Watching Studio60

Early reviews are in for The Spirit, which co-stars Sarah Paulson, and they’re … not good, unless Chinese water torture sounds like fun to you. The former Harriet Hayes at least gets faint praise in the write-up from The Hollywood Reporter:

“Gabriel Macht is sturdy but dull as the restless Spirit. Samuel L. Jackson chews the graphic scenery as Octopus, while Scarlett Johansson seems to get lost in that same scenery as his weirdly docile sidekick Silken Floss. Eva Mendes plays jewel thief Sand Saref as a one-note temptress, while Paz Vega as a French assassin and Jaime King as an underwater nymph go for the same effect. How many vamps can a movie contain? Sarah Paulson comes as close as any to an actual character, playing a doctor who lovingly patches up the fast-healing Spirit. Dan Lauria’s hard-boiled police chief and Stana Katic’s amped rookie cop never shake free from being cliches. Louis Lombardi appears multiple times as cloned Octopus henchmen. One thing about ‘The Spirit’ is that it’s never dull. Then again, the same can be said of Chinese water torture.”

There’s barely a mention of her in Variety’s similarly unenthusiastic take:

“If this summer’s ‘The Dark Knight’ raised the bar for seriousness, ambition and dramatic realism in the comicbook-based superhero genre, ‘The Spirit’ reps its antithesis: Relentlessly cartoonish and campy, it’s a work of pure digital artifice, feverishly committed to its own beautiful, hollow universe to the exclusion of any real narrative interest or engagement with its characters. … Pic rapidly introduces the Spirit’s flamboyant archnemesis, the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), who seems just as immune to bodily injury as the Spirit is; voluptuous gold-digger Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), with whom the Spirit shares a troubled, sepia-toned history; pugnacious police commissioner Dolan (Dan Lauria) and his daughter, Ellen (Sarah Paulson), a doctor who has long carried a torch for the masked crusader. … There’s a lot going on here, but none of it sticks — not the shopworn plotting nor the arch, stilted dialogue. The actors often seem to be delivering their lines in ironic quote marks, suggesting a straight-faced sendup of noir and comicbook conventions that, whatever the intended effect, falls mostly flat.”

Will you be catching The Spirit despite the early lack of enthusiasm? If you do, report in with your opinion — of the movie, and of Paulson’s performance.

Studio 60, Sarah Paulson, The Spirit

In this corner, Josh Lyman, Donna Moss, Sam Seaborn, Joey Lucas, Kate Harper, Senator Arnold Vinick, and Mrs. Landingham.

In the other corner, President Josiah Bartlet.

Lots of West Wing names on the list of those opposing the call from the leadership of the Screen Actor’s Guild to authorize a strike. Bradley Whitford, Janel Maloney, Rob Lowe, Marlee Matlin, Mary McCormack, Alan Alda, and Kathryn Joosten are among those who signed on to a letter stating, in part, “We feel very strongly that SAG members should not vote to authorize a strike at this time. We don’t think that an authorization can be looked at as merely a bargaining tool. It must be looked at as what it is — an agreement to strike if negotiations fail. We support our union and we support the issues we’re fighting for, but we do not believe in all good conscience that now is the time to be putting people out of work.”

Martin Sheen, though, is on the other side of the issue, as one of 31 “solidarity signers” lending his name to a statement that says “I support the Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors request for members to vote YES to empower the National Board to decide whether to call a TV/Theatrical contract strike, and if so, determine its timeframe. We must arm our negotiating committee with the collective unity and strength of the Screen Actors Guild members.”

It’s certainly true that if a union doesn’t have the power to strike, it doesn’t have much power at all. The faction opposing a current strike is proposing the threat of one in three years, but that’s not going to help much around the negotiating table now.

But I think the anti-strike-authorization faction has a point that this is not a time when a strike is going to be met with much sympathy by anyone. Besides the fact that the economy’s in sad enough shape already without the entertainment industry and its support services shutting down, the injuries to viewing habits inflicted by the writers’ strike still haven’t healed. You don’t want to get people out of the habit of commiting themselves to television shows for good.

Would you have patience for another strike? Do you think there needs to be one whether viewers can stand it or not? Tell whether you side with Josh or the president in the comments.

I caught the great West Wing episode “Two Cathedrals” on Bravo this morning, and … wow. While I have some misgivings about the MS/scandal story arc in general, there’s no denying that it was responsible for some of the series’ most powerful episodes.

