Watching Studio60

According to the More4 site, “K&R Part 1″ was the episode shown on Thursday in the U.K.; it originally aired in June 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 - R/O)
• Studio 60 Guide

For those of us who saw “K&R Part 1″ six months ago, it was the beginning of three “K&R” episodes — “K&R” meaning “kidnap and rescue,” and referring to the abduction of Tom’s brother by terrorists in Afghanistan and the possibility of NBS paying ransom to get him back, abetted by the blonde lawyer who’s been hanging around flirting with Matt. But despite being the 1 of K&Rs 1 through 3, this was actually the second in a five-episode arc that started with last week’s “Breaking News” and ended with the series finale, “What Kind of Day Has It Been.”

Among the other plots in this and the coming episodes was the approximately 3,685th take of Matt and Harriet’s conflict about religion; flashbacks to the days after 9/11 and the disagreements between Jack, Matt and Danny over the way the show should respond; and Jordan’s pregnancy complications, leading to an emergency C-section.

But if you’re a romantic like me, the thing you’ll remember most from this episode is the marriage proposal in the YouTube clip below — a perfect blend of sweetness and snappiness that perfectly captures the Jordan-Danny dynamic. Seeing it again makes me wish all the more that we could have seen their relationship grow over another season or two or four.

Studio 60, NBC, K&R Part 1

As a follow-up to yesterday’s recap, here are some memorable lines from Studio 60’s second episode, “The Cold Open.”

Jordan: We’re just at the beginning of our development season for next fall, and with each of our potential new shows, I’ll ask myself three questions: Do I like it? Would my parents like it? If I had kids, would I want them to watch it? If the answer to any of those questions is yes, I’ll put it on the air. If the answer to all three is no, then I won’t.

Reporter: Jordan, can you describe the reaction of NBS executives Friday night when Wes described the network as a candy-ass network and a greed-filled whorehouse of a network?
Jordan: Pleased and proud, as you can imagine. Until we realized he wasn’t talking about Fox, he was talking about us.

Danny: I made a decision for you. You’ll find I’ll be making a lot of them.

Matt: A caller from Toluca Lake called us Barbra-Streisand-loving, Michael Moore-worshipping jackasses.
Danny: What have I always told you about listening to show tunes?
Matt: Don’t do it.
Danny: Don’t do it.

Jordan: I’ll tell you what I do believe. I believe that the people who watch television shows aren’t dumber than the people who make television shows. I believe that quality is not anathema to profit.

Matt: Wait a second, the caller from Toluca Lake with the “Barbra Streisand-loving,” was she calling us Hollywood liberals or was she calling us gay?
Danny: It’s a pretty fine distinction.

Jordan: They are irreverent. They are brilliant. They will make us laugh. They will make us think. They will make us talk. And they will make us proud.
Danny: Easy does it, lady!
Jordan: They will return Studio 60 to its former glory as the flagship program of NBS. And NBS will return to its former place as America’s greatest broadcast network. And if you don’t believe me, tune in Friday night at 11:30.
Danny: No.
Matt: By the way, this latest career move of ours?
Danny: Pretty stupid?
Matt: Yeah.

Danny: Stick around, and when we’re done? I need to choke you to death.
Jordan: You bet.

(more…)

We’re taking a second look at “The Cold Open,” the second episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, originally aired on September 25, 2006. Following up on yesterday’s review, here’s a recap of the episode. Tune in tomorrow for a listing of memorable lines, and Saturday for five questions about the episode.

Title Card: Monday

Press conference, and Jordan’s on the spot. She’s sharing her theory of programming. But it doesn’t take long for the questions to turn to Wes’s speech. But she fields that fairly smoothly, too.

Admiring her technique backstage is Danny, but he can’t get Matt to share the appreciation because Matt’s too busy obsessing about the fact that Danny let him sleep the weekend away. Danny needed him rested more than Matt needed to start writing, but that doesn’t calm Matt much. Danny’s decision-making, of which he says he’ll be doing a lot, included sending Jeannie to Matt’s house, something that may not go down well with Harriet.

And now we’re back out with Jordan, who’s saying all the right things again, as she introduces Matt and Danny in terms so glowing they’re going to be hard to live up to. So, no pressure.

