Sorkin should be smart enough to make a reference to this seeming paradox, but not smart enough to make it make sense in a satisfying way. Still be intriguing to see how he handles it.

My suggestion would be that Janney is the star of a network drama about politics. But not TWW. No - she headlines the hot new show 'Nations'!

a medium divided against itself, will go for the money...

just saying is all.

anywho, watching these episodes will be kinda bittersweet. it's nice to get to watch them, but so sad that it will be the last we see of this great show.

I don't believe any reasonable person would say that the only reason anyone dislikes S60 is because they're "not smart enough" for it, or prefer lowest common denominator fare.

However, there do seem to be a certain amount of folks whose chief complaint about the show is that it's "too smart" or "elitist." In fact, complaints of that nature were surfacing before the show even hit the air. Hence, the frustration of some fans.

I agree, SportsNight had a lot more snap to it. More kinetic energy. Maybe it was the 1/2 hour format.

No, the atmosphere of the show-within-a-show doesn't seem to resemble what I know of SNL (with the possible exception of the flashback episode) and at least a few SNL alumni feel that way too. That's not a dealbreaker for me, though. All of Sorkin's workplaces are idealized to a large degree.

What a terrible waste...

Heh. That was Christine Lahti. In fact, they made a joke about that in this very episode.

I laughed a fair bit at tonight's goings-on, actually. Cal rocks, as always.

I agree that the juxtaposition of content and delivery on the show is odd and clunky, and it was gonna be a tough sell no matter how they chose to market it. Even as someone who likes the show, I'll admit that it's less than what I hoped it would be, and with the underperforming and high expense, I can totally understand how the decision to axe it could have been made.

That said, I still dig Sorkin's rhythm and I'll miss it, so the cancellation is in the negative column for me.

I'm still gutted to lose Sorkin's voice from television.

I hope that Aaron Sorkin comes back soon, TV is better with him as a part of it.

or the fact 1/3 of the skits on SNL are politically oriented, especially in election years?

what about the fact that comedy shows like SNL, daily show, conan, etc. hire Harvard and Yale grads? are we to believe a behind the scenes staff like that just sit around sticking pencils up their nose all day?

I'm just saying...I never quite got the argument about the unbelievability of this show based on those details...

[Unrelated to this talk back, but WHEN is Fox going to burn off the remainder of The Loop?]

Oh please. Fuck off.

Good episode, but I really wanted to see Alison Janney interact with Bradley Whitford's character. As it was I got a buzz from seeing Janney and Timothy Busfield working together again.

Pdorwick, rough cost per episode, I have heard between 1.5 - 2.5 million. Doesn't seem that expensive given the number of actors and the number of shots / episode, and the size of the set. Hell, 20 years ago, STTNG cost about a million an episode. But that would have been for (mid '80s) special effects.

I enjoyed the episode, much more than most it seems. Best thing was every scene with Steven Weber.

If history is any indication (Kidnapped), NBC will move Studio 60 to Saturday either next week or the week after, run it there for 2 episodes, then replace it with L&O repeats. So, by my math, the best we can hope for is 5 of the 6 episodes.

"well i'm.......pretty drunk"

"how do you guys know all of this?"

"the FBI *is* open on fridays."

Second Pilot? Heck yeah, I would have watched this show without the 'big three' - if it was regularly this good, maybe even have prefered it.

This show SO needs a full season DVD set.

I did not read this article until after the show aired, and even then skimmed the talkback with hesitation. Discussions of this show here, in the Shark Tank and elsewhere always seem to devolve into p*l*t*c*l name calling and divisiveness along party lines, and I'm real glad to see so little of that here this time. Oh, a few non-fans showed up to comment, but none had anything of worth to say.

I avoided it for a long time -- partly due to irrational Sorkin loyalty, partly due to the fact that I'd never found Tracey Morgan funny, mostly because I've got enough TV in my life as it is -- but I finally got around to checking out the first season and liked it quite a bit. Little bit of US Office awkwardness, little bit of Arrested Development farce, lots of SNL-esque non-sequitur wackiness, and Tina Fey's relatively grounded character glues it all together really well.

Coming back after a break I expected a big episode with the two main leads - Perry and Whitford. I admit it was great to see all of the supporting cast having something to do - particularly Timothy Busfield. But leaving out the leads really did seem to send out the message of "the show's gone, so we're not going to bother anymore and neither should you". I hope this was a blip and Sorkin goes all out with the remaining episodes as he will have nothing to lose.

Matt wasn't even in the last episode.