# Studio 60 - The Harriet Dinner II - 2/5 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 5, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980 "2007-02-05T21:44:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/21 "2007-02-06T13:53:27Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Better than last week, but still not good. I think Sorkin was trying to use every romantic cliche possible in the rooftop scene and it grew tedious (but I can’t say it didn’t work – the actors managed to overcome the cliches). [/QUOTE] The phrasing of this makes me think of an actor’s workshop, where they’re given the most hamhanded clunky amateurish script possible - possibly coming from 12 year olds shouting out ideas to improv - and seeing what they can make of it. Actually, that’s not that far off, is it? ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/22 "2007-02-06T13:56:09Z")
[QUOTE=Ethilrist] Well, actually, there _was_ a doorstop right there by the door that Cal (aka, anybody with any business being up there) knew to put under the door as soon as he stepped through it. I’ve worked places like that–you get stuck on the roof, it’s your own damn fault. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but the fact that he knew about the Hide-A-Key means he knew the door locked automatically, which means he also knew it 4 hours earlier when he let it close behind him. Like a dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/23 "2007-02-06T14:24:11Z")
Wait, what… hideakey? Did I miss something? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/24 "2007-02-06T14:27:00Z")
[QUOTE=Ethilrist] Wait, what… hideakey? Did I miss something? [/QUOTE] Yeah. Right after Jordan threw the rock at the “integrated member of our society”, Danny remembered that there was a hide-a-key in a rock on the roof. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/25 "2007-02-06T14:37:02Z")
The show remains unimpressive, but I have to say, for probably the first time, I was totally on Harriet’s side this time. Matt really was dicking her around, and she finally called him on it. I’m going to pretend that the whole Danny/Jordan thing doesn’t exist, and from now on this is the “Matt Corddry Show.” ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/26 "2007-02-06T15:20:04Z")
I’ve decided I’m not going to watch this ep, but can someone synopsize and spoilerize it for me? I’m intrigued by the awfulness and must know more. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/27 "2007-02-06T15:31:26Z")
[QUOTE=HelloKitty] I’ve decided I’m not going to watch this ep, but can someone synopsize and spoilerize it for me? I’m intrigued by the awfulness and must know more. [/QUOTE] Hey, WE watched it. Don’t make us go through it again. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/28 "2007-02-06T15:34:52Z")
Oh, and could Matt have been any more of a rebound leech? He finally, finally, finally gets the message that he and Harriet aren’t actually dating and he’s all, “Hey, Wendy… you’re a girl… that means you’re _perfect_ for me!” She then proceeds to chew her own arm off to get away from him… funny how she didn’t mention the engagement before then… ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/29 "2007-02-06T15:40:19Z")
[QUOTE=HelloKitty] I’ve decided I’m not going to watch this ep, but can someone synopsize and spoilerize it for me? I’m intrigued by the awfulness and must know more. [/QUOTE] [Television Without Pity, at your service.](http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/content/a12801/) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/30 "2007-02-06T15:51:17Z")
Another clunker. Somebody last week said Sorkin is stealing ideas from sit-coms and trying to use them in a dramatic series and they were on the money. It was bad enough when Tom had two dates for the big party and had to try to keep them from meeting each other (by the way, nice cover-up attempt this week to explain why Tom didn’t expect to see Lucy at the show but are we supposed to believe that with dozens of people from the show at the party that nobody would ever mention Tom’s date around Lucy?) but the bit with the hideaway key was embarassing (I expected a laugh track and a comedic “waa-waaa”). The Simon-Darrius thing was bad. Sorkin seems to feel he has to write a black storyline but has no idea how to do so. What would have been nice is if the climax had been Darrius saying, _“Okay, Simon, here’s the real truth. It had nothing to do with my being black. I figured I owed you something because you got me this job so I was trying to spare your feelings. But the way you’ve been acting like an asshole all week has ended that. The truth is your idea was really stupid - an angry black fruit was a one-note joke that I didn’t think was very funny so I dumped it on someone else so my reputation wouldn’t get hurt by it. And I’m a grown man - do you think I don’t know what being black is all about and have never been the target of racism? But until this week I’ve never had a black man be racist towards me and think he can get away with it because he’s a famous celebrity and I’ll have to take his shit to keep my job. Well, guess what? I don’t work for you. I work for Matt and Danny and the network. So until you feel like going to them and asking them to fire me, just stay away from me and let me do my job.”_ Other problems: After two drawn-out episodes, the Matt and Harry story and the lost animals story never really ended; the Yao-Macao Deal story and the Tom and Lucy story were resolved by arbitrary endings that seemed false; the scenes with Matt and the dancer were unnecessary filler and a lot of other scenes were dragged out too long; and it makes no sense that nobody noticed the animal wrangler on the set all week with Cal and made the obvious conclusion about an animal problem. Sorkin would have been better off if he had divided these storylines into two groups and included them into two seperate episodes. He also would be better off if he let somebody else plot the show and just wrote the dialogue - the only part of the show that works (other than some of the performances). I’m still watching at this point even though I’ve lost hope there will be a major improvement. I guess it’s just a slow motion train wreck fascination along with the thought that by watching every episode now I’ll feel no need to ever buy the DVD set. