Wednesday, October 26, 2011

YOUR BROTHER IS STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF AFGHANISTAN: We may have long ago said everything that we can possibly say, so we turn to the AV Club's Nathan Rabin to figure out why everyone kept talking about about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip so damn much:
Here’s the ultimate tragedy of Studio 60: For decades, comedy lovers have bemoaned that comedy is never taken seriously. Comedies are ghettoized. They’re ignored at the Academy Awards and dismissed by critics. So it should have been a good thing when a serious man finally came along to take comedy seriously. But Studio 60 takes comedy so seriously it goes full circle and becomes comic...



We know that one of the things Studio 60, the show within the show, does is tell people what’s cool, because one of the characters says, “One of the things this show does is decide what’s cool.” And what does Studio 60 think is cool? A good illustration of the show’s sensibility can be found in its guest stars. Even in the lean years, Saturday Night Live is able to get big names that almost invariably skew young. In Studio 60’s world, the kids are apparently crazy about guest stars like Rob Reiner (the show gets its best ratings in 14 years for an episode Reiner hosts), Felicity Huffman, a lute-playing Sting, Corinne Bailey Rae, Allison Janney, and the Asian guy from Heroes, who was once apparently big enough to be faintly plausible as the host of a popular late-night sketch show.

These are not the entertainment choices of young people. These are the entertainment choices of a wealthy, middle-aged man. That speaks to another of Studio 60’s fatal flaws: It’s too old. Saturday Night Live does not represent the sensibility of Lorne Michaels. It represents the combined sensibilities of a bunch of hyped-up, oversexed twentysomethings desperate to impress the big boss. Studio 60, in sharp contrast, has the sensibility of a wealthy middle-aged man desperately trying to channel the personality of hyped-up, oversexed twentysomethings desperately trying to impress the big boss.

11 comments:

  1. Chin Music6:19 PM

    Two things, neither of which is really on topic.  First, why is there so much chatter about Studio 60 on the Internets recently?  Second, regarding the comment on SNL's sensibility, this puts a finger on exactly what has been striking me about Jason Sudeikis this season.  He seems too grown up, too adult for the show.  He is surely not too old for the show, being nearly a decade younger than Armisen and only 2-3 years older than Thompson/Hader/Moynihan/Sanmberg, but something about him seems to run contrary to Rabin's (probably correct) description of the sensibility of SNL.    

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  2. Well, the remarkable durability of Darrell Hammond also fits into that question, but this week's revelations suggest Lorne may have kept him around to provide some stability for Hammond's incredibly troubled life.

    Also, Sudeikis will seem young again once they bring back What's Up With That.

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  3. Fred App7:43 PM

    I dispute the premise that "everyone kept talking about Studio 60 so damn much." Everyone wasn't talking about it. Not even a lot of people were talking about it. The vast, vast, vast majority couldn't care a whit about it -- a fact borne out by the ratings. I think there's a small group of people -- the kind that some politicians would mock as "elitist" -- who talked about it a lot, and maybe they're disproportionately represented on blogs, or at least on the blogs that those of us here read.

    But, seriously. It was a bad show that had a short run and has been off the air for years. I can't think of many more wastes of time than continuing to talk about it.

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  4. Big Joe9:13 PM

    For all of its flaws, they did release a very nice version of "O Holy Night" from Troy Andrews with their Christmas episode.  It was a nice tie to the story that week and it is the one enduring memory I have of the series.

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  5. isaac_spaceman9:25 PM

    I think Chin Music is exactly right about Sudeikis in a way that I've never really put my finger on, so kudos to you, musical chin. 

    Also, Sudeikis's girlfriends (January Jones?  Ashley Olsen?) creep me out.

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  6. 1.  As I noted on Twitter this morning, Sudekis' apparent irresistibility to attractive women simultaneously freaks me out and gives me hope.

    2.  I think part of the reason Studio 60 still has this strange following is that it's a fascinating failure--the pilot script was sensational (though the tweaks made before it aired weakened it a fair bit), there was immense talent both behind the camera (Sorkin, Schlamme) and in front of it (the cast has all turned in interesting work either subsequently or later), yet it turned out to be a complete mess.  It's the sort of work that Rabin's column is precisely tailored to.  (On Twitter, he's indicated installment #2 will be John From Cincinnati.)

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  7. Benner9:13 AM

    It was noticeable in his guest turn on Always Sunny.  I just didn't believe he would ever have been part of the Gang.  He looks at least as old as Armisen, but it's also in the way he acts -- a lot of economy of movement, and his style of humor is un-Sambergian manic.  Why he was so good dating Liz Lemon.  

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  8. Rebecca9:32 AM

    In the words of Mr. Jeremy Goodwin, "<span>It's worth it, I think, to figure out... exactly how this boat, that was supposed to win... met with this kind of disaster."</span>

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  9. Marsha12:40 PM

    Rabin left out one absolutely critical fact about Studio 60 - it introduced me to the amazingness that is Merritt Wever.

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  10. Hannah Lee6:00 PM

    I don't really think about S60 much anymore, but when I do, it makes me sad.  So much talent, so much potential ...   so much unwatchable television.

    And, as much as I shake my head about the whole "middle of Afghanistan" nonsense, what really made me lose my affection for the show was its cheery depiction of Danny's stalkerish "romantic" pursuit of Jordan.  Just thinking about that "I'm coming for you Jordan!" speech of his still makes me uneasy.

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  11. Yes -- I mean, that's somewhat typical in the rom-com world ("I'll just keep sending her stuff until she realizes I'm the one!") but it was taken to new lows in S60.   I recently rewatched the series and it was stunninng to remember how many times Danny undermined Jordan professionally, all in the service of showing his affection.  And her sudden turnaround was completely unbelievable.  Yuk.

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