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Studio 60 Fodder

Studio 60: The West Coast Delay

"The West Coast Delay"

The show tried something a bit different tonight, so I'll follow suit: Rather than providing a blow-by-blow account of the episode, I'm going to provide a briefer summary. Let me know if you prefer this way or the "old" recaps -- I aim to please!

We start off later in the week than we have before -- it's Thursday night. Ricky and Ron in the writers room have been tasked (by Matt) with writing 90 seconds for tomorrow's show. It's a ridiculously small amount of writing -- insulting even -- but Ron knows that they have to write something great. To contribute only 90 seconds and have them suck would be very bad. A writer named Hal pitches a good run for Simon to do during News 60, and the room is surprised by how good it is. Apparently, Hal isn't usually funny.

Harriet and Matt, meanwhile, are having a row in his office. She wants to ensure that they're over each other, and that Matt has no plans to win her back. He insists that yes, she can have closure -- he's done. Harriet then gives him a baseball bat that she doesn't realize had been given to her as a "cocktail napkin" of sorts, complete with the number of the baseball player who gave it to her. Matt's jealous, and Harriet leaves angry.

On the upside, when Ricky and Ron deliver their 90 seconds based on Hal's bit, Matt agrees it's funny.


After the commercial, we see Jordan lunching with guest star Christine Lahti, who's playing Martha, a vaguely-defined reporter of some sort. Jordan's worried about what her ex-husband will write in his Internet postings about their time together when they were married. Martha tries to give her some moral support.

Back in the studio, the cast is hanging out in Harriet's room. She's still reeling from the "bat" incident. Matt enters and gives Simon the 90 second bit; Simon wanted to do some of his own stuff, but Matt tells him to do this. Ricky and Ron, to their credit, tell Simon the bit was from the whole writers room, and not just written by them.

Tom walks out with Matt, trying to offer some advice on the Harriet situation. Matt's having trouble writing the last 12 minutes, and Tom talks through his own love issues while ostensibly advising Matt. After the talk, Matt's convinced to do something that's probably stupid.

He heads over to the Studio 60 world's version of the Pussycat Dolls ("The Bombshell Babies") to see someone from his past -- Wendy. He gets Wendy to sign a boot with her number which he can later use to try to get back at Harriet. Wendy advises him that the boot is lame, and that he should take a stand with Harriet instead. Matt leaves the boot and heads back to write the rest of the show.


After the next commercial break, it's Friday morning. Matt's walking around the studio with a basketball in his hand. He finds Tom and wakes him up. He confides in Tom about how he's still longing for Harriet when she performs, and tells Tom that the "boot" idea was stupid.

We get a glimpse of Cal, who's rehearsing a "Meet the Press" skit starring Harriet as Juliette Lewis. (Perhaps we see so little of Cal because Timothy Busfield, who plays him, actually directed this episode.) Surprisingly, it's only at this point in the episode -- 25 minutes in -- that we first see Bradley Whitford as Danny.

Jordan's come to see him. Martha, whom we met before, is a reporter for Vanity Fair. She's writing a story on Studio 60, and wants full access. Danny, and later Matt, give her permission. (This decision is partially motivated by the fact that 1 of VF's affluent readers is worth 5 "average" viewers for the show, and partially by the fact that Martha has nice breasts.)


Now it's Friday night. Simon mentions to Matt that the decision to have Simon do the Ricky & Ron bit was a good one. Matt, meanwhile, is stressing more about Harriet's rebound boyfriend -- the baseball player, who's somewhere in the audience. Throughout this scene, unfortunately, I remained perpetually distracted by that "countdown to showtime" clock in Matt's office. Though they try valiantly, the clock just isn't always consistent between cuts, and it drives me batty.


Anyway, out in the parking lot, Jordan learns from her assistant that her ex is going on Geraldo on Monday. She explains to her assistant why she's not responding to any of the ex's allegations -- not the true ones, and not the false ones either. She doesn't want to prolong the story, or stoop to his level.

Back at the studio, the show's going well: Simon delivers the 90 seconds and gets some nice laughs during News 60. Matt's wandering around during the show; he's having some major Harriet issues. Simon thanks Ricky and Ron for the bit, but the duo still wants to write more of the show.


But after the goodnights, Martha, the reporter, points something out to Danny. She's been monitoring the 'net for some real-time feedback on the show (a parallel world of TVFodder.com, perhaps?), and has seen scattered postings about the fact that a portion of tonight's show was plagiarized from another comic. Which portion?

If I told you it was exactly 90 seconds, would that help? Seems that Hal didn't suddenly get funny. He got crafty.

