Watching Studio60

Wondering what that documentary on the Studio 60 DVD set is all about? If you haven’t got your own discs to pop in and see, spend 24 minutes with me here and I’ll give you a look. I’ll try to describe the general flow of the thing, the people and the scenes, with a few good quotes sprinkled in.

The documentary starts in a way that made me think my DVD player had messed up and I was coming in mid-show — we see the S60 set getting built from the ground up in fast-forward, and hear that although most TV-show sets fake a second story, this one really had an entirely functional second level. And just as I was starting to fiddle with the rewind, up came the letters:

In Depth: The Evolution of Studio 60

And now, following a couple of establishing scenes from the show, here’s Timothy Busfield, who the caption reminds us played Cal Shanly. He’s talking soft and talking fast, as if he didn’t want anybody to know he’s still speaking Sorkin-ese. He talks about how Aaron and Tommy really wanted a theater to shoot in, since there’s no romance to a movie set. Then, speaking of Tommy Schlamme, here he is.

Schlamme: I kept thinking about, this is a group of people who get together every week and put on a show. This is a group of people who get together every week and put on a show. And as I kept, that was the mantra, I went, “Well, isn’t that a theater experience?”

Carlos Barbosa, Set Designer, talks about the art deco look of the show’s “shell,” and then we’re back to Busfield, who’s, I guess, our host? He’s talking on the phone like we’re interrupting him. That’s okay, we’ll wait.

Okay, now he’s with us again and leading us backstage amongst a bunch of costumes, and sharing words of wisdom.

Busfield: Backstage is very important in the show. You’re going to see a lot of scenes in the backstage because, it’s backstage!

Cut to a clip of Matt walking down a hallway and bumping into Harriet. For a minute there, I thought Busfield was handing us off to Sarah Paulson so he could continue his phone call.

It’s the clip where Matt tells Harriet he’s taking over the show, and that they’re going to have to suspend their fight, except then they go on and have their fight, and keep having it, really, at regular intervals throughout the show’s remaining life. Very important, the fight. Because, it’s the fight!

Back to Busfield, who’s talking more about sets and things that are really cool. Like the car: “There might be a car sketch in the back of the cab.”

And sure enough, we’ve got Matt and Danny in the back of the cab in the scene from the pilot. Not, technically, a sketch, but cool, anyway.

Now we’re going up some stairs with our host, and he’s mentioning all sorts of stuff that’s showing history like a real theater would have. And also ways for the camera to follow people around in and out and everywhere like any Tommy Schlamme show would have.

Dennis Hall, Director of Photography, describes some fancy following shots, then we see one with Matt in his office, a singer onstage, and various staffers wandering different levels. I hope that’s not the shot that this poor guy is saying took like ten hours to shoot. It’s neat looking and all, but seriously, don’t these people have families at home?

Now we’re walking through some offices with Busfield, He’s showing the office that was Judd Hirsch’s and will now be Whitford and Perry’s, and talking about a camera, but I’m distracted by the presence of someone who must certainly be a stand-in for Jordan, ’cause she’s got the coat and hairdo. No mention of the hard-working stand-ins?

Busfield: Tommy likes to shoot pilots on 16 [millimeter cameras] because it’s good luck, I don’t know why. That’s what he likes to do.

And there’s the actual Matthew Perry, no stand-in required. “I remember him from ‘The Whole Ten Yards,’” snarks Busfield.

Moving deeper into the office sets, through “some secretary’s space” to the control room, where Cal works as director and where the show’s real director, Schlamme, stands now.

Busfield: This is Tommy Schlamme, the director. The guy’s got more Emmys than anybody has ever had. He’s certainly in the hall of fame. … It’s like if you were to look at all the California Angels out in the field right there it would be that many.

Cut to a scene of Cal doing his directing thing, with the line about being “sure that making it longer was the missing ingredient in making it funny.” (Peripheral Vision Man, that is.)

Real backstage again, with Busfield introducing us to Brad Whitford, whom we may remember from “‘Revenge of the Nerds 2,’ some of his best work right there.”

Cut to the scene of Danny and Jordan in the hotel room where she blackmails him a little into taking over the show. That hair, that coat …. geez, maybe that was Amanda Peet back there and not her stand-in, and Busfield just couldn’t think of a snarky way to introduce her. We have no reason to trust him and every reason not to — he works in television.

Back to where we began now, the door our host first walked through, so he can now take the opportunity to show us the prop room, and then wander on into the theater.

Schlamme’s working now, dealing with a scene on the stage where someone in a blond wig is getting fake-shot. More stand-in theater, by the looks of it.

Schlamme: I’m not thinking about how I stick out in the large sea of television shows that are out there. All I can do is do the best job that I know how to do right now and try to figure out what’s the best way to shoot this show with the material that I’ve read, and the actors that I have. That’s my job, not to reinvent the wheel. The wheel I think is really structured good, so I’m just figuring out how to put it on my car.

He goes on to talk about how, with The West Wing, the visual look was dictated by Aaron Sorkin’s writing (where is he, by the way?) and since it’s the same writer, some of the look will be the same, too.

And now, a scene with Steven Weber and Ed Asner about the FCC and the fine for an obscenity said in a news report. That wasn’t in the pilot, was it? I think everything else so far has been. This was from much further on. Hmmm.

Man, Asner’s good. I could go for a spin-off of this character just going around kicking ass and taking names.

Now we’re seeing the stage with Busfield.

Busfield: It’s already massive and huge, but it’s still only a shell of what it’s going to be.

Words to strike fear in the heart of NBC’s purse-string holders, no doubt.

The logo comes up, with “created by Aaron Sorkin,” and just when I think the doc’s over and Sorkin-less, boom! Here he is, talking a mile a minute, as the format switches to all talking heads, no tour-guide Busfield. Guess that phone call just couldn’t wait.

