Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

An ad-blurbist shows his MENTAL MUSCLES:

In brainy 'Studio 60,' Aaron Sorkin reviles and reveres TV

Brainy! Brainy like me, bursting with gray matter like all my fellow ad-blurbists, Einsteinian to be saying, this television season is the greatest thing in America's cultural hissssssssssssstory!!!!!

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.

Meantime Tom Shales sez:

Sorkin is "about to do to TV what he did to the White House," promises the NBC Web site. And what is that, exactly? "The West Wing" remained essentially respectful of its setting, and so does "Studio 60," even though it begins with the producer and founder of the show within the show, Judd Hirsch in a guest-star bit, taking to the airwaves to tell viewers that the program has been "lobotomized" by a "candy-ass broadcast network hellbent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience."

But that's not all the brain surgery going on: "We're all being lobotomized by this country's most influential industry" because it is caught in a "struggle between art and commerce," he rants. Sorry, but the whole speech comes off as if Hirsch were speaking on Sorkin's behalf and wreaking some kind of revenge on muck-a-mucks and higher-ups who wronged him during his career -- or maybe he's chastising the audience for drifting away from "The West Wing" when the show grew tiresome.

Just what TV needs: another weekly lecture.

OR:

TV insiders will note the occasional poke in executive ribs. For example, Peet's character is named Jamie McDeer, a play off Jamie Tarses, who was in charge at ABC when Sports Night aired.

By the way, Sports Night, another inside show about television, didn't last beyond a couple of seasons.

And CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED too!