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| via tvrage.com |
Eh, it's just a thought.
Today's episode is "The West Coast Delay."
Host & Musical Guest: No mention of either host or
musical guest
# of references “Crazy Christians”: Zero, zilch, nada!
Sketches Referenced: Meet the Press with Juliette Lewis
Sketches Shown: Meet the Press with Juliette Lewis
This episode starts the ball rolling on a few fronts. It introduces a couple of important
characters in Darren Wells and Martha O’Dell. They are pieces that propel the show throughout the
season.
Wells is a professional pitcher who gave Harriet a signed
baseball bat with his phone number on it.
Of course Harriet didn’t realize this and decides to regift the bat to
Matt, who immediately realizes what he’s been given.
Naturally this propels Matt into a jealous tizzy. He’s so jealous that not only does he
talk to Tom, but he takes Tom’s advice on how to handle the situation, which is
to have a sex symbol sign something of her and give it to him. It’s an idea that Matt almost sees to
fruition.
Instead Matt decides to “stamp her down” which amounts to
grabbing her and kissing her. Tom
tries to talk him out of it, pointing out that Matt is her boss, without
pointing out the crossing of several lines. But it’s all for naught as Matt ends up walking into
Harriet’s dressing room and finding Wells planting one on her lips.
O’Dell is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer who is doing a
Studio 60 cover story for Vanity Fair.
Jordan signs off on the story because Vanity Fair reaches “Alpha
Consumers” who are way better than normal regular people. She’s got full access to the show
for the piece, which surely won’t be a problem.
The title of the episode comes from the fact that the West
Coast delay is used to rewrite a segment of News 60, which will then be
performed live on the West Coast.
Matt allows for a 90 second contribution to News 60 from Ricky, Ron and
the rest of the writers room.
While they’re offended, they also want to show him what he’s missing by
excluding them from the process. They
settle on a bit for Simon about how America has to many labels and eats too
much food, that’s pitched by Hal a quiet young writer.
Of course after the show wraps, it’s revealed (via the
internet) that the writer’s room contribution was lifted wholesale from some
stand ups act. It’s a huge error
and both Danny and Matt want the name of the writer, but Ricky and Ron are
class acts; they won’t name names and offer to resign in his place. Danny and Matt respect their stance,
but don’t take the resignation.
Of course there’s a whole legal aspect to stealing someone’s
bit, which necessitates the redoing of News 60. Cal gets some to play a big part in this episode, doing it
live requires cutting into a broadcast and impeccable timing. But Cal runs the control room like a
pro.
In the end it turns out that the stand up stole the bit from
another writer, who in 1991 wrote
the bit and performed it while he was on Studio 60, so they owned it in the
first place. Oh you guys!
The only problem with the whole “lifted bit” story is that
Ricky and Ron explicitly state, before the title even comes up, that the entire
writer’s room is supposed to work on Hal’s bit and Simon wants to tinker with
it too, but the end result was exactly the same as the stand up bit that’s
posted on YouTube. So Hal stole
this bit, it passed through the writer’s room, through Ricky and Ron, through
Matt and through Simon and nothing’s changed?
From a tv standpoint it makes sense that the two bits are
identical, that way there’s no confusion.
But from a reality standpoint, it’s very difficult to believe. Also, the idea that a bit from 1991
would kill in 2006 is kind of preposterous.
On the plus side, we do get Danny explaining why Matt
doesn’t write well with others and is a guy of solitary genius. It’s an acceptable explanation as
long as you forget about how Matt got to this point in his career.
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