We Are Saved!

Last night probably felt like a normal Monday night to most. There was Monday Night Football, and the fall television series started. Throughout the country, Americans watched television as if it was business as usual. This channel has a new comedy. That channel has a new suspense thriller and another has some new primetime soap opera. Deal or no deal, it was the same old deal. Old favorites begin making their return, and the clock watching began for a few new shows.

Just like every other September. Only it wasn't. Last night marked the beginning of a new era. Or at least I hope so. See, last night Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip premiered. This isn't just another hyped up show with a cast of quality actors who found out they couldn't make it big in movies. No, this show is more. It's the show that can save television.

I was looking forward to this show from the time I heard that Aaron Sorkin had a new show coming out, through the time I read the impressive cast and continuing throughout the summer. Truth be told, I haven't been this excited for a new show since The Sopranos hit HBO in the late 90's. There have been a few shows I've become a huge fan of but, nothing I anticipated like this. Entourage has become one of my all-time favorites but, its fluff. It's entertaining and creative but it's as shallow as its characters.

Studio 60 is the smartest show since Sorkins' The West Wing, not that it was so long ago. The West Wing gave me hope that just maybe, maybe there were decent politicians. That there could actually be people in Washington that were smart flawed and still wanted to do the right thing most of the time. I know it's fiction but, that's the power of a well written show. Studio 60 has upped the ante. Unlike The West Wing, Studio 60 is part of the institution it reveals to us.

A show based on a show, and those involved in the show are sickened by the overwhelming amount of crap on television. Sorkin has based the show, at least some what on himself and his right hand man, director Thomas Schlamme. In the show, there's a writer and director team (played by Matthew Perry as the writer and Bradley Whitford as the director) who take on an SNL type show after the previous producer, Judd Hirsch, goes completely Network on the air.

So it's Perry and Whitford to the rescue, and as they save the show Sorkin and Schlamme fight to save the entire medium. Both duos are unafraid to ridicule their own network, as well as the viewers at home, whom between them produce and allow "reality" television. It's also shaping up to be a very personal show. Whitford's character has a bit of a history with drugs, as does Sorkin himself. And Matthew Perry's pill addiction which made tabloid headlines is now part of his character.

Television has been in a slump that rivals my romantic life. In the early 90s we were blessed with Seinfeld, and then cursed with shows that wanted to be Seinfeld. A show about nothing ended up changing everything. Then suddenly after the big wigs realized they could match neither the financial success of Seinfeld nor its creativity, we saw a shift to low budget and high profit reality crap.

The Resurrection is here. Who knew it would be TV that came back from the dead to save us?