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Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Episode 2 - Uncut Version (Patreon)

Published:
2026-03-31 00:59:27
Imported:
2026-08

Content

The Cold Open

Comments

Adam Crandall

I subscribed to your channel way back when you were on the second season of West Wing. I have stayed, watching you complete The West Wing, and then moving on to The Newsroom. I have been waiting 4 YEARS for you to see the "cold open" The very model of a modern major TV show. This is PEAK Sorkin. The only reason they got cancelled is because Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey were willing to work for less, because it was Lorne and they were ok with it. 30 Rock was the reason this show got cancelled and it's a shame. But again...that budget though.

Dil

That song has lived rent free in my head for decades at this point!

Jonathan

I have been thinking about this show all week. I’m enjoying how little of this show I remember. Networks green lighting the same concept in two different shows in the same year got very common in the early 2000s Usually the shows split the audience and got both cancelled. 30 Rock was one of the rare success stories.

Jeff

In your outro you quoted Steve Carell talking about The Dana Carvey Show. That reminded me that there's an excellent documentary on Hulu called Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of the Dana Carvey Show. I think you'd both like it.

Actuarial Lurker

Watching a show about backstage at a Newsroom can be intriguing. For me, watching one about how comedy is made is harder- The Dick Van Dyke Show from the early 1960s did that brilliantly since it involved comedy about making comedy and you ONLY saw the backstage antics. This is melodrama about making comedy which is a stretch- the Gilbert and Sullivan didn't do it for me... Looking towards next week....

Brian Harris

The line about passing the butter is a piece of old theatre advice that goes back generations. The way it was told to me back in like 1997 was that it was an exchange between Katharine Hepburn and Sam Waterston in the 70s, but who knows if that’s true. It’s probably not. The point is, it’s a good parable. I’ve used it as a director myself.

that girl

If you ever manage to find a slot for it, you should watch Sports Night. I think it's his most consistently good show, even if it doesn't reach the same heights as the others.

Mithroch

Terre Haute? What's Sorkin's problem with Indiana? I mean... you know... other than the obvious?

Michael Bennett

Man, Timothy Busfield got me good with that fire. This show slaps!

mogelijk

I don't want to say too much about the writer's room. I will point out that Matt is basically Sorkin and Sorkin is well known for not working well with other writers. The conversation between Danny and Simon has several layers. Some of it, obviously, has to do with Danny being "forced" to do Studio 60, afraid he isn't committed to it, that it will be a continuation of what it was under Wes, where Wes was leaving it to Ricky and Ron to run the show. The issue is, there is a deeper layer, when Simon brings up how Danny left them there with Ricky and Ron -- talking about when Matt quit/was fired. Danny was referencing he was standing with Matt and Simon said he was standing with the show. Simon's fear was not just that he might be fired but that he'd be fired basically because he did side with the network (since it was the network not happy) and not with Matt, that Danny may want "revenge" on those that didn't stand with he and Matt. Having seen the series, it was interesting, to me, how there are at least a couple of issues in this episode where we get backstory in later episodes.

that girl

I know writers who absolutely hate Sorkin because of how he ran the West Wing's writers' room. Basically, he'd use them to pitch episode ideas and maybe write very rough treatments, but he was writing pretty much everything that actually made it on screen. Of course, this meant that the credit for writing the actual teleplay would almost always belong to him, which meant that everyone else working on the show got paid significantly less than they would have with any other showrunner at the time. To be clear, the accusation isn't that he was taking credit for other people's work; it was that he wasn't giving his employees enough opportunities to work

Gail Hislop

Yes you know 'Ricky' from West Wing, as Doug the arch nemesis of Toby during the re election of Bartlett. Evan Handler is also very well known from Sex and the City as Charlotte's husband and other roles.

Alex

Even though i've seen the show before, "So it always knows..." still gets me!

Tina

I love this episode. Apart from the stories it sets up going forward, some of which I am personally not fond of, some of which I love, I think this episode is probably as perfect as television gets. (To my untrained eye, anyway.) Every scene, every sentence, every joke, every set up - it just works so well. Btw the Pilot and Cold Open did air back to back. Thank you for the reaction!

kosmickrab

I remember The Dana Carvey show and that first sketch particularly. There was some amazing talent behind that show who went on to be big people. It was probably too ahead of its time.

Hooper

I commented last week about how disappointing this show ended up being, and how it started with episode 2, but honestly this was pretty great. I do find the big opening number so embarrassing that I may never stop cringing, but right up until then it was a very good episode. My memory is that it doesn't last, but I'm also less young and jaded than I was in 2006, so I think I've decided to just enjoy the ride.

Bekka NoyB

What an incredible sophomore episode! Great actual parody song. Such a fantastic cast. Ricky & Ron are mostly annoying, but have their moments. Well cast per usual.