Watching Studio60

We’re taking a second look at “Pilot,” the very first episode of Sports Night. Following up on the review, here’s a recap of the episode. Still to come: memorable lines from the episode.

The pilot drops us right into the middle of the Sports Night studio, and a bustling place it is. The camera winds around through the control room, where directions are being shouted back and forth; out to the desk, where the anchors, Dan and Casey, discuss whether the recently divorced Casey should be getting out more; back to the control room, where exec Isaac asks producer Dana whether Casey’s bad mood is going to create another crappy show (yes); back to the anchor desk, where Dan points out that despite what the script says, Helsinki is in fact in Finland; and back and forth, as we discover that backstage is a hectic place, the national bird of Finland is the whooping swan, and Dan isn’t wearing pants.

We come back from commercial and it’s the next morning. There’s discussion of a basketball player named Jason Grisham following up a great game by attacking a guy in a bar. Dan accuses Casey of having slept at the office, and goes on and on about how he’s having a “New York Renaissance.”

They go to a staff meeting where J.J., a network suit, complains about an upcoming feature on Ntozake Nelson, an African long-distance runner who was a political prisoner and barely expected to walk again after his legs were broken, but who will be running in a race carried on the network that night. J.J. thinks 40something African political prisoners won’t play well to the show’s 11-17 demographic, and when Casey yells at him about it and storms out, he also doesn’t think Casey is playing very well to anybody. He suggests Dan find a new partner, but that doesn’t play very well to Dan. J.J. makes it clear to Isaac, though, that he better do something about it, and Isaac does the same to Dana.

Dana meets Jeremy, Natalie’s candidate for a research job, when he jumps up from his waiting spot on the couch to ramble on about why she can’t get a satellite feed — but she’s not ready for him yet. First, she has to have a little talk with Casey, telling him swiftly and crisply, amid various show notes and directions, that she loves producing Sports Night and that he is ruining her show.

Having delivered as close to a warning as she’s going to, Dana goes back to interview Jeremy. When he declares that he’s strong on football, she asks him a question about basketball that sends him into a tizzy of insecurity and nerves. Finally, though, he answers well enough to get the job, much to Natalie’s delight.

Back behind the anchor desk before that night’s show, Casey tells Dan that he’s thinking of quitting because of stories like the Grisham one — punks and thugs acting up and getting reported on as sports stories. He’s upset that these guys are the role models his son has, now that Casey only sees him on Wednesdays and weekends. Dan knows Casey’s threat to quit is not about the moral decline of sports, but the emotional decline of Casey’s marriage to a woman who never really liked him. He wonders why Casey would leave the show, where people do like him, even when he’s being rude to them.

While they’re arguing, one of the staff, Kim, comes in to tell them there’s something happening on TV that they’re going to want to see. And if it isn’t Ntozake Nelson, the runner J.J. considered such a non-story. Against unbelievable odds, he’s winning the race and setting a world’s record. Casey calls his son and tells him to watch, then lets Isaac, Dana, and Dan know that he’s ready to celebrate sports again. And we end as we began, with the buzz and the banter of another episode of Sports Night starting.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Sports Night, ABC, Pilot, recap

Hey, I remember this show!

We’re starting our Sports Night Replay marathon with the first episode, “Pilot,” and boy was it fun to be dropped back into this world. It’s been a while since I re-watched this show, and I missed these people.

I love how fast the show is — all the rapid-fire banter we love from Sorkin shows with none of the weighty topics to ponder. Yeah, I know, they’ll get into weighty topics, but at a sit-com pace, not a drama pace. After the kind of melancholy final batch of episodes of Studio 60, this was really zingy and refreshing.

I also like how we’re dropped in without much explanation and left to figure out the relationships of all the people. Pilots too often are all about Explaining It All for You, and I’m generally forgiving of that. But the Sports Night pilot didn’t really pause for exposition. The tensions and relationships — between Dan and Casey, Casey and Dana, Dana and Isaac, Isaac and the network, and potentially Natalie and Jeremy — came out as natural parts of the plot that went zipping by.

