Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

[TurnedTheCorner]

I think part of the problem is that while Studio 60 has the same air of self importance as the West Wing (and I love that quality about Sorkin's writing), the West Wing involved world poilcy decisions and leading the free world. Studio 60 involves writing punchlines and after parties. It's hard to take a show seriously that takes itself so seriously, given the subject matter.

My two cents. Love the show, hope the cancellation is postponed or that it miraculously finds an audience somehow.

[Sample00]

*&^%$#@#$%^&*

and thats all I am gonna say about that.

damn networks!

[Jagger]

^^^ What Sample said:

As soon as it was announced the show was missing a week I turned to my wife and said, "Well that's that then."

Not surprised in the least if this happens, given the way networks operate nowadays. Hugely disappointing though as it is/was one of the few quality programs on the air imo. Sure, as Jiri said, it is not up to the quality of Sportsnight or The West Wing but it is still better than most anything else out there.

Hopefully there is a change of heart and it's given a chance but I highly doubt that that will happen.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

I think part of the problem is that while Studio 60 has the same air of self importance as the West Wing (and I love that quality about Sorkin's writing), the West Wing involved world poilcy decisions and leading the free world. Studio 60 involves writing punchlines and after parties. It's hard to take a show seriously that takes itself so seriously, given the subject matter.

My two cents. Love the show, hope the cancellation is postponed or that it miraculously finds an audience somehow.

It might be more interesting if they did a reality show. A documentary showing the weekly behind-the-scenes making of SNL.

[Bobblehead]

I wish a new model of distribution could be developed specifically for shows like this - an incubator of sorts. A show could run for a while and be allowed to grow ti's audience.

The shows that seemed to develop slowly seem to have the best long term success. Shows that hit it big right out of the gat sometimes have trouble measuring up to their early success.

Did anyone download Global Frequency when it was leaked to bittorrent? The looked like it had potential, but never even made it to the gate.

[mykalberta]

Have to agree with Canoe's writeup, Perry was awesome - the rest were ok. Amanda was Amanda, I thought the show really started to take off after the UnitedNations thing, but its worse episode was the one where they redid the show 3 times - did we really need to see that in the first season.

Sting playing the string flute or whatever that was was pretty good though.

MYK

[fanforever1986]

The show better at least finish off the season...why don't americans like anything of quality? Arrested development was the same way...too smart for the average TV viewer I guess. They'd much rather watch those 2 white trash bounty hunters on A&E.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by fanforever1986

The show better at least finish off the season...why don't americans like anything of quality? Arrested development was the same way...too smart for the average TV viewer I guess. They'd much rather watch those 2 white trash bounty hunters on A&E.

Aught have more of the Deal or No Deal. Can't git me enough of that Howie.



(If I could have written that in crayon, I would have)

[Hakan]

What exactly was quality about this show?

The premise is very good I'll give it that but that only gives it promise. Delivery is in writing good episodes. The pilot was spot on, a great episode of TV. Everything since has been rather uninspiring. There's a boring and forced love story, a muddled conflict between two boses, and then just the regularities of writing a live show every week. That was basically the last 5 episodes. There were no inspiring instances of social commentary. No season long narrative developed. No redeeming conflict within the studio except for a scantly developed conflict between writers that received less than 10 mins per episode. I'm sorry, this is bad TV disguised as something good. If you go through the stories you will see that.

[Cerebral]

Keep in mind the network has already ordered 13 episodes of Studio 60. It could very well shutdown after that (if it does, I'm hoping they at least try and "end" the series on Episode 13) but we will at least get that many episodes. Likewise, while Studio 60's ratings aren't very good, the show still does attract the "high class" viewers that networks love watching their shows.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Hakan

What exactly was quality about this show?

The premise is very good I'll give it that but that only gives it promise. Delivery is in writing good episodes. The pilot was spot on, a great episode of TV. Everything since has been rather uninspiring. There's a boring and forced love story, a muddled conflict between two boses, and then just the regularities of writing a live show every week. That was basically the last 5 episodes. There were no inspiring instances of social commentary. No season long narrative developed. No redeeming conflict within the studio except for a scantly developed conflict between writers that received less than 10 mins per episode. I'm sorry, this is bad TV disguised as something good. If you go through the stories you will see that.

Haven't you been hit over the head by the discussion about the power of the religious right? The decline of quality TV? Black v White cultural humour? Tabloid journalism? McCarthyism?

I don't mind a show that is willing to take it's time, a show that you can't look at the clock and know that since it is 20 minutes before the end, the plot will wrap up neatly now.

