September 21, 2006

"Studio 60," and the Real Thing

I finally caught the premiere of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" last night and must say that I really liked it. Good cast, good characters, good premise, and it left me wanting to see more.

However, I must agree with two points raised in Todd VanDerWerff's review over at the invaluable blog House Next Door: Yes, it's sort of silly that just about every plot point in the pilot seems based on something that happened to Aaron Sorkin real life.

And more importantly, Judd Hirsch's "Network"-like monologue on the evils of television was both unoriginal and out-of-date. Not only have people been making that same argument for decades, but — in the age of "The Sopranos," "The Wire," "24," "Deadwood," "The Shield," Stewart and Colbert, and numerous other works of genius currently on the air, not all TV is "Fear Factor" anymore. In fact, there's probably more quality television on the air right now than at any time in the history of the medium.

Still, it's good to have Sorkin and all those actors back, and I'll continue watching the show.

As for the real thing, "Saturday Night Live" has fired Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz, and Finesse Mitchell, and installed Seth Myers as both head writer and co-anchor of "Weekend Update" along with Amy Poehler. After one of its worst seasons ever, SNL was clearly in need of a streamlining, so it's good to see, even if all three of the departed actors were funny at various times. Myers is a top talent, and the teaming of him and Poehler should be an improvement over the disastrous Tina Fey/Poehler tandem of the last couple of years.

Posted by Stephen Silver at September 21, 2006 01:39 PM
Comments

I think Hirsch's diatribe plays better when one interprets it as merely a screed against network television, which -- Lost, Studio 60, and Gilmore Girls aside -- really does seem to live down to Judd's descriptions.

NBC is probably more willing to air an attack on television itself than on network television alone...

Posted by: Lex at September 21, 2006 02:10 PM

Wow. You are soo off on soo many levels. I agree that Studio 60 is a good show, it too left me wanting to see more. But the diatribe was about NETWORK TV, not cable! And there hasn't been so much crap in a long time on TV. Everyone copies everyone and there is too much reality tv. So take that.
As for SNL. I think Seth Myers should have been fired. He is not funny and is aweful. Sanz is actually funny. They should have fired instead Will Forte and Seth Myers. I'm not going to be looking forward to Weekend Update anytime soon.

Posted by: at September 21, 2006 03:30 PM

Yeah, I'm pretty much done with SNL. Parnell was one of my favorite cast members - Myers, at best, doesn't suck, which admittedly puts him in the upper echelon of the current SNL cast, which is kind of like being the best player on the Royals.

Posted by: Gib at September 22, 2006 09:55 AM

Hey! Thanks for the kind words!

Anyway. There are more good shows and fewer awful ones on network TV now than at any point since the '70s. The "there's too much reality!" complaint is mostly stupid because the main facilitators of reality shows are the cable networks.

These shows, while not all consistently brilliant, are well worth the time of an avid television viewer (and I won't bother with new shows which not everyone has had the time to view yet). Even if you don't like them (and I don't like a few of them), they're all good for stirring up discussion, etc.

ABC:
Desperate Housewives
Grey's Anatomy
Lost

CBS:
CSI
How I Met Your Mother
Without a Trace

The CW:
Everybody Hates Chris
Gilmore Girls
Veronica Mars

Fox:
24
House

NBC:
My Name Is Earl
The Office
Scrubs

And I'm sure many would argue for other choices I left off. What's more, this is EASILY the most ambitious fall development slate in network history -- it doesn't seem like it because all of the crappy shows have debuted first.

Granted, the cable shows are almost all better than these shows (and there are a variety of reasons for that), but anyone who falls back on "Network TV sucks! Too much reality!" isn't looking at the facts.

Posted by: Todd VanDerWerff at September 23, 2006 02:35 AM
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