Jun
2007
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
June 15th, 2007 at 09:41 am by wRitErsbLock in UncategorizedDid youse guys watch this show at all? I think they kept moving Studio 60 around to different time slots which prevented it from gaining an audience. The show has been canceled, but they’ve been airing the final episodes on Thursdays at 10p since too-liberal-for-me ER ended.
I always liked Studio 60. It had dry humor — jokes that were subtle that you maybe didn’t catch right away. I thought the writing was rather smart for a television show. And they mocked both the right and the left indiscriminately. In case you don’t know, the premise follows backstage of a SNL type show throughout the week with the writing of a show and politics in the network executives’ offices. Almost every week had me laughing and crying, because they touched on both emotional extremes for me.
A few episodes ago, one of the characters’s brother, an airman in Afghanistan, was kidnapped by enemy combatants. For two weeks we have agonized over the three abducted soldiers. The show has criticized the media for they way it covers the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They’ve mocked Christianity and Islam equally. And then, last night, they pissed me off.
The “writers” for their show-within-a-show were in the writing room, surfing for more information on the abducted airmen. One character (who also does car rental commercials) scoffed at a supposedly right-leaning blog he was on. He read aloud how this right-wing-nut-job mocked Hollywood, the media, and the kidnapped airmen. We bristled. Sherlock said, “No. No right-wing blog would say that because every right-wing blog I’ve visited, no matter how they feel about the war, would not mock our troops like that. They support the troops first and foremost.” (I think they said the blog pointed out how god was punishing for [insert Jerry Falwell mumbo-jumbo here].) I said, “perhaps it’s Fred Phelp’s site?”
Yes, I know, in tv land, it’s not a real blog anyway.
But then… then… one of the other characters said, “Is that the Pajama People?” Yes, yes it is.
THE PAJAMA PEOPLE? Are you kidding me? Seriously, you’re going to accuse Pajamas Media of that kind of garbage? Have the writers even been to any of the Pajamas Media blogs? Holy crap! I’m friends (both virtually and in reality) with some of the Pajamas Media bloggers, and none of them would ever post the kind of trash this television show was talking about. Now, the Kos Kids absolutely would, but not PJM.
I think last night’s episode was their final. I’d be out anyway.
Welcome to Pereiraville! I'm wRitErsbLock; I'm a runner who lives in Central Florida. Make yourself comfortable, comment often, and try not to spill your wine. Enjoy your stay!
Your 2¢
I understood it as a remark about all bloggers, because I first saw the pajama references on Instapundit, long before Pajamas Media started up. Something about an MSM journalist saying bloggers were just sitting home making things up in their pajamas and posting them on the Web.
Good thing I didn’t watch that, I would’ve been incensed, and that’s bad for my blood pressure.
But, we have to say that, of course. It’s like Rosie saying that Christian radicals are just as dangerous as Islamic radicals. We have to point out to the ignorant masses how hate-filled, venomous, and ignorant we right leaning bloggers are.
Actually, the Pajamas reference first came into play by an angry politician (I’ll give you 1 guess) during the 2004 election, as a derogatory reference on bloggers and their negative impact on the elections.
Though I highly respect Instapundit, I must point out that he only echoed the politician’s phrase. Dan Rather glaring bias then fueled a number of bloggers to join forces to counter the bias in news coverage. A number of names were considered for this merry band of citizen journalist to rally behind, but none was more representative and meaningful than Pajamas Media. And thus, baby right wing journalists were born.
The new batch is currently being weened on Instapundit and Malkin.
Insty didn’t just echo the term, he (and others) co-opted it, turning it from a pejorative to an ironic badge of honor.
BTW, the originator of the term wasn’t a politician per se; it was Jonathan Klein, former CBS exec and current CNN president.
LONG STORY,
THE WRITER OF STUDIO 60 ATTACKED THE PEOPLE SNIPING AT HIM WHEN HE WROTE THE WEST WING AS “SITTING AT HOME IN THEIR MU-MU’S CHAIN SMOKING THEIR PARLIEMENTS” HOW DARE THEY CRITIZE HIM, THE MAN IN THE ARENA. GREAT WRITER, BUT NEEDS TO ADJUST HIS SENSITIVITY METER. I BET PAJAMAS =MU-MU TO HIM. THE FUNNY THING IS THAT CRITICISM WASN’T ABOUT THE WEST WING’S POLITICS BUT ABOUT THE ARTISTIC ISSUES
The problem with S60 was that the sketch comedy part just wasn’t funny. Sure, the uberhypersuperfasttalking banter was amusing, but when they were doing the show-within-the-show, it was as lame as SNL at it’s lowest point.
Oh, yeah, that and how each and every show had some deep philosophical point about Sorkin’s own life. ‘Cause, that had enough material for nearly half a season.
I liked the container episode a couple of weeks ago -”The Disaster” - that was all the supporting cast, and none of the stars. It was better.
It was like “Jericho.” I wanted to like it. I tried. But the writers in both cases had so much contempt for the audience, I couldn’t take it.
S60 never had a chance in this household. Too many people involved in it are on our boycott list.
Yes, we have quite a boycott list. Saves us a lot of time and high blood pressure.
S60 took a great premise and a great cast and dedicated it to a transparent allegory about Sorkin’s relationship with Kristen Chenoweth (he’s the militant atheist/leftist show runner, she’s the cute Christian/Republican actress who posed for Maxim, I’m sure you understand 90% of S60’s plot lines now). By the time they got to an episode centered around something else it was already canceled.
The only saving grace was Jack the sleazy network exec. He should get his own spinoff show.
Also, “pajama people” I take as a generic reference, not a PJM shoutout.
Sorkin’s still pissed off about an incident that happened way back when West Wing was still good. He stole part of a script from something he said he either received in an email or found on the internet somewhere. It was in the episode where the Dr. Laura clone met the president and stayed seated in his presence.
He was raked over the coals on various internet sites for that, and never forgot it, and has been picking on bloggers ever since. Then there’s the whole “How dare they bring down Dan Rather?” attitude among many of the elitists (left and right, if you ask me).
I’d reference the link, but that’s far more effort than the comment deserves. I’m sure you could find it in Google somewhere.
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