Monday, October 30, 2006

It’s Showtime: Television: Studio Sixty on the Sunset Strip

Oh, oh, this can’t be a good sign! After a weekend of death rattles along the blogsphere about NBC’s supposed can’t miss hit show of the season, NBC picked this week to have the program disappear from its regular spot.

Normally Studio Sixty on the Sunset Strip airs on Monday nights (Sunday on CTV in Canada), first hint of something was last night when it failed to appear in its regular spot on the Canadian dial. A quick check of the Studio Sixty website informs viewers that tonight NBC would air an episode of its Friday Night Lights show, a program that has been struggling to find an audience despite its good reception from the critics. On the website, an all new episode of Studio Sixty is promised for next week!

For Studio Sixty however, the temporary (they hope) absence from the schedule will not help in the chatter on the internet about its impending demise. The Fox website suggests that the end is very nigh and Slate normally a high end friend to television shows wonders aloud if the show can even be saved!

It was supposed to be the ultimate in television insider shows, A West Wing type of program about a thinly veiled Saturday Night Live sketch show. It featured the drama behind the scenes, the battles for that cutting edge and the sub plot soap operas of the characters. Considering the pedigree it should have been a hit. The West Wing when it first came out was one of those must watch shows, people would block off the hour to watch, or make damn sure the VCR was working and had a tape in it to tape the show.

As the seasons of West Wing went on, the show began to stumble the original producers were tossed overboard and in the end the show was a mere shadow of what it once aspired to be. However that process took a number of years and more than a few Emmy awards to meet its end.

So far Studio Sixty has condensed all of that into less than seven weeks, without the Emmy awards to put on the mantle. The most crushing of lines regarding the show belongs to the above mentioned Fox story, as they put it, "Even worse: no one cares whether or not the people from the Bartlett White House puts on a comedy show. That's what 'Studio 60' is, essentially: the "West Wing" annual talent show. "

And judging by the reaction, a not very good talent show at that!

Last weeks episode was taken to the woodshed over at Television without Pity and you have to wonder if the folks at Brilliant But Cancelled might be planning a revision of their deathwatch odds.

Perhaps the show has gone in for a re-tooling, finding a way to make the show as cutting edge as was promised in those breathless promo days of August and early September.

The show so far has had a few good moments, Matthew Perry has pulled his weight on the show making the most of his character, Bradley Whitford has seemed to be slow out of the gate and truth be told he is still closely associated with his West Wing days, so parts of that character still pop up in his new gig at Studio Sixty.

As has been pointed out in many blog items over the last few weeks, the biggest problem seems to be the section of the program that is dedicated to the actual presentation of a show, it generally falls flat and seems like a tedious waste of television time. Look for the actual show part of the program to take an even greater backseat to the wanderings around the backstage in the episodes to come.

That is if there are many more episodes to come! One hopes that they sort out their problems on the show. Defying the critics of the blogosphere that are calling for an end to the stumbling show.

When Sorkin and Schlamme are on their game, they provide some of the fastest, funniest and provocative television there is, as with anything though when things go off the rails, you’re left with a train wreck.

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