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/31 "2007-02-06T17:09:43Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] The Simon-Darrius thing was bad. Sorkin seems to feel he has to write a black storyline but has no idea how to do so. What would have been nice is if the climax had been Darrius saying, _“Okay, Simon, here’s the real truth. It had nothing to do with my being black. I figured I owed you something because you got me this job so I was trying to spare your feelings. But the way you’ve been acting like an asshole all week has ended that. The truth is your idea was really stupid - an angry black fruit was a one-note joke that I didn’t think was very funny so I dumped it on someone else so my reputation wouldn’t get hurt by it. And I’m a grown man - do you think I don’t know what being black is all about and have never been the target of racism? But until this week I’ve never had a black man be racist towards me and think he can get away with it because he’s a famous celebrity and I’ll have to take his shit to keep my job. Well, guess what? I don’t work for you. I work for Matt and Danny and the network. So until you feel like going to them and asking them to fire me, just stay away from me and let me do my job.”_ [/QUOTE] That’s what I was really hoping for too. “I didnt want to write your sketch not because I didn’t want to write “black”, it’s because I didn’t want to write shit.” ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/32 "2007-02-06T17:14:18Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] That’s what I was really hoping for too. “I didnt want to write your sketch not because I didn’t want to write “black”, it’s because I didn’t want to write shit.” [/QUOTE] I was hoping either for that or for, “Look you racist ass, I was raised by a white family in Connecticut. I know no more about militant black fruit than our English Cracker.” ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/33 "2007-02-06T17:35:25Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I was hoping either for that or for, “Look you racist ass, I was raised by a white family in Connecticut. I know no more about militant black fruit than our English Cracker.” [/QUOTE] TRhat would have been nice, but didn’t Darius grow up in basically the same neighborhood as Simon, just a few blocks or miles away? I thought that was established pretty early on when Darius was introduced. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/34 "2007-02-06T17:36:49Z")
Sorkin \*can \* be funny. Only not when he’s trying to write comedy. It’s when he’s doing drama, that the fun moments arrive. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/35 "2007-02-06T18:04:50Z")
[QUOTE=Charlie Tan] I Love Perry and he’s doing an amazing job, but this was just too much. Why in the world would he keep carrying a torch for Harry? She’s not that smart, funny, charming, interesting, good looking, hot or anything else. Since Matt [the character] and Perry [the person] is close enough to nmy own age, I can safely say that a World Class Blowjob™ isn’t good enough a reason to keep dating a woman. There has to be more. [/QUOTE] Was there an allusion to this that I missed? ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/36 "2007-02-06T18:42:36Z")
Last week, I was really hoping that when Jack asked (told) Tom to take Lucy out, that Tom would say, “Sure, I’d be glad to, as I like to be considered a team player. Here’s the problem, though- I’ve already got a date, a really important one. So, to help you out, I’ll break my previous date. _However_, I’ll need the company jet and a generous stipend so that I can make the raincheck date REALLY memorable, since I’ll obviously be saving the company a ton of money.” He didn’t, though. This week, I was really hoping Darius would tell Simon, “Look, you jerk- I don’t want my career to be defined by the color of my skin- unlike you, apparently. If you’ve got a problem with that, let’s go talk to Matt and Danny about it. You may have gotten me the job here, but that doesn’t mean you own me.” And then I wanted him to kick Simon’s ass. He didn’t, though. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/37 "2007-02-06T18:44:49Z")
Anyone else have flashbacks during the Simon + Darius conversation to one of Simon’s first conversations with Matt’s character because he couldn’t do the impersonations that Ricky and Ron wanted him to do? Seems rather humorous after he forces Darius to dance to his tune. – IG ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/38 "2007-02-06T19:08:36Z")
[QUOTE=DanBlather] Was there an allusion to this that I missed? [/QUOTE] Nope. I was just saying that this would seem the only reason to stay with her, because nothing about her personality, looks or anything else strike me as the least bit attractive. When I was younger I could’ve dated a girl simply because of good sex. Not anymore. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/39 "2007-02-06T20:40:14Z")
[QUOTE=Charlie Tan] \ I can safely say that a World Class Blowjob™ isn’t good enough a reason to keep dating a woman. There has to be more. [/QUOTE] And if she looked up at me in the middle of it and made that dolphin sound, I’d run screaming from the room and never look back. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980/40 "2007-02-06T20:50:39Z")
[QUOTE=Charlie Tan] Nope. I was just saying that this would seem the only reason to stay with her, because nothing about her personality, looks or anything else strike me as the least bit attractive. When I was younger I could’ve dated a girl simply because of good sex. Not anymore. [/QUOTE] Oh but it’s not the sex! It’s True! Romantic! Love! pop-culture style (aka _English Patient_ style) meaning you can know nothing about someone or have nothing in common with the person, not necessarily even respect the person but still - due to the magic of the Romance Gods - be Deeply! Passionately! Madly! in love with that person. The sack time helps but it’s Destiny that brings you together because you are Meant To Be. If the guy was a former writer of Harlequins I’d expect this but yeesh. \*(There must be some Pepto around here someplace) \* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studio-60-the-harriet-dinner-ii-2-5/390980.md?page=3)