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Airdate: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Aaron Sorkin's essay on network television finally gets an airing from Nine -but only on 9HD.

As expected, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the critically acclaimed series from writer Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing) is finally going to be aired by Channel Nine, but only on 9HD.

The short-lived drama starring Matthew Perry will air from 10:30pm Thursday October 9th.

After his take on the US government in The West Wing, Sorkin then turned his attention to network television itself. Studio 60 is a drama about the behind-the-scenes workings of a sketch / variety show, in the style of Saturday Night Live. Perry plays a writer and executive producer of the show.

In the US many argued the show was too smart and too insular for a wider audience. Only 22 episodes were made. A string of guest appearances feature in the series including Felicity Huffman, Mark Wahlberg, Jason Alexander, Howie Mandel, Masi Oka, Rob Reiner, Judd Hirsch, Sting, Macy Gray, Sheryl Crow, Natalie Cole, John Goodman and Allison Janney.

Nine has sat on the series for around two years. It is disappointing it didn’t find a timeslot on its SD Channel for the series. Meanwhile, when it airs on 9HD, the SD channel will be screening a new series of Amazing Medical Stories.

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16 Responses

  1. RichoTB says:

    > its like a bizarre mix of 30 Rock and Ugly Betty, except its not funny at all

    Newsflash: it wasn’t supposed to be funny. It’s a smart drama set behind the scenes of a sketch/variety show.

    I’m guessing this could be part of why it failed: people thought that it was supposed to be funny because it was about the production of a comedy.

    Cheers!
    Rick

  2. Don’t have HD, might have to get set top box at this rate.

    Obviously networks again buy product then decide – it is crap without even giving the public a chance to see it.

    Why not show “All these unseen but promised shows at midnight Mon-Fri or from 10-30 instead of more news shows.

    and even ask genuine interested souls like those on this site, what they think of it.

    I would be prepared to give honest feedback and NOT be biased and am sure there are hundreds( if not thousands) of others in same boat.

    P.S. David, any idea of how many folk have HD or set top boxes so far.

  3. Sephiroth_FF, it might not be such a good idea for you to wait to buy it, Warner had a stock shortage for the initial dvd release not long ago, so retailers got less than they wanted, so the stock will probably become a rarity as people buy up all the copies. and with initial problems the likelyhood of them doing another production run is reduced, especially since HD shows go under the radar and don’t offer the publicity to shows that the SD stations do and so Warner probably won’t feel that the demand is there to warrant fixing whatever the problem was.

  4. Studio 60 & 30 Rock both premiered in the same TV Season and on the same US network (NBC), so they are slightly more common that you may think
    High costs never helped the show either – the licencing fees were through the roof,and the fact it never really caught on as well as NBC had predicted led to it’s demise

    Shall be interesting to see what this series really was like

  5. Studio 60 was made well before 30 Rock (wonder where they got the idea for the show???). The writing is very clever and worth watching – but buy it on DVD!!! Don’t give channel 9 the satisfaction of watching it on TV.

  6. I hate this show, its one of the most boring, self-indulgent pieces of crap I’ve ever seen. I don’t care how many people think its “smart” and “sophisticated”, I watched a couple of eps and couldn’t stomach it, its like a bizarre mix of 30 Rock and Ugly Betty, except its not funny at all, its just a stupid workplace drama with romance and boredom. Even though I’m not a fan of 30 Rock, it does the exact same premise 10x better than this show. All the characters were a bunch of shallow, arrogant, unlikeable cardboard cutouts and entire thing played out like a bad parody of a behind the scenes documentary of a bad parody. How did this show make it past 6 episodes, let alone 22? But the worst thing about it was the elitist fans who insulted people who didn’t like it because it was “so smart”. It was the exact same thing with Arrested Development. A couple of fans like a truly average show with a slight left-of-centre slant on it, and hail it as the greatest thing ever. And when it massively flops in the ratings, they scream blue murder and call everyone who didn’t watch it too dumb to get it. I’m not bagging anyone here, mainly just critics and American idiots, but the hype around this show is way too high for such a truly mediocre program.

  7. I watched the series, loved it, was furious that it wasn’t renewed, then remembered that the US Networks thought it was too smart for American viewers, so Aussies should get it just fine (again yes it should be on SD too), oh and the opening act of the first episode was the real reason the series was trashed in the US, the truth hurts!

  8. Why can’t they show it at 10:30pm or 11pm, as there is nothing else decent on at that hour anymore, And that time of the night is not a ratings timeslot – why the EXCLUSIVITY to HD only? What else are they going to show on the SD channel, some REPEAT film? some REPEAT of a axed tv show?

  9. This show started out fantastically. The critics were right. The first four or five eps were great. But (apparently) they didn’t find an audience in the US, so they started meddling. It moved from the clever hard-drama of The West Wing into soft romance-driven sap. I so wish that the original Sorkin concept had been given more time to find its legs before it was meddled with. Once it was meddled with, it lost its shine and lost more of its audience.

    I’m not surprised that 9 isn’t showing it on SD: they know that even if it is somehow popular in Australia, there’s no second series, and as it wasn’t popular in the US chances are it wouldn’t find an audience in prime-time here.

  10. I can’t believe ch9 sat on this for so long and is now sticking it at 10:30 on HD, maybe it was too smart for it’s own good. I remember that at one point they were going to fast track but that was put on hold when it was not rating well, then it was going to be a summer show.

    It’s a great show but I will NOT be watching it on 9HD, first I’ve seen it (two years ago) but trust me people go out and buy the DVD it’s well worth it and you can watch it any time you want!

  11. Sounds interesting. Pity I don’t have any of the HD channels!!

    Oh and isn’t it funny that they’re going to be showing yet another FACTUAL SHOW on the SD channel. It’s obsession, I tell ya.

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