Watching Studio60

We’re taking a second look at “Nevada Day Part I,” the seventh episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which originally aired on November 6, 2006. Following up on yesterday’s review, here’s a recap of the episode. Tune in over the next couple of days for memorable lines and five questions.

Twangy guitars let us know right away that we’re not in L.A. anymore. Nope, we’re hanging around a police station in Pahrump, Nevada, with an unlikely gang of outlaws. There’s Tom, in a shepherd outfit and handcuffs. Simon, looking agitated. Jack Rudolph, looking like a shark being restrained in a very small tank. Danny, killing time. And a father and daughter who we will later learn are a bigwig from Macau and his daughter, who’s a viola player at Juillard, a translater for her father, and, like, a total Tom Jeter fan.

What are they all doing on this dusty byway? Waiting for John Goodman, or rather, the authority he’s playing, Judge Bebe, a guy who knows how to tweak out-of-staters who feel like they’re better than everybody else. He toys with the gang for a bit, makes them think he’s a stupid redneck, then a guy who’s going to throw the book at the lot of them. The judge is not interested in the NBS lawyer’s motions or Simon’s declarations that the jacket Tom was wearing is his and so is the joint in the pocket. No, what the judge really wants is to hear Tom’s story. And so, Tom begins to tell it, and we flash back …

… to Harriet, having a pretty bad day herself as a quote of hers hits gossip columns. People like to bait the religious girl, as Tom says, and in this case they asked her about gay marriage. And she said “the Bible says it’s a sin. It also says, ‘Judge not lest ye be judged,’ and that it was something for smarter people than me to decide.” The press, of course, left off the second sentence, and left her calling gay people sinners. And that’s getting her grief from Matt now, and angry fans later.

There’s a non-angry fan in Jack’s office, a viola-playing Tom Jeter fan, and all Jack needs to do is introduce the two of them to make her father more amenable to Wilson White’s business advances. Jack’s fairly incredulous that of all the stars around, Tom Jeter’s the one this girl wants to meet, but sure, fine, no problem, how hard could it be? From the flash-forward at the beginning of the episode, we know it’s going to be pretty hard.

Matt’s having a pretty hard time coming up with the kind of sketch everybody’s going to be talking about Monday morning. But that’s why he needs Danny around. Danny tells him about some Standards and Practices mandate about using the Lord’s name in vain that gets him all riled up, and in ranting against it, he comes up with the kernel of a sketch that involves Jesus Christ as the head of Standards and Practices. And this is how Tom winds up in a shepherd’s costume.

Before he suits up, though, Tom’s out with the cast at a diner, going over the early version of Matt’s Standards and Practices sketch. Harriet feels Matt’s aim is not so much to stick it to Standards as to stick it to her, and she heads out, followed by Tom. On the sidewalk, they’re confronted by a trio of men unhappy with Harriet’s gossip-column quote. Harriet tries to explain, Tom tries to get them to back off, and Simon, showing up shortly afterward, tries to get his friends in the car. Tom pushes one guy, who falls over a hedge, and Simon pushes Tom in the getaway car.

So what’s more unlikely here: Tom Jeter as the heartthrob for a teenage girl, or Tom Jeter as a guy accused of assault? That’s what the police come and get him for the next day, but not until after he’s donned that shepherd’s garb for a run-through of the sketch in which he plays Jesus H. Christ, new vice-president of Standards and Practices. And not until after he’s become chilly enough in that robe that he needs to borrow Simon’s jacket.

The police assure him the arrest is only a formality, they know how frivolous the charges are, he’ll pay his bail and be outta there in no time. But as it turns out, it’s not that simple. Seems Tom blew off a speeding ticket in Nevada a while ago, and the police station computer turns it up, and he’s ordered to be extradited there. And while in the Pahrump police station, awaiting resolution of that offense, Tom makes friends with a basset hound who turns out to be trained in the sniffing out of drugs, like that joint in the pocket of Simon’s jacket.

That leaves Tom stuck in Nevada over the weekend, since Friday is Nevada Day and no judge is available. And that’s a problem for more than just our humble shepherd. It’s a problem for the show, since they’re live Friday night without a major cast member. And it’s a problem for Jack, since he’s promised Kim, the viola playing teen, that she’s about to meet Tom Jeter, unaware that Tom Jeter’s in a holding cell in Pahrump.

Darius and Simon break the news to Danny, Danny breaks the news to Jordan, Jordan breaks the news to Jack, Jack tries to break the news to Kim, but Kim’s got Daddy wrapped around her little finger, and Daddy thinks that as long as the company jet is taking them to New York and then China, it can just as well make a stop in Nevada.

And so, to Pahrump they a-go, Jack and the Chinese, Danny and Simon, and an NBS lawyer. Along the way, as Jordan predicted, Jack tells Danny to cut the Standards and Practices sketch. Danny quickly agrees, apparently forgetting that Jordan told him to fight a little before taking a dive. Jack smells a rat, and Danny apologizes for not fighting harder, letting it slip that Jordan wanted to give Jack a win — which, of course, causes Jack to insist Danny keep the sketch in. Gosh, do you suppose Danny will go five rounds on that one now and let Jack win? He’s sure acting determined to cut the sketch.

Danny gets worried, though, when Jack starts talking about Jordan getting cut from the NBS payroll. Jack claims he likes Jordan and has been standing up for her, but the NBS corporate parents feel that she’s embarrassing them. He lists all the wrong steps that Jordan’s made, including getting too chummy with the talent. Funny, that’s just what Danny likes about her.

The talent’s not too chummy with each other when Matt comes by Harriet’s dressing room to let her know that the “cast of a Fellini film is on a Gulfstream jet headed to Pahrump, Nevada,” and to ask her why on earth she didn’t mention the incident to him when it happened. She reminds him he had just attacked her for the newspaper quote himself, and they have their own little skirmish about the culture wars. She’s still needed to come to his office and help prepare an alternative show, in case Tom doesn’t make it back and Simon’s charged.

We end the story as we began it, with the NBS rescue squad cooling their heels in the Pahrump police station, with Simon trying to get it on the record that the joint is his, with Tom aware that he would probably be better off if everybody would just shut up and go home. How will this domino tale eventually fall? We’ll have to wait for next week to find out, ’cause it’s a two-parter.

Studio 60, NBC, Nevada Day Part I, recap