And now we’re at the studio, where Cal announces to the cast that our guys are on TV. The cast gathers to watch, and Jeannie comes in to chat with Harriet. No spilling of the weekend-with-Matt beans yet, though I’m sure we’re all poised for that.

Reviled writers Ricky and Ron are watching the press conference, too, and preparing for the most humiliating day of their lives. The rest of the writing staff gathers, and doesn’t look too happy, either. But now we’re back onstage with the guys. Making jokes about Jack …

… who’s watching now. When asked why they’re not doing a movie, Jack says what he wants to hear, and so does Matt, but then Danny comes right on out and says the truth about his cocaine habit temporarily derailing his ability to get movies made. The room, which we’re back in now, explodes in questions, but Danny’s said all he’s going to say on that, and Jordan’s making jokes again. They’re falling flat now.

And now, for the real trouble. Some gal from Rapture magazine asks about the “Crazy Christians” sketch in a way that makes you think she’s not so much an impartial journalist as a crazy Christian herself. Matt again hedges, Danny again tells the truth, and the conference comes to a quick close. Not quick enough, now, was it?

Much walking and talking and yelling as Jordan and Danny and Matt and Shelly the PR lady race down the hall debating all the many ways that went badly. They’re stopped by Jack, who’s snappish about Danny’s honesty and Jordan’s following it with a joke, and surprised that Matt of all people is the only one who held it together. He’s also surprised to hear from Shelly how many people read Rapture magazine. Matt’s surprised that word of the sketch got out, but Jordan reminds him of all the people who saw it at the dress rehearsal, not to mention the fact that it was rattling around as a script for four years. Danny’s still ticked about how high Jordan set the bar with her intro, but she just expects them to shut up and clear it.

As Matt and Danny walk back to the studio, Matt’s obessing about his need for a killer opening sketch, mostly, and Harriet, a little bit. They argue a little about who will (or, really, doesn’t want to) get Wes’s office, and Matt wins/loses — Wes’s lair is his. As they enter, we get that rarity in a Sorkin show: an extended period of silence. The room carries a lot of weight.

It also has a countdown clock on the wall, the activating of which sends Matt further into a creative tizzy. It doesn’t seem likely that a visit to the writer’s room, which looks sort of like a frat house the morning after, is going to help much, especially after Danny gives the kind of pep talk designed to make everybody hate Matt and then splits.

We leave Matt to listen to what will undoubtedly be a bunch of very bad ideas, and descend to the bowels of the theater and the actors’ dressing rooms. Tom’s reading an unflattering blog post about the show, and delivers a little anti-blogger rant. The conversation bounces around from Tom, to Simon, to Harriet, on to the subject of Matt’s back surgery and whether he can sit at a desk and write for fourteen hours, a short day for him, and inevitably the ball goes to Jeannie, who mentions she saw him doing leg lifts, and … wait for it … while Danny’s giving another of his anti-pep-talks … and the talk goes back to Matt and his leg lifts … and Jeannie makes it clear that she saw him doing them at his house … and … BAM! Harriet gets it, and she’s up the stairs like a shot.

She makes it to the writer’s room to hurl invective at Matt just as he’s making a speech about the need for professionalism. They take it out into the hallway, where first he cautions her to never speak like that to him in front of the writers again, which admonishment she seems to accept. And then they get back to the yelling and sniping and using words as instruments of injury, over the fact that Matt may or may not be dating Jeannie, and may or may not be dating a lot of other people, and she broke up with him in an e-mail, and — aw, you know, the particulars don’t matter that much, it’s the same argument about how they love each other but can’t live with each other. And it ends, sadly and tensely, with Harriet walking away and Matt cursing.

(more…)

Just for the record, I am not writing this in my pajamas. I am writing this in a sweatshirt and sweatpants covered with dog hair, but at least I have some professional standards. In fact, by the looks of it, my normal blogging attire wouldn’t be out of place in the Studio 60 writer’s room — at least, before Matt made his “We will dress in a grown-up way even if we cannot conduct our romantic affairs in one” speech. Actually, I might need some sort of funny hat to really look like a professional.

