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.