Watching Studio60

According to the More4 site, “4 a.m. Miracle” was the episode shown on Thursday in the U.K.; it originally aired in February 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 “4 a.m. Miracle” much earlier this year, it’s the one in which Matt, still rattled by Harriet’s smackdown of him in “The Harriet Dinner Part 2,” has a monumental case of writer’s block. It’s the one in which that struggle with writer’s block is interrupted by the arrival of a blonde lawyer who’s investigating a suit suggesting that a female Studio 60 writer was sexually harassed on the job (though not while Matt was actually working there). It’s the one in which Harriet was shooting Luke’s movie, and shooting, and shooting, and missing Studio 60 rehearsal time and Matt. And, most memorably and delightfully, it’s the one in which Jordan had a doll that was supposed to teach her how to handle an infant, and she allowed Danny to care for it for a little while, and they all learned the important lesson that you should never put a baby in a guillotine.

I spent most of this episode believing pretty firmly that the lawyer character was a figment of Matt’s imagination. I’ve always been kind of disappointed that she wasn’t. But she was, in fact, a real litigator who just happened to flirt with Matt like crazy, and she was something of a recurring character through the rest of the run of the show.

A run that was interrupted after this episode, actually. This was the last one to air before NBC tried out The Black Donnellys in its timeslot. The next episode, “The Disaster Show,” didn’t turn up until May.

Here’s a YouTube clip of the “4 a.m. Miracle” preview to remind you of the major plot points, and to never trust Cal to repair a broken baby.

Studio 60, NBC, 4 a.m. Miracle