Just as the television season is winding to a close, out comes a reminder of the optimism of last fall that never came to be. ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip’ is back for one sad, small victory lap before it officially disappears forever. Definitely absent from the NBC fall lineup, it’s airing on Thursday nights at 10 until the network burns off the six remaining episodes.
Thinking back to last fall, when Great Hope ‘Studio 60’ fizzled in comparison to out-of-left-field-hits ‘Heroes’ and ’30 Rock,’ it’s easy to see how Aaron Sorkin’s dramedy got the bad rap that plagued it before it was yanked mid-season. Yes, it’s overly preachy, and yes, it’s absent much of the gravitas and zip of ‘The West Wing’ and ‘Sports Night,’ despite the fact that it’s set behind the scenes of a comedy show. Being told that Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson) is the funniest woman in Hollywood over and over again never did make it true, and the endless banter between Danny (Bradley Whitford) and Matt (Matthew Perry) got tired in a way that Toby and Josh’s never did.
Watching Thursday’s episode, titled ‘The Disaster Show,’ was in some ways a reminder of why the show seemed like it would be great to begin with. Allison Janney was guest-starring as, well, the guest-host of the fictional sketch show, and seeing her paired again with Timothy Busfield, who played her love interest on ‘The West Wing,’ added enough sparkle to float the entire episode.The typical series of romantic double-crosses and foibles happened backstage, with Simon and Tom planning a romantic getaway to Hawaii with their girls and Harriet, as always, mooning over Matt.
Conspicuously—and, sad to say, wonderfully—absent were the show’s ostensible three leads, Danny, Matt and network chief Jordan (Amanda Peet). It’s not rare for the main characters to essentially become personality-free black holes at the center of the show, but three of them, Jordan in particular, were some of the first parts of the show to grate on everyone. Seeing the sublime Bradley Whitford, so cranky and brilliant on ‘The West Wing,’ become lovestruck over his boss and pathetic in a way Josh Lyman never was, felt like a crime. Same for Matthew Perry, whose Chandler schtick carried him some but never made the character stick.
It’s hard to say whether watching the five remaining episodes of the show is worth it, particularly for anyone who never liked the show to begin with. It’s nice that NBC is giving the show a chance to wrap up, though, and according to some rumors the episodes do manage to bring the show to a complete end, unlike poor cancelled ‘Veronica Mars’ for example. In any case they’re probably better than ‘ER’ reruns, which they’re replacing, and their placement on NBC’s strong Thursday night lineup is a reminder of what could have been, had the show pulled itself together a little better and given us the show we all used to believe Sorkin could pull off.
