Yes, they left and took the character and most of the writing staff with them, except the English girl (who I could have sworn was named Lucy), and Darius the New Guy. Matt took Ron aside (or Ricky … aw hell–the not-bald Whedon Hat Trick guy) and gave him a few pointers on how to make Peripheral Vision Man not utterly suck. Cal came up with a new idea to make the set backdrop be a picture of the Sunset Strip, which will serve as product placement because of all the billboards without actually compromising the anti-product-placement integrity of the show. Danny told Jordan that she’s going to get fired if she doesn’t do a little press control, and Matt and Harriet had one of their moments that nobody really cared about and probably talked her out of the lingerie shoot for good.
I felt like Harriet’s lack of media-savvy was meant as an indication that she was doing something sort of out of character and vengeful. It’s not so much that she’s entirely without savvy as that she wants to do this thing because she’s mad at the Sisters of Faith (or whatever, I don’t remember the name of the group) people even though she knows it’s not really all that smart, so she’s justifying it in other ways.
Because she’s not an idiot? Being one of the four (4) staff writers for this show is the best place for her to be.
I’m wondering if this is much of an issue: all the dirt that’s being dredged up about Jordan is at least five years old. It’s beginning to look like people are taking cheap shots at her past because she’s actually pretty straight now–“Hah! DUI eight years ago! Whoa! Told her husband she didn’t want to have kids with him five years ago! Must be evil!”
The hell? How is this news? What’s next, she spat milk on Tommy Gredger in 3rd Grade?
That dirty bitch…
It’s been my experience that coming up with new set ideas is the director’s job, ie. that was an accurate portrayal of life in TV.
The new president being on the live set of a small network’s flagship show which has a new executive producer with a coke addiction and the old one went nuts? Believable, especially since it appears the studio is minutes away from the offices.
But a $100 option? It would have been extended automatically, and if someone wanted to do a spinoff they could come talk to NBS about fees. It’s not a creative issue, it’s a money issue.
That Ron and Rick were all “let’s not talk about it and hope nobody talks to old friends at the other network and finds out we actually have a deal for a pilot which could be blown because of our current show’s daily hairspray budget” was just asinine. Contract lawyers at Fox would have found out who owns the rights to the character already being used on NBS and would have started negotiations to acquire those rights before any deal was made, otherwise Fox would be on the hook.
Since when is NBS supposed to be a small network? And since when have they established that Studio 60 is their flagship?
It doesn’t make any sense for the president to spend that much time on one show. Even if it is after hours. Network presidents are busy people. Dinner meetings, travel, etc.
I stick by memos and phone calls as what would be her interaction with the show.
Many thanks, Draelin.
Right, that’s where I’d seen him before…he was the government agent posing as a passenger aboard Serenity in the Firefly Pilot ep, wasn’t he?
Yep. He was also in Buffy and Angel.
Is the actor who played Ron growing out his hair and sideburns for a part in something set in the 1970s? His look last night was decidedly retro, and I’m not sure he looked that way several episodes back.
Push having Jordan hang out at the show after it wraps just moves the story along. Memos and phones aren’t as interesting as face to face conversations for the audience (that’s us) to watch. I have no problem with it.
I have noticed that the bumper music sounds a lot like the music that was in Sports Night. I like it - gives me a warm nostalgic feeling, and helps me remember that all of this takes place on a TV show set, and not in the White House.
As for Cal coming up with the idea for the product placement, why not? Sure, final approval goes to Danny and Matt, but they trust and like Cal, and if he can come up with an idea that lets them get away with not cutting staff, then they’ll agree to it. Like Cal said, he had a vested interest in not firing people - most of them would have come from his staff.
I think they went a little meta on us with the product placement discussion, as it allows NBC to sell those billboards for real, producing extra revenue from Studio 60.
I don’t have a problem with Jordan showing up as often simply because we’ve seen that NBS headquarters is literally across the street from Studio 60, so it’s a 2 minute walk. Besides, she’s normally there to watch the show and then hit the wrap party.
You can accept a network president that’s a wisecracking 35 year-old model who ignores her boss and defers to the talent, but you’re thrown by a lack of memos?
I think it’s been pretty well established that Studio 60 is special for Jordan. Besides being the first and most prominent of her “hey, let’s try to make shows that don’t suck” movement, she’s become friends with the cast and crew. I can believe that she’d spend time with them socially under the excuse of doing business.
And It’s Like, You Know.
With regards to that whole baby bump thing, apparently in next week’s ep
[spoiler]A Bun In The Oven
The cast has to get through the show despite being ravaged by a virus - and Matt (Matthew Perry) has to get through the week with a new and much smaller writing staff. Jordan (Amanda Peet) tells Danny (Bradley Whitford) that she’s pregnant.[/spoiler]
I figure Jordan is going to announce her pregnancy very soon - the plotline about her hating children is the sort of heavy handed foreshadowing Sorkin has been using.
As for Peet’s pregnancy, I certainly noticed it this week. But I hadn’t noticed it in previous episodes where other people who knew she was pregnant were saying it was obvious. It may just be that this was the first episode I watched where I already knew she was preganant and was seeing what I already knew.
On Harriet’s character - she’s probably never going to have one. Harriet isn’t supposed to be a real person. She’s Aaron Sorkin’s dream image of Kristin Chenowith.
Yes. The alternatives were: Have Danny know for a week that Jordan was getting the axe and not tell her (Badly out of character for him), or have him tell her in a flashback that violates the “unity of time” restriction they sort-of give themselves.
I realized with this episode what my major complaint is with this show. Everyone is so busy giving speeches that no one actually listens to anything that anyone else is saying. They just talk past each other.
I didn’t know Amanda Peet was pregnant, but it definitely showed up in this episode. It wasn’t so much that she looked big, it was the waddle. She’s already got the pregnant walk, and all that walk-and-talking just sort of emphasized it. There are other things TV shows can do to hide a pregnancy (look at how Law and Order SVU treated Mariska Hargitay last year… desk/sitting shots, and focusing more on her face than body).
WAG:
Either Jordan is carrying Danny’s baby (that’s why he’s only on the show when Jordan talks to him and Matt… otherwise he’s in the back storeroom getting it on with Jordan!) or she had one more “fling” with her evil book writing ex, and she’s carrying the baby “she never wanted”… tabloid fodder
I don’t think we were meant to believe it was literally $100. I think that was shorthand for dirt cheap to a television exec. It wasn’t being picked up because nobody really thought the skits were funny.
Okay, yeah. Fox would never have gone as far as an actual commitment and a frickin’ timeslot without a solid agreement on character use.
Not to mention, who ever heard of the writers taking a sketch comedy character to a show (or more realistically, a movie) without also taking the damn actor who fills the role? Don’t most people associate the character more with the actor than the writer? I mean, let’s assume for a second that somebody other than Myers wrote the Wayne’s World skits. Would they have tried to make a movie without Mike Myers playing Wayne just because the skit writer felt like leaving SNL?