Ding ding ding! Winner! The problem with Studio 60 wasn’t the setting (although a TV show is probably inherently less interesting than the White House); it was that it wasn’t about the TV show much at all. It was about Chandler & Kristen Chenoweth…and I really didn’t care.
I agree with you that it was wrong for some people to dismiss Studio 60 for not being funny. It was a drama not a comedy. But the real problem was it wasn’t a very good drama.
- It was about the making of a TV show. Sorkin took the subject matter too seriously. He should have lightened up the tone.
- Somewhat related but while the show wasn’t a comedy, it was supposed to be about people who worked in comedy. We never saw that. The West Wing was about White House staffers - you watched that show and you could accept that characters like Leo McGarry, Josh Lyman, C.J. Cregg, and Toby Ziegler worked in the White House. They seemed like intelligent politically aware people. But I never felt that characters like Matt Albie, Harriet Hayes, Tom Jeter, and Simon Stiles were believable as people who were making a comedy show.
- Sorkin was too close to the subject. Matt Albie was his Mary Sue and Sorkin was grinding his personal axe with the show.
- Sorkin forgot to include any realistic tension. The same thing happened with The West Wing - the only tension was the inside group vs the outsiders. It would have been a much better show if Sorkin had created some tension between the main characters. Nothing stupid. But just looking at the real history of Saturday Night Live could have given Sorkin some ideas.
There was internal conflict, but it was between Whitford/Perry (the “cool” guys who were going to make the show-within-a-show brilliant and hip and whatnot) and the rest of the show-within-a-show’s writers (the “lame” guys, who came up with sketch ideas like Peripheral Vision Man and such and were there to represent everything wrong with television, i.e. it wasn’t Sorkinny enough).
But it wasn’t any realistic tension. Ricky and Ron were shown as just disposable obstacles. Their only function was to stick around long enough to make Matt Albie look good and then be written off the show.
It would have been a lot more interesting if Ricky and Ron had been portrayed as two assholes who were talented - enough so that they had some value for the show. Then we could have seen Matt and Danny trying to balance their personal desire to get rid of them with their professional desire to keep them working for the show.
Sorkin is a superior writer, there’s no doubt about that. He knocked it out of the park on two occasions - A Few Good men and West Wing. And he put in a better than good showing on numerous other projects.
But I’ll be watching this new show with lowered expectations.
Why? Because it seems like he’s going back to the same well that never brought him any good - a drama about TV production. Can he make it compelling this time? I don’t know.
What he should do is make that drama about the UN.
I would add The Social Network to that list. When I first heard that there was a movie coming out about Facebook I rolled my eyes. How could that possibly hold my interest for a couple of hours? I don’t even have a Facebook account. But somehow, it worked. Sorkin even managed to made it seem noble somehow. That said, it was just a movie about an unlikeable guy who built an Internet site and screwed over a bunch of people in the process. And Sports Night was about a struggling cable sports network. Not exactly covering the Oslo accords but it was more or less a workplace comedy so it didn’t really require a serious premise. So The Newsroom sounds like Sports Night in the sense that it’s a show about a show but presumably dealing with more serious affairs than someone throwing a ball for 500 yards. Sports Night meets West Wing? I don’t know but I have to say I was impressed with the trailer.
Hey, if somebody could do that in one throw, I’d take note.
I’m interested enough to watch, but based on what I’m reading in this thread I’m not especially excited. I’m a big Sam Waterston fan, I thought The Social Network was excellent and the episodes of SportsNight I have seen are fun. On the other hand, the idea of a preachy newsroom drama isn’t all that gripping, and neither is the idea of seeing significant roles played by Jeff Daniels, the guy from Slumdog Millionaire, and Olivia Munn. And I’m worried that I will hurt myself rolling my eyes at the name “Mackenzie MacHale.”
Yeah, that could work. Mamet can write about selling real estate or two criminals arguing over a penny and have it be riveting (because he’s not actually writing about real estate or pennies).
I think Sorkin need to write about Big Issues, for it to work.
I gather you haven’t seen the entire run of Sports Night so here are three of my favorite scenes.
1x7 “Dear Louise”
Gordon: Hey Casey.
Casey: Hey Gordon. Look, Dana told me you were a little down about the verdict in your trial, so I just want you to know I’m not going to do any jokes. I’m not gonna give you a hard time.
Gordon: I appreciate it.
Casey: So this, uh, party at Gracie Mansion… must be going pretty late.
Gordon: Yeah, we’ll catch the tail end of it.
Casey: Do you think the mayor’s going to chew you out for so spectacularly blundering the case?
Gordon: I don’t actually work for the mayor. I work for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Casey: And a hell of a year you guys have been having.
Gordon: You know, Casey, I know this isn’t my finest hour, but there’s really nothing you can say that’s going to rattle me. I’m just happy to be here, happy to be talking to you, happy to be having sex with Dana every night.
