Another thing, I found it completely incredible that Lenny and Squiggy (or whatever their names are) would refuse to give up the name of the plagiarizing writer. Why on earth would they want to protect somebody who has committed THE cardinal sin for all writers? How would they ever again be able to trust anything they gave him? How could the network itself not demand that the culprit be rooted out and fired? Why would protecting preotecting a guy like that earn the headwriter’s respect? None of that made any sense to me at all. I’d have to believe a real network would have been screaming for blood and would have fired anyone on the spot who refused to give up the plagiarizer.
[QUOTE=Quixotic]
Sorkin writes drama with a touch of comedy that usually includes some form of relationship problems. He did the relationship angle on Sports Night with Dan and Dana…
[/QUOTE]
I think you mean Casey and Dana. Dan and Dana were Casey’s loves, although only one was ever articulated. 
Otherwise, I agree. I’m glad they’re doing some relationship stuff. I just wish it wasn’t Matt and Harriet. I want more Danny!
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
I think you mean Casey and Dana. Dan and Dana were Casey’s loves, although only one was ever articulated.
[/QUOTE]
Of course you’re right (on both counts!); forgive the mistake.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Why would protecting preotecting a guy like that earn the headwriter’s respect?
[/QUOTE]
This one question goes back to last week’s show. Matt’s been pissed at Rick and Ron for years because they didn’t stand up for him with the Bill Mahr / 9-11 thing. By standing up for their writer, they’re showing that they’ve learned from that, etc…
[QUOTE=MsRobyn]
If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.
[/QUOTE]
You know what? I won’t! So nyah!
No, it’s not. Not in the slightest. And whether or not it was believable for Spanky and Alfalfa to shield his identity (which it wasn’t), I was silently begging for what should have been the only reasonable response from Matt. “We’re not giving up his name and we take full responsibility.” “You’re both fired.”
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
I thought the plagiarism story was handled well. But how realistic was it? What would have been the real legal consequences? They were acting like the settlement was going to shut down the network which I found hard to believe. And is it believable that they would keep a writer on staff after knowing he submitted plagiarized work (even if it later turned out it was owned by the show)?
[/QUOTE]
Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jay Mohr wrote a book which included his admission that he ripped off someone else’s material because he was desperate to get something on the air. The offended party, Rick Shapiro, was given a nice check. Mohr did not get fired – but he wasn’t on the show the next season, either.
Any chance they are reshowing this on Bravo or elsewhere this week? I missed it and didn’t have a tape in place.
[QUOTE=ddgryphon]
Any chance they are reshowing this on Bravo or elsewhere this week? I missed it and didn’t have a tape in place.
[/QUOTE]
A look through the Bravo schedulebot doesn’t show it, but you can always watch it at NBC.com if you’re willing to sit through unskippable Toyota ads.
I don’t mind there being a side plot about a relationship. My problem is that the Harriet character is so totally uninteresting, unfunny and unattractive that I can’t understand Matt wanting her back.
Please help fight my ignorance but I thought it was commonplace for comedians to steal one another’s jokes?
I thought it was like a musician covering someone else’s song. At worst I figure they would just need to cut the other comedian a check.
[QUOTE=Snooooopy]
Hi … I’m Juliette Lewis, and this is Meet The Press.
[/QUOTE]
Which might have been funny when Juliette Lewis had a career.
At least I nailed this one, when we heard the ADD joke, I thought it was bad standup from at least a half decade ago…and it turned out to be bad stand up from at least a half decade ago. (And they had a cricket score - they could have made Jordan’s joke on air. But they let that slip through. They miss funny very consistently on this sketch show.)
I also don’t care about Matt & Harriet. I like watching Matthew Perry, but she doesn’t really hold up her end of it, and I’d rather watch him do something else. Also, her date bears an odd resemblance to Carson Kressley, which made him much less threatening as a romantic rival.
Have they picked a backstory for D.L. Hughley, because it seems to change with the story every week.
I really want to like this show. I like large chunks of it. But he’s making it so hard for me to really like it.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Another thing, I found it completely incredible that Lenny and Squiggy (or whatever their names are) would refuse to give up the name of the plagiarizing writer. Why on earth would they want to protect somebody who has committed THE cardinal sin for all writers? How would they ever again be able to trust anything they gave him? How could the network itself not demand that the culprit be rooted out and fired? Why would protecting preotecting a guy like that earn the headwriter’s respect? None of that made any sense to me at all. I’d have to believe a real network would have been screaming for blood and would have fired anyone on the spot who refused to give up the plagiarizer.
