Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Sunday night saw the series finale of one of my favorite shows, West Wing, and although the show suffered a bit when creator Aaron Sorkin left, this season really rebounded for a satisfying conclusion to the show. I was sad to see it go.

Being the pop culture fanatic that I am, I've been reading about the new shows that are coming out next year, and tops on everyone's list is Sorkin's television encore, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which is a behind the scenes look at an SNL type show. Almost everything I've read about it has been overly positive, with some people already pronouncing it their favorite new show. During the West Wing finale they had a quick preview of it (check it out here). There was way much too little content to make any judgment about it, but it got me even more excited. (Great cast shaping up by the way...Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, Timothy Busfield, D.L. Hughley, Nate Corddry, and the return of Matthew Perry to NBC. And for those of you afraid of Matthew Perry in a more dramatic role, don't be. He was a guest on a bunch of West Wing episodes, and he was really good. Not a trace of Chandler Bing.)

Then yesterday, NBC announced it's fall lineup, and it's placed the show on Thursdays after My Name is Earl and the Office, two of my three favorite shows on TV right now (the other being Scrubs), pretty much guaranteeing I would be watching it every week. I read yet another review about the pilot script and decided to hunt it down myself, which was actually easy thanks to google. (You can read the script here.) It's really freaking good. Really smart and funny. Classic Sorkin, and if you liked West Wing, you'll like this. I'm even more excited now. It's around 60 pages or so, but it's a quick read. I highly recommend it.

Looks like I'll be spending my Thursdays at home this fall.

EDIT 6/2/06
NBC recently announced that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip will be airing on Monday's at 10:00, following ABC's announcement that they were moving Grey's Anatomy to the 9:00 Thursday slot. Smart move. No matter how good this show will be, it would more than likely be killed in that slot against Grey's and CSI. Guess I'll be watching this on Mondays now, instead of TV's funniest show, CSI: Miami.