The one standard sit-com moment, sadly, involved an actor I like and a character I love, and that would be Jeremy’s basketball meltdown. I don’t know if poor Joshua Malina was directed to be that schticky, or he was playing to a studio audience, or what, but every time I see that scene — which word-wise, is pretty cute — I feel like it’s been dropped in from a much, much broader type of TV comedy. Thank goodness Jeremy calmed down and learned how to be panic on the run instead of in the spotlight.

What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments, and come back during the week for a recap and memorable lines.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Sports Night, ABC, Pilot, review

With the Studio 60 episodes all recapped, it’s time to broaden this blog to All Things Sorkin (see the change to the banner above?) and consider other shows by the Studio 60 creator. First up is Sports Night, which ran for two seasons from 1998-2000.

I’ll be doing the same review, recap, and memorable lines for the Sports Night episodes as I was doing for Studio 60, and if you’re out there reading this and watching along, I hope you’ll share your thoughts on revisiting these episodes, too. This show was somewhat spiritually related to Studio 60 since they both involved putting on a show (and a bantering couple who never could quite seem to get it together, although at least they didn’t argue about religion). It will interesting now to pick out familiar plot threads and dialog, since Aaron Sorkin is pretty well-known for stealing from himself.

This week I’ll be watching and writing about Episode 1, creatively named “Pilot,” which first aired on September 22, 1998. The synopsis, according to the DVD box: “Casey ponders leaving Sports Night as his divorce woes start showing through on air, while Dana hires Natalie’s favorite choice for an associate producer job — a good-looking candidate named Jeremy.”

You know, I love Joshua Malina, but would you describe Jeremy as a “good-looking candidate”? I’d have said “endearingly dorky,” especially since this episode had that absolutely over-the-top sports-geek meltdown.

There was also the weirdness of a laugh track in these early episodes. The producers didn’t want laughter, the network did, and so, according to an Entertainment Weekly article, they went with a studio audience, to be sweetened by laugh track. Sorkin is quoted as saying, ”Once you do shoot in front of a live audience, you have no choice but to use the laugh track. Oftentimes [enhancing the laughs] is the right thing to do. Sometimes you do need a cymbal crash. Other times, it alienates me.”

Me, too. But as I recall and Wikipedia confirms, the laugh track eventually faded away as the show become more of a dramedy.

I’m getting ahead of myself here, though. Let’s watch that old pilot tonight and discuss tomorrow.

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing “What Kind of Day Has It Been”:

1. Matt finally reunites with the love of his life, and the first thing he wants to do is … write? I guess they’ve established Harriet as his muse strongly enough that getting her back may cause his creativity to flourish again, but you’d think they might at least have the weekend together first. Or, you know, breakfast.

2. Do they have traveling beauticians in the hospital? A lot of the characters looked like they’d spent a sleepless night, but Jordan looked fresh as a daisy after almost bleeding to death. A little tired, maybe, a few more lines on the face than usual, but that lipstick looked pretty fresh. I guess Hollywood hospitals understand that it is better to look good than to feel good.

3. Does that doctor have no other patients? The hospital’s been a bustling place for much of the five-episode arc, but this time the doc seemed to have nothing to do but loiter in the background during Danny and Jordan’s tearful reunion, making cracks, providing a pen, fetching papers, looking moved. Maybe the hospital still thinks Danny’s at risk of stealing the baby and selling her into slavery, and wanted an eye kept on him at all times.

4. Aw, couldn’t Danny have let Lucy go to Germany with Tom? It’s not like anybody but Matt ever writes the show anyway.

5. What shall we do next? Since this was the last Studio 60 episode to recap and comment upon, I’m going to be broadening the scope of this blog to All Things Sorkin. And since a half-hour show will be a nice change-up for me from an hour-long one, we’ll be starting a re-view of Sports Night this Monday. Drag out those dusty DVDs and watch along.

