Studio 60
(Update – Slate.com has a piece on Studio 60 here which I think completely misses the point. The issue of whether the comedy in Studio 60 should be funny or not is, in my opinion, irrelevant. I cannot recall a single moment in the show where a sketch actually was performed in full. Selected comedic moments appear merely to give the show a flavor of what it’s supposed to be about. Parabasis’ Isaac Butler disagrees in this regard. I find the “comedy” itself more a comment on the current state of comedy rather than something actually trying to be funny. The episode noted below has another subplot in which D.L. Hughley’s and Matthew Perry’s characters go searching for a new black staff writer for “the room.” Follow that subplot if you want to get a bit deeper into Sorkin’s thinking about the state of comedy. Criticizing a show for “not being funny” when it’s not trying to BE funny is a bit like criticizing an apple for not being an orange. -twl)
Watching my recorded episode of Studio 60 last night, I was struck with how much Aaron Sorkin was actually talking about theatre rather than anything else. The episode itself was such a homage to the past in theatre and television that I found myself dumbfounded by the end of it. Eli Wallach guest-stars and he is terrific. When was the last time you heard Clifford Odet’s name dropped on TV? Or the Hollywood Ten? Or an incredible description of the early years of radio and television (Playhouse 90?) Odets and Abbott and Costello in one episode? It was very moving and nostalgic for me.
I wonder if my students have any sense of this tradition or history at all? Do we ever think about whose footsteps we are walking in? The sight of Eli Wallach as a beaten-down old war hero and blacklisted comedy writer was moving and thought-provoking. Rarely does TV do that for me. And I was also taken by the fact that Sorkin claims credit for the “teleplay.” Apt, in faith; very apt. -twl
