Watching Studio60

Well - not too many surprises last night.

Harriet was going to do a lingerie spread until Tom and Simon persuaded her that the main attraction was her reputation as an Uptight Religious Person, and in the end she decided not to go ahead. There was no interaction between Harriet and Matt this week, as Matt spent his time either obsessing about the show or trying to persuade the writers to stay on board.

The show ran 27 seconds short, and it was discovered that the script had been put out in half hour format instead of the correct format. This led to the discovery that Ricky and Ron were writing their own pilot based on Peripheral Man, which they had an Option to go to FOX with. NBS had until midnight to renew their option, which would prevent Ricky and Ron from leaving. After much talk and interaction, Matt tells them they can go, but that Peripheral man is bad and will fail, and he wont be able to take them back. At the end, Matt is left with two writers but seems convinced he will be OK.

Jordon tells Danny that he has to fire 15 people because of budget cuts, unless he agrees to some advertising on the show. After much back and forth, Cal comes up with a new set design, that looks like the Strip and has advertsing billboards as the back drop. This meets the need for advertising, and with the departure of most of the writers there is also no need to fire the 15 people.

Danny tells Jordon that Jack believes she is about to be fired, which would be the only reason her pregnancy was not brought into the plot line last night. I though it was obvious although she only wore one costume throughout. As the show spanned about an hour in real time this was not unrealistic, but I really hope they address the matter soon.

We had a wonderfully funny interaction between Simon, Tom and Harriet at the beginnig of the show, when she was changing to go to the party. For me the strength of this show is the witty fast-paced dialogue and the interaction of the characters. I am not a big fan of the half hour comedy shows on TV, preferring the hour long dramas, Friends being the only exception to this, and I have never seen an episode of SNL, so it is OK with me if they continue to focus on the characters and the dialogue between them, and the off stage lives and agonies, rather then the production of the actual show within the show.