Six Minute Preview of Sorkin's Studio 60

Before NBC gets it pulled as a copyright violation, check out the six-minute preview of Studio 60, Aaron Sorkin's new fall series about a legendary but washed-up late-night comedy show.

I haven't been interested in the series, because television shows about television are like blogs about blogging -- they should be opposed on principle. But the promo, which NBC showed to the press during its upfront event, looks as great as West Wing did when it began.

Does anyone know what series it could possibly be based on?

Television · 2006/05/18 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

I believe it's inspiration was the movie 'Network'.

#1 · Finn McCoul · 2006/05/19

'Network' was brilliantly written by Paddy Chayevsky and directed by Sydney Lumet. Peter Finch got an Oscar for his portrayal of Howard Beale, the guy who has the on-air meltdown. William Holden's performance as Max Schumacher, Beale's boss, was a tour-de-force.

'Network' was amazingly prescient in its depiction of "...potential abuses resulting from corporate conglomerate ownership of the television networks".

The film may have been partly inspired by newscaster Christine Chubbuck's on-air suicide in 1974 at Sarasota station WXLT.

If you find Rupert Murdoch's and Fox News' bottom-feeding assault on journalism scary, you'll love this flick.

[Quote from Wikipedia, which was also used as a reference]

#2 · Finn · 2006/05/19