Studio 60, NBC, What Kind of Day Has It Been, commentary

As a follow-up to the recap of “What Kind of Day Has It Been,” here are some memorable lines from the episode, which originally aired on June 28, 2007.

Did I miss your favorites? Share them in the comments.

Matt: I went ahead and exercised my own judgment.
Danny: When has that ever worked out for us?

Danny: It’s on TV.
Matt: It’s four in the morning. Who’s watching TV?
Danny: People in New York, where it’s seven in the morning.

Danny: This is my daughter.
Matt: Wow.
Danny: You know what? I never felt so much like a man until I just said that.

Danny: They gave her a standardized test. Activity, pulse, respiration. She got nine out of 10.
Matt: What did she miss?
Danny: Grimace.
Matt: Grimace?
Danny: She missed grimace. She’s supposed to grimace when they touch her with something cold. Like that’s going to keep her out of Harvard.

Matt: She have a name?
Danny: Baby Girl McDeere.
Matt: You’re hoping that she’ll become a stripper?

Matt: Isn’t there a chance Jordan could die?
Danny: She’s definitely gonna die. Just not tonight.

Danny: (To Matt) She just had a baby! By emergency C-section! Then nearly bled to death! Now she’s got a postoperative infection. And she’s probably gonna find a way to blame all this on our ratings. (To baby) Yeah, Mama’s a loon. But she loves us. So we’re gonna roll with it, but I would, for the important stuff, come to me. Shoes, lipstick, talk to her. Everything else should be me.

(more…)

We’re taking a second look at “What Kind of Day Has It Been,” the twenty-second and final episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Following up on the review, here’s a recap of the episode. Still to come: memorable lines from the episode, and five questions about it.

We’re right back where we left off after “K&R Part III,” with Jordan battling a life-threatening infection, Tom’s brother in captivity, Mary working on a ransom arrangement with Jack’s money and Tom’s consent, Jack trying to persuade Simon to apologize for an inflammatory comment he made to the press, and the action periodically popping into flashbacks of the days after the start of the war when Jack wanted Matt and Danny to apologize for a sketch.

Since this episode moves around a lot between previously established locations, I’m again going to flag them as we go. And so we start in the:

Hospital: It’s 3:55 a.m. Danny and Harriet are asleep in the waiting room, with Harriet’s head on Danny’s lap … at least, until Matt comes and Danny jumps up to greet him, sending Harry’s head crashing into the hard plastic chair. The guys are oblivious to her complaints, though, as they compare notes about what’s going on at the studio and with Jordan. Danny shows off his daughter, and after talking about Mary’s work to ransom Tom’s brother, Matt very reluctantly broaches the subject of getting Jordan to sign custody papers. Danny reacts about the same way Matt did when Mary mentioned it to him — but as Matt’s about to leave, Danny asks him to find out from Mary whether Jordan’s drugged-up signature would even mean anything.

Studio 60: Captain Boyle is watching the promised tape of the kidnappers with the supposed dead body of one of the hostages, except he’s sure it’s a fake. Tom’s not convinced by his sureness, or by the ability of the army to get his brother out. They debate some more about why you don’t negotiate with terrorists, and why the war is going as it is, until finally Tom says they have to just stop talking.

Still talking, though, are Simon and Jack. Simon’s still refusing to apologize, but the two men do discuss the plan getting underway with Tom, and the reasons for the end of Jack’s marriage — he got tired of apologizing, which is maybe not the best thing to reveal here — and eventually work their way back to the situation with Matt and Danny five years back.

Flashback: And Harriet and Matt are still talking, about the sketch and the repercussions. She points out that if a Democratic administration had sent an emissary out to talk to Hollywood, Matt would have had no problem with it, and he agrees. And, seems he’s fine with the hypocrisy. Not fine with her seeing Luke, clearly. He’s just asking Harriet if she was offended by the sketch when Danny comes in to say that it’s all over, Wes is going to be issuing an apology, and they’re off the hook. Maybe not, though, judging by how ticked off Matt looks about the whole thing. Danny urges him to let it go, but that’s not exactly Matt’s style.

