Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip Guide, DVD

So what is the Media saying about the show (some spoilers may occur here)?

Matthew Perry as Matt Albie, Bradley Whitford as Danny Tripp — NBC Photo: Scott Garfield

July 28, 2007 - “Just a casualty of celebrity?” by Patrick Goldstein

“Sorkin insists that he’s not sore about the way things turned out. He’s moved on, with a new play premiering on Broadway this autumn and an adaptation of Charlie Wilson’s War, a Tom Hanks-starring Oscar-contender due at Christmas. He also has a new deal with DreamWorks to write three films, starting with The Trial of the Chicago 7, a project that could end up being directed by Steven Spielberg….

“‘I don’t know how to emphasise this enough that I’m not disappointed or upset with anyone but myself,’ Sorkin says over lunch, where he is repeatedly interrupted by fans wanting to share how much they enjoyed his work. ‘There are only two possible reasons for Studio 60 failing - it was either my fault or it was just one of those things. On some shows, you can make mistakes and still survive. But with this one, I made too many mistakes for it to survive.’”
(Editor’s Note: There is a lot in this article, we recommend that you check out the whole thing.)

June 30, 2007 - E! Online: Sketchy Comedy: Say Goodbye to Studio 60 had this to say,

“…we’re gonna miss Studio 60, which tried to be about something more than ‘filling the space between commercials’….

“Unfortunately, Studio 60 came off as condescending, humorless and unrealistic. Sorkin’s television masterpiece, The West Wing, could be those things, too, but it was also brilliant, inspiring and substantial enough to overcome those deficiencies….

“We hate metaphors, but let’s use one anyway: You couldn’t find a better demonstration of the show’s failings than the writers’ room at the show within a show. Instead of filling that space with a variety of smart, funny, competing voices, it sat in the basement, lonely and underused, rendered superfluous by the one-man show that was Matt Albie/Aaron Sorkin, writing from on high.

“So, here’s the punchline: Despite all that, we’re gonna miss you, Studio 60.”

February 20, 2007 - The San Francisco Chronicle’s Tim Goodman on what he calls the reasons for Sorkin’s “creative misstep” with Studio 60:

• “The premise wasn’t so much flawed as doomed. It turns out that most Americans didn’t care at all about the career woes and personal crises of pampered Hollywood writers. An inside baseball show about the TV industry, apparently, does not have the same gravitas as the presidential politics of ‘The West Wing,’ where Sorkin’s rapid-fire dialogue, smart speeches and finely tuned dramatic timbre worked especially well.”
• “It was a drama about a comedy show but the skits weren’t funny. In fact, much of the show was decidedly unfunny.”
• “The cast was a bad fit. Aside from Matthew Perry (who was a wonderful surprise) and Timothy Busfield (who was underused), not much else worked. Sarah Paulson and D.L. Hughley were not funny in this series playing comics. Nate Corddry is funny in real life and was funny on the show, but his part, like Busfield’s, was too small. Had Amanda Peet, as the fictional network president, flipped roles with Paulson, it would have been a major improvement. Bradley Whitford is a wonderful actor but he at first seemed to be rejiggering his ‘West Wing’ role, then his character became periodically unlikable or annoying. Either way, it’s not the mix you want.”

Goodman goes on to say:
“Steven Weber went from bellicose chairman of the network (which didn’t work) to beleaguered chairman of the network (which did, and he became funny while everyone around him went dour by apparent accident.)
“This could mean but two things:
“Sorkin was tone deaf to the problems. Or, more likely:
“This was a bad fit for his talents. He aimed for something and missed. No home run. No hit. It happens.”

January 29, 2007 - Sorkin defends ‘Studio 60′:

“Aaron Sorkin isn’t happy with… bloggers, comedy writers, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous other people and groups who have written unflattering things about ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.’…
“He complains about bloggers and message board posters, which has been a recurring theme on both ‘The West Wing’ and here: ‘I do believe we’ve seen an enormous rise of amateurism. The thing I find troubling about the Internet, as great a resource tool as it is, great for communications as it is, and that everybody has a voice — the thing is, everybody’s voice oughtn’t be equal….’
“He argues that no show is universal in its appeal, and ‘what’s unusual about ‘Studio 60′ is that the people who don’t like it are extremely vocal about it. There’ve got to be people who don’t like ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ They just don’t write letters about it. They don’t make entire Web sites about it. And I can tell you this: For a group of people who don’t like the show, they certainly watch it obsessively and can quote every line of it….’
” Though at one point he says, “if enough people tell you one thing, it’s got to be a little bit true,” Sorkin doesn’t intend to change the show to accommodate his many critics.”

