SITREP

Finished spec'ing The Unit.

For the most part.

There's going to be a period of several days of going in, rechecking the voices and what-not. Then a couple of weeks of not looking at it, then some rerechecking, fixing and tweaking. I got everything from the title page to "THE END", so in the larger sense. It's down.

Appropriate that this Shawn Ryan exec'd show forces another Ryan show (The Shield) out of the spec rotation.

A STUDIO MEETING c.1601

I SHOULD BE PAID FOR THE SHILLING THAT FOLLOWS...

Think of it like a public service announcement.

Yeah, TV spec'ers are always trying to track down a copy of the best and latest scripts for whatever it is we're in the midst of spec'ing, but let us not forget that which has gone before.

Sure, there's the excellent West Wing script books by Aaron Sorkin (which, by the way, Studio 60 has been moved out of the path of CSI and Grey's Anatomy to Mondays at 10/9c and Medium takes the midseason on Sundays). There's also the Freaks and Geeks volumes. Then there's the Buffy The Vampire Slayer scriptbooks which compile the first two and a half seasons in 8 volumes (and there's a special volume for the musical episode).

If you're on a budget, how about an Angel script by Joss Whedon for about four bones. Comics publisher IDW is putting out select scripts from the series, super cheap. I have to credit the collection-obsessive nature of hardcore Buffy fans. Sometimes they're willingness to buy anything with the right logo on it occasionally benefits others.

This, of course, means you will have to go into a comics store. There's some nice ones around, they'll help you out.

And since you're going to be in there, let me suggest something. It's called Fell. It's hardboiled crime with a little bit of weird. Grab an issue. Any issue, it doesn't matter. They're all done in one and they're two bucks. You can afford two miserable dollars.

Just do what I fucking tell you.

UPFRONTS DOWNBACK: TUESDAYS

Tuesday continues to hurt by the sheer magnitude of stuff to watch. Minimum seven hours to start, and that's not taking FX into account. I don't even have the time to consider Friday Night Lights or Kidnapped . I'll catch them in reruns if they're still around after eight weeks.

Here begins one of the series I'm most interested in.

Originally titled Primary, now retitled the more thematic Standoff. I'm only familiar with creator Craig Silverstein through his work on The Inside, but I dug that show, so no problems there.

It follows the premise of crisis negotiators (Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt) who work together and are struggling with their burgeoning attraction to one another. They need to watch out for the Moonlighting problem, but I think a good first season is well within the realm of possibility. I know there were several "negotiator dramas" in development ("Talk to Me" by Paul Guyot for one), but this was the one I thought had the best chance to stick (largely because it's probably the least realistic one of the lot).

When The Future Cruise Ship Entertainers Show comes back midseason, Standoff will move to Monday and lead-in 24.

House is House. What can you say? The Unit, as expected remains on duty and the spec'ing proceeds apace.

Smith joins the CBS line-up with a premise that sounds a lot like two extrememly disappointing series that have aired in the last few weeks, Heist and Thief. If Smith doesn't click, this genre should be mothballed for a while in primetime. Only Hu$tle has managed to get it right. Great cast though, and it looks violent. I like violent.

I don't usually get excited by sitcoms in advance (usually i just give 'em a spin and once in a great while, I find an Earl or Scrubs), but for Tina Fey...I am all over 30 Rock.

And, Let's Rob... What? A another heist show? Oh, a heist comedy. Donal Logue. Hmmm.

All this and the seemingly perfect double-header, Gilmore Girls/Veronica Mars, though tainted by the lack of Amy Sherman-Palladino on GG next year.

STUDIO 60 UPFRONT PREVIEW

A full six minutes of Sorkin-y goodness.



Is it too soon for the Currently Digging spot?

Obviously, I'm looking to this as a likely spec come the fall, unless people just go for the umpbillionth pasty corpse on CSI or watching a show about high school, disguised as a medical drama (which is actually, pretty damn clever). I have faith in the Sorkin, though.

Oh yes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip Vs. CSI Vs. Grey's Anatomy. Wear paddding, that's gonna be a fight.

Once the upfronts are over, I will share some largely irrelevant thoughts on the new schedule and programming.

WHAT KIND OF SEVEN YEARS HAS IT BEEN?

And so, the time has come.



The West Wing, by virtue of coming to an end, is retired from the Currently Digging in the sidebar. Make no mistake, it will continue to be dug. My DVDs are in danger of having the bits stripped off them like the gears in a manual transmission driven by the likes of me.

It has served well in its two terms in office. It pulled off the previously unthinkable by successfully reinventing itself midway through its run when Aaron Sorkin (who appeared in the finale in a single shot while Keb' Mo' was playing) and Tommy Schlamme left the show. It was thought-provoking television, it was music. It made my living room into a cathedral when it was on (to not only paraphrase, but remix and mutate the words of AS).

I can't say enough about it, but I will say that maybe there was a missed opportunity here. An Arnold (Alan Alda) Vinick win (which according to a Lawrence O'Donnell interview in the NYT, was going to happen until John Spencer's death), a whole new administration (cast) with Stephen Root as an incredibly different communications director. Patricia Richardson as chief of staff (I would presume). A whole new view on The West Wing from the other side of the aisle. It could have followed up the mythical effectual Democrats with the equally mythical Republicans that put the country before their own agendas.

