Caught the first episode of 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'. Or 'Larry Sanders' meets 'Saturday Night Live'. Thought it was great and since it's already been cancelled in the States it's gonna cut the potential expenditure on DVD box sets. I still haven't gotten around to watching 'The West Wing', yes I know it's the televisual equivalent of goldust flavoured chocolate rainbows, but I just haven't found the time yet, and this show obviously shares much of the same DNA. Many experts felt it got axed because people lost interest pretty quickly when they realised the stakes weren't as high as that thing in the White House, but I'm not sure that's true. I think it has some very important things to say about the way society is going, through censorship dictated by certain religious groups, and just how dumbed down our lives are becoming. Particularly inspiring was Judd Hirsch's rant, as the bitter Exec Producer who gets fired early on...
'This is not going to be a very good show tonight, and I think you should change the channel. Change the channel, go ahead, right now. Better yet, turn off the TV, okay? Hell no, I know it seems like this is supposed to be funny. But tomorrow, you're going to find out that it wasn't, and by that time I'll be fired. Now this, this is not sup- . . . this is not a sketch.
This show used to be cutting-edge political and social satire. But it's gotten lobotomized, by a candy-ass broadcast network hell-bent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience. We were about to do a sketch that you've seen already about 500 times. Yeah, no one's going to confuse George Bush with George Plimpton. Now, we get it.
We're all being lobotomized by this country's most influential industry, that's just thrown in the towel on any effort to do anything that doesn't include the courting of 12-year-old boys. Not even the smart 12-year-olds--the stupid ones, the idiots. Of which there are plenty, thanks in no small measure to this network. So why don't you just change the channel? Turn off your TV? Do it right now. Go ahead.
They say there's a struggle between art and commerce. Well, there's always been a struggle between art and commerce, and I'm telling you, art is getting its ass kicked, and it's making us mean, and it's making us bitchy, it's making us cheap punks. That's not who we are. People are having contests to see how much they can be like Donald Trump? We're eating worms for money. "Who Wants To Screw My Sister?" Guys are getting killed in a war that's got theme music and a logo.
That remote in your hand is a crack pipe. Oh yeah, every once in a while we pretend to be appalled. It’s pornography, and it's not even good pornography. They're just this side of snuff films, and friends, that's what's next, 'cause that's all that's left. And the two things that make them scared gutless are the FCC and every psycho religious cult that gets positively horny at the very mention of a boycott. These are the people they're afraid of. This prissy, feckless, off-the-charts greed-filled whorehouse of a network, I do believe, is thoroughly unpatriotic, mother'— [show cuts to title screen]
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I loved Studio 60. That along with Arrested Development were perhaps the two worst shows to cancel. Why were they canceled? Because, as you say in your previous blog, the humor is "too old." Perhaps the better terminology is "too mature." American broadcasting is fixated on providing shows that require no thought, no intelligence, and have a lot of sex appeal. That's why, instead of smart comedies and shows that truly challenge our thinking, we're stuck with shows like "Singing Bee," "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?," and mind numbing "thrillers" that don't actually thrill. Thank God for HBO and premium channels.
Arrested Development was without doubt one of the finest shows of the last five or ten years. Very funny and very smart, and that's a rare combination these days.
Of course, the BBC bought it and showed it over here at one in the morning so no one really knew about it. Then they proceeded to commission lame rip offs of it, which were a tenth as funny. Just like they did with Larry Sanders and Curb. Hopeless.
AD would probably still be running now if it'd been on HBO.
They tried for HBO, but apparently no go. At least the actors have been able to get into other projects since then. Here's hoping a comparable show rises from the ashes!
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