December 11, 2006 - IMDB’s Movie TV News for 6 December 2006 reported a reaction to NBC’s decision to order the rest of the episodes for the season:

“Townhall.com, a website operated by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, has blasted NBC’s decision to renew Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Sorkin, it said Tuesday, ‘will get to continue his anti-Christianity themed show despite low ratings.’ The website accused Sorkin not only of pushing ‘his radical agenda on television,’ but of using his wealth to fund liberal causes and political candidates.

December 10, 2006 - Defamer.com has a Flow Chart of who is likely to be a fan of Studio 60.

It suggests that the most likely fans are those in the Entertainment Industry.

December 2, 2006 - “jayseyfield” posted at the Television Without Pity Studio 60 Forum

MAD TV did a hilarious parody of this show. They really worked on this one!
I’ll do a brief recap;

• A mock promo introduces a new show from Aaron Sorkin, creator of the West Wing and Studio 60 called Studio 69 on Van Nuys Boulevard, a behind the scenes look at a porno studio.
• The director of the porn shoot named Marty (I guess a parody of Matt) basically walks around the studio doing the classic Sorkin walk-and-talk with various characters of the studio, one of the porn actresses dismisses his fussiness saying “it’s just porn” and he sarcastically repeats how “just porn” and how “his brother is just IN THE MIDDLE OF AFGHANISTAN”.
• A porn actress (who unfortunately doesen’t look like Harriet) asks Marty the director if she can lead the prayer circle.
• Marty talks to a Ron Jermey look-alike and then he goes on a long Sorkinese diatribe about how there’s a woman counting on them because she works at a tire factory who comes home to three kids, no health insurance and she has a husband with an engorged penis who needs to get off so she can get some sleep.
• The best part: a woman, who seems to be a fauxSuzanne the P.A., goes on a long Sorkinese diatribe about how the power went out in Bellvue, Illinois, and how Bellvue is the location of Kings Air Force Base and if the cadets don’t see the porn they won’t be able to get their rocks off and this will compromise national security.
• The actress in that scene was ridiculously funny with her dead-on imitation of an actor reading “Sorkin” dialogue.
• they do the countdown clock, the show everyone getting ready, the audience applauds like crazy, they do the porn shoot, the shoot goes well and afterwords fauxSuzanne the P.A congratulates the director for making America safer by explaning how the power came back on in Bellvue so the cadets were able to…. relive their tension…… and somehow capture a suicide bomber on his way to the capital. Marty the porn director self-importantly replies “just doin’ my job” and tells everyone not to relax since they have another show next week and how “Rob Reiner is guesting” (remember it’s a porn show).
• It ends on a black screen with the words:
  “Written by Aaron Sorkin“
  with no help from any other writer.

Obviously my words can’t do it justice, you had to have to seen it to understand how funny it was.

November 21, 2006 — Matt Roush — TV Guide — Can These Shows Be Fixed?

“Though much about Studio 60 dazzles, the stimulating behind-the-scenes antics of putting on a late-night comedy show has taken a backseat lately to Sorkin’s grandstanding about the culture (and culture wars) at large, which certainly aims high but is far less entertaining.”

November 9, 2006 — “�Studio 60� doesn’t take comedy seriously: Show’s flailing by focusing on issues, not craziness of the writers’ room”

“These people have a passion that consumes their lives, and it is nowhere to be found on the show being written about them. The problem isn’t the characters on ‘Studio 60′ care too much about comedy; it’s that they work on a comedy show and rarely even discuss comedy except in political contexts.

“The show has been criticized for pretending the stakes could really be as high on an ‘SNL’-style show as they are in the White House, which is clearly nonsense. The stakes are enormously high for creative people, who drink, cut their own ears off, and go mad because they want so badly to be brilliant.”

November 3, 2006 — “dramaqueen1960″ posted this in SunsetTalk, one of the Yahoo Groups discussing “Studio 60″, (which isn’t really media but this description seems to encapsulate what a large section of the fans on the forums and listservs are saying):

“S60 is more like the overly bright young adolescent who is so smug in his intellect that he doesn’t recognize how socially awkward he is & how his persona grates on those around him - leading to near isolation (i.e. continually declining ratings).”

October 27, 2006 TV Guide’s Ask Matt:

Question: “Why is it that everyone thinks Studio 60 doesn’t work? The same people who thought The West Wing was idealistic and hopeful find Studio 60 pretentious and self-important. Television is supposed to be a commentary of the times we live in, whether set in the forum of a hospital, law firm, family home, government office or television studio. I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve watched that have tried to make a statement about something, whether it be breast-cancer awareness, drug abuse or reality TV. If there’s one thing that folks enjoyed about The West Wing it was the idealism of our nation’s highest office. Why can’t the same concept apply to a television studio? This is precisely the kind of show I want to see: witty dialogue acted out by a superb cast with great chemistry making social statements that aren’t usually expressed in your average scripted program. If Josiah Bartlet were the president we wished we could vote for, why can’t NBS and Studio 60 be the television station and show we wish we could watch? This is the only new show this season that is appointment TV for me, and I’m heartbroken at the thought of cancellation. It’s the only show that doesn’t make me feel like I dropped 20 IQ points by watching.”� Michelle