A couple of days ago, there was the re-run of “17 People,” with that great opening scene of Toby slowly figuring out there was something up, the sound of a ball thrown against the wall running through it like a heartbeat. The counterpoint in that episode, between Sam and Josh trying to bring the funny to the correspondent’s dinner speech while Toby is having his heart broken in the Oval Office, between the lightweight political concerns of the moment and really serious deep shit, just increased the building sense of doom.

This is a show that’s justly praised for its torrents of words, but there are some moments that just play on actors’ facial expressions — Richard Schiff’s throughout “17 People,” or John Spencer’s reaction shots after Leo is told of Mrs. Landingham’s death in “18th and Potomac” — that, no cliche, are worth a thousand words. Another wordless moment that gets me every time is the way Charlie takes off his raincoat when he sees that the president is not putting on his at the storm-swept culmination of “Two Cathedrals.” A perfect small gesture of undying and unquestioning loyalty. Then swooping into that long sequence set to Dire Straits’ “Brothers in Arms,” the staff gathering behind their leader to go out together into the maelstrom. Watch it again in the YouTube video above.

I was particularly interested this time, watching “Two Cathedrals,” to reconsider the performance of Kirsten Nelson as young Mrs. Landingham. On previous viewings, I had no other knowledge of the actress, and have always been blown away by how well she interpreted the part — not imitating Kathryn Joosten’s performance as the Mrs. Landingham we knew and loved, exactly, but channeling her uncannily into a younger version. The voice and vocal inflections and facial expressions and manner of challenging Jed are just so perfect. Now, of course, I’ve seen her in many episodes of “Psych” as an entirely different character, police chief Karen Vick, and I wondered if it would color my appreciation of the performance. But nope. She’s still young Mrs. Landingham to me, awesomely so.

Love the way those flashbacks, which could have been annoying, echo back and forth into the present struggles of Jed, with the cigarette on the church floor, the imagined conversation with old Mrs. Landingham that changes his mind about running, and of course, the hands-in-pockets-turn-head-smile that gives away his decision in an ending that, if you’d been paying attention, wasn’t a cliffhanger at all. Fantastic work all around.

West Wing, Two Cathedrals, Bravo

I’m going to try and get going again on this watching of Sports Night episodes, especially now that I have my shiny new 10th anniversary DVD set. Even without all the keen extras, I’d love this new set because each episode is an individual entity, as opposed to one big clump in the old version (making it tough to, say, fast forward to the start or end of an episode.

But there are those nice extras, and I’m looking forward to getting into them. The episode we left off at, “The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee,” is one of the ones with a commentary — from Josh Charles, Peter Krause, Sabrina Lloyd, and episode director Robert Berlinger — but there’s nothing very dishy about it. Mostly reflections on how long ago it was, how annoying the laugh track was, and how wonderful it was working with Robert Guillaume.

This episode did indeed have a lot of Isaac goodness in it, culminating in an editorial challening Confederacy loving network owner Luther Sachs to do the right thing on behalf of some college football players who refuse to play under the Confederate flag. Although he spends much of the episode worrying about giving Sachs the excuse the man’s been looking for to fire him, he does the right thing himself and makes it pretty tough for the boss not to.

Still, despite the strength of that storyline, this will always be for me “The One With Donna Moss.” What a great performance by Janel Maloney as Monica, the wardrobe assistant who lays a smackdown on Casey for accepting credit on The View for the way Monica’s boss dresses him. According to the commentary, the actress was cast as Donna on The West Wing after this, and surely as a result of it. Also from the commentary is a confirmation that all those staffers name-checked in Dan and Casey’s sign-off were in fact staffers of the real Sports Night, the show outside the show.

Share your thoughts about “The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee” in the comments, and stay tuned this week for a recap and memorable lines.

Sports Night, The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee

A blogger reading a NY Times article on the terrorism was reminded of the post 9/11 episode of The West Wing, “Isaac and Ishmael,” and the scene above discussing “why they hate us.” I hadn’t thought about that episode in a while. I remember quite a debate on the Television Without Pity site after it aired over many inaccuracies and oversimplifications and knee-jerk reactions. It wasn’t the show’s finest hour from a dramatic point-of-view, either, consisting mostly of staffers giving speeches to a group of students on particular aspects of terrorism in the wake of a not-defined crisis. Still, it was kind of thrilling at the time to see the show ripping something from the headlines and responding to it at a time when no one quite knew how it was going to be acceptable to translate the tragedy into art. Anybody watch it recently? Does it work at all removed from the emotion of the moment?

