Now in its second year on CBS, How I Met Your Mother is a surprisingly smart comedy that takes a swipe at those years when the group of friends is still together but slowly starting to slide into couples and marriages and real life adulthood. CBS is nurturing and protecting this comedy now in it's junior year and they are working very hard to build a Monday night comedy block that will rival the old NBC "Must See" Thursday.
I love this show and now I will explain why. I should explain at this moment that a good friend of mine, Ewan Chung, occasionally has a bit part on the show as 'Carol' - an asian male co-worker of the lead character - Ted. This is a lovely side benefit but not as a reader of this blog suggests - my reason for loving it. (Sorry Matt)
HIMYM captures so well those post college / pre-family years of working and hanging out with your friends. The writing is rich. The writers take the time to develop the characters and their individual backstories. This makes the show a joy to watch.
In an episode this past fall, the secret past of the character of "Robin" played by Cobie Smulders is revealed. The actress in the part, Cobie, is in fact Canadian. Coincidentally, so is Robin. And we discover that Robin was once the Canadian answer to Tiffany, singing pop songs in shopping malls.
Not content to let the age difference slip by, Robin's line was something like "Yeah, it was an 1993 tune that sounds like an 80's tune.. but the 80's didn't come to Canada till then."
Writing that plays on what the viewer is already thinking and hits on those thoughts for great comedy. Maybe I love this show because it takes frequent and funny jabs at Canadians.
Nah. Neil Patrick Harris takes a role in this show that is so -un-Doogie, I can't describe it. You have to watch and see for yourself. Maybe, I like this show so much because I've always had a crush on Doogie Howser
No it's more than that too.
I'll try to explain.Once on a memorable episode of Mary Tyler Moore, Lou Grant turned to Mary and said "Kid you got spunk" .. which Mary initially takes as a compliment.. till Lou finishes his thought, "I hate spunk."
This show has spunk. And pluck. Most importantly it doesn't suck.
Nor does it reek of being written by committee.
Further, it is one of just five shows on TV that can actually make me laugh out loud with little effort.
What are the other four? Excellent question. I'll tell you what they are and why they make me laugh, the next time I write in this space.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
In Defence Of : Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
I worked for a period of time at NBC in New York. My office was located on same floor as the offices for "Saturday Night Live."
The first day I got off the elevator and walked down the hallway, I knew that working at NBC was going to be really different than any other job I previously held. There in the hallway were a couple of castmembers from "Saturday Night" (as it's known in the building), playing touch-football in the hallway.
NBC had an internal system that allowed you to see the activities in various studios. So I could watch the rehearsals for Saturday Night as each week wore on. A good friend of mine was employed on the show as a talent coordinator. He would regale me with stories of ridiculousness over drinks from time to time.
So when I sat down to watch Studio 60 this past fall, I had some pre-conceived notions about what I felt the show would be like. The real SNL is a vicious battle between the performers for screen time each week. Each performer struggling to get their ideas, their characters, their performances on the show. The thin-skinned need not worry, they won't last long in that environment.
Studio 60 is of course nothing like that. It's really more about drama between the relationships of the characters. The background setting of the sketch comedy television show and it's place within the larger network and even larger still parent corporation is merely set-dressing.
Still, I like this show. I had never watched the West Wing prior to seeing Studio 60, so Aaron Sorkin's bag of TV tricks were all new to me. The fast paced, snappy dialog was fun to watch. And it was even more fun to watch with even a modicum of inside experience -- like I had.
Maybe that's the problem with Studio 60. It's not inside enough for the comedy writers who are calling it out as 'not funny'. And it's just a little too inside for the masses.
From the first episode, I looked at Amanda Peete's character of Jordan McDeere and said out loud "That is Jamie Tarses." Tarses was at NBC when I worked there. She was wildly expected to replace Warren Littlefield when his time came to take the golden-parachute-development deal and limp past the Peacock security gates.
