I Take It All Back

A few months ago, I reported the demise of Studio 60 as expected and acceptable. But I'd like to take it all back.

Not every episode was great. But all of them were better than most of the tv shows being produced for next year. And the great ones were truly fantastic. Leave it to Aaron Sorkin to write one of the most satisfying and engrossing series finales I've ever seen. It was a happy ending for everyone, but didn't descend into cheesy montage. The acting was superb (which means the writing was too). Even Sarah Paulson's performance as Harry ceased to grate on me in these past few episodes.

I would like the show back. I know it's not coming back. But I would like it back.

Barring that: please give me another series written by Sorkin and starring Timothy Busfield, Matthew Perry, and Bradley Whitford... oh, and maybe Allison Janney too. Maybe Rob Lowe and Mary-Louise Parker could even drop in from time to time. Would that really be too much to ask? (Perhaps I should just occupy my TiVo by recording reruns of the West Wing...)

S60: K&R ... wow.

Wow. Just wow. I think I get it now. Studio 60 was never supposed to be a funny story about a comedy show. That's 30 Rock. No, S60 was supposed to be about a world where smart people have to try to write some funny lines in the middle of a not very funny world. The sketches weren't supposed to be funny. The show wasn't supposed to be funny. Sure, there are supposed to be amusing moments (back in the day, how many times did we laugh at something C.J. Cregg said or did -- or sang?), but really the tone of the show should have had much more in common with the West Wing from the very start.

Tonight's episode was perfect. Better than the "Disaster Show" episode that I praised a couple weeks ago. It reminded me of the way that the West Wing did drama. There's something big going on in the world -- there's a war in Afghanistan -- but it's connected to the characters' lives in a bunch of different ways, and we get to see how the characters struggle with that and make sense of it (rather than having Aaron Sorkin preach to us about what's right and wrong -- or struggle to make light of it). The vagaries of network politics and ratings just didn't pack enough punch for those of us who live outside of L.A. to make us care, but tonight there was enough there to make me care.

I loved the montage of Harriet and Matt fighting about religion for 8 years, and then the pay-off when Matt says a little prayer, in his own way, for Jordan at the very end of the episode as he and Harry are headed off to the hospital.

I loved that Jordan asked about the cut and clarity of the ring before she said yes, and then teased Danny about the ring size as they wheeled her off to surgery. Not because these lines were funny (though they were) but because they were human and touching and just plain good writing.

And so I wonder what might have been if the network execs and Sorkin's own demons hadn't run this thing off the tracks.

Here's to hoping that the last couple episodes stay this good and then to watching out for Sorkin's next adventure.

TV Squad blogger Jay Black fervently disagrees, although many of the commenters on his blog agree with me.

While I'm on the subject...

Since I've been posting about the West Wing a bunch lately, I got to thinking about how it would have been a perfect show to have a spin off (a la Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice). I guess it was never tried because Aaron Sorkin was likely too looped on coke to be able to run two shows at once. [Rob Lowe did try to be a senator, I think, in a short-lived show called Lyon's Den, but it was no good -- and not a real West Wing spin-off anyway. I think it was on a different network, and I know it was on a different night with no tie in -- and different characters, etc., etc.]

Although the moment for a true spin-off is long dead, I have a modest proposal for the network execs at ABC. You see, network big wigs, you have already sort of created a little mini spin-off, what with Rob Lowe finally getting to play a senator and run for president and get good ratings. And you seem to have a relatively talented bunch of writers. So, I propose that you hire one more former West Wing-er to make the package more complete (and the homage more striking). My suggestion: woo Dulé Hill away from USA Network's Psych and bring him on as a young speech writer for Senator McDreamy. And maybe set him up as a solid, non-sleezy love interest for Emily VanCamp's Rebecca. (Emily has spooky incestuous chemistry with Dave Annable, who of course plays her half-brother... we need to nip that one in the bud, although apparently they are dating in real life.) Or you could go the other way with it and bring in Janel Maloney as, let's say, another attorney in Kevin's office (and have her fall for Justin). I don't know. But I think a little West Wing blood does a show good (witness, last night's S60.)

Did You See It Too?

Fibby poses a question in her comment to my last post that is worth a whole bloggy entry of its own. She writes: "I saw huge parallels between the last episode [of Ugly Betty] and an episode of The West Wing. I wonder if you'll see it too..."

And the funny thing is that I didn't. So I went to Television Without Pity (source of snarky but complete recaplets of all the tv worth watching). And as soon as I saw the headline for the Ugly Betty recap, I figured out the reference. And digging up the details on the West Wing episode was a fun little Google adventure. You really can find any sort of information in about 2 minutes on Google!

It was episode #322, "Posse Comitatus," in which Mark Harmon's Secret Service Agent Simon Donovan had captured the heart of one C.J. Craig (and more than a few audience members at the same time), only to be killed off in a convenience store hold-up while C.J. and the rest of the President's entourage watched an opera . . . just in time for May sweeps.

Santos, we loved you, though we hardly knew you. At least Ugly Betty's telenovela conceit shields it somewhat when the writers pull a soap operatic move like killing off the happy, beautiful minor character the fans love just in time for sweeps. Nonetheless, I'm hoping that with Drive cancelled, Kevin Alejandro (Santos) miraculously survives or is brought back from the dead next season. Hey, if it's going to be a world where characters get shot for ratings, it ought to be a place where they can get revived for ratings too. (And it is: cf. the ridiculous ferry disaster arc on Grey's Anatomy in which Meredith is dead for at least two full episodes and then is cheerily looking gorgeous and back to work in the next one . . . that was February sweeps after all!)

Channelling the West Wing

Tonight Studio 60 returned to burn off the episodes that have already been filmed, despite the show's sealed fate. And a funny thing happened. The show was good. I chuckled throughout. Another funny thing happened: the show was based on the amazing chemistry of Timothy Busfield and the lovely Allison Janney. And another thing: Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry had the night off. Literally, they didn't even make an appearance. And guess what? Timothy Busfield's Cal should have been the main character of the series. The show might have survived. Or maybe I just love the West Wing's Danny so much that the Studio 60 Danny (Bradley Whitford's character) never really had a shot. Still, I kept hoping that Cal would give Allison a goldfish or something. It was that good.

Updated: TV Squad disagrees. They missed Danny and Matt. (And come to think of it, it probably would have been fun to revisit the West Wing chemistry between Bradley and Allison, too.) But that's the thing about S60: no one seems to be able to agree about what's wrong with it, so no one was able to fix it. I'll just be content to watch the last few episodes, secure in the knowledge that my TiVo is not missing anything better when it records the show in this post-sweeps abyss of a tv schedule.