Aaron Sorkin Rebuilds Buzz for NBC Drama Studio 60

Pasadena, CA - "When things that are very mean-spirited and voyeuristic go on TV it's like bad crack in the school yard."

So declared Aaron Sorkin, the award-wining and much-worshipped creator of NBC's just-concluded The West Wing and soon-to-begin Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, during a press conference here on behalf of the latter at the 2006 Summer Television Critics Association tour.

Sorkin's comment is destined to be the most memorable quote among hundreds during the tour's three-week duration, not simply because of his well-documented issues with illicit mushrooms and rock cocaine but because he was answering a question about the vacuous quality of certain television programs (both of them reality series) and the network that telecasts them (that would be NBC).

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The question was: "Aaron… do you object to networks that have people eating worms and emulating Donald Trump?"

Before making his crack about crack, Sorkin hazarded a guess that the journalist was referring to Fear Factor and The Apprentice. "Those are two shows … that I'll be perfectly honest with you, I've never seen," he admitted.

Apparently Sorkin watches very little television, or at least very little of the television available from NBC, because earlier in the press conference he said he had not yet watched the pilot for Tina Fey's upcoming NBC sitcom 30 Rock. That's the show the press linked with Studio 60 in one of those media-made controversies, wherein industry observers asserted months ago that NBC would never greenlight two series about the staff members and stars of late-night comedy-variety programs that seem strongly inspired by Saturday Night Live. One might presume that Sorkin would have carved 22 minutes out of his life since last May to take a look at Fey's well-received pilot, if only out of curiosity.

(By the way, lest there be any ongoing confusion about the two shows, 30 Rock executive producer Lorne Michaels yesterday clarified matters for the press. "They are the hour show and they have a '60' in [the title], and we are the half-hour show, and we have a '30' in [the title]," he said. "I think people will be able to clearly distinguish which is which.")

Getting back to Sorkin and his crack, no sooner had the words escaped his lips than he cried, "Why did I use that word? Everything was [going along] fine…"

"That opens up a new line of questioning," Studio 60 star Bradley Whitford cracked … er, quipped.

Asked about the pressure that has been put on this show by NBC, which could truly use a new critical and commercial hit of the kind Sorkin delivered with West Wing, Sorkin replied, "We kind of get maxed out on the pressure we put on ourselves, because we want it to be good."

Earlier, in his meeting with the press, NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly also addressed the huge pressure that has been directed toward this show since last winter, especially in the media. "It was overheating too early," Reilly asserted. "Weirdly, I was relieved that we kind of let off some of that heat following the upfront."

Reilly correctly recalled that the buzz generated by clips from Studio 60 in May during NBC's upfront presentation was actually somewhat negative. But when the completed pilot began making the rounds, he added, the positive buzz began to build once again, this time in a slower and less intimidating fashion.

Also on the subject of pressure, former Friends star Matthew Perry, who is himself no stranger to the tabloid press, and who in Studio 60 plays a producer many critics believe is a fictional version of Sorkin himself, was asked about the stress inherent in portraying one's boss.

"It's mostly like bad Vicodin in the school yard," Perry replied.

The drug jokes kept coming from other stars of the show, prompting at least one critic to privately mumble something about how much fun it must be to work on the Studio 60 set.

Of his experience hosting a late-night show on Comedy Central D.L. Hughley recalled, "It was like bad crack in the schoolyard."

Steven Weber strained to keep the drug-funny going when he said of his experience working under tight deadlines on Studio 60, "It's like Excedrin and old-fashioned cloth diapers in the schoolyard."

Mercifully, Sorkin interrupted Weber to plead with the press. "Seriously, I will go person to person giving each [of you] $100 if we can just get the crack quote out of the papers tomorrow." As the room exploded with laughter he added, "It's an expression I meant nothing by, and with all the mental preparation I did for this panel, that I was actually able to say it is beyond belief. It really is."

No damage was done. Sorkin and his colleagues' collective crack attack made headlines, generating increased awareness for the show. Sorkin himself seemed totally recharged and ready to steer another hour drama through a high-profile multi-year run. And the press conference seemed to impress the press, convincing even the skeptics among us that Studio 60 might indeed become the hot show everyone predicted it would be before the upfront clips Reilly spoke of compromised its momentum.