[/QUOTE]
Exactly. Their excuse seemed to be that he hadn’t produced anything in a long time. So, you’ve got a guy who is not producing anything, and the one thing he gives you is ripped off, word for word, from both a bad comic and from the show previously, and you don’t fire him or hold him to account?
And you’ve got writers who a) think that crap was good comedy, and b) don’t remember material that was on their own show in the past.
And this was the only material produced by a room of 20 writers?
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian]
And you’ve got writers who a) think that crap was good comedy, and b) don’t remember material that was on their own show in the past.
[/QUOTE]
As to the latter, it’s likely that the item didn’t make it to air. Just like Matt’s “Crazy Christians” it could’ve been written and not produced and stuck in a file and forgotten. That’s the least incredulous aspect of the situation.
[QUOTE=MsRobyn]
I loved tonight’s show. I’ve been watching it since the pilot and it’s really great that it’s finding its legs, as it were. I also think it’s great that Sorkin et al. are humanizing Jordan by giving her a DUI in her past. It brings her down to Danny’s level – two talented people who don’t always make smart choices, and who end up paying for those choices. The allusions to Strindberg were also pretty good. Who discusses Strindberg in casual conversation but a pair of literary geeks?
[/QUOTE]
Oh, Strindberg. I thought it was Schoenberg who wrote a piece about a couple in a similar situation which had a very different ending. It was irking me.
(Why did you spoiler-box that?)
I’m liking the show and the characters. Its’ an amusing way to kill an hour; that’s all I ask for.
Harry/Matt is starting to get annoying. Not Meredith/McDreamy annoying, but it could easily go there.
I put “the show-within-a-show” in the same category as I do “the Fonz is enormously attractive to all women” or “this actor plays a nebbish and is therefore ‘ugly’” or “this spaceship has artificial gravity.” This sort of conceit is pretty common in fiction, and they only seem to show the “show” when not showing it would lead to meaningless exposition. If you don’t show the first guy’s lines, and then the on-air character’s lines, you can’t show the internet comedian, which means that instead of “showing” you have to start “telling.” And that’s rarely good TV.
The plagiarism discussion is another kettle of fish.
[QUOTE=Otto]
As to the latter, it’s likely that the item didn’t make it to air. Just like Matt’s “Crazy Christians” it could’ve been written and not produced and stuck in a file and forgotten. That’s the least incredulous aspect of the situation.
[/QUOTE]
That’s a reasonable point, although then it becomes even more of a stretch that a no-name open mike night stand up comedian would peg it, presumably word for word, several years later.
I think I’m something beyond disappointed, because I had regarded Sorkin as perhaps the best television writer around, and this stuff is illogical, boring and unfunny.
And I want to see how someone could legibly write a 10 digit phone number on a bat handle with a marker!
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian]
Oh, and Harriet is so stupid, she thinks a 10 digit number is a uniform number, and doesn’t recognize that it starts with an area code!
[/QUOTE]
I thought she said later that she hadn’t seen the number. So, when put on the spot, she made up something and is, in her own words, a terrible liar. Since I’ve done things like that, I can believe it.
Man, rough crowd in here for last night’s show. For four weeks now it’s been more and more apparent that I’ve got lower standards, apparently, than most of you.
I like the show. A lot. I don’t think it will ever become as important as The West Wing, and I don’t think it should. But I too look forward to watching it, and I agree that it shouldn’t be a comedy show, but a drama with some funny moments. Kind of like when Danny told Christine Lahti’s character, “Nice rack. By the way, tell Jordan I’m not 15 years old.” And when, as soon as they started the second break-in on the West Coast airing, Jordan slumped down onto the ground and said, “When the phone rings it will be for me.”
Bryan Why wouldn’t the network president call the control room? This show has been taking up a lot of his time in the last four weeks, so it makes sense that he’d try to be on top of things, even if it turns out looking like he’s a micro-manager. He’s got to answer to the stockholders.
[QUOTE=Sean Factotum]
Man, rough crowd in here for last night’s show. For four weeks now it’s been more and more apparent that I’ve got lower standards, apparently, than most of you.
[/QUOTE]
I’m with you, man. Let’s fight the good fight.
I thought last night’s was the best episode so far.
Harriet hadn’t noticed the phone number and made up something on the spot. The “nice rack” line was great, as was the following, “Matt, on the other hand…” trail off. And I loved the, “When the phone rings…” from Jordan.
My favorite part was something small; the scene where the guys are peeking through the blinds in Matt’s office at Harriet’s date and Simon starts poking his fingers out as he realizes the window is missing.