Tom’s little rant about the tyranny of uncredentialed hacks was another visit to a Sorkin pet peeve, and kind of cute for that. The biggest problem with criticism today isn’t bloggers in their bathrobes chain-smoking Parliaments, though; the biggest problem, as it has always been, is that it is enormously easier, more fun, and more satisfying to write a nasty review than it is to write a glowing one. This is particularly true if you are on deadline, and it is equally true if you are a nobody on the Net trying to get some traction on Digg or a “credentialed” critic trying to get some cutting quotes out there. In the end, criticism is always just the sharing of an opinion, and I’m not sure any one opinion is more valid than any other. What’s more annoying to me than any old viewer having their voice heard is when people whose voices are taken seriously misuse that power. Sorkin’s not the only one who was settling scores with Studio 60, is all I’m saying.

Off the soapbox now. One thing I really enjoyed about “The Cold Open” was how different Danny Tripp is from Josh Lyman. I never watched Friends enough to be able to judge Matt’s differentness from Chandler, although I’d think the jump from sit-com to drama would necessitate that anyway. There’s something about Danny’s kind of low-key confidence that’s worlds away from Josh, though, and it’s nice. Whitford’s playing a full-fledged grown-up this time, the guy instead of the guy the guy counts on. Interesting to see two characters created by the same writer for the same actor showing different colors. Sorkin mentioned in the pilot commentary that he made a real effort to do this, and to get Whitford to abandon the mannerisms that had been encorporated into Josh, and I think they both did a great job.

It’s interesting, too, watching these early episodes now after seeing the way the Danny-Jordan relationship turned out. We have Jordan’s comment about having fallen for Danny from the first, and Sorkin’s comment that Danny started falling for Jordan when she told Matt to run the “Crazy Christians” sketch, and here’s the chance to see if those comments are really borne out. And you know, I think they are. I don’t know that I noticed it the first time, but in retrospect, I think it holds up. Danny’s attention to Jordan’s good press conference performance on the one hand, and Jordan’s absolute refusal to go back on her promise regarding the sketch, can be seen as going a little beyond professional interest. I’m looking forward to tracing this through the rest of the pre-romance episodes.

I really love the fluidity of Schlamme-directed shows, the way we see a scene from so many angles, traveling effortlessly in and out of different rooms and groups and viewpoints (well, effortlessly for us; I’m sure it’s effort-ful in the extreme on the technical end.) This was particularly apparent in this episode during the press conference scene, where we moved from the stage with Jordan, to backstage with Danny and Matt, to the S60 control room, to the dressing rooms, pausing briefly for conversations that put the conference in the background and then letting it come forward again. Very cool.

The big closing Gilbert & Sullivan parody at the end worked better than I remembered. I’m so pleased to find that true of the whole episode, really, that the bad press really was bad and the work really was good. Are the opinions of bloggers still not valuable even when they’re positive? Aw, you know, never mind, I’m just gonna keep writing anyway.

Tune in tomorrow for a full recap, and later in the week for memorable lines and five questions raised.

Studio 60, NBC, The Cold Open, commentary

It’s another Monday night, another night to pretend that it’s a year ago and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is still on and use our DVD sets to transport us back. This week, I’ll be re-watching episode two, “The Cold Open,” which originally aired on September 25, 2006. That’s the one that had the press conference in the beginning, the Gilbert and Sullivan parody at the end, and a whole lot of worry about how the Christian right would react to the resurrected Crazy Christians sketch in the middle.

And what will you miss if you join me at Studio 60 tonight? Let’s see what the networks are offering at 10 p.m. On CBS’s CSI: Miami, “a wealthy family’s nanny turns up dead at a dinner party.” On NBC’s Journeyman, “Dan discovers a young criminal in the making.” On ABC’s October Road, “Hannah shares her feelings with Nick upon his return.” And on the show I’d probably be otherwise watching at 10 p.m., HGTV’s House Hunters, “A couple search for a condo in Portland, Ore.”

Anything there you can’t miss? Hmm. That’s the beauty of DVDs, anyway. You can watch the episode any time you like, and just pretend that you watched it at 10 p.m. And I might do the same. ‘Cause maybe I haven’t seen that particular House Hunters yet, and even if I have, there’s just something about watching somebody else’s real estate decisions at the end of a long day that’s kinda soothing, you know?