An episode I did quite enjoy and am eager to see again is the one on Bravo tomorrow morning, “It Is Surely to Their Credit,” in which Ainsley Hayes comes to work at the White House, to the pleasure of just about nobody. I look forward to John Larroquette’s scenery-chewing as Ainsley’s boss, the introduction of the luxurious Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue workspace, C.J.’s smackdown of a general and Sam’s smackdown of Ainsley-baiting staffers, lots of Gilbert and Sullivan-related banter, and the terrific concluding scene of early-morning redecoration and camaraderie as Our Gang rallies around their conservative colleague.

For a while there, during the election season, every Google Alert I got for “Sarah Paulson” turned out to be about Sarah Palin and Henry Paulson. But now the actress is getting at least a few mentions in with each mailing, thanks to two upcoming projects: The Spirit and Cupid. Above is a preview for Cupid, a TV series co-starring Bobby Cannavale to be airing on ABC. If the title and premise sound familiar, this was already a failed sitcom starring Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall a few years back, and I have no confidence that it’s going to be any more successful this time around. The trailer looks cute enough, but the thing that made me happiest about it was seeing Austin Pendleton again.

Below is a video on Paulson’s other big upcoming project, The Spirit. According to the blog Ace Showbiz, “Centering its story on a rookie cop by the name of Denny Colt who returns from the dead, Spirit follows the masked hero as he strives to sweep off criminals, including his nemesis, Octopus, from Central City. Along the way, he meets a line of women seducing him out of his track for their own personal goals. It stars Gabriel Macht as Spirit and Samuel L. Jackson as Octopus, and will be opened in U.S. big screen on Christmas Day, December 25.” Paulson plays Ellen Dolan, the Spirit’s alleged one true love, but judging from this clip, he’s got a lot of other choices.

Not something I’m going to be lining up for, but good luck to Paulson anyway, and congratulations on reclaiming her name in the news cycle.

Studio 60, NBC, Sarah Paulson, The Spirit, Cupid

This is the picture that greeted me in my mailbox today on the cover of this holiday’s edition of the Heifer International catalog. It seems like Bradley Whitford and Jane Kaczmarek are on the cover every year, and why not? How cute are they? Don’t they just make you want to buy a water buffalo?

I’ve never actually sprung for the buffalo (the donation’s $250; you can buy a share of one for $25, but that just somehow never seems as worthy), but I have gifted family members with chickens and rabbits and other small and less-expensive livestock. The critters actually go to needy families around the world, but you do get a nice certificate to put under the tree.

This year’s catalog, in addition to the adorable couple above, features the following celebs peddling animal donations: Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson, with lambs; Ed Asner, with a heifer; Alton Brown, with a goat; Patricia Heaton, with goats; Walter Cronkite, with chicks; Susan Sarandon, with llamas; Diane Lane, with … I think maybe another llama; and Joe Montegna, with an animal I can’t identify — he’s on a page with pigs, but he’s petting something furry. It’s a cute catalog, anyway, although it could apparently use more detailed photo captions.

If you want to honor your Studio 60 love in a philanthropic sort of way, Heifer International is clearly something Whitford has a longstanding relationship with. Then again, if you go to his charity auction site, Clothes Off Our Back, you can forget about helping the developing world and score some sweet Swarovski crystal ornaments decorated by the likes of Kristin Chenoweth, Jennifer Garner, and Ellen DeGeneres, none of whom had to pose with livestock. That particular auction closes December 10.

Steven Weber will be back on Brothers & Sisters November 30 as financial analyst Graham Finch. When last seen, Graham’s romance with Sarah Walker (played by Rachel Griffiths) was busted due to the fact that he’d recommended a multi-million-dollar deal that went sour and nearly bankrupt her family’s business. Whoops. Judging from the promo above, he’ll be trying to get back with Sarah — who’s now involved in an Internet start-up — both personally and professionally. Sarah got burned mixing business with pleasure the last time, so I wouldn’t count on Graham being around too long, but it’s nice for him to visit every now and again.