Matt Roush: “I’m having my own love-hate issues with the show these days, and much of it has to do with what I feel is the patronizing tone of the writing. In the wrap-party episode, that would include the hateful depiction of the clueless bimbos who couldn’t comprehend what a ‘writer’ like Matt does, and the remarkable assumption by Aaron Sorkin that Tom’s parents from Columbus, Ohio, had never heard of Abbott and Costello or ‘Who’s on First?’ (I suppose Ed Sullivan was a nobody to them, too, in the day.) Yes, the show is smart � maybe too smart for its own good. I enjoy much about it, but I can’t really argue against criticism like this, from Laura:

“‘I really want to like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I really do. I love all the actors in it, and I usually like Aaron Sorkin for the most part. But there is something about this show that just seems so off-putting. That’s why the numbers are dropping. And it has everything to do with Aaron Sorkin. Self-indulgent and condescending are the two words that come to mind. I’m a reasonably intelligent, college-educated (go, Hoosiers!), well-read adult and a lover of all things media-related. I like to have my mind engaged as much as entertained by a show. But this one makes me feel stupid. I feel like I’m missing the joke because I’m unfamiliar with August Strindberg’s plays, or I don’t know the tiny details of the Hollywood blacklist. I agree that a lot of TV underestimates the intelligence of the audience. But in a way it seems that Sorkin is doing the same thing. The constant reliance on hip and obscure references seems to be his way of saying, ‘This is smart TV, just in case you’re too dumb to recognize it.’ And the need to include all sorts of things to advertise how smart the show is just makes the whole series seem disjointed, like there is no real purpose to any story lines, until it is summed up with some trite little moment, like the blacklisted writer talking about how he wrote to impress a girl, cut to Matt’s face and his recognition of the similarities between then and now. As if that point hadn’t already been made by the observation that the network didn’t like political humor back then. Sorkin needs to trust his audience to recognize smart and well-written scripts without all the fancy talk, and he needs to trust that his characters are interesting enough to engage viewers because of how they react in the situations he has created for them. Because nobody, regardless of their education level, likes to be called stupid.”

“Finally, to show you the range of passions that Studio 60 somehow inspires, here’s a tribute from Barbara, a high-school librarian from Richmond, Virginia: ‘In a world of television schlock, I would like to commend this week’s episode of Studio 60. It deserves a Peabody Award for its portrayal of common decency and hope. The dual story lines: Timothy Busfield exhibiting kindness and patience with the Eli Wallach character (and Wallach deserves an Emmy), slowly eliciting the truth about an era we should be all too uncomfortable with; and the Cinderella story of a kid who isn’t a comedian, but is, instead, a comic writer. Simon got to ‘give some back,’ as well as underscore the need for black writers. I hope Studio 60 makes it, that NBC will give it time to build an audience. But I think ‘The Wrap Party’ is a stand-alone, a set piece. I’d buy it in a minute for our high-school video collection.’”

September 30, 2006 - Sorkin indulges his musical passion

“Fans of NBC’s ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip’ got a crash course in 19th century musical theater Monday night.

“The second airing of ‘Studio 60,’ writer-producer Aaron Sorkin’s satire about a comedy show a la ‘Saturday Night Live,’ closed with a parody of ‘The Major-General’s Song’ from Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1879 operetta ‘The Pirates of Penzance.

“Sorkin is a self-professed G&S fan and made characters in his White House drama ‘The West Wing’ surreally conversant with their work. But the lavish production number at the end of this week’s ‘Studio 60′ seems to have flown over the heads even of some fans. That would include one poster on the Internet fan site Television Without Pity, who was perplexed by Sorkin’s tribute to ‘Rodgers & Hammerstein.’

“Sorkin’s colleagues are trying to indulge his passion. When asked at a Monday night panel at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood about the biggest challenge in staging the number, director and longtime Sorkin partner Thomas Schlamme paused slightly.

“‘I would have to say listening to Gilbert and Sullivan for two months,’ he replied.”

September 19, 2006 - Sorkin’s ‘Studio 60′ Offers Politics of a Different Sort by By John Crook, Zap2it

“‘At its heart, ‘Studio 60′ is the same thing that ‘The West Wing’ was at its heart,’ Sorkin says. ‘It’s about a group of people committed to professionalism, committed to each other, to what they’re doing, and hopefully we enjoy watching them every week.

“‘But as political issues came up on ‘The West Wing,’ I think that ‘Studio 60′ is tooled up to deal with issues of the culture wars in an interesting way, because certainly television in general and a sketch comedy show like this in particular would have a front-row seat for that kind of thing.’”

