Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Thanks to the joy of Bitorrents, the pilot of "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip".

Oh yes, it's good. Sorkin snappiness, Felicity Huffman in Dana mode, and the best denunciation of network television yet, as Jud Hirsch's character melts down in front of the cameras.

You should change the channel right now, or better yet turn off the TV.

No, I know it seems like this is supposed to be funny, but tomorrow you're gonna find out it wasn't and I'll have been fired by then. This isn't supposed--this isn't a sketch.

This show used to be cutting edge political and social satire, but it's gotten lobotomized by a candy-ass broadcast network hell-bent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience.

We were about to do a sketch you've already seen 500 times. Yes, no one's gonna confuse George Bush with George Plimpton, we get it. We're all being lobotomized by the country's most influential industry which has thrown in the towel on any endeavor that does not include the courting of 12-year-old boys.

And not event the smart 12-year-olds, the stupid ones, the idiots, of which there are plenty thanks in no small part to this network. So change the channel, turn off the TV. Do it right now.

...and there's always been a struggle between art and commerce, but now I'm telling you art is getting is ass kicked, and it's making us mean, and it's making us bitchy, and it's making us cheap punks and that's not who we are.

...We're eating works for money, "Who Wants to Screw My Sister", guys are getting killed in a war that's got theme music and a logo. That remote in your hand is a crack pipe...

..and it's not even good pornography. They're just this side of snuff films, and friends, that's what's next 'cause that's all that's left.

And the two things that make them scared gutless are the FCC and every psycho-religious cult that gets positively horny at the very mention of a boycott.

These are the people they're afraid of, this prissy, feckless, off-the-charts greed-filled whorehouse of a network you're watching. This thoroughly unpatriotic--

You can find an early version of the script here.

(Still, mediawise I'm enjoying Sky's new series and reruns of "Las Vegas" which is smart, sassy, and well directed, with good, fun stories.)