Sorkin talks about being a fan of Saturday Night Live, and thinking it would be fun to go behind the scenes and see the things we don’t usually get to see, just like on The West Wing. We’re seeing the writer’s table as he’s talking, in its early days when there was actually a writing staff.

There are a serious lot of Emmys behind Sorkin when he’s speaking. Were those part of the S60 set? I think so. But it looks like someone ran over to Schlamme’s house and picked up the Angels outfield.

Sorkin: Just the way on The West Wing, we were able to see, tell stories about our leaders where they weren’t either Machiavellian or dolts, they were genuinely good people, good at their jobs, trying to do well. I thought, is it possible that we can show people who work in Hollywood also as good people who are good at their jobs trying to do something good? It may be a slightly harder mountain to conquer, but we’re going to give it a shot.

Schlamme: It is about hard work, it’s not about the fun and games of living in Hollywood and the sort of romantic nature of what our lives are like. These are people who get up really early and work really late, and usually don’t go to bed, they’re going to live here in this environment which is our show.

Now Bradley Whitford gets his say. He wasn’t looking to do another drama or work with Sorkin and Schlamme, but he read the script, it was good, and he realized, “I didn’t act all my life so that I could stop acting.”

Matthew Perry is also happy about it, particularly the mix of drama and funny — “very serious people who take very seriously being funny.”

Sorkin says he’s writing more personally than before. He’s not a politician, but he does work in television and knows the pressure and success and failure.

Ah, there’s Amanda Peet, with the hair but without the coat. She loves Sorkin, and fell in love with the script.

And now D.L. Hughley, who has nice things to say about Sorkin and Schlamme — “Very few people in television would you classify as geniuses, ’cause if you’re a really good television writer chances are you don’t stay that long. But these cats are really, they’re geniuses.” — but not about the schedule — “Sixteen- and seventeen-hour days? It’s like, damn, I should have got a job at the post office, what is this?”

Cut to a scene in which Simon and Darius argue over the Fruit of the Loom sketch.

Sorkin says the show is inspired by SNL, but not a documentary.

What Sarah Paulson thinks is cool is that “there’s an infinite number of possibiities of where you can go with the show,” because of all the sketch characters and situations.

The show within the show is fascinating to Steven Weber, too, because it takes viewers into “the next dimension of television. It’s not just what you see on your TV screen, it’s on a TV screen on your TV screen. It’s very complicated.”

Adds Judd Hirsch, “We’re so behind the scenes we don’t know what’s real anymore.” He then says something about disappearing, which he doesn’t like, because it means he’s not on the show anymore. Bye!

Because here’s the scene where Jack fires you, and tells Jordan to have you escorted off the property.

Sorkin: I remember with Sports Night, people asking, I don’t understand, is this a drama or a comedy? The fact of the matter is, I don’t do either one well enough to only do one of them, so I have to do both.

Busfield: He uses comedy to get to the dramatic moments and he uses drama to get to the comedy moments.

Simon Helberg, who the captions tell me played Alex Dwyer, a character I barely remember, talks about how well Sorkin pays attention to character and relationships. This guy got a little stiffed on that, though, didn’t he?

Sorkin: I come from a theater background, and in theater nobody ever asks is it a drama or a comedy, just is it a musical or a non-musical. This is a non-musical.

Nate Torrence (Dylan), in a white wig, talks about playing a character who’s playing a character when he really is that character in real life. It’s insane!

Then follows a scene of him in that very wig doing a sketch, with Tom as the president.

And now, Nathan Corddry talks about how they were asked for character and sketch ideas. He’s glad they were open to suggestions.

Sorkin says it’s an ensemble show, and that they’re lucky that they got the cast they got.

Weber: Playing a network executive, I now understand how Anthony Hopkins felt when playing Hannibal Lecter. It’s an ugly, ugly, ugly place to exist.

There follows the scene with Jack asking Jordan if she has a thing for one of these guys, Matt and Danny, who she’s trying to get to take over the show. (Yes! In retrospect, she does!) “I’m not like every other heterosexual male in show business, Jordan. I don’t find you charming, and you’ve earned the loyalty of absolutely no one.”

Weber: People fear and loathe me, and I like that feeling, because I’m such a doormat in real life.

Then to Jack, saying, “So you go ahead and take your first steps, Jordan, make us all classy again. We’ve been waiting for ya.”

Perry’s excited to work with Whitford, they had good chemistry on The West Wing. Whitford thinks their characters are like Butch and Sundance.

Cue the scene on the beach where they’re fighting. Matt: “Are people looking at us right now?” Danny: “I think they are.” Matt: “Well, could you punch me in the face or something, because to the casual observer this appears a little homoerotic for my comfort.”

Paulson: You wait your whole career to have lines like this.

Like this scene where Matt’s chewing out the writers with “We’re going to act, dress, talk, write, and behave professionally,” only to have Harriet storm in and yell, “You are an adolescent, oversexed whoremonger with the sensitivity of a head of cabbage!” Matt: “And all of that will begin in just a few minutes.”

Paulson’s the luckiest actress in town, and she wants us to know that she knows it.

Tommy feels lucky, too, and would like that to come across in the show. And that leads us into a group of scenes —

+ A drunk Kim being dragged into Tom’s dressing room, where she says she wants him to take his pants off.

+ Cal, in an attempt to break open a coconut so he can use it to make fake snow, throws it against the writer’s table and breaks … the table.

+ At the awards dinner early in the pilot, Matt’s on Vicodin, and may have exeeded the recommended dosage.

+ Various scenes of characters laughing and hugging and sharing good fellowship, with music playing over the top.

And … credits!

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}

Studio 60, NBC, DVD, documentary