Studio 60 6/14 (spoilers in OP)

The TV Guide capsule included “Jordan takes a turn for the worse,” and Entertainment Weekly snarked about this, “If we thought there was a chance she could die, we’d have kept watching.”

So, Mark Jeter was based in Nevada and his parents lived in Ohio. Someone tell me again, please, why his parents were given the option of flying to New York or LA?

Both the Air Force guy and the ER doctor were, again, glib assholes, and it was completely incredible that they would have behaved the way they did with two people (Tom and Danny, respectively) who were so visibly distraught and worried.

Hey, but I didn’t just come here to bitch. Harry looked quite pretty in that dress and cream-colored Mary Janes. I’d like to have an outfit like that.

Actually, assuming Sorkin knew the show was about to be canceled (which seems likely), he may have decided to kill off Jordan.

I’m sort of watching out of habit and for the occasional clever line.

Danny was a jerk to the ER doctor, so I wouldn’t blame him for responding in kind, but I found him to be pretty decent overall. Some of the best dialog was between him and Danny.

I missed the previous week, but caught up online and was surprised at the flashback showing Harriet and Matt in bed together. That seems wholly out of character for Harriet, who seems to be a “no sex before marriage” person, and makes her something of a hypocrite (I much prefer how Kristin Chenoweth handled the issue in her otherwise awful sitcom*).

*Basically, she showed that she was aware of sex, that she could be very sexy, but no man would see it until she married him.

No. Danny was worried about his fiancee and infant daughter, and so had license to be a jerk. The doctor had no such excuse.

Earlier in the season when she was being interviewed by Christine Lahti’s reporter character, she declared she has “no problem with having premarital sex.” Here it is:

From "The Long Lead Story."

So that has been established, however at odds it may be with her fundamentalism.

I took that to mean she didn’t condemn others. But it seems odd that she is proud of her own commitment to Christianity, but has the one lapse that helps in the ratings. Sort of like having an orthodox Jewish character who likes ham sandwiches.

And another thing. The action of this show clearly was taking place right after the show-within-the-show, the wee hours of Saturday morning. It wasn’t even light out yet. How did Tom’s parents get to the theater from Ohio that quickly?

Fiver, for some reason I thought you were a man.

2 more episodes to go. Why am I so drawn to this show that I hate?

By the dates they flashbacked to, SNL had already aired twice. From New York! Why are these guys having so much trouble?

The moment with Matt & Danny arguing about the proposal was good - they were likeable. For about 90 seconds, and then we went to the rest of the episode. Does Sorkin not realize how awful these people are? Did anyone else laugh when Danny told that Harriet would never find a better man than Matt? Matt is an ass. He only looks good in comparison to Danny who is a bigger ass. If they were the only men in the world - yes, you couldn’t find better.
I was worried that we might get a try at a reprise of “babies come with hats” (which was a great tv moment) and ruin that.

And the air force guy would never be that non-professional with a civilian, would he? Really, would he? Don’t they get a little more training than that?

And the women are, once again, idiots. But that’s been standard on this show.

Well, I’m not.

I like “backstage” shows. I majored in television in college, I’ve been a fan of SNL since the beginning, and I devour books like Tom Shales’s history of SNL. So I’ve always loved the idea of Studio 60, and although it’s a miserable failure, I tune in each week for the few stray glimpses of that idea.

A step down from the last two episodes.

Inconsistency rears it head again: We’ve seen several episodes where Matt says that the only important rule of comedy is that it be funny. But at the same time, we’ve seen that Matt seems to find any comedy that isn’t about religion or politics to be a sell-out.

Simon’s sudden blow-up seemed to come out of nowhere and serve no purpose except to create a situation for Sorkin to write into next week’s episode. Simon’s personality changes so much from episode to episode that I wonder if they were foreshadowing a future schizophrenia plotline.

The Tom’s parents thing was pointless. Sorkin had to defy all common sense to get them to LA and then make some contrived explanations as to why they weren’t there in the room with Tom. Why not have just left them in Ohio where they would have sensibly been anyway?

