Studio 60 1.17 - The Disaster Show
May. 25th, 2007 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caz963I’ve missed my show. It’s sad that these are the last six episodes of Studio 60 we’ll ever see, so it’s a kind of bittersweet welcome back.
Anyway, this week…
The Good – Allison Janney and Tim Busfield – awesome.
The Bad – no Brad or Matt. (No Amanda Peet either, but that time I didn’t really care all that much…)
The Ugly – Simon and his dating habits. Meh. Whatever.
Cal tries to explain to the cast that the prop guys have gone on a “wild cat strike” – their contracts expire at midnight, but they’ve walked out because Danny said something a little“impolitic” and upset them.
What did he say?
He said ‘For the love of God, you’re just prop guys, you’re easily replaceable.’
Yeah, that’ll do it.
(I heard shades of Monty Python in that scene –
Cal: I can’t hear you if you all talk at once!
Everyone else in unison: WHY? (Hee! – “We are all individuals!”))
The cue card guys are part of the same union, and they’ve walked out as well.
So no props, no cue cards. This is, as Tom terms it later, a Disaster Show, something that happens every so often. When Allison says he seems pretty calm about it all, Tom points out - we know how to make it look like it’s your fault.
To make things worse, Jack arrives to inform Cal that a bomb threat was phoned into the studio – while Allison is doing her opening monologue without the aid of a net.
Seriously, has Allison Janney lost her mind?
(Quick expo to explain the absence of our guys - Danny’s in the parking lot trying some diplomacy and Matt is helping the cast write their lines on their hands. Apparently.)
Anyway, the bomb threat referenced a sketch featuring “Mohammed the Thin Skinned Prophet”, so they’re taking the threat seriously. Jack wants to clear the studio and air the dress rehearsal instead, but they can’t, because it didn't record properly. Red and green, but no blue.
Jack: If a bomb goes off after we got a warning, you know what’ll happen to our insurance premiums?
Cal: Yeah. Plus, people will get hurt.
Jack: I guess it would be fundamentally wrong of me to leave the building, get in my car and drive as far away as possible.
Cal: Yeah. I’m gonna go back to work.
Jack: You’ll try to broadcast in the full spectrum of colour?
Cal: Do my best.
Jack: Gonna be a good show tonight?
Cal: Don’t see how. (it’s all in the delivery!)
I’m gonna gloss over the stuff with Simon and the girlfriends, ‘cause, well. Meh. Although I just have to say this;
Lucy: You can’t just meet a girl and ask her to go to Hawaii.
Caz: No, that usually takes about nine years. :)
The bomb squad turns up with German Shepherd sniffer dogs who only speak German.
Jack turns up drunk.
I watched every episode, and ‘The West Wing’s’ never been better.
AJ: We’ve been off the air for over a year.
Jack: Loved you on ‘Chicago Hope’.
AJ: That was Christine Lahti.
Jack: Not my night.
Also – Harriet helpfully informs Jeannie that she can go out with Matt if she wants. Only, don’t go out with him. Except – yes, she can. But – oh, FFS, I’m with the cast, who don’t know how much more of this we can stand.
They got that right.
She says the reason she and Matt aren’t together now is because if a cast member was dating an executive producer, it would create tension.
Nobody thinks it would. No kidding.
Harriet thinks Matt doesn’t think that either. So it must be something else.
Please, God, let this part of it be over soon!
AJ as Miss Moneypenny – fabulous! She’s struggling valiantly with no props, no cue cards, no sound effects – the bit where she’s dressed as the gangster’s moll and fakes getting shot is hilarious.
I have to say I was delighted she was so well used in this – sometimes the guests are only in one or two scenes and it was great to have her on screen so much.
Anyway, they get the guys who phoned in the threat which was a hoax. When asked if they even know who Mohammed is…
Ali?
AJ loses it during the goodbyes when one of the sniffer dogs decides to sniff her crotch, and reels off the list of disasters that happened because Danny Tripp is an idiot! - but Cal turned her microphone off, so she’s coming off like a mad woman.
I loved that final scene. Between them, she and Tim Busfield kicked ass all episode, but that scene was just wonderful.
