By Elizabeth Raftery
In hindsight, it should have been obvious that Aaron Sorkin’s drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was doomed from the outset.
At a time when American audiences would rather tune into mindless reality programming like Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and Age of Love, the clever soapbox series struggled to find its niche.
Perhaps it has to do with the current state of the county. Modern audiences might not want to see politically-charged, depressing fictional situations sandwiched between newscasts about politically-charged real-life situations that are depressing enough in themselves. (Hence, Dancing With the Stars and Hey, Paula?)
This time last year, television fans and critics were practically salivating at the thought of a new Sorkin drama, and it was one of the most highly-anticipated shows of the fall. But after a stunning pilot episode, the show floundered, losing nearly half its initial audience by the sixth episode. It plummeted in the ratings enough that NBC pulled it from its Monday night slot after just 11 episodes for a seven-week hiatus. (It returned briefly in February for three episodes before a continuing ratings free-fall prompted NBC to announce it was pulling the plug for good).
Sorkin’s shows have always had a smug touch of self-importance, but Studio 60 took itself a little too seriously. The subplots, for the most part, revolved around comedy sketches about foreign policy, for instance, not foreign policy itself — but you’d never know it from the dramatic background music.
Studio 60 treated Hollywood television with the same reverence that Sorkin’s tour-de-force, The West Wing, treated D.C. politics, and the sentiment didn’t translate well. Or at all, for that matter. Let’s face it — audiences aren’t going to empathize with an earnest, drug-addicted television writer trying to bang out a sketch as much as they will with an earnest, drug-addicted chief of staff trying to prevent an international crisis. And they shouldn’t be expected to.
The witty banter that elevated West Wing bogged down Studio 60 — to no fault of the actors. Bradley Whitford, Matthew Perry and Steven Weber turned in exceptional acting week after week, but still the show fell flat. The best performance all season came from a non-regular: John Goodman as a small-town sheriff early on in the series.
Article comments
1 - Mat Brewster
You hit it pretty much spot on. It was a good show, that took itself way too seriously and could have been much much better. I'm sorry to see it go, but I don't think I'll miss it much.
2 - Josh Lasser "TV and Film Guy"
Congratulations! This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States.
3 - Tan The Man
Another problem is that the sketches weren't funny enough. In the West Wing, the politics made sense. For Studio 60 to be about sketch-comedy, the funny part wasn't funny enough to make the show believable.
4 - SillySammy
I caught a few episodes of Studio 60 and I thought it was pretty good. It is defiantly better then mindless shows like “Smarter then a Five Grader.” And I miss The West Wing, politics never looked so good, LOL. Finding a stimulating show nowadays only happens few and far. Did you hear about the new mini-series on Spike TV called “The Killing Point?” Donnie Wahlberg is the negotiator, while John Leguizamo is the leader of a team of American Iraqi-War veterans that find themselves in the middle of a hostage situation after their own failed back robbery attempt. Sound pretty edge of your set action huh? Check out www.killpoint.spiketv.com for more info, but remember it permieres Sunday July 22nd at 9 pm and SpikeTV. Yay for TiVO! I just wanted to pass this along with you because I work for Spike TV.
5 - julie
The point of the show to me was about ordinary people frustrated by their ineptness in a complicated world. The fact that they were members of a hit television comedy show was more for a point of interest than a focal point for insight. The characters reflected our ( at least my own) feeling of ineptness, frustration and pure helplessness and they were just trying to deal with it the best way they knew how. Of course they weren't going to have the impact of the characters on the West Wing, but who does.
I am truly sorry it was cancelled and wish the studio powers that be had a little greater forsight.
6 - Friendly Fan
To add insult to injury, I never saw any notices about the postscript episodes, I just stumbled over some of them. Oh well, it's another way to sell DVDs.