Julia Ling, who played cello prodigy Kim on Studio 60 and now works at the Buy More on Chuck, is the subject of a short profile on the blog The TV Legion. Fun facts: Her given name is Shel Wei; she was a state finalist in the Miss America pageant as a 16-year-old; she graduated from high school with a 4.0 average; her college major was biomedical chemical engineering; and she has extensive martial-arts training. But can she play the cello?

Timothy Busfield is selling his house, and if you’ve got a spare $2 million bucks, it can be yours. According to a Los Angeles Times story, “Busfield has listed his three-bedroom, three-bathroom house in Malibu at $1,995,000. The modern, multilevel wood and glass home with ocean and mountain views has 2,396 square feet. The property is behind gates on more than an acre of landscaped grounds. There are vaulted ceilings, a sunken living room and blond maple hardwood floors.”

There’s been a lot of press recently about the fact that Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s chosen chief-of-staff, was a model for the character of Josh Lyman on The West Wing. From what I’ve read, it sounds like they’re talking about this Josh:

and maybe this Josh:

but, let’s hope, not this Josh.

The Josh connection is probably one of the reasons that Bravo has chosen to start airing West Wing episodes again, starting last week with the pilot. (Looking over Bravo’s schedule, it doesn’t appear that there’s a consistent time the episodes will be shown, so you’ll have to keep an eye out.) The other reason interest seems to have been stirred up in the show are the parallels between the Obama campaign and the Santos campaign, the latter of which filled the final WW season.

A few articles on all the similarities:

• “Haven’t We Seen This Election Before?” from BBC News quotes West Wing writer Eli Attie: “[Obama's key aide] David Axelrod helped explain to me how Obama viewed his race, how he refused to be defined by it. In politics people are always looking to force people into categories: What’s your slice of the constituents? What’s your political base? And it seemed that Obama was very resistant to that idea and that was a key element in his success.”

• A Slate video jumps back and forth between speeches by candidates Obama and Santos for a live comparison of rhetoric.

• Sorkin puts words in Obama’s mouth himself in an imagined conversation between the candidate and former President Bartlet, published in Maureen O’Dowd’s column back in September.

• In a short interview from 2006, Bradley Whitford described Josh’s influences: “This guy was a mix of Rahm Emanuel, Paul Begala and George Stephanopoulos, with a touch of James Carville’s hair loss.”

Looking around for photos of Studio 60 players for posts here, I came across a couple of recent pics of co-stars together. Made me nostalgic for the days when we’d see these pairs bantering on TV. Thought you might enjoy them, too.

At left, Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford at The Lili Claire Foundation 11th Annual Benefit Dinner and Gala at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 4. At right, Sarah Paulson and Amanda Peet at a celebration for Peet’s cover on Gotham’s newest issue at The Plaza Hotel on August 5, 2008 in New York City.

The good news is that Bradley Whitford’s set to produce and star in a comedy pilot for 2009. According to the Hollywood Reporter:

“Emmy winner Bradley Whitford is returning to NBC as star-producer of the single-camera comedy pilot Off Duty. Romany Malco has been tapped as the second lead in the UMS-produced buddy comedy, which has been greenlighted for production following a cast-contingent pilot order in July. Written by Upright Citizens Brigade comedian Jason Mantzoukas, Off Duty centers on a once-legendary police detective (Whitford) on his way down who complicates the life of his new partner (Malco) — a straight shooter on his way up — both on duty and off. American Work’s Scot Armstrong and Ravi Nandan will executive produce the project, with Mantzoukas co-executive producing and Whitford producing.”

The article goes on to point out that it’s Whitford’s first comedy series, although he certainly had plenty of comedy moments in The West Wing and Studio 60. At least according to what I see on IMDb, it’s his first time as a producer, too. Malco’s credits include Weeds on Showtime — so the two stars share Mary Louise Parker experience — as well as the movies The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Blades of Glory, Baby Mama. The premise isn’t the freshest thing I’ve ever heard, but it should provide plenty of opportunities for Whitford to exhibit his skills at comic frustration, anger, and superiority.

So what’s the bad news? Did you see what network’s involved here? Twice I’ve sworn never to watch NBC again after a show with Bradley Whitford is cancelled, and he keeps going back to the same dang network. The Peacock is playing with us.