But I’d probably, on any given day, rather be watching Matt and Danny and Jordan and Jack and Harriet and Tom and Simon and Cal and all the rest of that hyperarticulate, walking-and-talking crew. Whenever you wind up re-viewing the episode, stop by here tomorrow for my quick review, then all through the week for a full recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Studio 60, NBC, The Cold Open, DVD

As I mentioned back in October, Steven Weber is going to have a guest-starring arc on the ABC drama Brothers & Sisters as a love interest for a character played by Rachel Griffiths, and that series of episodes starts tonight at 10 p.m. Also guesting for the first time in this episode will be Chevy Chase as an old boyfriend of Sally Field’s character, and Lyle Lovett as himself, serenading Calista Flockhart and Rob Lowe as they nervously approach their wedding day.

As far as I’m concerned, Lovett alone’s enough reason to tune in. But I’m curious to see how the erstwhile Jack Rudolph will fit in with the business and personal shenanigans of the extended Walker clan. If you’re planning to tune in tonight for the Weber watch, here’s a quick introduction to the characters and storylines you’re going to be seeing.

(more…)

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing the Studio 60 pilot:

1. What happened to the title cards? There was no title card for the first segment, then title cards for the next three segments — “Jordan,” “Matt and Danny,” “The Big Three” — and then no title cards after that. If there were originally more and they were removed, why leave these three? And if this was all there were ever supposed to be … why are they necessary? Jordan gets introduced via resume pretty quick in her segment, Matt and Danny get their names said frequently in theirs, and the identity of the Big Three gets expositioned in the earlier boardroom scene. Might as well have cut the cards.

2. Was the musical contrast on purpose? I really noticed this time how the music at the studio was loud and raucous, while the music at the dinner parties that Jordan and Matt and Danny were at was sort of relaxing light jazz. That made the cuts from those peaceful places back to the chaos of the studio a bit more jarring — particularly going from the dinner party at Jack’s to Three 6 Mafia rapping on the Studio 60 stage. I don’t know if it was done deliberately to deliver a jolt, but it worked.

3. Why didn’t Wes know Suzanne’s name? He asked her for it during his confrontation with Jerry. Was she supposed to be new? Or are there just so many people running around that Wes couldn’t be expected to know them all? And if that’s the case, what did he care what her name was this time? A simple, “Hey, flunkie! Get me Jack Rudolph on the phone” would have done.

(more…)

According to the More4 site, “Breaking News” was the episode shown on Thursday in the U.K.; it originally aired in May 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 … no, wait, EW.com was so annoyed by “The Disaster Show,” the previous episode, that it refused to recap this one.
• TV Squad
• Television Without Pity (recap)
• Television Without Pity (forum - R/O)
• Studio 60 Guide

For those of us who saw “Breaking News” six months ago, “Breaking News” was the one on which Jenna Fischer of The Office was the guest host for the show-within-a-show; Matt’s pill-popping out of a children’s vitamin bottle became a subject of discussion; the blonde lawyer was still wandering around flirting with Matt in a way that really should have been the product of a drugged imagination; Danny and Jordan argued over the show’s sliding ratings, and what might need to be done about that; and, oh yeah, Tom’s brother went missing in Afghanistan and Jordan collapsed, setting up the trilogy of “K&R” episodes to come. In fact, I think this and all the rest of the episodes in the series happened over the course of one really long night, right?

At any rate, though the episode ends in fear and despair, it’s nice having the trio of Matt, Danny and Jordan — missing without comment from the previous episode — back in place for the start of the final wild ride.

Studio 60, NBC, Breaking News, Jenna Fischer

Making a round-up of memorable lines from a Sorkin show is a tough task, because they’re all memorable. Really, I should just find a copy of the script somewhere on the internet and reproduce the whole darn thing here. Short of that, I’ve picked out some that really stood out. Enjoy them as a follow-up to yesterday’s recap.

Jerry: I’m in charge of broadcast standards and practices. I’m not in charge of funny.