I'm sure many people won't like it, and that's OK, but I am getting annoyed when I think of all the good shows I liked only to see them cancelled well before they had a real chance.

[Bobblehead]

Perhaps the reports of the demise of this show were a bit premature.

Now, NBC has refuted that story, saying the show is still profitable and that the network will give it at least a little while longer. Media Daily News says NBC is frustrated by the decline of Studio 60's ratings, but that the show brings in affluent viewers that advertisers care about. Therefore, the 7.7 million viewers the show earned last week is OK--for now.

link

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

The problem I think is when you miss a show, you're out of the loop the way the plot develops. For example, all the references to Amanda Peet's character's DUI or her ex-husband's book in recent episodes. If you missed that, it would fly over your head.

They'd do themselves well to put all past episodes up on their website so fans can catch up.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

The problem I think is when you miss a show, you're out of the loop the way the plot develops. For example, all the references to Amanda Peet's character's DUI or her ex-husband's book in recent episodes. If you missed that, it would fly over your head.

They'd do themselves well to put all past episodes up on their website so fans can catch up.

NBC is doing this actually with their shows, but I don't think we can view them in Canada for some reason.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Maybe the general public just has bad taste in shows.

Two and a half men, and the War at Home are still on TV, so yup, that's absolutly correct.

[Hakan]

Haven't you been hit over the head by the discussion about the power of the religious right? The decline of quality TV? Black v White cultural humour? Tabloid journalism? McCarthyism?

Yawn. These topics have all been covered before and they have been covered alot better than Studio 60s relatively diffuse commentary. The religious right is powerful, wow. Reality TV sucks, wow. I mean it's just expository crap, it doesn't really further the inner conflicts which is what make a show succesful. They have all these veneers to base the theme of their show around every week but neglect the interpersonal development which is what really drives a series in terms of interest and dramatic elements.

I don't mind a show that is willing to take it's time, a show that you can't look at the clock and know that since it is 20 minutes before the end, the plot will wrap up neatly now.

I don't mind that either, infact I quite like it. Oddly enough I see Studio 60 does this alot more than you realize. It's quite episodic actually. What are the progressing storylines that you find interesting? The love story between the writer guy and the blond? The boss' ex-husband writing a book about her? The guy who's a cocaine addict? I mean please, boring. It's unoriginal and ultimately bad writing.

That's the thing with this show, it's still running of the steam of the pilot. There is no originality, it's not that funny, it's quite hamfisted and there's some pretty pathetic product placement (Sting).

Next!

[nfotiu]

They are not going to show the rest of Kidnapped after all:
http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=7231

That sucks.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I wish a new model of distribution could be developed specifically for shows like this - an incubator of sorts. A show could run for a while and be allowed to grow ti's audience.

The shows that seemed to develop slowly seem to have the best long term success. Shows that hit it big right out of the gat sometimes have trouble measuring up to their early success.

Did anyone download Global Frequency when it was leaked to bittorrent? The looked like it had potential, but never even made it to the gate.

I'm surprised that the networks don't do this with their cable networks more. Put a show on USA first, get an audience, and then promote it to NBC. Or take a show like this and move it to USA if its struggling, and bring it back if it starts getting good ratings.

It is too bad that more shows aren't on cable in general. Cable was doing a great job of making quality, edgy shows, that had a small-medium but loyal audience. I thought for sure this medium would snowball from the success of the Sopranos/Six Feet Under/Battlestar Gallactica/etc. But it has been at least 3 years since a decent cable show debuted. Entourage and Weeds are great, but they've been around for a few years now too.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by fanforever1986

The show better at least finish off the season...why don't americans like anything of quality? Arrested development was the same way...too smart for the average TV viewer I guess. They'd much rather watch those 2 white trash bounty hunters on A&E.

Dog the Bounty hunter is a captivating non morale pushing show that is great to turn on and do other things, while its on.

People watch TV to get away from the BS that is real life, no one wants to watch TV to be told what to think or how to think it, especially on a TV show that is billed as a comedy/sitcom. The shows problem is that it attempted to introduce morality/religion too early.

The first seasons episodes should have actually been about the show and the different funny story lines, it alienated too many people with the anti-religious themes. Those are better left for the second season when you have a stable audience and you can start to feed them more stuff in bits an pieces ala the show House.

MYK

[troutman]

If you like Studio 60, you might be interested in Jay Mohr's book about what it was like to work at SNL:

http://www.amazon.ca/Gasping-Airtime...e=UTF8&s=books

Gasping for Airtime : Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live (Paperback)
by Jay Mohr (Author)