Studio 60: Burning it Off

Oh Studio 60, such promise...

Loved this show, loved it when it came out, loved it when it got crammed in a crappy timeslot and I still loved it when it got put on a mega-hiatus.

Then the rumors started to fly that the show was done, canceled, that Matt Albie and Danny Tripp were not long for this world.

When the axe finally came down, I was disappointed, mostly because I felt this show had so much promise, even if it took itself waaaaay too seriously. Every week we were faced with these moral dilemmas that somehow dovetailed into comedy sketches. The heavy worked on West Wing, because what those characters were doing was actually important, running the free world and all. But on Studio 60, it just felt very contrived.

Last year, around this time, we all learned that there were going to be two behind-the-scenes comedy sketch shows. One run by Aaron Sorkin, Emmy winning writer and producer, the other by Tina Fey (who I love btw) who used fart and poop jokes on a regular basis for the last few years on SNL.

Seemed pretty clear cut that Tina was going to get her fifteen minutes in the primetime sun and be back to writing romantic comedies for the teenage set by now, but somehow, that didn't quite happen.

And it was because 30 Rock didn't take itself so seriously, it jabbed at everything in the right way, and Tina (God love her) made herself the butt the majority of the jokes, humanizing her even more than she already was.

So here we are, a year later, Tina's show has been picked up for a second season, and the sets of Studio 60 are sitting out back in the dumpster, the remaining episodes being burned off at a time when everyone is completely TV'd out.

A sad ending to a show that I still like, and a show I really wished they had tried to shift around the schedule and find a good place for. Monday at 10 clearly wasn't a good fit, but nothing else was tried. Kind of like Andy Barker, almost felt like they gave up on it before it even got started.

With the star power they had, the names behind the camera, and putting pen to paper, it could have been so much more. But maybe that was the whole problem, the money it took to make this show didn't pay off with ratings or ad buys...and that's what it really comes down to.

And I don't want to get into this too much, at the risk of offending people, but I honestly think on top of the money, the star power, the expectations it fell short of...Studio 60 was just too damn smart for popular consumption...

Aaron Sorkin will be back, somewhere, sometime, so will Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, so will most of the rest, but for Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan and the gang over at 30 Rock, this was kind of their only shot, and they nailed it.

I'll enjoy watching you burn off Studio 60...hopefully something like you comes along again, but the next time, I hope people are ready...

After the Seasons are through...

Well all the major finales have come and gone, some were absolutely stellar (Lost, The Simpsons 400th episode special) and some were not so stellar (Heroes, Grey's Anatomy).

Either way, the schedule is clear until at least September, and for Lost (sob), February. We are about to be run through the gamut of reality television for the next few months, with the only really appetizing shows being, in my opinion at least, Last Comic Standing and Big Brother. I will most likely be reviewing both, but I did try to make a pledge not to watch BB this year, as it generally ends up completely overtaking my life in the summertime, but we'll see how that goes.

What this really means though is that I'll be diversifying things a bit here, adding more book and movie reviews, as well as any crazy ramblings fir for public consumption.

To anyone that has been to this page (all one of you lol), hopefully you like the changes and are still interested by what I have to say.