I predict Jordan will live. The alternative is that they close down the series with the possibility of Danny losing his daughter open and I don’t think they’re going to end on a cliffhanger like that. Maybe Sorkin will pull a Molly repeat and have Tom’s brother die and then Danny and Jordan will name their daughter after him: Mark McDeere-Tripp - now there’s a little girl who’s going to get teased a lot.

Last week, someone said that the network was sending a plane to pick them up. If you assume that they chartered a private jet at a nearby airport, it’s entirely possible for them to arrive that quickly.

Jack offered to fly Tom’s parents to either the New York or LA news office, so they could be there the second more news broke.

Obviously, Tom would want to be with his parents, so he asked they fly them to be with him in LA.

At least we have an explanation where Darius was.

I’m not up that late…what was the first SNL like after Sept 11?

29 September 2001, Reese Witherspoon hosted, Alicia Keys was the musical guest. Instead of a comedic cold opening, Paul Simon (against a backdrop of NYC cops and firefighters) sang “The Boxer,” after which Lorne Michaels asked Rudy Giuliani if they could be funny. “Why start now?” replied Giuliani.

Yeah, the writers treated Bush and America with kid gloves. During Weekend Update, the best joke was something about Osama bin Laden hiding where no one would look for him–a screening of Glitter.

Krokodil, tell me that wasn’t from memory!

Perversely perhaps, but I still like the show. These extra episodes are different, much more episodic, and I do wish they would finish at least one plot line a show, instead of “tune in next week.”

But I still like the people. I want to know what happens, but even more, I want to know what they will say.

I wonder if Matt would have been as attracted to Harry if she hadn’t had such a strong central belief. What the flashbacks over time showed me was that Matt sort of relied on her to be unshaken, and it was what allowed him to continue to question. He didn’t have to comfort her, he relied on her for comfort, for being the thing that doesn’t change in a scary changing world. He needs her to be strong, and it almost doesn’t matter how. She doesn’t change, so he doesn’t have to, either. He’s not ready to be a different person.

I like Danny, but wow, not the person I’d let be my child’s father very quickly. It’s like a child addiction, and he’s been through too many addicitons before. What happens when the next thing comes along? Well, what can I say, I’d watch the show.

I thought maybe the claiming that Tom and his brother were estranged was to protect his brother. That seemed like the obvious reason to me, to distance him from the profane sketch. It seemed unrealistic that no one even suggested that.

Could the lawyer be something else? She seems WAY too high powered for an unlawful firing suit. You’d think, at her prices, they’d pay the accuser to go away instead.

I’m sorry it’s ending. I never got into West Wing, so nothing is redundent to me. I did wince at the self-conscious “pregnancy in danger” line, but I like the people and I like the dialog. And almost every show, there is at least one true, surprising moment.

Everfything but the date; I thought they aired it in late October.

Wanna hear the joke Reese told in the opening monologue?

I remember that first episode of SNL after September 11. In addition to Giuliani’s little joke, (which nicely broke some of the tension we were all feeling), they had several firefighters and police officers on stage with him and with Paul Simon, I think.

As for the continuing plotlines, you have to remember that this week’s episode was part two of a three part series, so the continuing plotline makes sense. And I kind of like the show too, and am sorry it didn’t succeed (especially given the crappy reality and game shows being shown in its place). I hope that Aaron Sorkin is able to develop something new that appeals to more people.

Absolutely!

Why would having an Orthodox Jew who likes ham sandwiches help in the ratings?

A little baby polar bear asked his mother “Are you sure I’m a polar bear?”

His mother said “Of course you’re a polar bear. I’m a polar bear, your father is a polar bear, you’re a polar bear.”

The baby said “Yes, but are you sure I’m 100% polar bear?”

His mom says “Sure. Your grandfather was a polar bear, your grandmother was a polar bear, your other grandfather is a polar bear, your other grandmother was a polar bear, you are 100% polar bear! Now why would you ask me such a question?”

And the baby said “'Cause if I’m 100% polar bear, how come I’m freezing my balls off?”

Thanks.

Sort of sheds light on Studio 60’s dilemma: go with stuff like this, or write a funny show more like the Mayor’s line.

Clearly you don’t understand the power of the ham-sandwich lobby.