I've watched the first two episodes of Studio 60-- one
of the best, smartest television shows I've seen for a
very long time. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
As to the religious character, she's a strong, vital,
likable character. They're doing some interesting
things with the tension her strong religious beliefs
provide. On Monday they had an on screen prayer.
They've been very respectful of her.
--Mahonri
--- "Covell, Jason"
<Jason.Covell@???> wrote:
> I'm one of those who has looked forward with great
> eagerness to the new Aaron Sorkin comedy-drama
> _Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip_. As with The West
> Wing, I realise that the show is likely not to
> appeal to some on AML-List for political and other
> reasons. (Note: I'm not interested in opening up
> sores on politics, at all.) But I'm a huge Sorkin
> fan, and I'm posting because I think I've found a
> Mormon link, even if a fairly tenuous one.
>
> Studio 60 is not yet screening in Australia, but
> I've read an awful lot of stuff on the net, and a
> friend managed to get hold of a copy of the pilot
> episode (which I understand was doing the rounds
> quite widely as a pre-air screener on DVD in the
> States). Sorkin has admitted that this is the most
> personal show he has written - there are many
> references through characters and situations to
> events from his own life, including problems he had
> with cocaine some years ago. There's been plenty of
> on-line chat about the show as a kind of roman à
> clef, picking out the obvious and not-so-obvious
> references to real-life persons and situations
> dotted throughout. One of the most often commented
> on is the character played by Sarah Paulson, a
> practising Christian and former girlfriend of
> Matthew Perry's character (the stand-in for Sorkin)
> - based, quite evidently, on Sorkin's real-life
> former girlfriend Kristin Chenoweth. It'll be
> interesting seeing how Sorkin handles the religious
> elements arising from having a sincere believer as a
> major character. It might be a stretch for him to
> feel sympathy for that kind of belief; but then
> there have been worse spurs to dramatic invention.
>
> Anyway, onto the Mormon link. The show's set-up in
> the pilot, put simply, is that hotshot
> writer/director team Matt Albie and Danny Tripp are
> called in to "save" a show after the former producer
> performs an act of career suicide live on
> television. The other shoe to drop is that the pair
> had been working on a film project, when it suddenly
> ran aground after Danny failed a drug test
> (cocaine). The pilot episode does not allude to the
> subject matter of the film at all, but I understand
> that the second episode contains a fleeting
> reference to the film being about the life of Nikola
> Tesla.
>
> This piqued my interest at once. I know at least a
> little bit about Tesla - early 20th century
> inventor, electrical pioneer and sometime cult
> science figure - but he seemed an odd kind of person
> to namecheck, as there was no obvious connection
> with anything we knew about the characters so far.
> It was almost as though the film had been a
> documentary about whelk-farming or something equally
> obscure.
>
> A little digging on the internet found the answer.
> It appears that Nikola Tesla is the situational
> stand-in for none other than Utah's (and Idaho's)
> very own Philo T. Farnsworth, another early 20th
> century inventor. And the subject of an aborted
> film project by Sorkin and director-collaborator
> Thomas Schlamme that was first announced in 2004:
>
> "'The Farnsworth Invention' tells the story of Philo
> Farnsworth, a boy genius from Rigby, Idaho who, at
> 22, 'invented television only to become involved in
> an all or nothing battle with David Sarnoff, the
> young president of RCA and America's first
> communications mogul'. [Thomas] Schlamme described
> the movie as 'a classic American tale driven by the
> conflict between a Mormon farmer and a Russian
> immigrant over the ownership of the most influential
> invention of the 20th Century.'"
>
> Although the film has been cancelled, Sorkin has
> reportedly adapted the script as a play, to be
> produced at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in
> early 2007. Although I will have zero chance of
> seeing the play, I'd be most curious to hear if
> anyone in San Diego is able to catch it when it
> premieres. And of course, I am even more intrigued
> to learn how it might compare to the similarly
> themed play _A Love Affair with Electrons_ by our
> very own Eric Samuelsen. Eric, are you still there?
> Are you likely to schlepp it out to San Diego for a
> gander?
>
> Jason Covell
> Sydney, Australia
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