September 18, 2006 - N.Y. Times: Pitting Their Idealism Against Show Business

” But what most distinguishes �Studio 60� is that it is as romantic about television as �The West Wing� was about politics. Mr. Sorkin has created a world where some things actually are as they seem, and even untrustworthy people have hidden valor. And he has taken two of the most easily caricatured female archetypes, an evangelical Christian entertainer and a sexy network executive, and made them as richly textured and captivating as the two male leads, maybe a little more so….

�’Studio 60 is a polemic about television as a cultural wasteland at the very moment the industry is entering a new golden age.

There is a lot more television than ever before, much of it bad, but it is hard to remember a time when there were so many good shows pushing up against the worst. Dramas especially, whether on cable or on broadcast networks, have never been as beautifully or thoughtfully made; few Hollywood movies come close. And �Studio 60� serves as exhibit A: it is gorgeously filmed, with the kind of long, sweeping tracking shots that used to be associated with Martin Scorsese and are now more often cited as a trademark of Thomas Schlamme, an award-winning director of ‘The West Wing.’

“When ‘The West Wing’ began in 1999, it was notable for its sparkling repartee, dense dialogue and erudite references. Now there are other shows that aim as high. On a recent episode of ‘House,’ a doctor argues that titanium can�t break into pieces, and Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) mutters, ‘Tell that to the guys on the Kursk,’ referring to the Russian submarine with a titanium hull that sank in 2000.

“The dialogue on ‘Studio 60′ has a slower, more stately pace than the ‘West Wing’ banter, which is also surprising: the best comedy writers in Hollywood turn out to be not nearly as quick-witted and screwball as campaign managers and policy advisers in Washington.

“It doesn�t matter. The characters fill and lift the show… Matt and Danny share the kind of unswerving loyalty viewers have come to expect from the creators of ‘The West Wing.’”

September 14, 2006 - “‘Studio’ Musician” from the Jewish Exponent

“Sorkin himself has always been a student of psychological satire and its give-and-take, taking the emotional and thrusting it inside out, playing his writer’s role as a network wizard of id….

“‘At its heart,’ says its heartfelt exec producer/creator, ” ‘Studio 60′ is the same thing that ‘The West Wing’ was at its heart and the same thing ‘Sports Night’ before that was at its heart. It’s about a group of people committed to professionalism, committed to each other, committed to what they’re doing, and, hopefully, we enjoy watching them every week.’

“…And what would a prodigious prodigy be without a good back story? Way back before Sorkin’s days at Syracuse University and his initial attempt at playwriting (”Removing All Doubt“), there were those who never had a doubt in the young actor/writer’s playbook.”

September 10, 2006

Scans of the print version of the Entertainment Weekly article

September 2006
Entertainment Weekly: “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”

“this is their chance to trumpet the ideal of art over commerce…. NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly recalls that when he read the script, ”I laughed…. Ultimately, this is Aaron’s love of the medium. It’s a tough-love statement.’

Studio 60’s show-within-a-show is introduced as a once-biting, now toothless showcase for tired recurring characters and obvious potshots at the president. Everyone involved, though, is quick to say it’s not based on any one program. ‘It follows the [Saturday Night Live] model, but SNL exists in the world of the show,” says Sorkin. ”The characters, like us, have a great deal of respect for SNL.’”

August 27, 2006

Newsweek - ‘West Wing’ creator Aaron Sorkin rides again with the terrific TV drama ‘Studio 60.’ (includes clip)

“‘Studio 60′ takes place behind the scenes at a show like ‘Saturday Night Live,’ only glitzier. The set looks like an art deco palace, with marbleized walls and Ert�-like nudes�some joker put a red G-string on the big one in the foyer�surrounding a 150-seat studio. It’s twice the size of the “West Wing” White House, and real enough to fool the pros…. ‘Studio 60′ is�here comes the preview hype�by far the smartest show of the season.”

August 17, 2006: TV Promo Season Goes Into Overdrive
by Wayne Friedman, Thursday, Aug 17, 2006

NBC walks right down the middle in offering up a simple sales line for Aaron Sorkin’s “Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip”: “The stars are about to collide.”

The double entendre works. First, there are the stars in the fictional world of the show, which is about a sketch comedy program in the vein of “Saturday Night Live.” Then, there are the really big stars acting in this series–Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, D.L. Hughley, Steven Weber, and Timothy Busfield.

A voiceover in the TV promo adds this: “The creator of ‘The West Wing’ is about to do to TV… what he did to the White House!”

That’s hard to beat, marketing-wise. One has to least give the show a look–and that’s all the marketing folks need at NBC. The rest is up to Aaron Sorkin, the creator of “The West Wing.” Maybe viewers don’t know his name–exactly–but they surely know the brand, “The West Wing.”