Tell me you still didn’t have the time of your life tonight
The look on her face when she smiles right at Cal through the camera and says thank you… I got a little teary, there.
A shorter episode than usual (36 minutes), but it still flew by. And I’d watch Allison Janney read the phone book.
One down, five to go…
Anyway, this week…
The Good – Allison Janney and Tim Busfield – awesome.
The Bad – no Brad or Matt. (No Amanda Peet either, but that time I didn’t really care all that much…)
The Ugly – Simon and his dating habits. Meh. Whatever.
Cal tries to explain to the cast that the prop guys have gone on a “wild cat strike” – their contracts expire at midnight, but they’ve walked out because Danny said something a little“impolitic” and upset them.
What did he say?
He said ‘For the love of God, you’re just prop guys, you’re easily replaceable.’
Yeah, that’ll do it.
(I heard shades of Monty Python in that scene –
Cal: I can’t hear you if you all talk at once!
Everyone else in unison: WHY? (Hee! – “We are all individuals!”))
The cue card guys are part of the same union, and they’ve walked out as well.
So no props, no cue cards. This is, as Tom terms it later, a Disaster Show, something that happens every so often. When Allison says he seems pretty calm about it all, Tom points out - we know how to make it look like it’s your fault.
To make things worse, Jack arrives to inform Cal that a bomb threat was phoned into the studio – while Allison is doing her opening monologue without the aid of a net.
Seriously, has Allison Janney lost her mind?
(Quick expo to explain the absence of our guys - Danny’s in the parking lot trying some diplomacy and Matt is helping the cast write their lines on their hands. Apparently.)
Anyway, the bomb threat referenced a sketch featuring “Mohammed the Thin Skinned Prophet”, so they’re taking the threat seriously. Jack wants to clear the studio and air the dress rehearsal instead, but they can’t, because it didn't record properly. Red and green, but no blue.
Jack: If a bomb goes off after we got a warning, you know what’ll happen to our insurance premiums?
Cal: Yeah. Plus, people will get hurt.
Jack: I guess it would be fundamentally wrong of me to leave the building, get in my car and drive as far away as possible.
Cal: Yeah. I’m gonna go back to work.
Jack: You’ll try to broadcast in the full spectrum of colour?
Cal: Do my best.
Jack: Gonna be a good show tonight?
Cal: Don’t see how. (it’s all in the delivery!)
I’m gonna gloss over the stuff with Simon and the girlfriends, ‘cause, well. Meh. Although I just have to say this;
Lucy: You can’t just meet a girl and ask her to go to Hawaii.
Caz: No, that usually takes about nine years. :)
The bomb squad turns up with German Shepherd sniffer dogs who only speak German.
Jack turns up drunk.
I watched every episode, and ‘The West Wing’s’ never been better.
AJ: We’ve been off the air for over a year.
Jack: Loved you on ‘Chicago Hope’.
AJ: That was Christine Lahti.
Jack: Not my night.
Also – Harriet helpfully informs Jeannie that she can go out with Matt if she wants. Only, don’t go out with him. Except – yes, she can. But – oh, FFS, I’m with the cast, who don’t know how much more of this we can stand.
They got that right.
She says the reason she and Matt aren’t together now is because if a cast member was dating an executive producer, it would create tension.
Nobody thinks it would. No kidding.
Harriet thinks Matt doesn’t think that either. So it must be something else.
Please, God, let this part of it be over soon!
AJ as Miss Moneypenny – fabulous! She’s struggling valiantly with no props, no cue cards, no sound effects – the bit where she’s dressed as the gangster’s moll and fakes getting shot is hilarious.
I have to say I was delighted she was so well used in this – sometimes the guests are only in one or two scenes and it was great to have her on screen so much.
Anyway, they get the guys who phoned in the threat which was a hoax. When asked if they even know who Mohammed is…
Ali?
AJ loses it during the goodbyes when one of the sniffer dogs decides to sniff her crotch, and reels off the list of disasters that happened because Danny Tripp is an idiot! - but Cal turned her microphone off, so she’s coming off like a mad woman.
