christine Lahti

The September 3 edition of the Broadway magazine Playbill has a rundown of the upcoming season, including this item on Aaron Sorkin’s latest work for the stage:

“As for Aaron Sorkin, Broadway hasn’t seen hide nor hair of this golden boy since he made a name for himself in 1989 with the original A Few Good Men. He’s created a few good television series since then, including “Sports Night,” “The West Wing” and the recent “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” The new play, called The Farnsworth Invention, is about a couple pivotal figures in the birth of that medium that has treated Sorkin so well: Philo T. Farnsworth, who came up with the idea for TV as a high school student, and David Sarnoff, the head of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Previews begin Oct. 15 at the Music Box. Farnsworth will also be the first Broadway effort by a new producer named Stephen Spielberg.”

It’s nice to see Studio 60 mentioned as a “good television series,” and I hope Farnsworth finds success. Getting a play to succeed on Broadway these days seems to be even less of a sure thing than getting a TV series to fly. Most of the buzz I’ve heard about the play has been good, though, so there’s reason to hope.

And for those who don’t live close enough to NYC to catch a Broadway show — or, as in my case, couldn’t afford it if you did — there may be a movie version on the way. It was apparently supposed to be a movie in the first place, with Thomas Schlamme directing, but the film never got made and the script veered to the stage, where tickets cost as much as an actual television.

I’ll wait for the movie. But I’ll sure root for the play at the Tony Awards.

Studio 60, NBC, Aaron Sorkin, The Farnsworth Invention, Thomas Schlamme

Have you ever purchased Studio 60 episodes from the iTunes store? I usually just watched episodes for free on the NBC site, and looked forward to having my own DVD copies eventually. It was nice to see them there in the store, though, and know I could download an episode if I wanted to.

That’s a privilege admirers of NBC shows may not have this coming season, since NBC and Apple are having a little tiff over pricing of shows. Apple says NBC wants to charge $4.99 for episodes, instead of the $1.99 iTunes store standard. NBC says no, it just wants to be able to bundle episodes with movies for the pleasure of its viewing audience. Uh-huh. Anybody else seized with uncontrollable laughter at the thought of NBC caring what we want?

The way things stand now, current NBC fare on iTunes — including, presumably, Studio 60 — will stay put until December, when the current contract between NBC and Universal ends. Then, if things aren’t resolved, it’s gone. Meanwhile, given the uncertain state of affairs, Apple will not be adding new NBC episodes to the store when the season begins. Not something Studio 60 fans have to worry about, alas.

I suspect this is all corporate posturing, and some sort of deal will be worked out. And I’ll admit, I’m a Mac user and an Apple fan and thus have a tendency to take that company’s side in things. But it seems like just another boneheaded move by NBC to yank its programming. I’ve long ago stopped trusting this network to do much of anything right, but still … there’s no way this looks good for them, is there?

Studio 60, NBC, iTunes

I’m a sucker for those “House Hunter” shows on HGTV. Even though I’m not in the market for a change of house, and with any luck won’t be for a very long time, it’s still fun to see inside properties and imagine what it might be like to live in them. Maybe that’s why some Google Alerts about Steven Weber flipping a house in Malibu caught my eye.

The actor, who played Jack on Studio 60, bought the not-quite-beachfront property in April 2006 for $2,849,000 and sold it a few months ago for about a million dollars more, according to the blog Big Time Listings. Another blog, The Real Estalker, has some photos of the house and a detailed description. Nice place, though I join with some of the commenters in disliking the red kitchen cabinets.

The glossy white walls all over the rest of the house sure looks pretty, but all I can think of is how quickly my kids would cover them in smudgy fingerprints.

_{Photo: More4}

Studio 60, NBC, Steven Weber, real estate