Monday, October 30, 2006

Could It Be?

FOXNews.com - 'Studio 60’ Cancellation Imminent - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment

Last night watching the big Cowboys-Panthers game, I was surprised to see that NBC will be airing Friday Night Lights instead of Studio 60 tonight. But the article above, from Fox by way of Salon, makes me think it may be part of a bigger strategy.

If so, it's a sound one. The first few episodes were increasingly dull. Two more sit on my DVR, next to The Passion of the Christ, hogging space because, even though I feel like I should watch them, I don't want to. The show has been so pompous--and so incredibly unfunny--that it's hard to give Sorkin the benefit of the doubt any longer.

But, as the Fox writer notes, the show will have served one good function. It will remind folks in Hollywood that Matthew Perry is unfailingly great on TV. Find the man a show that works and I will watch it faithfully--and never let it sit on my DVR until it's replaced by too many recordings of The Young and the Restless.

1 comment:

Richard said...

I think you nailed it--more Sports Night, less West Wing. Aaron Sorkin has been in the business of putting on a show for so long that he forgets that, the subject matter of The West Wing aside, show business is NOT the highest calling known to man. What he does matters. But it doesn't matter as much as he seems to think it does--and that makes for a very self-aware show that is somehow stunningly unaware of how very unappealing it is.