One of the constant complaints from both fans and critics of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is that we never get to see much of the actual sketches that make up the show-within-the-show. I always felt this was kind of a silly complaint since we also never saw much of the actual show-within-the-show on Sports Night but I guess expectations are different for Studio 60. Bob disagrees with me but points out that shows like Entourage, which is about a great actor who we never see actually acting, have the same issue. Well, if you've been wondering about what those sketches mapped out by Matt Albie, Harriet Hayes and others might look like, the Employee of the Month sketch comedy troupe in Los Angeles is trying to provide a theoretical glimpse. They've taken the snippets of "Crazy Christians," "Nancy Grace" and others from the fictional show and expanded them to full length form. Check out "Employee of the Month Celebrates The Comedy of Studio 60" starting Friday the 17th.
If any of our LA readers go see this be sure to send in reports.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-15-2006 @ 8:18PM
David said...
They don't show the sketches because they aren't funny at all. Except for the Nacy Grace one, every Nacey Grace thing on every show is always funny! :)
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11-15-2006 @ 8:36PM
Fred said...
Actually, we saw a fair amount of the show-within-the-show on "Sports Night." But maybe that just proves that sportscasting is easier to fake than comedy.
I think "Studio 60" (the show outside the show) has some more significant problems -- namely some really patronizing and over-the-top writing, a large supporting cast we almost never see and hardly know, and more politics than were in Sorkin's *political* show -- but it really wouldn't hurt to have one of the sketches be, y'know, funny.
Sorkin clearly has a sense of humor, and parts of the show are funny, but all evidence suggests he's not well suited to sketch comedy. I sometimes wonder if things wouldn't have been better had he decided to do a behind-the-scenes look at a *drama* show.
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11-18-2006 @ 1:31AM
Scott Schrantz said...
I think the problem is that we see too much of the sketches. Especially when they're so dreadfully unfunny, it makes it hard for us to suspend our disbelief about the fictional Studio 60 being the huge hit that the real Studio 60 isn't. I'd prefer if the show just faded to black when the sketches were about to start, and leave our imagination to fill in the gaps, like these folks have done.
As long as we can see these people being funny and cracking jokes backstage, we'll believe they can be funny onstage. Without having to see it. It might have been an interesting twist, actually. So many shows have "invisible" characters, like Maris on Frasier. What if the show itself was an invisible character, and we never saw one second of it? That's far better than showing us the "comedy" they have been, and forcing us to believe this show is a Friends-level phenomenon.
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11-29-2006 @ 8:01PM
Keith said...
This is struggling at being a drama about making comedy.
Better is a comedy about making a drama. There fore I am looking forward to the DVD release of Darren Star's underrated Grosse Pointe..
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