Everything decent on TV – which, I grant you, is not much – seems to be broadcast between 9-11.30pm on a Thursday night. It’s only the recent introduction of Channel 4′s +1 channel suite that makes it possible for the Minister’s Sky+ box to catch everything decent.
Still quality as it nears its denouement is Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. While the show has undoubtedly suffered a little as the world of broadcast politics has been marginalised at the expense of greater comedy and love story subplots, it remains at times deliciously subversive.
In this week’s episode, K&R (Part 1), the 19th of a mere 22 episodes made and the most overtly political episode yet, the pregnant Jordan was hospitalized with pre-eclampsia. As she argued with Danny in the hospital about the need to improve the show-within-a-show’s ratings, he observed: “Your own network research says that the number one audience manipulator among women is a pregnancy in jeopardy.” Self-referential in the extreme and clearly Aaron Sorkin having a pop at the NBC execs berating him for Studio 60‘s supposed own poor ratings performance, but a laugh-out-loud moment in a world with too few of them.
The final five episodes of the series play out over a single night in the story’s timeline, an almost unimaginable conceit for a show on a free-to-air network in the States where under-performing series deemed to be too slow to sustain their audience’s attention can be pulled after just one show. The series was too clever and too knowing for its own good, amply demonstrating Sorkin’s continuing penchant for self-immolation. It’s been great while it’s lasted, though.
Meanwhile, quietly tucked away out of sight late on Thursday nights on Channel 5 is the best new comedy to hit British telly for a while, the Emmy-winning 30 Rock. Another NBC show, devised and written by its star Tina Fey (a Saturday Night Live alumnus), it might just be the most subversive thing on TV.
Set in the NBC network’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York (the Minister highly recommends the studio tour…), Alec Baldwin has put in a revelatory and Golden Globe-winning performance as the GE executive (NBC is owned by GE) Jack Donaghy tasked with overseeing the revival of a comedy show (spot a theme?).
This week’s episode revealed that Donaghy has been dating US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Fey (playing the show-within-a-show’s producer Liz Lemon) asks Donaghy how his relationship with Condi is going:
Jack: Actually… I broke up with her.
Liz: Really? What happened?
Jack: Well, I finally realized we’re not compatible. I mean, I’m all for fantasy role play but Abu Ghraib…?
Underplaying the line to the point of perfection, the Minister genuinely choked on his cup of tea and applauds Baldwin and the show’s writers and producers on the size of their cojones.
Other highlights were a few seconds of an alleged Black Frasier and an astute subplot feud between two black characters over the use of the word ‘nigger’. Fortuitously – 30 Rock‘s first series gained fewer viewers than Studio 60; accepting the Emmy, Fey thanked the show’s “dozens and dozens” of viewers – NBC stood by this project, so we have another 13 episodes of the first series still to go, with a further 22 commissioned for a second series (writers’ strike permitting).
On that point, Fey – as a writer/performer – has been one of the more high-profile striking writers. A fortnight ago, 30 Rock‘s cast put on a live performance of an not-yet-broadcast script at a tiny New York theatre to raise money for the show’s production assistants, currently laid-off as a result of the strike. Reviews here and here. The lovely Tina Fey, 30 Rock and striking writers everywhere: the Minister salutes your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.
Finally, a moment’s pause to remember the memory of Robert Craig ‘Evel’ Knievel, who died yesterday. The Minister shares a birthday with Evel and was a childhood fan. After all, for sheer insanity, it’s hard to beat this sort of thing:(Random mildly interesting fact – the now famous head-on footage of Kneivel’s unsuccessful landing was shot by Linda Evans, who went on to star in Dynasty. Seriously.)
(And this was the Minister’s eye view of 30 Rockefeller Plaza back in the day:)
Doubly agree this week. re: Studio 60, still one of the classiest and most thought out shows on TV. It is still held back, though, by two defects that nag at me every time I watch it: a) the show within a show isn’t funny, because as far as pure gag-writing goes, Sorkin ain’t got it – 5 minutes of 30 Rock proves this in spades. It’s fine, because Studio 60 isn’t a comedy, it’s a comic drama, but one needs to suspend disbelief to swallow a show like Studio 60 ever being put out by a major network on the grounds of quality alone – eg the character of Simon Stiles isn’t funny and can barely read. b) it is still too self-important – this week it tackled the fascinating subject of securing the services of covert organisations who negotiate the “purchase” of hostages. Does this belong on the West Wing? Yes. Does it belong on Studio 60? No. We’re supposed to believe that the network would risk EVERYTHING plus millions of dollars because one of its actors had a brother in custody? No. The network would fire his ass, hire someone else and keep going. Sorkin loves TV and believes its a force for good. Alongside the human drama, he should concentrate on what TV does well, not try and shoehorn an extra series of The West Wing into it.
30 Rock, and in particular Alec Baldwin, is hilarious and the best thing on telly.