D.L. Hughley’s weekly CNN news/comedy show had its first showing on Saturday. Above, a video of the opening monologue. Below, some commentary from around the Web.

From TampaBay.com: “The line between satirizing racial stereotypes and wallowing in them is a fine one. And, unfortunately, the Saturday debut of comic D.L. Hughley’s new CNN comedy show, ‘D.L. Hughley Breaks the News,’ fell a little close to the latter mode too often for my comfort. Hughley has always seemed a comic searching for a vibe, anyway. Comfortable enough with Hollywood to score an ABC sitcom and a supporting role in NBC’s Studio 60, but street enough to host BET’s Comic View, he’s also seemed a bit removed from either setting — a little too raw for prime time and a little too refined for the street. Saturday’s debut of his new comedy show for CNN — itself a odd concept — revealed Hughley in yet another element where he doesn’t quite fit.”

From the Baltimore Sun: “The writing was uneven, and the host was noticeably nervous. The guests included no one with enough show biz star power that you were likely to go out of your way to see them. And yet, based on Saturday night’s premiere, it looks like CNN could have a winner in its new comedy show, D.L. Hughley Breaks the News. And more important, Saturday night television and its audience could be enriched by Hughley’s engaging and non-conventional take on American life — if the cable channel gives the production time to mature and find its voice.”

From Newsweek: “CNN, meanwhile, just bowed a news-comedy hybrid, ‘D. L. Hughley Breaks the News.’ Hughley is among our edgiest comics: when Don Imus was beset by critics of his comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, Hughley didn’t rebuke Imus’s comments, he seconded them. But it’s clear now that viewers like their politics with a dollop of levity, and CNN is merely following the rainbow.”

From the Hartford Courant: “The mix of fake guests and real could be jarring, especially since he had some quasi-news when he got former White House press secretery Scott McLelland to endorse Obama for the first time on the show. … It was an entertaining way to fill an hour of CNN. But its main problem going forth is that it is an hour — as long as a Letterman or Leno show. That’s a lot of time to fill. Especially after the election when material will presumably dry up.”

If you watched the show, share your own reviews in the comments.

D.L. Hughley, CNN

There’s a fun post on the blog Bewildered Society listing Aaron Sorkin’s top 10 best speeches. There are five from The West Wing, four from various movies, and one lone contender from Studio 60. The chosen one, not surprisingly, is Wes’s meltdown from the Pilot:

Wes: I know it seems like this is supposed 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.

Revisiting that tirade, and many other favorite Sorkin spiels, prompted me to go back through my memorable line roundups for S60 and find some more worthy speechifying. There aren’t many lengthy ones, maybe because the show was more about banter, maybe because I was too lazy to type out massive blocks of words. But here are a dozen memorable outbursts from the show’s 22 episodes. Look back with me and enjoy.

From The Focus Group:
Matt (reassuring Jeannie about the Commedia dell’Arte sketch): The network’s doing another dial group tonight because … well, because they just can’t help themselves. They’re doing it during the live show, so we’ll have the results roughly the same time we have the ratings. The focus group is made up entirely of people who saw last week’s show. The two people who liked it last week is going to go up to three. That one person is going to represent an additional 500,000 viewers. If it doesn’t go up to three, I’m going to give you $10,000 cash. Is that serious enough? If the two doesn’t go to three, I give you $10,000. If it does, you have to wear a T-shirt at the wrap party that says “Matt Is My Hero, and Danny Thinks Moliere Was Italian.” I’m having wardrobe make the shirt right now.

Also from The Focus Group:
Harriet: Ealing is a town of fewer than 4,000 people. More than half the adult population work in the Hanover Bakery plant, and the average income is $18,000 a year, or roughly the same thing I’ll be paid to perform this show tonight. Why are we making fun of them? “Crazy Christians,” “Science Schmience,” Bush and the Republicans, that’s all fair game, that’s hypocrisy and power. These guys are just trying to raise their kids. Why can’t the school do whatever play it wants?