Jerry: What do you want me to say to the 50 million people who are going to go out of their minds as soon as it airs?
Wes: First of all, you can tell them that we average nine million households, so that’s at least 41 million who are full of crap. And the second you can tell them that living where there’s free speech means that sometimes you get offended.

Cal: Tell the writer’s room they’re going to have to stretch it another 25 seconds, and I’m sure that making it longer was the missing ingredient to making it funny.

Felicity Huffman: Wes, is there anything you can tell me that will make me feel better about the monologue?
Wes: Your instincts aren’t wrong. It’s not funny.

Felicity: I need the very slutty dress … and somebody else to wear it.

Wes: I know it seems like this is suppposed to be funny, but tomorrow you’re going to find out that it wasn’t, and by that time I’ll have been fired. This is not a sketch. This show used to be cutting-edge political and social satire, but it’s gotten lobotomized by a candy-assed broadcast network hell-bent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience. We were about to do a sketch you’ve seen already about 500 times. Yeah, no one’s going to confuse George Bush with George Plimpton, we get it. We’re all being lobotomized by this country’s most influential industry, that’s just thrown in the towel on any endeavor to do anything that doesn’t include the courting of 12-year-old boys, and not even the smart 12-year-olds, the stupid ones, the idiots, of which there are many, thanks in no small measure to this network. So why don’t you just change the channel. Turn off your TVs. Do it right now. Go ahead. [Wes continues, but we hear control room chaos instead] There’s always been a struggle between art and commerce, but now, I’m telling you, art is getting its ass kicked. And it’s making us mean, and it’s making us bitchy. It’s making us cheap punks, and that’s not who we are. People are having contests to see how much they can be like Donald Trump? [More control room] We’re eating worms for money? Who Wants to Screw My Sister? Guys are getting killed in a war that has theme music and a logo. That remote in your hand is a crack pipe. Oh yeah, every once in a while, we pretend to be appalled. [More control room] Pornographers! It’s not even good pornography, it’s just this side of snuff films. Friends, that’s what’s next, because that’s all that’s left. And the two things that make them scared gutless are the FCC and every psycho religious cult that gets positively horny at the very mention of a boycott.

(more…)

The show starts as the show starts — or rather, as Simon warms up the crowd for the Friday live broadcast of the show within the show. As Simon describes the theater to the studio audience, we’re snaking around backstage, through sets, past props, in true Schlamme style. One of the sets is an open subway car, and just like many a real subway, somebody’s getting mugged there. Only the thief isn’t after a wallet or a cellphone, but a man’s dignity and professional self-respect.

The victim is Wes Mendell, the man in charge of Studio 60, and his attacker is Jerry, a sniveling little weasel from Standards and Practices. Jerry wants Wes to cut an unnamed sketch. Wes maintains that it’s funny, but funny isn’t Jerry’s concern. Religious folk who might be offended are, and though Wes holds his ground for a bit and attempts to get network bigwigs on the phone (they’re all at a dinner party, as we shall soon see), in the end, Jerry is right that he no longer has the muscle to resist.

And so the sketch is cut, to be replaced by something called “Peripheral Vision Man,” to the underwhelment of those in the control room. That’s not the only part of the show that’s in trouble, though. Guest host Felicity Huffman is concerned about two things: The changes in the monologue she thought would be coming after the original fell flat in dress rehearsal are not on her new cue cards; and her wardrobe choices are “slutty dress” and “very slutty dress.” She corners a lost-looking Wes and forces a discussion of the monologue, but while he admits it stinks, he’s not inclined to do much about it other than confirm her fears. That leaves her asking for “the very slutty dress … and somebody else to wear it.”

Despite these disappointments brewing, the show must go on. And it starts off easily enough, with two characters in the Oval Office making jokes that highlight Bush’s dumbness. But Wes is mumbling to himself in his chair, then telling them to stop the sketch, then walking on camera and instructing the actors to get out of there so they won’t be implicated in what he’s about to do. It takes a while for the studio audience to realize that this isn’t an act, and they’re not supposed to be laughing. Quickly, though, it becomes apparent that nothing about what Wes is saying is supposed to be funny.

