Studio 60 Fodder

Studio 60: The Long Lead Story

We open with Matt struggling to write the week's episode. Martha is continuing her story for "Vanity Fair," and the fact that she's just staring at him as he writes isn't helping. Martha's been tailing Matt for five days, and she wants to suck him into a conversation about Harriet. He makes a $100 bet with her that she won't be able to. We know where this going.

It would be nice for Studio 60 to be a little better about telegraphing where storylines are going so blatantly.

Danny and Jordan meet at a bar. Trevor Laughlin has written a pilot, and HBO wants it. Jordan wants Danny to help convince Trevor to sell the show to NBS instead; Danny won't.

Back at the studio, Studio 60 is rehearsing. Harriet's doing a passable Nancy Grace impersonation. (And, to her credit, she's funny.) We see a lot of the mechanics of putting together ambitious sketch shows like this one, and to those of you who -- like me -- love behind-the-scenes stuff -- it's just fascinating!

After the rehearsal ends, Martha singles out Harriet. Harriet suggests she talk to the PA's and interns for the real scoop on the inner workings on the show. Martha indicates that she has every intention of doing so -- but for now, she wants to know more about Harriet. We learn all sorts of Harriet tidbits -- that Harriet is her middle name and her first is "Hannah," that her father and brothers weren't very religious, but that her mother had success "bringing [her] to Christ." We learn that Harriet (like yours truly!) attended the Groundlings school in LA, where Danny "discovered" her.

Musical guest Sting's sound check interrupts the interview; Martha wants to see the music legend in the flesh. In my opinion, the interview scene should have ended a few minutes earlier; Harriet's backstory just wasn't that groundbreaking or earth-shattering.

But, oh! It continues. Martha turns back to Harriet and points out that Matt didn't achieve success on Studio 60 until Harriet joined the cast. Martha wants to know if that's a coincidence… Or something else. Harriet indicates that she doesn't question her success -- or Matt's. Martha's last question of the night to Harriet: "How are you different from your mother?" Response: "I hope, in as few ways as possible."

We're now in a "network brass" meeting. Someone named Martin is pitching Jordan and Jack on a new reality show called "Search and Destroy." Jack's pissed that Jordan didn't "love Martin up" enough. Jordan told him she didn't for good reason -- she intends to pass on the show. Jack thinks she's passing on the show because some of its components (using private investigators to dig up gossip on the contestants) negatively mirrors the bad press Jordan has been dealing with for the past few days. Jordan, however, insists that she's passing for another reason altogether: The show is "toxic."

Personally, I don't see how Jordan can stand her job. It seems Jack is constantly standing over her shoulder, second-guessing her decisions, and trying to tell her what to do. If that's what he wants, why didn't he assume her role instead of hiring her? Anyone else feeling me here? (On a nicer note, Jordan does some great accents in this scene. And Amanda Peet looks hotter than usual, too.)

The scene ends with Jordan telling Jack that she can veto any show she wants, and only Wilson White can overrule her. (Note to those of you fretting "Who the hell is Wilson White?" First of all, clean up your language. Second of all, he's Ed Asner's character, whom we first met in the pilot. Wilson is the chairmen of Tunney Media Group, the parent company of NBS... i.e., the "GE" equivalent for NBC.)

Jack tells Jordan to meet him in his office tonight for a meeting with Wilson, then. That's a challenge for Jordan, who had planned to escort Trevor (the guy with the pilot HBO wants to buy) to Studio 60's taping tonight. But that's her problem. Jordan's gotta be in Jack's office at 9.

Back in the studio, we're seeing the rehearsal. Specifically, a sketch with guest host Lauren Graham, of Gilmore Girls fame. It's a skit about mom's pressuring their friends to have babies.

Tom is explaining to the rehearsal audience what happens now -- specifically, the "Friday Night Slaughter," where Matt and Danny pick which sketches won't make the cut for tonight's live broadcast. We cut to that, which goes… painfully.

Suzanne, a PA, pulls Tom aside. She confides in him that she told Martha the story (from a week ago) of Matt attempting to get the signed boot to make Martha jealous, and only after she finsihed spilling Matt's story did she realize what a mistake it was. Tom tells her that he'll take care of it. I, for one, am intrigued. How's he gonna do that? Does he have dirt on Martha? Like, photos of nude intimacy with farm animals dirt? I'm staying tuned!