From The Wrap Party
Jack: Before I reach down your throat and squeeze your kidneys with my hand, I wanna thank you for helping Jordan acquire for NBS a television series about the United Nations. ‘Cause that’s got smash hit written all over it. I’m thinking of premiering it against the Super Bowl. America’s been waiting for a show about negotiating a lasting peace in Sudan. I hope we’ll hold off on the debate over humanitarian aide to Darfur until sweeps. Aw, it doesn’t matter, an episode will be a winner as long as it’s about the U.N. Because Americans are just crazy about the U.N. We just can’t get enough of their freewheeling, sexy, bucaneer style. I foresee a couple of problems, like nobody at the U.N. speaks the same language. But that’s okay, because if there’s one thing every teenager loves, it’s subtitles. You see it as part of your job to screw with my company, don’t you?
Danny: No, I do not, that’s just one of the perks.

From Nevada Day, Part I:
Bebe: I had these guys going, did you see that? You’re idiots, did you know that? I’m a judge. Do you really think I go around calling people Japs and ordering deputies to shoot lawyers? You think I’m some sort of backwater red-state moron who hasn’t heard of NBS? I own a television, I know how to work it. I also know the law, counselor, and I’m not easily impressed. So shove your motions up your ass. There’s only one person in the room I want to hear from, and that’s the shepherd in the handcuffs.

From Nevada Day, Part II:
Jack: My company doesn’t have honor? One of my guys spent the day in two different police stations because he came to the defense of a woman who was being verbally and physically abused. He could have been out of it easy if he’d played the support-our-troops card, but he wasn’t about to minimize the sacrifice of his brother and his brother’s buddies. Simon Stiles has prior convictions, but with the Budweiser Clydesdales, you could not stop him from making clear to a judge that this much marijuana was his. This guy (pointing to Danny) … I don’t know what the hell he was doing … except trying to convince me that Jordan McDeere has been all over the gossip pages because when she was 25, she married a fraction of a man. And this man has been telling tales, both true and false, in the hope of selling a book and working the talk shows. Sir, of all Jordan McDeere’s faults, and there are many, lack of honor is not among them. She’s killing me with her honor. So I’m sorry, Mr. Zhiang. You have insulted me, and you’ve insulted my company, and I think you should take your business to Time Warner.

From B12:
Reporter: There is talk among people in the industry. It has been reported –
Jordan: The talk among people in the industry — and that was absolutely penetrating specificity — hasn’t been reported, it’s been created, the way it just was a moment ago. Stories need conflict, that’s understandable. Except reporters aren’t supposed to be storytellers. Stop trying to entertain me.
Reporter: You don’t like the press.
Jordan: By “the press,” you’re talking about a lot of people. Let me be specific: I don’t like you. I don’t think you’ve spoken to a single person who’s unhappy with my job performance. I think you’re “reporting” on what you and the guy in the cubicle next to you were talking about at lunch. And that makes you a hairdresser and a cockfight promoter.

From The Christmas Show:
Wilson: I won’t pay a seventy-three-million-dollar fine. I won’t pay a seventy-three-cent fine. I won’t time-delay the news, and I won’t say I’m sorry. I no longer recognize the authority of the FCC in this matter. I’m gonna have to be ordered by a federal judge. And when they come to get my transmitter, they better send a group a hell of a lot more scary than the Foundation for Friendly Families or whatever the hell they are. Let those guys embed themselves with the Second Marine Division for a while. They’ll re-jigger their sense of what’s obscene in a quick hurry. Jack, this is the one I’ve been waiting for my whole life. You are the chairman of the National Broadcasting System. That’s why I wanted my grandchildren to meet you.

Also from The Christmas Show:
Danny: I’ve been married twice before and I’m a recovering cocaine addict, and I know that’s no woman’s dream of a man, or of a father. Nonetheless, I believe I’m falling in love with you. If you wanna run, I understand, but you better get a good head start, because I’m coming for you, Jordan.

From Monday:
Jack: The only reason to time-delay the news is so that you have the option of censoring the news. A federal agency, in wartime, censoring a live news story because of the language a soldier used when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded over his head. … I’m not a Bedouin. I like making money, and I’ve made a lot of it for you. You can’t, you simply can’t, in this country, mess around with news coverage of a war. Ted, believe me, I wish this was a fight for ethics. I wish this was a conversation about the integrity of the news, but it’s not. It’s about preventing ourselves from being a laughingstock.
Ted: Well, I don’t feel like a laughingstock.
Jack: That’s only because you’re a moron.
Ted: (to Wilson) You’re backing up what he said?
Wilson: Yes. Including and especially your being a moron.