Jerry’s on his feet pretty quickly, blasting into the control room and ordering Cal, the director, to pull the plug. Cal’s having some conflict over that, though: On the one hand, he has two children in a private school, and he’d like to not lose this and any hope of a future job. On the other hand, he supports Wes, and wants to take orders from him rather than some weasel. “I’m waiting for him to stop telling the truth,” Cal stalls. In the end, he leaves Wes on for 53 seconds, during which the man commits professional suicide by railing against the cowardice of the network, the obscenity of reality TV, the stupidness of the American populace, the tyranny of groups who threaten boycotts, and whatever else he can find to hurl invective at.

The actors stand by, watching this train wreck. Felicity Huffman peeks out from the wings; one cast member, Simon Stiles, starts toward Wes, but another, Tom Jeter (in Bush costume), holds him back. It’s clear that this is something Wes wants to do, and he’s prepared to take the consequences. Hard to watch, and hard to look away.

(more…)

So did you re-watch Studio 60 with me last night? Well, actually, I didn’t watch it last night; because I am a lightweight and a lazybones, I was falling asleep when I should have been firing up the DVD. But I watched it this morning, and will be writing my recap and other material for posting throughout the week. Today, though, I just want to share some thoughts on re-viewing.

The thing that really struck me about the show this time around is what a great buddy comedy it was. With all the to-do about backstage showbiz, and the Matt-Harriet love-hate relationship, and the beginning of a spark between Danny and Jordan, and the social commentary about the state of TV today … with all of that going on in the episode, and all the critical second-guessing that would be done about how the show matched up with Sorkin’s love life and personal vendettas … the thing that really knocked the pilot out of the park for me was the relationship of Matt and Danny, and the way it was brought to life by Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry.

There were two scenes that really touched me as a portrait of their friendship. The first was their very first scene, surprisingly far along in the episode, when they’re sitting around the table at the Writer’s Guild dinner. With the way Matt cracks a joke and Danny helpfully explains it to everybody else, they’re like an old married couple. Even as Matt’s fairly actively making a fool of himself, Danny looks at him with such bemused affection, ready to step in to prompt or clarify. They’re a team, both professionally and personally.

Then later, almost at the episode’s end, comes that scene in half a taxicab when the two come to terms about their new job. Despite all that’s going on and at stake, Matt pauses to ask Danny if he’s okay. Matt’s been such the screw-up all night, it’s nice to see him take a serious moment and worry about his friend. Then it’s back to making jokes and making plans for their show, in the theater where they will be living.

(more…)

Do you remember how excited you were for that first episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip?

There was such anticipation over the start of a new Aaron Sorkin show. It took some of the sting out of the end of The West Wing (which hadn’t been Sorkin’s West Wing for a while anyway) to know that Josh would be resurfacing, right away, in a show by the master.

I remember the drumbeats that went on all summer before. Clips being released, script pages on the loose, early critics reporting in, general crazy excitement. And when the pilot finally aired, there was still a universal ring of praise … although even by that time, it was starting to be undercut by writers who figured that if everybody liked something, it was cooler to hate it.

The tide of public opinion rolled out pretty steadily from there. And I’m sure I’m not the only fan who felt a little embattled, compelled to defend the show but saddened and embarrassed by the blasting it continually received.

With the availability of the DVD set, I’ve wondered if I would enjoy the later episodes more now, without the negative vibe that enveloped them when they first aired. I’ve been surprised, actually, when collecting YouTube clips to feature on this blog, at how sharp and funny it all was – I thought so at the time, but so few others seemed to, I doubted my memory.

Now, with nothing on at 10 p.m. Mondays I’m inclined to watch, and the writer’s strike making that likely to continue, I’m going to create my own little repeat season of Studio 60 on my very own DVD player. It starts tonight, when I’ll be watching the pilot again. Over the rest of the week, I’ll have a quick review, a full recap, a gathering of memorable lines, and five questions about the episode. Then next Monday, I’ll do it all again with episode two, and so on.

Want to relive the glory days of Studio 60 with me? Pop in the DVD, and tune in tonight. Then add your comments to mine.

Studio 60, NBC, pilot, DVD

Kim is back, and instead of playing the viola, she’s fixing computers at a big-box electronics store. Boy, is her dad going to be steamed about that.

