I have loved Studio 60 from the beginning and I thought this episode was fabulous. I think Matt and Harriet have great chemistry. The episode that showed in flashbacks how they met was a masterpiec. I think the show has low ratings because it is competing against an extremley popular show and the media (like many of you) has been very invested in looking for what is wrong with the show with a fine tooth comb. I hope very much that NBC will allow Studio 60 to return from hiatus and for a new season next fall.

Sadly, it's like anything in any business - it has to be right at the time of launch. People don't like to change their minds. So, you can't launch something wrong (TV show, restaurant, amusement park, department store) and expect people to give you a second chance and come back later, after you've fixed it.

But, that's exactly what was needed here - Studio 60 was easily the most improved show I'd ever seen, but that first, so heavily hyped episode, was just so busy and so manic and without focus, that most people weren't gonna come back.

The Harriet character didn't help, certainly, and as much as I'd love to blame her, I gotta blame whatever forces were responsible for letting that first episode get executed that way.

The saddest part is, I love TV, and you had Matt Perry, Brad Whitford, Timothy Busfield, and Steven Weber in a show about *TV!* Man, I thought I was really gonna have something great to look forward to every week! And, I should have!

Well, no one is going to read this, seeing as it's already Friday, but I didn't get to watch this week's episode until today. So I'll go ahead and comment anyway.

About your sidenote, Jay... Matt's latent (not so much anymore) substance abuse issues were definitely alluded to with Danny's comment about Matt needing to lay off the vodka at the end. This is a storyline that is going to keep coming up on and off, more heavily in some episodes than in others, like any Sorkin subplot.

I also thought of "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" before "Kubla Kahn" as Coleridge's most famous poem, although I was tipped off by the subtitle under the screen on NBC's online video player so I knew which it would end up being. And of course Matt had been talking about "Kubla Kahn" for about five minutes beforehand. But "Ode to a Grecian Urn" is definitely not even on the radar.

Finally, Studio 60 will almost certainly finish out the season, although it may not be until this summer. NBC has already paid for 22 episodes, so it is unlikely that they would shelve the last six. I read somewhere that the network is looking for a 3.0 rating on the episodes in order to not lose money; until the last one or two episodes S60 had achieved that every week. So I don't think that shelving the last six would really make financial sense.

really? only molly and I get the gage-whiteny reference? either the rest of you aren't real aaron sorkin fans, or just the same peope who wanted to rip on the west wing. if these blogs were as popular when it(the west wing) first premiered, it never would have taken off.

Women wearing glasses is always hot. HOT!

I said the same thing about Rime of the Ancient Mariner to my wife while watching the show.

Other wise, the show represents another piece of damming evidence that Aaron Sorkin has nothing to say.

Good episode - the lawsuit shows what kind of behind-the-scenes plots this show should deal with. Again, the Matt/Harriet stuff. . .look, I'll be the first to say that I do think this material is well acted and written and all that stuff. It's just that it is flat out wrong for this particular show. Sorkin seems to be working out some of his past issues with Kristin Chenoweth through his writing, which is artistically valid; much great art has been filtered through that same prism, but it is undoubtedly harming his show. A dramatic look at the inner workings of a late-night sketch show with a touch of the trademark Sorkin wit sounds great and a good counterpoint to Tina Fey's hilarious 30 Rock. I just wish they get around to commiting to doing just that.

Too bad the punchline in the artificial baby joke was broadcast all week so we had to go through the setup with that spoiled.
I think Harriet is great, it's Jordon who is unbearably annoying. Paulson is a skilled actress unlike Peets who cannot make her character believable as being an executive at that level of authority. Peets is playing a starry eyed ingenue instead of a woman who could actually hold such a position. And she was horribly annoying in the scene on the roof with Danny, I found her headachingly shrill while up there. I kept wondering why he didn't change his mind as she babbled on and on and on. I expected him to jump off the roof just to get away from her.
The Harriet/Matt romance is tiresome but the actors playing the roles are so good that they make it watchable. The Jordon/Danny romance only has one great actor the other one is way over her pretty little head.
Even with all it's faults I haven't been able to stop watching Studio 60 and I'm going to miss it when it's gone.

Sorry- the Harriet relationship is the heart of the show for me, and without it, I doubt I'd watch every week. It's the "must-see" part of the show, and I simply don't understand any complaints regarding her character and the story line. There are people who watch the show who love the show as it is, not because of who created it, not to see if it's going to be a train wreck (in thewir own minds)... There are many of these people, I am one of them- the rest of you can watch more conventional fare, and I hope you're happy and satisfied when this show is gone. No wonder I watch less and less TV nowadays, less and less new music... The news- well, now everyting is tabloid, and all TV will soon be 'reality." Jerry Springer has finally taken over the world without running for office!

"Listen, I need to say this: Harriet is still shrill and annoying. There's no way around it. I have nothing against Sarah Paulson. I think she's a fine actress who can do a really good English accent and who can also make a dolphin sound, but her character is death. If I were that kid in bed with her, I would have asked for a real gun so I could end the hell of being around her and all her silly drama."

I blame all the show's failures on her, she's a terrible charater, is completely out of place with the rest of the show. The show failed because of her and I find that amazing.

This was the first episode that really distracted me. I counted three different references to The West Wing in the first five minutes ("We're nowhere." "I leave when you leave." "I'm from Gauge/Whitney.") and at least one old set piece (the Pirates of Penzance poster) later on. I'm a fan of the show, and this really soured me on the whole episode. I loved The West Wing, but that was all too blatant for me.