I loved that final scene. Between them, she and Tim Busfield kicked ass all episode, but that scene was just wonderful.
Tell me you still didn’t have the time of your life tonight
The look on her face when she smiles right at Cal through the camera and says thank you… I got a little teary, there.
A shorter episode than usual (36 minutes), but it still flew by. And I’d watch Allison Janney read the phone book.
One down, five to go…
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-26 09:50 pm (UTC)Probably not, no. But HBO (a Warner Bros company) is in the middle of a major league wig out since Albrecht was fired. No Rome, no Sopranos. Bill Maher is about the only thing they've got left (Big Love sucks).
On the other thing...
I recently saw an interview with Perry from a while back where he says that he pushed Sorkin into more personal/romantic stories. So there it goes, friends. As much as I love Bradley in a romance, I don't think any of us will disagree that it happened too fast and that the Matt/Harriet thing went on too long.
You can all thank Matt Perry for the Gray's Anatomy writing Sorkin was forced into. Him and NBC.
Fuckers shoulda stayed away from the writer and let him do his thing, IMHO.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-28 09:04 am (UTC)Fuckers shoulda stayed away from the writer and let him do his thing, IMHO.
Yes, quite. I got nervous the minute I heard Sorkin was changing direction to focus on the romantic storylines. Not that I've objected to seeing Brad get to do the wooing thing, but it was too much too soon. And focusing on M/H and D/J meant we got far less of the relationship that had the real chemistry, far more than either of the romantic ones, the Matt/Danny one. And for my money, that was one of the biggest mistakes. We were all psyched to see these two play off each other, and it just didn't happen often enough.
On the one hand, I'm surprised that a writer of Sorkin's calibre and reputation would be forced into making changes, but then I guess NBC were paying his wages, so...
Who knows. Most of the press I'm seeing now is saying that sure, the show had problems, but that it's still better than most of the other stuff on TV.
Which is what we've been saying all along.
Why is it that networks seem somehow not able to hear "the public" when it says stuff like that, but manages to hear it say "we want more crappy reality TV?"
The mind boggles.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-28 03:01 pm (UTC)On the illiterate programming front, I suspect we're going to see a wider schism happen in the next few years between the original 3 networks and the rest of television. Reality shows pay the bills, it would seem, as long as DVR +7 ratings don't count. When technology can figure out a way for delayed viewing, and yes, even overseas downloads, to matter, then I'd like to believe that we'll see an upswing again of good stuff on the original 3.
In the meantime, basic and pay cable channels have stepped in with damn good stuff - TNT, F/X, SciFi, USA (4400 starts soon!), HBO (Rome is possibly the best television series I've ever seen besides West Wing), Showtime (Weeds is damn funny), etc.
I suspect I'm going to tell my Tv Writing class this fall NOT to write specs for any NBC, ABC, CBS series. It'd be a waste of time, the show will only get canceled.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-28 03:25 pm (UTC)Exactly. And how can the networks hope to get people to invest in their shows when there is this continual "fear" amongst viewers that it'll be cancelled? I've read lots of articles about that over the past few months, and it strikes me it's only going to get worse. I started watching Jericho - bit formulaic, but quite good, and discovered that's been cancelled after one season (and I don't know how it ended, yet, so don't know if the writers were able to wrap it up or not.) How many of the new shows from last Autumn got renewed? I can think of 30R (and that'll be in trouble if Alec Baldwin leaves), FNL (which I might d/l at some point if we don't get it here), Heroes (haven't seen it, although I like decent sci-fi), Ugly Betty (which I have been watching). I mean, ER and CSI can't live forever - they're going to need something to replace those shows soon!
no subject
Date: 2007-05-28 03:35 pm (UTC)The fear of investment is going to be huge this next year. HUGE. I was at the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' yearly award ceremony last week and I spoke at length with Ron Moore (BSG) about it. Unless the studios get off their high horses and stop being so greedy, the WGA is definitely going to strike. As well they should. Writers, actors and directors don't see a penny off of ITUNES downloads! (Which has me personally pissed for when they get into offering series like Star Trek: TNG -- that's money out of my pocket!).