Casey: (rattled) You know… it really wasn’t my intention to discuss any Dana-related matters. I was just reading this “New York Times” piece on the forensic evidence, the ballistics match, the eyewitnesses and the 78 hours worth of wiretaps, a portion of which included the defendant saying “I killed him. I killed him. I killed him dead.” and I was wondering what the heck a fellow has to do to get thrown in jail on your watch.
Gordon: How about I run you through an IRS audit and we find out?
Casey: You got nothing on me, counselor. I live my life clean as my mother’s kitchen floor.
Gordon: Is that your name up on a Monday Night Football office pool?
Casey: Yeah.
Gordon: Are you familiar with Section Code 4 of the Rico Act?
Casey: No.
Gordon: Then before I decide to subpoena your whole family, why don’t you go back to writing your television show and leave the smarty-boy remarks to those of us with postgraduate degrees.
Casey: Okay. (leaves)
2x3 “Cliff Gardner”
SAM Talk a walk with me, will you?
J.J. Where?
SAM It’s a surprise. (Sam takes them around the office) You guys know who Philo Farnsworth was?
J.J. Philo Farnsworth?
SAM Yeah.
J.J. What’s going on?
SAM He invented television. I don’t mean he invented television like Uncle Milty, I mean he invented the television in a little house in Provo, Utah, at a time when the idea of transmitting moving pictures through the air would be like me saying I figured out a way to beam us aboard the starship Enterprise.
J.J. Yeah, look, I-- I–
SAM He was a visionary. He died broke and without fanfare. The guy I really like, though, was his brother-in-law, Cliff Gardner. He said, "Philo, I know everyone thinks you’re crazy, but I want to be a part of this. I don’t have your head for science, so I’m not going to be able to help much with the design and the mechanics of the invention, but it sounds like you’re going to need glass tubes.
BILLIE J.J., I don’t think–
SAM You see, Philo was inventing the cathode receptor and even though Cliff didn’t know what that meant or how it worked, he’d seen Philo’s drawing and he knew we was gonna need glass tubes. And since television hadn’t been invented yet, it’s not like you could get them at the local TV repair shop. “I want to be a part of this,” Cliff said. “I don’t have your head for science. How would it be if I were to teach myself to be a glass blower? And I could set up a little shop in the backyard and I could make all the tubes you’ll need for testing.” There ought to be Congressional Medals for people like that. (They stop shortly in the studio, by the desk.)
RAY Maybe so–
SAM I’ve looked over the notes you’ve been giving over the last year or so, and I have to say they exhibit an almost total lack of understanding of how to get the best from talented people.
BILLIE Excuse me, but–
SAM You said before that for whatever reason, I seem to be able to exert some authority around here. I assure you, it’s not 'cause they like me. It’s 'cause they knew two minutes after I walked in the door, I’m someone who knows how to do something. I can help. I can make glass tubes. That’s what they need. One last thing, the first and last decision-making authority on this show will rest with Isaac Jaffee until Isaac Jaffee says otherwise, and if you disrespect him in my presence again, I will rededicate the rest of my life to ruining the rest of yours. And if you think I’m just mouthing at you, you should ask around about me. I have absolutely no conscience about these things.
2x11 “The Cut Man Cometh”
ON AIR: DAN: Good evening. From New York City, I’m Dan Rydell alongside Casey McCall for this special CSC presentation. Rivera, Willis, the battle by the boardwalk. A 12-round bout for the light-heavyweight championship of the world.
CASEY: Dan’s talking about the entire world – Asia…everybody. We’re moments away from the bell, so let’s go to Bally’s Park Place in Atlantic City where Chuck Kimmel will be with us throughout the rest of the evening. Chuck, you there? Chuck?
DANA: Natalie.
NATALIE: Casey.
CASEY: Cut Man.
CHUCK (via video feed): Hello, Casey. I’m right here at ringside at Bally’s, where the breakfast buffet is $3.95, the slots are loose, and the showgirls are fantastic.
DANA: Oh, my God.
JEREMY: No, I’ve been there. It’s true.
CASEY: And how about a prediction?
CHUCK: Well, when it comes to the sweet science, I’m not much on predictions, Casey, but I will say this: one of these fighters is gonna win this bout tonight, and the other will almost surely not.
DAN: Cut Man going out on a limb.
CHUCK: Hey.
CASEY: Chuck?
NATALIE: Casey!
CASEY: Cut Man?
CHUCK: Yes, sir?
CASEY: How many rounds?
CHUCK: 12 rounds in the bout, Casey.
CASEY: Yes, I meant how many of those do you think they’re actually gonna have to – h-- how long’s the fight gonna be?
CHUCK: It’s gonna go the distance, Casey.
DAN: You think so?
CHUCK: Absolutely, Casey.
DAN: I’m Dan.
CHUCK: So strap yourselves in, folks. We’re in for the night. 12 rounds from here at Bally’s Park Place, just a stone’s throw down the boardwalk from where a new Miss America was crowned just a few months ago. Miss Rochester, I believe it was.
DAN: Ok, well, uh, Rochester’s not a state, but we’ll have somebody look that up.