TVSquad

Do you watch TV because it's true-to-life or because it's good TV? My spouse is an emergency room nurse and can't stand watching ER, Grey's Anatomy or House, all favorites of mine...says they are so unrealistic. I can enjoy watching Studio 60 without worrying if it's how those sketch comedies are really like behind the scenes. I just like listening to some smart dialogue for a change.

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Regardless of which one comedy writers like more, neither of them are very funny.

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As a non-comedy writer with 1/2 a brain (or more!), I prefer S60 to 30Rock.

30Rock is hard to watch (and I don't any more after the 1st 2 eps) with TM doing his "idiot" voice and TF doing her "I'm a ditz" routine. And Bladwin's just a moron.

S60 actually is more enjoyable, and it's a drama, not a comedy, so you're probably not supposed to LOL at it.

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I think both shows are equally not funny.

I do find it ironic that these writers like 30 Rock because it's realistic. Have they watched the show? it's nothing close to being realistic.

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S60 fools its audience into thinking that characters constantly having intellectual conversations makes that show intelligent TV. No, it does not.

I _despise_ S60 and wish that a bona-fide intelligent show would take its place.

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i like both shows (although i have lapsed in watching 30 Rock recently) and think they are just not comparable anymore. Studio 60 is the bastard child of West Wing and Sports Night and will IMO never match up. Its a good show in its own right but it just doesnt seem to flow as well as his others.

Tracey Morgan was so good in the first couple episodes of 30 Rock and Baldwin is still great so thats why i watch 30 Rock.

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I am really liking 30 Rock (just watch the episode "Jack-Tor" on nbc's website...hilarious), but studio 60 is just too heavy-handed. This is the first Sorkin show I'm watching, and I liked the pilot quite a bit, and since then it has been downhill (though the last few episodes are better). This is supposed to be about people writing a comedy show, and the people themselves rarely laugh.

Though 30 Rock is extremely goofy, the scenes in the writers room are probably a more accurate depiction of the writers behind SNL/MadTV/etc.

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Bottom line is that nobody likes how their profession is portrayed in tv or movies. It's never realistic enough and/or it's simplified too much.
I work in IT and consider computer usage in tv and movies a joke, but I get over it because I know reality would bore the average person to tears. Im most cases I still manage to enjoy the story.

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I love Studio 60 and get very irritated when I hear critical comments about it not being funny. Folks, it's a DRAMA! It is a drama about the production of a comedy, but could have been about a soap opera or any genre. It has the best dialogue around. With time, I believe the storylines and characters will be as rich as West Wing's were. BTW, the West Wing didn't accurately portray the way the real White House is run either. That didn't stop it from being a hit.

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I THINK THIS SHOW IS BORING. aS A COMEDY IS not funny, AS A DRAMA ITS MEDIOCRE AT BEST. NBC SHOULD CANCEL IT AS WELL AS FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, I JUST CANT GET INTO EITHER. I DO HOWEVER ADORE UGLY BETTY, THE SHOW CRITICS SAID WOULD BE CANCELLED.

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Im sure Bob Sassone was first to file a complaint and write a 10 page letter explaining how funny it is.

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I don't understand why people keep thinking Studio 60 is TV for a smart audience. Throw-away references to the Commedia dell'Arte and Strinberg don't make it smart, they just make the audience *feel* smart by pretending to involve them in some kind of esoteric allusion. But the storylines actually talk down to the audience -- All Christians Are Nuts, Let the Enlightened White Man Save the Black Artists of New Orleans, Macau is Going To Be The Las Vegas of Asia (it already is!) -- and it doesn't help that it's delivered by insufferable characters. At least 30Rock has a sense of humor about itself, and actually has more warmth and sharper observations than Sorkin's show.

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they sound jealous. Or mad that S60 believes ONE writer could do the whole show.

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I work at an animated nuclear power plant. The Simpsons is completely unrealistic, but I manage to enjoy it.

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UGLY BETTY SHOULD BE CANCELED THAT SHOW IS SHIT!!!

Most of us have something to say without ALWAYS USING CAPS!

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"I work at an animated nuclear power plant. The Simpsons is completely unrealistic, but I manage to enjoy it."

Tee hee.

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Of course the S60 sketches aren't funny. How many years has it been since Saturday Night Live had a sketch that made you laugh? I like the show (and agree other aspects of it need a lot of work) but the grimacing un-funny is disturbingly spot on to SNL.

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The only funny thing about Studio 60 is that it continues to put on the air week after week. I gave up on the show a long time ago. NBC was foolish to give a full season commitment, despite the pedigree. Perhaps they have nothing better to put on the schedule.

Then again, this is the same network that allowed Joey to air beyond a first season.

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For those who say it's a drama and the show doesn't have to be funny, you're missing that the show within the show is, supposedly, the freshest, most dynamic comedy to air in quite some time. And almost every sketch they have shown has failed to deliver not only laughs, but sometimes not even a reasonable premise.

Even if one accepts the dialogue is intelligently written, the show itself loses all brain cells when you have characters that insist that they are doing something incredibly, outrageously funny when it's clearly anything but. Smart character who fail to notice that they are doing something very bad and taking pride in it makes a show that's dumb, dumb, dumb.

When the characters of Studio 60 take delight in sketches that fail to even have a workable premise, much less punchlines it strain the credibility of the entire show. The characters come off stupid, pretentious and smug as a result. How can any of these people actually annoy the right wing? The sketches are as shrill as any sermon, the point to be made leadening down any jokes.

Sorkin may have been best served by leaving the sketches out. But now that he dug this hole, the sketches have to work. The credibility of the characters is at stake.

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To me, 30 Rock has gotten consistently better each week. The episode that alluded to Baldwin's character dating Conde Rice was a scream. It has more wickedly funny "throw-away" lines than any other show.

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