And before we find out the answer… Matt and Danny meet up again. Matt's still stressed that the show isn't funny enough. Danny instead focuses on Matt's need to find a rebound girl.

It's 30 minutes till air. Tom's working on his impersonations when Martha knocks on his dressing room door. He doesn't ask Martha not to write the story of Matt getting the boot to retaliate for Harriet's bat gift. (Read the previous episode recaps if this is leaving you confused, my friends.) Instead, Tom asks Martha to attribute the story to him, and not the PA who first told it to her. Tom adds that Matt didn't even give Harriet the boot.

Tom catches up Simon on these goings-on. Simon wants to know if Martha knows about the 700 Club, the Star Spangled Banner, Jeannie -- all incidences between Matt and Harriet that we've actually heard about in the first episodes. Tom doesn't know what Martha knows. Simon tells Tom that only he (Simon) knows how to handle the press, and that he'll take care of things.

Simon, of course, was mic'd during this exchange, and Martha's heard it all on her monitors. Whoops!

Meanwhile, Jordan and Jack are now meeting with Wilson. Ed Asner as Wilson is -- as expected -- awesome. "The better our shows are, the more money we're gonna make," Jordan says, in her defense of her position that even though the show will be a hit for someone, it doesn't belong on NBS's air as they try to rebrand the network as a home of quality. And, amazingly -- because this is a Sorkin show -- Jordan wins. Woohoo again!

The show's on the air, and we see more than we need to of a Nicolas Cage-focused skit. The Cage impersonation is the only funny part we see. Is the sketch's weakness intentional, since Matt's been fretting about show quality? I'd like to think so… except we hear the audience in hysterics, so I'm thinking we're supposed to believe that it's comic gold. Oh well.

Meanwhile, as Simon and Harriet prep for News 60 and I search for synonyms for "meanwhile," Simon comes clean with Harriet about the fact that details of her personal life have been leaked to the reporter.

Danny learns that Jordan passed on the reality show pitch we saw earlier. It's left unspoken that this is somewhat impressive to Danny, who realizes Jordan really is focused more on quality than on ratings. It is also left unspoken that Studio 60 has a lot of plotlines, and no sane person should ever take on writing episode-by-episode recaps and reviews. (It is thus fortunate that I, dear friends, am far from sane.)

Martha comes to Matt's office to say goodbye for a few weeks -- she's gotta go cover some Congressional races or something. Matt writes out a check to Martha for $100. "What's this for?" she asks. Matt's lost the bet; he's about to talk about Harriet. He broke out on the show when Harriet joined the cast for one simple reason: He was trying to impress her.

Meanwhile, my thesaurus is coming up empty, and Jordan is meeting up with Trevor (stay with me people; he's the writer of the HBO-esque pilot). She pitches Trevor hard when Danny interrupts. Jordan worries that Danny's advising him to take the show to HBO, but we know better. In fact, Danny convinces Trevor to sell the show to NBS. Jordan's pleased.

Lauren Graham introduces musical guest Sting and his lute. I grab a glass of chocolate milk -- wow, it's just like an SNL musical guest!

Harriet meets up with Matt. During Sting's song. I stop fast-forwarding the TiVo. (Ouch, two anti-Sting jokes in two paragraphs. Hopefully, I won't get stung.) I should stop being self-referential; Harry and Matt are sharing a personal moment. But not too personal: The man behind the baseball bat is meeting Harriet at the wrap party, and Danny's still trying to find Matt a rebound girl. "You knock my socks off," Harriet tells Matt. They share an intimate moment, but no kiss. Their relationship, as we've known since approximately a quarter-century (or at least since the pilot), is over.

… As is the episode!

Lauren Graham seemed woefully underused; I thought for sure she'd get some rapid-fire Sorkin dialogue to spit out, but no such luck. Overall, this episode struck me as a bit too Sorkinesque in the negative way -- characters with incredible morals winning out over good sense, as well as evil.

But the previews for next week look good.

What'd you think?

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Tags: studio_60 matt harriet jordan martha

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Posted by Lex on October 16, 2006 11:01 PM
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