Hospital: Matt calls in to tell Danny that Suzanne will be bringing the papers over, and a drugged-out Jordan signature will be better than none at all. After Danny hangs up, a way-too-perky Harriet comes in with food from the cafeteria, but Danny’s mind is in the past.

Flashback: The five years ago past, or the last time he lost everything he had, though certainly less to lose than now. Matt comes into his office and declares he’s going to quit. Danny tries to make it right, first with him, then with Jack. He tries to appeal to Jack by saying it’s not a matter of friendship or honor or patriotism, Matt’s the franchise and they’ve got to keep him. Then he hears what he’s saying, and he quits, too. Harriet’s upset then …

Hospital: … and wondering now if Danny has any regrets about it. His only one is that he didn’t quit sooner. They wind up talking about Matt and Harriet, and why the two of them can’t ever seem to get together. Harriet admits he’s the only one she ever loved, but thinks he’ll never forgive her for not quitting, too. Danny is incredulous, and assures her that Matt never wanted her to quit, and loves her only. He tells her that, since the dinner where she was so cruel to him, Matt’s been using drugs. Just then, Suzanne comes with the paperwork, and Danny goes to try to get into Jordan’s room. And then we have the commercial-break lead-in from hell — the doctor coming out with a serious face, telling Danny they need to talk, and boy, does it seem like that will be bad news. Harriet calls on God …

… and apparently He comes through, because after the break, here’s Jordan, groggy and sweaty but very much alive. She meets her daughter, gets her engagement ring back on, then realizes that there was some business she meant to conduct that never got done. There, in the bag she brought with her to the hospital, are adoption papers all ready for Danny to sign, making him the official daddy of little Rebecca Tripp.

Studio 60: Jack gets the call that Jordan’s okay and shares the news with Simon. They go round some more about the apology, and in thinking again about five years ago, Jack realizes that he didn’t have a problem with the sketch and should have stood up for Matt and Danny. So now he’ll stand up for Simon, telling him he shouldn’t apologize. That’s all Simon needs to hear — he’s ready to make the apology now. So then Jack’s fighting to get him to stop, almost coming to drunken blows before Suzanne runs through to say something’s happening with Tom’s brother.

We finally get all the cast back together to hear the news — that Tom’s brother has been rescued, and is in fact on the phone waiting to talk to him. Matt slips away from the jubilant crowd, walks downstairs to the stage, and gives thanks to God, which of course Harriet is right in place to overhear. She questions him about his drug use and slaps him for not telling her sooner, because she is the one person he must never lie to, the one person. And he admits that he loves her, and she wonders if they can be together while he’s the boss. So he starts asking the assembling cast members if they would mind him dating one of their co-workers, and given how much turmoil has been created by their not dating, it’s no surprise that nobody objects.

Danny shows up to pass out cigars. Tom mentions he’s going to Germany to see his brother, and Lucy asks if she can go, too, but Danny says no — they’ve got work to do, they had a good show but they can do better, and they need the whole (miniscule) writing staff in place. Danny sends everybody home, but Matt’s going to stay and start writing. As Danny leaves, turning out the lights, Matt’s upstairs turning on the clock and getting back to work. On something we’ll never see, because this is the end. But a happy ending it was.

View this episode on Hulu.

Studio 60, NBC, What Kind of Day Has It Been, recap

I watched “What Kind of Day Has It Been” again last night, and remembered once more how much I loved this series finale. The sun was rising at the end of this long dramatic night, and the sun was rising in the lives of these characters, even as it set on the show that brought us into their world for one short season.

If the first couple of episodes of this five-episode arc — “Breaking News” and “K&R” Parts I, II and III all took place on the same night as this — skewed toward the comic with the wise-cracking doctor and raucous writer’s room scenes, and the second couple veered into drama and trauma, this last one was pure emotion. A little smart-ass, a little scary, but mostly sweet. Even hell-in-heels Mary calmed down a little.