Also from Monday:
Jordan: You have to stop. This was embarrassing to me, Danny. Everyone you did this with now knows that … This was unprofessional. You made me look silly at the worst possible time — the worst possible time. Between us, we have three marriages, a DUI, cocaine addiction, and a baby by another man. And, I’m your boss. You asked me out once, I said no. You asked me again, I said no. You asked me out again, I said no.
Danny: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.
Jordan: Will you please stop.
Danny: No.

From What Kind of Day Has It Been:
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.

Also from What Kind of Day Has It Been:

Danny: I just stood in Jack’s office and said, “Screw friendship, screw honor, screw patriotism.” That’s how I talked about myself. And then I added, “We just lost the franchise.” That’s how I talked about Matt, who would stand in front of a train for any one of us, including you, while you’re screwing Luke. He’s been threatened by the network, compromised by me, browbeaten by you, gotten his heart broken by Wes, and he’s still standing up. Why am I quitting? Because they’re gonna start shooting at him. And I’m gonna be standing next to him when they do.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing

That’s the unlikely plot of 17 Again, in which the former Matt Albie plays a disappointed thirtysomething who goes back in age but not in time — apparently with the help of some sort of magical custodian — to become his hot teenage self. Zac Efron (who, technically, just turned 21, but still has some high-school roles left in him) plays Perry’s character in adolescent form, dressing stupidly, meddling in the lives of his teenage children, and being inappropriate with his wife. Above is the new trailer for the film; below, interviews with the cast, including Efron attempting to imitate Perry’s mannerisms.

The film is being described as a kind of reverse remake of Big, but the film it makes me think of is … Seventeen Again, with a word and not a numeral, and Tia and Tamara Mowry as a teenage girl and her magically teen-again grandma. In that one, if I recall correctly, a science-genius grandson (played by another Mowry, Taj) gets some magic age-reducing goop on some soap that the kids’ warring grandparents both use. The long-running marital travails are replayed high-school style, complete with classic dance moves.

I’ve only ever seen that flick on TV, where my daughter has watched it many, many times. She’s probably not the only Zac Efron-demographic Disney Channel-lovin’ kid who’s done so. Don’t know that the title echo will bug those younguns, but I’ll be looking for grannie and gramps jitterbugging in the corner.

Matthew Perry, 17 Again, Seventeen Again, Zac Efron

D.L. Hughley’s role as a sketch comic on Studio 60 didn’t get very far; will he have more luck impersonating a newsman on CNN? The news network will be getting into the comedy-news game with a weekly show headlining Hughley (S60’s Simon), to debut at 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 25. Some snippets from a Variety article about the show:

“‘D.L. is a very thoughtful, well-informed guy with unpredictable views, and I’ve always admired his comedy,’ said CNN/U.S. prexy Jon Klein. ‘The basic premise of the show is, what if a guy like him was let loose in the CNN building for a weekend after the lights went off?’”

Klein outlines how Hughley’s show will be different from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report: “Daily and Colbert are ‘fake newscasts, whereas this is really D.L.’s observations and comments on the week’s events and his riffs on the news,’ Klein said. “I’m a big fan of both of those shows,” Hughley said, “but I’ve got a different skill set. I’m not going to parody a news show or a news anchor. My show will reflect my views on things just as their shows reflect their views.” For instance, as Hughley continued, “There have been six movies with a black man as the president, and in all those movies, the world was coming to an end. If this election isn’t art imitating life, I don’t know what is.”

“The general idea is to have fun with the news, either in commenting on it or, more often, by talking to people who are making it. To that end, CNN’s global newsgathering operations will be key. ‘He’s got access to the full treasure trove of resources,’ Klein said. ‘We expect he’ll run amok a little.’”

“‘It’s like getting to drive my father’s Mercedes to school. I’d like to know what Jesse Jackson is going to do for a living if Obama is elected,’ Hughley said, adding that he would invite Jackson to appear. ‘I’d like to know what Sarah Palin is going to do if she doesn’t get elected. Ever notice that she does all the things a good waitress does when she wants better tips? You know, wink and smile.’ Politics will not be the only fodder for the show, Hughley emphasized. ‘In three weeks, 50% of the country is going to be angry. So we’ll be looking at a lot of other things, too,’ he said.”

Maybe Sorkin’s next project should be a TV show skewering comedy news shows. It’s like Sports Night, West Wing, and Studio 60 all rolled into one!