I don’t watch NBC’s Chuck as a rule, but my husband does and I happened to be in the room recently when he had it on. And, why, there was Kim! Or, rather, Julia Ling, the actress who played Kim Tao, viola prodigy and Tom Jeter admirer on Studio 60, and now plays Anna Wu, sardonic computer tech on the accidental spy series. It’s always nice to see S60 vets finding continuing work in showbiz. According to IMDb, she’s also on the episode of Grey’s Anatomy that aired November 15 and is still hanging out unwatched on my DVR. (I refuse to watch anything that may involve George + Izzie romance without the power of fast-forward.)

IMDb also informs that Ling has three movies coming out in the next year or so: Silvergun Samurai, Dead Reckoning and Love Sick Diaries. If you’re a fan of the actress and want to find out more about her, or just want to see a cute clip of her being questioned by Ed Asner in a Studio 60 walk-and-talk, check out her fan site, JuliaLing.com.

Speaking of Kim, I’m wondering if somebody on the creative team of Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zach and Cody was a Studio 60 fan. There’s a new recurring character on there this season, Barbara, a string player who’s hot for the somewhat nerdish Cody, and the voice and body language give off a seriously Kim-ish vibe, it seems to me. Then again, maybe I’m just missing that show.

Today continues a recurring feature for this blog: brief profiles of Studio 60 cast members. I’m gathering these on a page for easy reference, but introducing them one at a time here.

Name: Sarah Paulson
S60 Role: Cast member Harriet Hayes
Birthdate: Born December 17, 1974 in Tampa, Florida
Stats: 5 feet 6 inches tall; partner of actress Cherry Jones
Best Known As: Harriet Hayes, since this was probably her highest-profile role to date
Other Notable Roles: Laura in the 2005 Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie, with Jessica Lange; Vikki in the 2003 movie Down With Love, with Renee Zellweger; Elisa in the 1999-2001 TV series Jack and Jill, with Studio 60 costar Amanda Peet; and parts in other TV series including Leap of Faith, American Gothic, and Deadwood.
Memorable Moment on YouTube: Harriet Can’t Tell a Joke
Sites to See: + IMDb listing + Wikipedia + AfterEllen

What would you add to this list? Share your favorite Sarah Paulson roles and info in the comments.

_{Photo: NBC.com}

Studio 60, NBC, Sarah Paulson, Harriet Hayes

According to the More4 site, “The Disaster Show” was the episode shown on Thursday in the U.K.; it originally aired in May 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 - R/O)
• Studio 60 Guide

For those of us who saw “The Disaster Show” six months ago, and are West Wing fans, this one should still be easy to remember. It’s the one on which the great Allison Janney appeared as the guest-host of the show-within-a-show, and renewed all that wonderful chemistry with Timothy Busfield that we remember so fondly from when she worked at the White House and he was a member of the press.

Janney, playing herself, has picked a bad night to host the show: The prop and cue-card guys are on strike, so pretty much everything that can possibly go wrong? Does. Cal is a continuously reassuring presence, in the way that the Titanic employee telling you that the ship’s really just making some minor adjustments would be. He’s delivering a good line to us, the viewers, too, distracting us with charm and wit so that maybe we won’t notice that three of the leads are completely missing from the episode.

That’s right — no Danny. No Matt. No Jordan. They’re mentioned, they’re somewhere around, maybe, but not anywhere the camera is. I’ve never heard any explanation for why these three actors were missing; does anybody know? It made for kind of an off-kilter episode, but that was kind of the point, perhaps. Everything’s supposed to look wrong, after all.

With the major players MIA, there’s some sub-plot goodness for Simon and Tom, who plan a trip to Hawaii with their girlfriends. Tom’s got Lucy, and Simon’s got … a problem, since his girlfriend dumped him. He manages to find a replacement for the trip just as his girlfriend decides to take him back. Oh, the wacky hijinks!

The best parts of the episode, though, are the ones in which Allison Janney pays Aaron Sorkin back for her years of great West Wing scripts by making an absolute fool of herself, repeatedly. And conveniently enough, somebody has distilled all those Janney scenes into one YouTube presentation, below or at this link. Enjoy!

Studio 60, NBC, The Disaster Show, Allison Janney, Timothy Busfield