Life imitating art imitating life...

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

I enjoyed the first episode of "Studio 60" and look forward to the rest of the season. I'll always be willing to check out a Sorkin/Schlamme show, I really like a number of the actors and feel that the Matt Perry/Bradley Whitford combination will be fun to watch. With so many characters, it will take a while until I am invested in any of them, but there is plenty of time for that.

The "West Wing" comparisons are unavoidable, and some reviews compare Studio 60 unfavorably, but West Wing wasn't perfect its first couple of episodes, nor is it really fair to compare any show to one of the best TV dramas ever.

The setup for the show, a rant by Judd Hirsch was entertaining and right, even if it is setting up the show for a bit of a lofty expectation:

We're all being lobotomized by the country's most influential industry
which has thrown in the towel on any endeavor that does not include the courting
of 12-year-old boys...And not event the smart 12-year-olds, the stupid ones, the
idiots, of which there are plenty thanks in no small part to this
network...
there's always been a struggle between art and commerce, but now I'm
telling you art is getting is ass kicked, and it's making us mean, and it's
making us bitchy, and it's making us cheap punks and that's not who we
are....
We're eating worms for money, "Who Wants to Screw My Sister", guys are
getting killed in a war that's got theme music and a logo. That remote in your
hand is a crack pipe......
It's pornography, and it's not even good pornography. They're just this
side of snuff films, and friends, that's what's next 'cause that's all that's
left.And the two things that make them scared gutless are the FCC and every
psycho-religious cult that gets positively horny at the very mention of a
boycott.

Anyway, finally caught the episode last night, which is why I find it particularly interesting that Saturday Night Live, the obvious basis for Studio 60, has been forced to make cuts to its budget and staff in the face of low ratings. I'm not one to think that SNL is an idea that is past its prime, but it certainly needs revitalizing. Maybe the smaller cast will help. Maybe Studio 60 will help inspire them to be relevant again.