Watching Studio60

We’re taking a second look at “The Disaster Show,” the seventeenth episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Following up on yesterday’s review, here’s a recap of the episode. Still to come: memorable lines from the episode, and five questions about it.

We get “previouslies” that encompass silly show moments from the entire season, snippets of sketches and backstage bantering ending with Danny telling Matt “We live here now” — kind of ironically, because it’s the last we’ll see of the two of them this episode. They live here now, but nowhere the camera’s actually at.

And then we’re into the flurry of getting this night’s episode going, with your guest host, Allison Janney. Cal’s reassuring her that everything will be fine, in sort of the same way Wes was reassuring Felicity Huffman that everything would be fine, right before he went nuts. Be warned: When there’s a former female lead of an Aaron Sorkin show in the house, chaos will reign.

This week’s particular chaos involves the propmaster’s union, members of which took offense when Danny said they were all replaceable and went on strike early, leaving the show to fend for itself. That’s bad enough, but it turns out the cue card guys are also part of the union, and also took offense, and now, as Cal says, “We’ve got ourselves a ball game.”

Allison’s not so sure she wants to play. She asks Cal for confirmation that the cue cards will be there, and he’s happy to provide it, as well as an earphone so he can talk to her from the booth when she’s onstage, for, you know, absolutely no reason at all. Good show!

Allison’s not the only one with problems. During the cold open, Harriet as Nancy Grace takes a drink of water from her mug and finds it to be something closer to grain alcohol. And backstage, Simon’s dealing with his girlfriend breaking up with him on the eve of a Hawaiian vacation with Tom and Lucy. Since being a third wheel’s unappealing, he heads to the Green Room to look for a replacement date. But he’s not a dog, no indeed.

Allison takes the stage for the monologue, and Cal lets her know, from his safe perch in the booth, that, well, no, the cue cards aren’t there after all. He tries to coach her through her monologue, which she blows spectacularly. Distracting Cal from his duty is Jack, who comes in with news of a bomb threat. And no, it’s not Allison threatening to blow Danny up, though you know she’d like to.

As we rejoin the show, prop wackiness ensues, as Allison is supposed to pull money from a wallet in a sketch but finds it to be empty. She ad libs, but looks dumb, again.

Also looking dumb is Harriet, who admits to Jeannie that Luke broke up with her, but declares she has no plans to resume with Matt. Harriet assures Jeannie that it’s perfectly fine if Jeannie wants to go out with Matt. Jeannie’s not buying it, which is good, because Harriet quickly chases her down to tell her not to go out with Matt. So indeed, she has learned nothing.

Nor has Simon, who’s still declaring he’s not a womanizer even as he trolls the Green Room for a woman to take to Hawaii. He finds Claire, a busty gal in a small red dress with whom he allegedly had a “great date.” She teases him for not calling, and he goes into an involved explanation about losing her number and trying every possible combination of prime numbers to find her. She’s taken in, and tells him to take her to Hawaii.

Cal’s called out of the booth to meet the bomb-sniffing dogs, who should have the place all checked out and deemed safe … by the end of the show. There’s no indication that it’s a credible threat, though, so the show must go on. And so must the disasters, as Allison follows her cue to get shot in a sketch but does so devoid of gunshot sounds or bursting blood squibs. Looks mostly as though she had a seizure, which doesn’t fit so well with the gangster theme. The cast is laughing at her, not with her, and Allison’s making a list, with Matt and Danny at the top, and Tom on there twice.

Harriet and Jeannie have another one of those conversations about Matt where anything Jeannie says is going to get her in trouble. And Simon finds Stephanie in his dressing room, apologizing for breaking up with him and asking to go to Hawaii, and gets himself in trouble by saying yes. Also in trouble is one Robbie Clarke, who called in the bomb threat from his cell phone and then left the phone behind in the studio — and, when called at his parents’ house to be told the phone was found, gladly agreed to come get it.

Simon gets his when he tells Claire the truth and receives a slap in the face. Then Lucy tells Stephanie the truth, and Simon gets slapped in the face for that. So, the score card: Simon’s gone from one date to zero dates to two dates to one date to zero dates in the course of one disaster show. Meanwhile, Harriet’s still debating dating Matt while the rest of the cast begs her to just do it already.

There’s just time for one more prop mishap, as Allison and Tom are in yet another sketch together, and the gunshot cues and squibs from the previous sketch go off at random. And speaking of looking stupid, Robbie Clarke, goofy bomb threat guy, turns up to collect his phone and is shocked that his false bomb claim is going to get him into serious trouble. No freelancing of disasters, buddy.

This disaster show’s over, finally, and no harm done, except maybe to Allison Janney’s nerves. She finally vents all her frustration during the goodnights, but Cal’s already turned her microphone off. He points out that, as classically bad as the show was, it still beats digging a ditch. And that may be so, but maybe if she could throw Danny and Cal and Matt and Tom into that ditch, it would be worth it.

Studio 60, NBC, The Disaster Show, recap