NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Where Did it Go Wrong?

NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was one of my most anticipated new shows in the fall line up this year. I have always been a fan of sketch comedy, and I read Saturday Night Live's biography "Live From New York" cover to cover until it fell apart. I thought a drama, with humor, of course, about a live comedy show would be perfect for me. It had all the makings of a true winner, Aaron Sorkin of The West Wing's brilliant writing coupled with a talented cast including Matthew Perry (Matt Albie), Bradley Whitford (Danny Tripp), Amanda Peet (Jordan McDeere) and D.L. Hughley (Simon Stiles). Instead, after just a few episodes it became the biggest disappointment of the new season. Where did it go wrong?

First, let me tell you where I think it went right. The dialog, especially between Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford as a producer/writer/director double team is perfectly timed and always engaging. Whitford plays a great straight man to Perry's comedic genius, and when he breaks a funny line it's always well delivered. Perry makes the melodramatic tortured artist Matt Albie almost as lovable as his infamous Chandler from "Friends" without completely replaying the character. The story lines are sometimes touching, sometimes grating, just like every good drama should be. And, from week to week, we care about the characters.

However good Aaron Sorkin is at dialog and drama, however, he can not write a sketch comedy to save his life. And unfortunately, if you're doing a show about sketch comedies, they should be funny. The very first episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip gave viewers the impression that the show is tanking, when new network president Jordan brings Matt and Danny in to save the show from ultimate cancellation. The show continues to build to the climax, a musical number penned by Matt himself that swings the ratings back into the stratosphere and the show back into the good graces of the network. Unfortunately, the musical number, sung to the tune of Glibert and Sullivan's Modern Major-General from the Pirates of Penzance, is anything but funny, and though I laughed out loud many times at Perry's one liners, the idea that the musical number could save any comedy show from destruction was completely unbelievable.

That certainly was the show's epitome of sketch comedies, for they just went downhill from there. The news desk program, styled after Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update and since the days of Chevy Chase, Jane Curtain and Dennis Miller one of the funniest segments of the show, often falls flat. A sketch where Jesus himself sits on the censor board, one which could have been great if taken in any different direction, treated the viewer to a minute long lecture of whether or not He cares if you take His name in vain in a sitcom. I understand, Sorkin wants to go for the Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows "too intelligent for middle America to get the humor" kind of feel, but there are two big differences. One, Sid Caesar was on air in the height of the Red Scare when political comedy really could get you in trouble, and two, besides Sid himself he had Neil Simon, Woody Allen and some of the greatest creative minds of the 20th century on his writing team. You can use comedy as a delivery system for socio-political statements, but if there is no comedy, then it's just another rant.

If the sketch comedy of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which is, let me remind you, a show about sketch comedies, does not drastically improve, I can't see the show holding out much longer. What should be a blast of humor in the middle of this comedic drama turns into slow moving behemoth minutes in an otherwise fast-paced and quick-witted script. Find a sketch comedy writer, and soon, because I still have faith that this show can succeed.