Danny makes a call: Get the audience out, but the cast and crew stay. And he needs, of course, Jordan and reps from Legal right away. Uh-oh.


Now, of course, the episode's title becomes more clear. Danny wants to replace the 90-seconds of stolen material before the show airs in the West Coast (where it's shown on tape-delay).


After commercial, Matt's feeling energized, and wants to go take a stand with Harriet. Tom tries to convince him not to. He's on the post-show high, he's her boss, etc. Matt storms into Harriet's dressing room, and of course sees her smooching with the ballplayer. Matt tries to back out quietly, but knocks over a large suit of armor and clangs plenty of attention. He awkwardly tries to leave, Harriet awkwardly tries to claim it's not what it looks like, but a PA mercifully puts them both out of their misery by telling Matt that Danny needs him right away.

It turns out that Harriet and Simon will need to do their entire News 60 segment again; they can't cut into the middle to replace the plagiarized part. Matt wants to find Lenny Gold, the comedian behind the original bit, and get him to perform the segment for the West Coast. If he can't be found, Matt will write a new 90 seconds for Simon, of which the first 30 will be an apology. They'll need an audience in the studio to laugh at the right moments during News 60, and Matt won't use a laugh track. Danny tosses out a few $20 (others -- including Martha -- pitch in), and says that staff from the show should go out, bills in hand, and bribe folks into the studio audience.

Jordan seeks some reassurance from Cal that this will work. Cal mentions it's never been done before on Studio 60, but he projects optimism nonetheless.

Danny storms into Ricky and Ron and asks them about it. Danny wants to know who did this; Ricky and Ron say it was "the room" and want to take the blame on themselves. They won't say who did it, and they claim that they'll tender their resignations if Danny wants. Danny sends them out to find more audience members.


Simon, of course, is furious. He worked as a comic for awhile while living pretty poorly, and he never stole a joke. Matt points out he didn't steal one tonight, either. Harriet chooses this moment to try to explain to Matt what happened with the ballplayer. Her timing sucks. (Note to Aaron Sorkin: Do you plan to make Harriet likable at some point, or only talk about how likable / talented / funny she is?)


Danny has a chat with the VF reporter who wants to know how this could have happened. Danny blames himself; he told Matt to start getting material from the writers room, and Matt did -- and got burned. Danny then chats quickly with Harriet, telling her to calm down Simon before they break into the West Coast feed for the news, and to try not to make out with athletes in front of Matt.


The stage crew fills in the audience for the News 60 -- it includes various scary people you'd expect to see this late at night in LA -- gang members, prostitutes, and the like. Simon delivers an eloquent apology that Danny's written.


Ricky and Ron go to see Matt. They won't give up the plagiarizer, because they don't want to end his career. The staff writers are scared for their jobs with Matt writing virtually everything, and Ricky/Ron imply that it's that atmosphere that contributed to the incident. "Well," Matt says, "now you've got my respect."


That's when word comes in that Lenny Gold has admitted he didn't write the bit either. He first heard it years ago, from a guy named Benjamin Barkley. Matt calls down to Danny. They're going to break in again, because they attributed the joke on the air to the wrong guy.


Once they do that, they finally figure out that Benny Barkley actually wrote for the show one year. And that he wrote the bit while he worked for the show. They owned it the whole time.


In conclusion, another stellar episode. The real show has been losing viewers each week, so if you're as big a fan as I am, please encourage your Nielsen-Family friends to start watching "Studio 60." I'm having too much fun watching this one to let it go to the Good Show Graveyard.

Kudos especially to DL Hughley (Simon), who has been extremely consistent in his role and makes his character very, very believable.


So -- what'd you think?


Posted by Lex on October 9, 2006 11:15 PM
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They finally took the cuffs off Matthew Perry. His character finally took some shape and ruled the episode. ALot more interation between characters, especially Hughly's character. Less of the corporate stuff, alomst all show related material. I was pleased.

-- Posted by: Matt at October 10, 2006 9:24 AM

Exactly - about the Harriet stuff - I keep wondering? What's the big deal with her? (We figure she must be great in bed - but what about the rest? Or does there need to be "the rest" in that case?)

When will we see how funny? talented? terrific she is? It's actually painful how unfunny, untalented, unterrific she is.

Love Matt - love the show. I was also surprised/dismayed to hear that it's not doing well. Don't have any of those Nielsen friends - who are they anyway?

So far I agree with most of what you say about the show - so would love to hear more of your opinions - less of the actual recap.I'm a huge fan of snark!

Didn't know Tim B. directed this one - he was the most stiff that I've seen him but I guess that would figure and one more thing - there was so much "walk and talk" this time that I was getting seasick.

