Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, the new Aaron Sorkin (writer/creator of Sports Night, The West Wing) brainchild, starts its run tonite on NBC in the 10pm (east coast) hour. Will it be the success that its sister The West Wing was, or is it destined for the brilliant but cancelled status that its brother Sports Night suffered?
Sports Night, while it was still airing, was selected as a future classic by Nickelodeon's Nick at Nite, and had also been honored as one of the best shows you're not watching by TV guide. It was a great show, with a great ensemble cast of characters that have since appeared in some of the other "best shows" on TV. (Felicity Huffman who went on to Desperate Housewives as an example, Peter Krause who went on to Six Feet Under, Sabrina Lloyd who went on to Numb3rs, Joshua Malina who went on to the West Wing, etc.) Sadly, the award for best show you're not watching was well deserved as apparently no one -- at least according to the Nielsens -- was watching. After just over 40 shows (45 credited episodes to be exact) the show was unceremoniously dropped and never spoken about again (except in the annals of brilliant but cancelled history, internet chat rooms and forums, electronic bulletin boards and forums and similar areas where future viewers were introduced to the show through friends and other zealots that raved about watching the show and getting it on DVD while the opportunity existed).
The West Wing lived quite a long and healthy life. I never expected it would live as long as it did, as I figured a show that was so blatantly political wouldn't last. Boy was I wrong on that one. Apparently there was a decent sized segment of the populace that wanted to see President Martin Sheen and lived in the fantasy world where instead of a Bush in the White House there was a Bartlett. I gave up on the show very early. As it moved from a show about the people behind the scenes in the White House to a show about the President and politics in general it lost me. Despite the quality of the writing and dialog between the characters I just wasn't interested in it.
The question now is will the viewers find this new show and tune in repeatedly, or will this latest show behind the shows be just another failed series?
It has an all star cast going for it, with former Friend Matthew Perry co-starring with West Wing's Bradley Whitford, along with Amanda Peete, Wings' Steven Weber, funnyman D.L. Hughley, 30 Something's Timothy Busfield and more. It has the return of Aaron Sorkin (who had left West Wing a few seasons ago) to the television medium, and it's got a relatively nice Monday night time slot available to it.
I hope it lasts, I hope the Nielsen families are tuned in and giving the show proper credit for the viewership.