Of course, it did have a pretty heartless break to commercial there, when the doctor, looking unusually serious, cut off Danny’s rant about needing Jordan to sign papers by quietly saying they needed to talk. Sure seemed like it was bad news about Jordan, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who spent that commercial break, the first time through, joining Harriet in prayer. But all was forgiven when the show resumed with Jordan looking tired but alive, meeting her daughter, being reunited with Danny, and pulling adoption papers out of her bag. That transition loses its impact on DVD … and thank goodness. I like it better without the unwarranted trepidation in the middle.

There were some terrific one-on-one scenes in this episode. Jack and Simon going round and round about Simon’s need to apologize. Danny and Harriet talking about why she and Matt can never get together, with Danny correcting an old misunderstanding and letting Harriet know how messed-up Matt’s really been since she was cruel to him at the Catholics dinner. Harriet and Matt then making up, again, for good or for now, but with the awareness that they are each other’s “the one.”

Maybe the most moving two-character scene, though, was Matt and Danny in that small glass room looking at the baby, with Matt knowing no way to say to Danny that he needs to get Jordan to sign custody papers in case she dies, and knowing that it has to be said. That one small painful scene, culminating with Danny realizing that something had to be done, said as much about the relationship of these two guys as the quitting-together flashback scenes or the “I love yous” at the end.

It was interesting, watching this episode, to note how much most of these characters actually looked like they’d been up all night, having the worst night of their life. And major kudos to Steven Weber for perfectly pitching a character who has had not enough sleep and way too much alcohol but is keeping it together, mostly. Jack lost his grip little by little throughout the evening, even as we kept revisiting his smug younger self in flashbacks. Of all the characters on this show, Jack’s the one who’s shown the most growth, and who would have guessed that in the beginning?

I appreciated the show ending with romances and crises resolved, and also that they managed to bring everybody back for that final scene on the stage, one last line or look for all these actors we’re going to miss, including a sweet little nod to Tom and Lucy’s relationship. I wish we hadn’t had to turn the lights out on all these entertaining folk, but at least we managed to turn away at a time when all was right in their world.

Share your thoughts on this episode in the comments, and come back later this week for a recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Studio 60, NBC, What Kind of Day Has It Been, review

Anybody out there still following along with my Studio 60 Revisited Monday marathon? We’re at the end now, at that glorious finale that tied up all the loose ends and sent us away sad but satisfied. That would be “What Kind of Day Has It Been,” which first aired on June 28, 2007, and was directed by Danny Tripp himself, Bradley Whitford.

When I first saw this episode, almost a year ago, I went into fearing the worst — worried that Sorkin would, understandably, end things in the most negative and depressed way possible, with Jordan dead, Danny losing custody of the baby, Tom’s brother killed in a way that makes those who tried to ransom him responsible, Simon fired, Jack … I don’t know, Jack crossing the street drunk and getting hit by a bus. The way the show was treated by critics and the network, I couldn’t have blamed its creator for leaving it in ashes. But I was so hoping against hope for the best for these characters.

I don’t want to ruin things for anyone who’s experiencing the episode for the first time now, but … let’s just say, fear not.

Share your thoughts on this final episode here, then come back through the week for a review, recap, memorable lines, and five questions. After that, I’ll have just about run out of things to say about Studio 60, but this blog will be mutating into a look at All Things Sorkin, including Sports Night and The West Wing. So this is not the last “What Kind of Day Has It Been” we’ll be talking about.

Don’t have the DVD set? You can watch this episode online at Hulu.

Studio 60, NBC, What Kind of Day Has It Been

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing “K&R Part III”:

1. Did Mary get nicer when she changed into sweats? The character has bugged me quite a lot, especially when she was playing all cutesy with Matt, but at the end, sleepy and finally released from the low-cut blouse and the short skirt and the high-heeled shoes, “the blonde with the legs” actually seemed more human and compassionate, making a persuasive argument to Matt about getting legal custody papers to Danny without so much as a reference to her stratospheric intelligence or her surpassing cuteness. Too bad they didn’t dress her down long ago.

