Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip hasn't been doing as well as people expected. Weird, because we thought everybody loved shows where people are constantly being stopped in corridors to have interminable conversations about how important television is.
However, just because hardly anyone is watching Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip doesn't mean that NBC hates it – even though for a while it looked as if it'd be an expensive and high-profile failure, the network has ordered nine more episodes of Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, which bumps it up to genuine full-season status. Matthew Perry from Friends is in Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, so the prospect of anything starring a former cast-member of Friends not being a total abject failure has left us more bewildered and vulnerable than words can say.
For those of you who haven't seen it which, regardless of what country you're reading this in, is probably most of you, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip takes all the elements from creator Aaron Sorkin's last show The West Wing – people striding through corridors getting stopped by someone else striding through a corridor so they can have slick, fast-paced "babbedy babbedy babbedy" "babbedy babbedy babbedy? Babbedy BABBEDY babbedy!" conversations that last for ten minutes – but replaces all the exciting West Wing "What? They're going to BOMB us?" storylines with ones about the intricacies of television scheduling in a modern-day corporate-driven industry. In short, for a show about a comedy show, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip isn't a bag of laughs.
But when Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip was first broadcast, it was one of the most-hyped shows of the season. In retrospect it's probably because the fruity media likes nothing more than to masturbate in a mirror while shouting about how great it is – which is what Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip allowed it to do – as opposed to the show being very good. And Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip has been floundering in the ratings, too – 7.7 million people have been tuning in, compared to competitor CSI: Miami's 16.8 million, while its must-see billing has been passed onto the brain-fryingly magnificent Heroes.
For a while, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip broadcaster NBC wasn't sure whether it was going to commission any extra episodes or just leave it to die, but yesterday NBC announced that it had ordered nine new Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip episodes, as MSNBC reports:
“I am pleased to show our support for this outstanding and ambitious effort from executive producers Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme,” Kevin Reilly, NBC Entertainment president, said in a statement, citing the series’ critical support and “passionate core audience.”
Which, if we're honest, is a bit of a surprise. Not because we think Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip is a bloated sack of self-congratulatory arse – even though we do a bit – but because it has Matthew Perry from Friends in it. We'd just assumed that, after Matt LeBlanc's Joey, Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback and any relationship Jennifer Aniston finds herself in, the inclusion of a former Friends cast member meant that Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip would be doomed to failure. Who knows, maybe these new episodes will help to pick up the pace a bit and improve the show in the ratings.
But just to prove that America doesn't have the monopoly on slick TV comedy-based dramas with shows like Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Channel 4 is also getting in on the act with Friday Night At London Studios – a slick, self-confident rumination of the television industry as seen through the eyes of the Friday Night Project team. If you don't cry real tears of emotion as Justin Lee Collins fights tooth and nail for the inclusion of the joke about the gay monkey in a fez having a wank, then there's simply no hope for you.
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