Well done, Studio 60

Well color me surprised. I realized at 10:45 that I hadn't yet been overwhelmed with the desire to throw in the towel and go to bed. I didn't think the opening sketch with Howie Mandel was all that funny, but its parody of Deal or No Deal was actually the kind of thing that would be done on Saturday Night Live.

Mark McKinney, who is a consultant on the sketches in real life, now plays a sad-sack comedy writer with a believably tragic past. He's brought in to help Lucy and Darius work on sketches and ends up convincing Matt that the only way to make the newbies good comedy writers is to toss them in the deep end and let them bomb at dress rehearsal. It works well and the two are about to have their very first sketch air when the stand-off everyone’s been watching all episode ends with murder suicide and the sketch, which is about a bank robber, is pulled for sensitivity. But! Matt has finally learned that other people are capable of being writers and he collaborates with his new team on a replacement sketch. Yay!

Meanwhile… The cast and crew are being felled with the flu and everyone’s getting B-12 shots in the ass. Matt tells Danny he can’t get one cause you can’t get the shot when you’re pregnant and hormonal Danny is totally preggo. It’s actually kind of amusing to see Matt and Danny’s adolescent relationship, even when I know what it’s setting up. Webber finally makes Jordan understand that she’s screwing up her career and she decides to speak with the press. But the chosen reporter’s kind of a jerk so she tells him off and ends up crying to Danny. She says she’s hormonal and the faints. Danny, assuming it’s the flu, goes to get the nurse and a B-12 shot, but Jordan insists she can’t have the shot because (say it with me) she’s pregnant!

Christine Lahti hangs around and busts on/flirts with Danny. Harriet, the professional comedian who is the star of the fictional Studio 60, can’t tell a simple Jewish mother joke and then reveals that she can’t even get through the old “Orange you glad I said ‘banana’?” set-up. It’s very weird.

On a whole though, I feel like those weeks of muck were washed away. It was funny and I felt the drama of producing a live TV show without feeling that the tension was manufactured to make the show seem like our nation’s savior. And cutting the sketch was nice. I was at once disappointed for the newbies and thankful that everyone involved realized that in the end there are more important things in the world than a comedy show. Especially when you’re brother’s in Afghanistan!