2. Is Boyle bad at his job? He jokes a lot about being bad at it, for sure. And he seems to have a plan that involves keeping Tom on his toes with jabs and jests. But if he’d made more of an effort to befriend rather than antagonize the hostage’s brother, maybe Tom would have listened a little better when asked not to go the ransom route.

3. Did Harriet ever talk to Danny, back in flashback-time? She tells Matt she’s going to, but we never see the scene. If she did, I guess he was no more dissuaded by her argument than Matt was. Perhaps if she had made her points in the Holly Hunter voice, they would have agreed to cut the sketch just to shut her up.

4. Is Jack asking the wrong person for help with Simon? Matt’s obviously going to be disinclined to help, since there’s an apology history between the writer and the honcho. Mary seems to be the only one around who’s actually making things happen — I’ll bet she could write an apology that would clean up the mess but leave Simon’s scruples intact. Did she mention her IQ is ridiculous?

5. What happened to the rest of the cast and crew? Everybody’s supposed to be hanging around still, but they’re making themselves awfully scarce, even with Jack wandering around the building. Maybe they set up bunks in the parking garage to tuck everybody away.

Studio 60, NBC, K&R Part III, commentary

As a follow-up to the recap of “K&R Part III,” here are some memorable lines from the episode, which originally aired on June 21, 2007.

Did I miss your favorites? Share them in the comments.

Jack: “No wonder those guys wanna kill us. I live here, and I wanna kill us.” That’s what you said, right, Simon?
Simon: I honestly don’t remember what I said.
Jack: You don’t have to. It was on TV. It’s still on TV. And unless we do something now, I mean right now, then starting Monday it’ll be on TV a lot.
Simon: What do you want to do?
Jack: I think you should kill yourself.

Jack: Does Danny have anything to drink around here?
Simon: Danny’s an alcoholic.
Jack: His girlfriend’s bleeding in the hospital. Her daughter’s born two weeks early. Tom’s brother was taken hostage by the Taliban. And the star of one of his shows just went on television to declare his allegiance to al Qaeda. He didn’t keep anything around for special occasions?

Jack: Forget the hell that’s about to rain down on this network and on this show. I’m standing here telling you you’re never gonna work again. Ever. You and Michael Richards can open a taco stand together.
Simon: Jack.
Jack: Yeah.
Simon: Fire me, or shut the hell up.

Jack: You don’t feel suicidal?
Simon: Why the hell would I feel suicidal?
Jack: You told the press you were feeling suicidal and homicidal. “No wonder those guys wanna kill us. I wanna kill us.” You’ve calmed down?
Simon: Yeah. Now I only wanna kill you.

Matt: The sketch isn’t radioactive.
Harriet: I believe that it is. And I believe that you believe that it is.
Matt: Well then, I appreciate you saving me the trouble of thinking.

Harriet: I want you to take over the show when Wes retires because that’s what you want.
Matt: I don’t think you’re allowed to sleep with Luke and care about what I want both at the same time.
Harriet: Well, whether I’m allowed to or not, that’s the way it is.

Danny: How is it no one’s ever hit you in the head with a potato?
Harriet: I duck and weave, baby.

(more…)

We’re taking a second look at “K&R Part III,” the twenty-first episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Following up on the review, here’s a recap of the episode. Still to come: memorable lines from the episode, and five questions about it.

We’re right back where we left off after “K&R Part II,” with Jordan unable to stop bleeding, Tom’s brother in captivity, Tom holed up with an unhelpful military man, Simon in trouble for mouthing off to the press, and the action periodically popping into flashbacks of the days after the start of the war when Matt and Danny got into trouble with Jack over an allegedly unpatriotic sketch.

