Watching Studio60

We’re taking a second look at “The Long Lead Story,” the fifth episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which originally aired on October 16, 2006. Following up on yesterday’s review, here’s a recap of the episode. Tune in later in the week for memorable lines and five questions.

Matt’s trying to write, and he’s eating it. The fact that Martha O’Dell is watching him, reporter’s pad at the ready, does not help. She knows it, too, and is perfectly willing to encourage him in procrastination by bantering. And if he wanted to spill about his relationship with Harriet (the bat she gave him is still right there on his desk, by the way), Martha’d be happy to hear about that, too. Matt bets $100 she won’t get him to discuss his love life, but I think we all know that money’s good as gone.

As Matt’s inevitably thinking of Harriet, Danny’s meeting with Jordan at … a bar, probably not the optimum place for a recovering addict to be hanging out. He’s on his way from an AA meeting to the office, and she’s waylaid him to ask a favor: Talk a playwright who’ll listen to him into selling a show to NBS. The playwright, being no dummy, thinks pay cable’s the place for something smart and literate, but Jordan’s dreaming a big dream of making her network all classy again. Danny’s not buying it, though.

Back at the theater, they’re running through a sketch in which Harriet plays Nancy Grace getting to the bottom of the story of a lost cell phone. Cal is working out the technical demands of the sketch, including filling the screen with CNN clutter and doing green-screen in an area where other sets are located. Afterwards, Harriet has technical difficulties with escaping Martha O’Dell’s scrutiny, since Martha is determined to get an interview with her.

There’s no escaping it, and Martha gets Harriet to open up about her background, her churchgoing mother and drunk dad and seven brothers, how she came to Christ and to comedy. When it comes to Matt, though, and whether it’s a coincidence that the guy hardly got a sketch on the air before he started writing for Harriet, and they became stars together, Harriet sidesteps the question. But we know the answer, don’t we.

The question before Jordan and Jack is, “Are you willing to put a vile, slimy reality show on your air if it’s clear that it will make you big shiny piles of money?” Jack’s answer is an enthusiastic “You bet!” but Jordan — who’s trying to lure classy playwrights to NBS and gain Danny’s respect — is more, “You gotta be kidding.” Jack tells Jordan that she is so going to bid on the show, “Search and Destroy,” in which engaged couples will be subjected to public scrutiny and private investigation until all but one is buried under the dug dirt. Jordan points out that her contract says she doesn’t have to, unless Wilson White makes her. And Jack’s all, “Fine then! Let’s meet with him!” And we’re all, “Yay! Ed Asner’s coming back!”

That’s a problem for Jordan, though, since she won’t be able to watch the start of Studio 60 with the playwright she’s wooing. She also won’t be seeing sketches like this one, “Jenny Doesn’t Have a Baby,” with guest host Lauren Graham, Harriet, and Jeannie. It’s getting cut anyway, though, because as Tom is thanking the rehearsal audience and describing the “Friday night slaughter” of sketches that didn’t work or fit, Matt and Danny are doing just that.

Suzanne wishes she could cut the conversation she had with Martha O’Dell, in which she shared the story about Matt getting a stiletto boot signed by a Bombshell Baby to make Harriet jealous. It seemed like a cute tale to tell right up to the point when Suzanne realized she was telling it to the worst possible person. She appeals to Tom to fix it for her, and Tom then goes right ahead and makes it worse, confirming the story to Martha in the form of asking her to say that he told in instead of Suzanne. When Simon shows up for his interview, Tom tries to clue him in quietly to the damage that’s already been done to the Matt-Harriet secrecy plan. Simon asks whether other stories — like the national anthem, the 700 Club, and Jeannie — have also been spilled, but forgets that he has a mike on and Martha has headphones, so in fact, he just went right ahead and spilled them. With friends like these …

Danny, out of friendship for Matt, wants to set him up with an FHM cover girl at the wrap party, but Matt points out that Danny doesn’t really have much call to matchmake, being that he has a couple of divorces under his belt and no girlfriend at present. His girlfriend in the future is having her meeting with Wilson White, who goes on for a bit about his Macau project before asking Jack and Jordan to cut to the chase. They make their cases for and against the rancid reality show, and then White, in his smooth and inscrutable sort of way, he backs Jordan and takes off, leaving Jack grumbling and most likely holding a grudge.

His look of muffled anger is fairly similar to Harriet’s when, as she preps for News 60 with Simon and “Nicolas Cage: Couples Counselor” plays onstage, her co-anchor just happens to mention that, you know, that thing she considers a personal life? He and Tom kind of accidentally revealed it all to Martha O’Dell.

Martha’s off to the Real World, but before she forsakes show business for politics, she manages to get Matt to ‘fess up that there was no coincidence about it: He was writing to impress Harriet, and that’s why his career took off. Kiss that $100 goodbye. Danny’s impressed by Jordan, when he finds out from Cal that she passed on the reality show, so he goes to impress her a little by getting the playwright to sign on with NBS. Aww. He respects her. And it’s only a matter of time before he’ll be stalking her.

All that’s in the future, though. Right now, Sting is playing Fields of Gold, Matt’s watching from his balcony, and as we look up at him, camera drawing closer, Harriet walks out and joins him, all dolled up for a sketch called “Society Gal Car Wash.” For a few moments, with Martha O’Dell-fueled memories hanging heavily in the air and Sting singing so romantically below, it seems impossible that they will not kiss and make up, but, the moment passes, and Harriet’s off to act and date Darren Wells, and Matt looks like perhaps throwing himself off that balcony would be less painful.

Studio 60, NBC, The Long Lead Story, recap