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'It's making money for NBC'

The Judge, a contributor at Media Morgue, offers his (or her) take on the seemingly inevitable demise of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  However, there are some positives to take into account:

"Here's the deal: The show ranks fourth over all network shows in median income in the 18-49 demo at $66,000. Which means that while it's not as popular as Sorkin may want it to be, it's still being watched by the people that buy the products being advertised on the show. This means its making money for NBC. And we all know that in the television industry, it's more about money than popularity that keeps a series alive."

Continue reading "Studio 60 'on hiatus'.  But is it permanent?"...

SF Chronicle: Bye Bye Studio 60

Tim Goodman from The San Francisco Chronicle writes in his column today about the unavoidable death of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.  He eulogizes the show, running down all the complaints against it and against its creator Aaron Sorkin.

"Tonight might be the last episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Aaron Sorkin's much-anticipated, then much-derided drama for NBC. The series, about the behind-the-scenes machinations of a television sketch show not unlike "Saturday Night Live," was pulled a week earlier than expected after its season-worst ratings performance. It's unlikely to be renewed for a second season. And if "Studio 60" comes back to finish its six remaining episodes, it will have everything to do with the respect accorded Sorkin and nothing to do with a last-ditch effort to save it."

I hope he's wrong, but I fear that he's not.

Continue reading "Studio 60 flop humbles the mighty Sorkin"...

SNL is the Big Winner!

Congrats to the writing staff of Saturday Night Live for winning a Writer's Guild award this past weekend for Best Comedy/Variety series.  The award show was hosted by Tina Fey.

Specifically, the winners of the award were were: Head Writers Fey, Seth Meyers, Andrew Steele; Writers Doug Abeles, James Anderson, Alex Baze, Liz Cackowski, Charlie Grandy, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, John Lutz, Lorne Michaels, Matt Murray, Paula Pell, Akiva Schaffer, Frank Sebastiano, T. Sean Shannon, Robert Smigel, JB Smoove, Emily Spivey, Jorma Taccone, Bryan Tucker; Additional sketches by Mike Schwartz, Kristin Gore.

SNL 2-10-07: Forest Whitaker / Keith Urban

Happy Fun Ball

Anchorman: The TV Version

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was on regular television over the weekend, so I made a point to record it just to see if there was any ridiculous dubbing going on.  Surprisingly, the movie was mostly untouched.  It never really struck me before, despite my having seen it well over 100 times, that the film just really isn't grotesquely profane.  Boobies, balls, whale's vagina... almost everything like that made it through.

One edit came during the "massive erection" scene.  Veronica says "Mr. Burgundy you have a massive e..." and they just eliminate the rest of the word.  Then the shot is digitally zoomed in ever so slightly so you cannot see the joke erection.

But there was one supremely goofy edit about two-thirds of the way in. In the original film, as Ron and Veronica are feuding, she changes something in the teleprompter and Ron blindly winds up reading "Go fuck yourself, San Diego" which then gets him fired.  I knew this would pose a problem for the TV version, and I wondered what word they'd dub over to make it suitable for television.  They couldn't cut the scene entirely, since it is what launches the film into the third act.

What ends up happening is they get to the point where he's about to say the line, then they cut away to people watching the newscast and dub in an entire line from earlier in the film.  So in an entirely different voice you hear "You're a dirty bitch" and then they cut back to the original "...San Diego" end to that sentence.  No effort whatsoever, and yet I laughed for five straight minutes at how ridiculous the edit was.

SNL 2-3-07: Drew Barrymore / Lily Allen

Old Glory Robot Insurance

Screen Actors Guild Winners

I know it sounds like I'm repeating myself, but congrats to former Saturday Night Live star Eddie Murphy and 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin for winning Screen Actors Guild awards at last night's ceremony.

Murphy won the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role award for his work in the movie Dreamgirls. 

Baldwin won for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series.

You can find a complete list of all the winners here.

Steve Martin on The New Show

A year before returning to Saturday Night Live in 1985, Lorne Michaels tried his hand at a similar show which aired Friday nights on NBC.  It was called The New Show.