Since this episode moves around a lot between previously established locations, I’m just going to flag them as we go to save us all a lot of transition time. And so we start with:

Studio 60: It’s 2:45 a.m., and Jack Rudolph is in the house. Jack’s there to have a … well, let’s just call it a discussion with Simon about how he’s going to apologize for the things he said. Well, specifically for saying, “No wonder those guys wanna kill us. I live here, and I wanna kill us.” That’s the kind of thing that’s going to get sound-byted to death, and indeed, already is — even in the very early Saturday morning. Jack’s pretty sure that if it’s still alive by Monday, it will take over TV, and he wants an apology from Simon to circumvent that. Simon, however, is receptive neither to Jack’s suggestion that he say sorry or commit suicide. So it’s going to be a long fight on a long night.

Fortunately, Jack manages to locate some booze in Simon’s dressing room, and they’re in business. In the course of their discussion, Jack winds up betting Simon, paycheck for paycheck, that he’ll get him to apologize; Jack admits he agrees with Simon, but it doesn’t matter; Jack points out that if Simon doesn’t apologize, his career is through; and Simon accuses Jack of going back on his word back in flashback days, when Matt lost his job and Danny’s for not making a similar apology.

(more…)

I watched “K&R Part III” again last night, and what a melancholy episode that was. Things just keep looking worse. And again, since this is not so much the third of three but the fourth of five, there’s no resolution in sight. I almost kept the DVD going for the final episode just to get that happy ending. I made myself wait for next week, but it was a struggle.

The comedy-drama balance was tipped pretty far toward drama here, with the humor being of the bittersweet variety. Even the doctor wasn’t making jokes, as he let Danny know that Jordan had gone from bad to worse. Not so “fine, fine, everything’s fine” this time. Harriet tried to be funny with the Holly Hunter impersonations, but not so much. Events there finally drove Danny to his knees, with Mary theorizing that he could lose both his fiancee and his baby in one night.

Tom’s fear of losing his brother didn’t ease up either, and the solution offered by Mary, Jack, and Matt — to try to ransom him out — just added a huge moral dilemma to the mix. When his military watchdog tried to tell him that the kidnappers were going to make a fake declaration that they’d killed one of the hostages, the bad road seemed the only one to take. But if Tom wasn’t tortured enough before, he is now.

Meanwhile, Jack and Simon are locked in a combat for which there will be no easy victory, since they both know that Simon was wrong to lose his temper in front of the press, and they both know that he shouldn’t have to apologize for it. There used to be some pleasure in watching Jack strong-arming someone into doing his will — as recently as him insisting that Tom take Kim to the Harriet dinner. But Simon’s a more formidable opponent. And there’s all that history weighing Jack down.

The flashbacks are sliding from the earlier raucous writer’s-room scenes to the “you are destroying your career” scenes, and since we know that Matt and Danny did indeed get fired, it’s like watching a car crash. Sweet of Harriet to be so concerned about Matt putting himself in professional peril, but of course, if she advocates for something, he’s got to disagree with it. Here’s the pride, and the fall is coming soon.

I remember watching this the first time through and feeling all kinds of tension — would they really kill off Jordan? would they really kill Tom’s brother, or have Tom engage in some ransom endeavor that came with a crushing moral burden? This time, I know we have that gift of happy resolutions for all waiting just one DVD episode away. But I still feel so bad for these people, ’cause they don’t know yet.

Share your thoughts on this episode in the comments, and come back later this week for a recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Studio 60, NBC, K&R III, review

If you’ve been following along with my Studio 60 Revisited Monday marathon, we’ve now come to the final of the three “K&R” episodes. “K&R Part III” was the twenty-first — and next to last — episode, and originally aired on June 21, 2007.

The plot continues juggling all those balls tossed around in “Breaking News” and the first two “K&Rs” — Jordan’s still in the hospital, having delivered the baby but not overcome a blood-clotting problem; Tom’s brother is still a hostage in Afghanistan, leading Tom to spar with a stonewalling military man and contemplate a rescue effort proposed by Mary Tate; Matt and Harriet are still Matt and Harriet; and Matt and Danny are still appearing in flashbacks about the time they got fired from Studio 60 for not being patriotic enough, or rather, for letting a sketch go on that was perceived by foaming-mouthed talk-show-hosts as being not patriotic enough, and perceived by Jack as not having been worth all the trouble.

