September 18, 2006

Thank You & Goodnight

My house is being over run with people here for the premiere party. Weber is heckling me. Kevin Reilly is pacing nervously. Tommy, the cast and crew and I wanted to thank you for checking out the first episode. Most pilots (including those for Sports Night and The West Wing) represent something of a typical episode. As you'll see if you come back next week, the Studio 60 pilot was more of a prologue. We hope you stayed tuned, we hope you enjoy yourselves, and from the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate your taking an hour out of your evening and watching our show.

Best,
Aaron and Tommy

SNL fans

Aaron and I are both huge fans of Saturday Night Live. I once had an office in the Brill Building in NY and Lorne MIchaels was my landlord. He made me pay rent on time, but still managed to do a very good show. Actually, nothing would please us more than to know that Lorne liked the show.

In fact...I just heard from one of the original SNL writers, a very talented man named Alan Zwiebel, who just saw the show and could not have been more complimentary.

Josh Malina...

Everytime Nate Corddry screws up a take, Perry puts him on Josh Malina Watch.

(Nate responds..."Nate Corddry here, I'm too big of a star for some skank stat-head from Sports Night to take my job! I could totally take that guy in a fight!")

Directors

It would be my pleasure to work with Alex Graves and Chris Misiano again. It was my luck that the 3rd episode has already been directed by Chris. Alex is very busy doing "The Nine." We've talked many times and are trying to find a way so that he could come and bless us with his talent.

Genesis of Studio 60

That's a good question but my answer will be all over the place. I like backstage drama, whether it's a navy law office or a sports cable show or the White House. I like the romance of live television and I liked that a late night sketch comedy show would, from time to time, get us into areas of the culture wars. Mostly I thought it was another opportunity to write about people committed to what they're doing and to each other.

Cast & Crew

Rusty MC...happy that you're shocked! I can guarantee you Aaron & I are shocked even more and probably happier! Our production schedule is we shoot for 9 days per episode and probably employ about 200 people daily as crew, staff and cast.

On days where we shoot the show-within-the-show that can go up by another 150 to 200 people, because we actually shoot it infront of a hired audience (of extras) as if it was a live television show.

The crew usually works between 12 and 16 hours a day...depending on who's directing. (Aaron says, it's closer to 18 when I'm directing). Someone who knows what they're doing can get out in 12 hours.

West Wing Cameos?

Well we're 41 minutes into the series and we've already seen Brad, Busfield, Perry and Felicity Huffman. Getting a chance to work with the others again would be an answered prayer. You mentioned Janel, whom I'm particularly fond of, but then I'm particularly fond of Martin, Richard, Allison, Rob, Dule, Stockard, Rob and Malina. No need to say I wish I could have John Spencer one more day.

To Allison...

Thanks so much for the kind words. We hope we can have a fair discourse about religion in this show also. And thank you so much for talking about "Jack and Bobby". I miss it also, but not near as much as my wife misses it!

Matt & Danny

Did I write Matt and Danny with Matthew and Brad in mind? I wrote it hoping they'd do it. Matthew came to us right away, which was a lucky stroke for us. Tommy and I knew that Brad was the guy to play Danny from the beginning, but we were initially reluctant to cast him because he'd just gotten done doing seven years of some show about the White House. So we saw every other actor in town for the part and in the end agreed that talent wins. After shooting five episodes, I'm certain we made the right decision.

ps: hit refresh if you're not getting all the posts/responses

Characters Based on Real People?

Kitty,

You asked if the characters in the show were based on real people. There are people and incidents that served as a springboard, but everything pretty much became fiction by page 11.

To Three Inch Heels...

No, I really don't think people will have a hard time relating to TV people. Seven years ago people thought that it would be impossible to create empathy for public servants. Hopefully we accomplished that. I feel equally as strong that we can accomplish the same thing with people who happen to work in the entertainment business.

Continuity

Way to call me out, Susan G. We're shooting Episode 5 right now and I'm writing Episode 9. Hopefully I won't let you down this time. Stick with us a little. (From T.S.: In case we do any flashbacks, no Verizon phonebooths will be seen.)

to Thor...

thank you so much for watching the show. The good news is my father lives in a "red" state, so we're covered. - T

Trousers

Good evening, this is Aaron. Tommy's standing over my shoulder. We're both very glad to see so many of you joining the post-show chat. I've chosen this question to start with 'cause it's an easy one. Tommy wears the pants, I wear a cute little Chanel outfit that he likes.

A Message from Aaron Sorkin

Dear All,
If you're reading this, then there's a pretty good chance you'll be watching the premiere of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip tonight at 10/9c. NBC has asked Tommy Schlamme and I if we'd take some questions during an online chat following the East Coast airing of the show and of course we told the network that assuming there wasn't any action in the Steelers/Jaguars game on ESPN, we'd be happy to.

In the interest of getting to as many questions as possible, I thought I'd provide some answers in advance:

1. That had to be cut for time.
2. You'll see much more of him in Episode 2.
3 That was Tommy's fault.
4. Her hair will be down in Episode 2.
5. Well, it gets better.

We look forward to hearing from you and mostly we hope you enjoy the show.

Best,
Aaron Sorkin