The Onion's Weekly Fake Magazine Cover Speaks to the Studio 60 Fan in Me

The Onion’s weekly fake magazine cover speaks to the Studio 60 fan in me

Studio 60 Gets Full Season

Studio 60 Gets Full Season

The Onion AV Club on Studio 60

The Onion AV Club, writing about the new fall season:

Every other scene seems to be Matthew Perry or Bradley Whitford congratulating each other on their genius or talking about the genius of Sarah Paulson’s character.

They’re not wrong here. Sports Night’s characters all cared deeply about their show, but they had fun doing it. On The West Wing, everyone knew what they were doing really was important, and the hours and dedication that they put in match what their real world counterparts do. On Studio 60 it feels like no one told the cast that comedy is supposed to be fun.

Paulson is fine in the role, but the sketches just aren’t there. It’s like a movie that spends all its time talking about the genius of a painter who only draws stick men.

Entirely true. On Sports Night, making the show look good just involved showing Dan and Casey having some fun on the air talking about fictitious games. On Studio 60, you can’t show the audience cracking up and have Danny patting Matt on the back about how funny a sketch is if it isn’t actually that funny. Example: would Nate Corddry’s lobster suit gag from this week been nearly as funny if we had just seen the sketch with him in it? No, what was funny was seeing him taking a nap on the couch in the costume.

I’m still loving the show, though.

Studio 60 and Allusion 1

Studio 60 and Allusion 1

Though I’m really liking Studio 60, I have a hard time seeing past Sorkin being Sorkin. Last night I just kept thinking that the reporter was written exactly like CJ from The West Wing. People in his shows all act like they could only exist in the Sorkinv

The knowing charms of Studio 60

The knowing charms of Studio 60

Slate’s take on Studio 60, which I adore. (Slate’s a little slow right now. If you get an error, just wait for it to reload.)

SNL 32

Yikes. The season premier of Saturday Night Live does not bode well for the year. The show had been doing pretty well in the past two years, but there wasn’t one funny sketch on last night, though I do have to give them credit for making fun of themselves at the end of the water bottle bit. the references to Studio 60 and 30 Rock were astute, but served to remind me that the two shows about fake SNL shows are going to be better than the actual thing.

Surprise move: NBC reshuffles fall schedule

Surprise move: NBC reshuffles fall schedule

I link to this because it shows that not all TV executives are idiots. Putting a new show against CSI was dumb, but putting it against CSI plus Grey’s Anatomy would have killed it. I’ll totally watch Studio 60 on Monday nights.