As I wrote back in December, when this episode first aired in the U.K., “The biggest development differentiating this episode from its fellow plot puzzle pieces is the aftermath of Simon’s stupendous PR implosion from Part 2, in which he was sound-byted blaming the American public for the war and allying himself with the Taliban. For that, Jack thinks he should issue an apology. Simon respectfully disagrees, and they spar throughout the night, as flashbacks to a similar stand-off four years ago between Jack and Matt inform and eventually transform Jack’s demands of Simon. Meanwhile, Tom’s about ready to give the OK to the secret plan to rescue his brother, and Danny’s got to find a way to get a critically ill Jordan to sign papers giving him custody of her baby, lest he lose both his girls.”

Jack, who was out of the action last week, is back now, though Jordan is still ailing offstage. And of course, the episode brings no resolution, because this three-parter is really the middle of a five-parter. It’s going to be a long night, people.

Watch this episode with me tonight, and stay tuned throughout the week for a review, recap, memorable lines, and five questions.

Studio 60, NBC, K&R Part III, commentary

Five questions that popped into my head while re-viewing “K&R Part II”:

1. Did they get tired of coming up with “we’re in the past now” costuming? I guess since the flashbacks weren’t that long ago, they didn’t need to do that much — just put a cap on Matt’s head and take off Andy’s glasses, and it’s 2001! Still, since Andy was playing fundamentally the same role in writer’s rooms present and past — The Guy Who Asks Matt Questions — it would have been fun to give him a really goofy haircut or hat or something jarringly past.

2. Why are Tom’s parents at the studio? Don’t they live in another part of the country altogether? Might have made more sense to fly Tom to Podunkville than to keep everybody sequestered in the Entertainment News capital of the world.

3. Why isn’t Lucy in with Tom? Surely the guy could use a little aid and comfort, and the military man sure isn’t providing it. I mean, if Darius can be in with Tom’s parents (and I give that one another big huh?), Tom should have his girlfriend on hand. And if he says he wants to spare her, she should barge the heck in there anyway. You’d have to have some pretty heavy artillery on hand to, say, keep Harriet away from Matt in a situation like this.

4. Was that doctor auditioning for a spot in the Studio 60 cast? ‘Cause unless you’re working the hospital on Scrubs, surely that amount of sarcasm and levity is uncalled for. I keep expecting him to slip Danny a videotape and a headshot.

5. How pathetic does it make me that when I saw the reporter, Leon, the first thing that went through my head was “Hey, is that the dad from Even Stevens!” Pretty sad, I’m afraid. I can find no evidence that the actor in the shadows is the same one who played Shia LaBeouf’s pop, but it sure looked like him to me.

Studio 60, NBC, K&R Part II, commentary

As a follow-up to the recap of “K&R Part II,” here are some memorable lines from the episode, which originally aired on June 14, 2007.

Did I miss your favorites? Share them in the comments.

Danny: She’s bleeding internally? Isn’t that … Is that life-threatening?
Doctor: Well, going to the corner for a newspaper is life-threatening –
Danny: Kid, I will beat you up!
Doctor: She’s fine.

Danny: Hey, listen, before, you know, I said some things about your age. I said some disparaging comments about your age. You guys, you don’t ever take that out on the patients, do you?
Doctor: Yeah, all the time.

Doctor: Do you have a friend who can come down and sit with you, and just help you relax?
(Elevator opens and Matt and Harriet come blasting out)
Matt and Harriet: Danny!
Matt: Sorry we’re late, but Racer X here was driving, and we hit a parking meter.
Harriet: You kept shouting, “Turn left! Turn left!”
Matt: At the street.
Danny: These are the calming influences.

Harriet: I’m concerned that Doogie Howser is working on my friend and her baby.

Harriet: You’re engaged.
Danny: Yeah.
Harriet: And there’s a baby.
Danny: Yeah.
Harriet: ‘Cause like an hour ago, none of that was true.
Danny: Things are moving fast tonight.

(more…)