'STUDIO 60' IS BACK - BUT IT DON'T LOOK GOOD

Well ... It's about time.

The Peacock Network has called for a Thursday 9 p.m. timeslot for the oft-troubled "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, starting May 25. The over-ballyhooed, but still, quite entertaining Aaron Sorkin drama revolving around a late-night sketch comedy program, will air its six final shows.

Throughout the course of it's brief one-season run, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" developed a loyal cult-base and quickly vanished from NBC's schedule mid-February.
Interestingly, many armchair critics thought it would be the Tina Fey sitcom "30 Rock" that would suffer in the ratings. Both shows are on the same network and have similar themes.

While the Fey vehicle is an out-an-out comedy, Sorkin's soapboxy show was often used as a platform for his beliefs and many suits believe that's exactly what turned away the masses.

Fey's '30 Rock" was just a silly, yet smart, comedy that was bookmarked with "The Office," which helped immensely -- oh, yeah and Alec Baldwin.

You just never know ...

The NBC brass has not announced any further intentions with the show. And that ain't good, folks.

The downside? The 'Studio 60' airings come the day after the end of May sweeps -- and a whole week after the NBC "upfronts," which will announce the show's fate next season.

Many pundits predict that renewal seems unlikely.

Hemingway's take? The networks do all they can to hype a show, market it, send actors on junkets until we wanna puke. We finally get vested in a show and then -- bam -- it's Thanksgiving and the Holidays. The shows vanish for months at a time.

We move on. We're fickle. There ain't three networks anymore.

Say, by chance, a show does in fact, return after a couple of months on hiatus. We're all but lost. Now, I love "Heroes" but honestly, I'm lost half the time if I don't watch them all at once.

Oh, like I'm the only one...

The audience doesn't kill a show, most of the time. The networks do. Remember the awesome show "Commander in Chief" last season? It revolved around a powerful chick in The White House - the first female prez.

I ask you: How does Gina Davis, the star of 'Commander,' win all sorts of awards for her acting and then the damn show gets axed? ABC could had kept the show on the air if they wanted to. Point blank.

Networks need to cultivate hits; stand by them; nurture them; watch them grow. It's the way they did it with shows of yore. Immediacy isn't always our friend.

And then there's the notion of ratings. Say a program comes in second- or third- in its timeslot? YANKED!Do you guys out in Interwebland realize that if "Seinfeld" premiered this decade, it would be DOA? No doubt about it. It's cultural catch-phrases, style of comedy and furthermore, impact on pop culture would be all but nil.

Oh well, those are the musings for tonight.

In the meantime, check out some of these 'Studio 60' clips:









Until next time,
-- Mr. Festivus