Later in the season when Jordan's years-old DUI became public, I immediately thought of the morning I arrived to work at NBC in Burbank to hear the announcement that Don Ohlmeyer had been arrested for a DUI and had checked himself into the Betty Ford Center out in Rancho Mirage.
These little touches are nice. But to the average viewer they would never be known. Hell, I'm probably over-reaching in drawing comparisons to my time at NBC.
Some writers have complained about the sketches on the show-within-a-show. They're not funny. I think these folks would do well to tune into Saturday Night Live one of the weekends. A lot of their sketches fall flat too. Comedy is about taking risks and putting yourself out on a limb. Sometimes those risks pay off, but as is more frequently the norm, they fail.
The casting of Matthew Perry against Bradley Whitford really works from this viewer's perspective. I enjoy the banter. It reminds of a business partner I once had. We would exchange similar patter on a daily basis. Another standout in the cast for me include D.L. Hughley, as Simon Stiles, struggling with his black celebrity and his place within his own community. Nate Cordrey as Tom Jeter has been given several extended plotlines so far and he has played them perfectly.
I might be alone in hoping this show manages to pull-it-out-of-the-bag, and make a serious dent in primetime viewing... but I hope not. It may not be stellar comedy, but it IS good TV.
The first day I got off the elevator and walked down the hallway, I knew that working at NBC was going to be really different than any other job I previously held. There in the hallway were a couple of castmembers from "Saturday Night" (as it's known in the building), playing touch-football in the hallway.
NBC had an internal system that allowed you to see the activities in various studios. So I could watch the rehearsals for Saturday Night as each week wore on. A good friend of mine was employed on the show as a talent coordinator. He would regale me with stories of ridiculousness over drinks from time to time.
So when I sat down to watch Studio 60 this past fall, I had some pre-conceived notions about what I felt the show would be like. The real SNL is a vicious battle between the performers for screen time each week. Each performer struggling to get their ideas, their characters, their performances on the show. The thin-skinned need not worry, they won't last long in that environment.
Studio 60 is of course nothing like that. It's really more about drama between the relationships of the characters. The background setting of the sketch comedy television show and it's place within the larger network and even larger still parent corporation is merely set-dressing.
Still, I like this show. I had never watched the West Wing prior to seeing Studio 60, so Aaron Sorkin's bag of TV tricks were all new to me. The fast paced, snappy dialog was fun to watch. And it was even more fun to watch with even a modicum of inside experience -- like I had.
Maybe that's the problem with Studio 60. It's not inside enough for the comedy writers who are calling it out as 'not funny'. And it's just a little too inside for the masses.
From the first episode, I looked at Amanda Peete's character of Jordan McDeere and said out loud "That is Jamie Tarses." Tarses was at NBC when I worked there. She was wildly expected to replace Warren Littlefield when his time came to take the golden-parachute-development deal and limp past the Peacock security gates.
Later in the season when Jordan's years-old DUI became public, I immediately thought of the morning I arrived to work at NBC in Burbank to hear the announcement that Don Ohlmeyer had been arrested for a DUI and had checked himself into the Betty Ford Center out in Rancho Mirage.
These little touches are nice. But to the average viewer they would never be known. Hell, I'm probably over-reaching in drawing comparisons to my time at NBC.
Some writers have complained about the sketches on the show-within-a-show. They're not funny. I think these folks would do well to tune into Saturday Night Live one of the weekends. A lot of their sketches fall flat too. Comedy is about taking risks and putting yourself out on a limb. Sometimes those risks pay off, but as is more frequently the norm, they fail.
The casting of Matthew Perry against Bradley Whitford really works from this viewer's perspective. I enjoy the banter. It reminds of a business partner I once had. We would exchange similar patter on a daily basis. Another standout in the cast for me include D.L. Hughley, as Simon Stiles, struggling with his black celebrity and his place within his own community. Nate Cordrey as Tom Jeter has been given several extended plotlines so far and he has played them perfectly.
I might be alone in hoping this show manages to pull-it-out-of-the-bag, and make a serious dent in primetime viewing... but I hope not. It may not be stellar comedy, but it IS good TV.
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