-- Posted by: Love the Show at October 10, 2006 9:38 AM

I enjoyed the last half of this show, as the plagiarism debate raged (and then quelled, and then raged, and then quelled). The first half was a little lacking -- like others I'm not really sold on Harry and I think she's a lynchpin to the relationship aspects of the show.

However, I AM very happy to see Lucy Davis from the original "Office."

-- Posted by: mac at October 10, 2006 12:33 PM

They totally have to do something about Harriet - especially since I'd marry Matt in a heartbeat! So if they get rid of her - they can always give me a call.

Next week looks terrific! (look for me in the last few seconds - just kidding!)

-- Posted by: Love the Show at October 10, 2006 7:48 PM

Enjoyed it more than last week's ep. It looks like it's finally starting to find itself.

The Strindberg reference didn't really work.

Harriet is still uninteresting and unlikeable.

Thought the plagiarism aspect was weak. Didn't like the resolution.

-- Posted by: xedout at October 10, 2006 11:45 PM

I actually liked the Strindberg reference and thought it was good. Sorkin started out as a playwright - and from the way Danny described Matt "he started out writing alone" I'm guessing Matt did too. So from that angle I liked it.

What never ceases to amaze me is the amount of people that they have sitting in one room coming up with SO MUCH BAD stuff.
And this while they're stoned and drunk (the dialogue mentioned that too this episode) - maybe they should try writing it sober. Worse? Could it happen?

I agree - Harriet remains "un".

BTW - what didn't you like about the resolution?

-- Posted by: Love The Show at October 11, 2006 11:35 AM

Most viewers would go 'what the' at the Strindberg reference. They would have no idea what it referenced. It didn't move the story along, didn't reveal anything about character.

I haven't read Strindberg in a while (I did focus on medieval and modern drama for my English degree).

I'm tired of the bad, unfunny jokes. All that so-called 'talent' is being paid quite a bit of money to come up with something.

Plagiarism is a very ugly word in Hollywood. And anywhere, not just in an academic setting. If a writer plagiarizes, chances are he or she will never work again. It could have been a really good 2-3 episode arc, but the deus ex machina ending of 'ooops, we own this' was used. The guilty writer should have been exposed and fired.

-- Posted by: xedout at October 11, 2006 3:33 PM

If Matt can't stand Ricky and Ron, then why didn't just take them up on their offer to resign? I agree that the guilty writer should have been fired...though once they found out that they owned the material, maybe just a suspension for half the season would have been sufficient.
And your "recap" was as good as your blow-by-blow accounts.

-- Posted by: Drducky at October 11, 2006 4:55 PM

Constructive dismissal? Slightly tarnishing Matt's reputation? Depends what sort of spin Ricky and Ron can come up with. And depends what's in their contract.

-- Posted by: xedout at October 11, 2006 5:07 PM

Hey xedout - gotcha on the Strindberg thing - didn't see it that way - I was being extremely selfish (I also started out as a playwright) and loving the line - I did think it added in a twisted sort of way.

I see what you mean about neatly wrapping it up in a pretty red bow at the end. While I love lines like the Strindberg stuff I try and suspend disbelief when it comes to tv and just go along with "yah- tv ending". You're right about it.

Good thought about making it a three or four segment issue.

-- Posted by: Love the Show at October 11, 2006 11:29 PM

Most people wouldn't 'get' the line. For better effect, it should have been written so that even if you knew very little about Strindberg, you might still get it and see how it fits in with what is going on.

Of course, the typical person who normally watches a Sorkin show is educated and well-off. They don't watch much TV and do go to see plays, musicals, and such. Some are truly knowledgeable and appreciative; some are snobs.

Playwriting, huh? I was encouraged to take that up back in my early university days. Not a particularly good option for a woman. My interest now is in screenwriting.

Intellectual property is a huge issue. It deserves more than short shrift. One point is that Sorkin has been borrowing from himself - if that can be taken as some sort of joke. However, you can look at the popularity of YouTube and some social software. Copyright and intellectual property and plagiarism are all very real and very accessible. It would be interesting to see how it is dealt with - lawsuits, loss of reputation, etc. Unfortunately, most life situations do not neatly resolve within 42 minutes.

-- Posted by: xedout at October 15, 2006 12:41 AM

Lots of talk about the bashing christians on Studio 60. Well its not knew for Sorkin. I recently rewatched the pilot of TWW and in it Bartlett throws right wing christians out of the whitehouse. Don't be shocked people.

-- Posted by: Matt at October 16, 2006 9:57 AM

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