In its departure, a small token. A promo spot for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. If the pilot script and those few seconds are any indication, it will surely fill the hole where my soul is supposed to be. And its setting will allow Sorkin to look at public issues through the scope of backstage at a topical sketch comedy show. If you know me personally, I pity you, as I will likely slag on you for not watching it until I convert you, as I have just about anyone else I have had to set straight on some TV-related issues...you fucker.

If I could vote for Bartlet, MS and all, I would. Chicago style.

I'd even vote for Vinick. It's just a better world there.

SECRET MESSAGES IN VERONICA MARS

Duncan Kane speaks with Clarence Weidman and much is said.

Rob Thomas is, without a doubt, a master storyteller (and credit to co-teleplay writer and recent Neptune grad John Enbom). Seriously.

After decompressing from one of the best season finales I have had the pleasure of seeing in a long while, it is clear that this man knows how to craft a mind-crushing tale in a manner such that he can be compared to Abrams M1A1 tank and your brain can be compared to...well, your brain.

Not only were myriad plot threads wrapped up in the space of a single episode, Thomas didn't even need the whole thing to do it, as we were treated to a "what if" dream sequence and Veronica's "little umbrella" moment (in appropriate VM style), if I may partake in the all-too-cliche comparison to Buffy. Most of it seemed to come through in one flash of coherence. To quote the guy what tried set up VM for ripping off the spring carnival, well..I think he says it best.

I so look forward to the next season that I am certain will be announced in upfronts next week, and not just because a couple of new threads were tugged in "Not Pictured" if you know what I mean.

Next time someone asks me what show I'd want to write for, if I could have my pick, there's no thought involved. I'll be saying it so fast it'll come out Vrokamrz.

And Aaron Echolls in a Great Escape rip, that was just cool in itself.

SPEC'ING THE UNIT

Maybe a risky choice of spec, (especially being that there have only been nine episodes to date, which presents a thing, but I know that thing is there so I can deal with it) but I look at it like this. The Unit is a top 10-20 show right out of the gate. Being that it's got Shawn Ryan and David Mamet on it, I imagine it's getting watched inside as well as out. Getting into it now gives me a headstart if it does become a regular spec and it might be that something different on the desk for a bit.

Secondly, every spec has some value if I decide to put it into competition, where whether or not it is a good choice of spec means nothing. I've seen some oddball series get spec'ed in finalists and winners of several competitions.

Lastly, it's a fun challenge. I dig the genre and I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to capture the watered-down Mametry of the series. It's like Mamet, but not entirely...unless he wrote and directed the ep. "Security" is straight-up Dave.

And as I mentioned to a good friend of mine recently, I was as pissed as cake to have to miss (due to the lack of still living in Chicago) the Mametslam at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago (part of the David Mamet Festival (how many times can I write "Mamet" in this post)). I really dig pseudo-Mamet (and parenthesis).

I have a weird relationship with Mamet's stuff. Maybe it's just me. Some of his stuff just sounds so wrong to my ear, but I can't resist hearing it. I used to think that he made actors that he directed act really unnaturally, but I know that's not the case after seeing State & Main, his Shield episode, and I really expected to get that in Heist, but it didn't turn up. It seems to fade in and out in Spartan, which if you're digging The Unit and haven't seen this, you really need to check it out. It's a favorite Mamet of mine.

It's this strangeness in dialogue I have to watch out for in trying to capture the show's voice. I have to pay close attention to not turn into a parody and to do that, I'm planning to hold back from putting exactly what I hear in my head on the page. I'm gonna have to filter. Mamet.

I like Filter. Did you know that the guy from Filter is Robert Patrick's brother? Robert Patrick who is in The Unit? He is.

And yeah, I could write "speccing" but it doesn't look right, so I go with spec'ing.

Mamet.

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT'S DINNER 2006 & 2000

Everyone else seems to be commenting on THIS, so I will too. That and it reminded me of something.

First off, not Colbert's best stuff. Second off, doesn't fucking matter. He had a clean shot and he took it. There are those that complain that he should have been even-handed, as is the custom at WHCDs, at fired off some slugs into the Democrats, but I think that fact that he didn't only serves to further illuminate the idea that the current administration is so loathsome that I don't even need to finish this sent--

I watched the WHCD on C-SPAN. I usually do, most years. Clinton made them interesting (in many ways). He had a good sense of humor. I thought back to the first (and best) one I saw. Year 2000. A certain little Aaron-Sorkin-show-I-talk-about-too-much was the break out hit of the TV season and the Dinner opened with a short film in which then-Press Secretary Joe Lockhart toured the set with Allison Janney (the voice of Kaiser Permanente) to comedic effect.

It ended (or near ended) with the tour culminating in the Oval Office set where Martin Sheen was found to be constantly rearranging the snow globes on Bartlet's desk with his face right down on the desktop. He was all OCD about it. Lockhart questions Janney on Sheen's behavior. Janney replies to the effect of "If you had spent 18 months in the jungle with Francis Ford Coppola, you would be a little crazy too."

This would have been a damned fine extra on the first West Wing DVD set...or the second...or the third...

The 2000 WHCD is available on DVD from C-SPAN, but not with the West Wing bit.

Even the intertron webulator has failed me. Not on YouTube or GoogleVideo. So if someone has possession of this, maybe having taped it off C-SPAN that year, and is willing to violate some copyrights and upload it (or just send it to me), it'd be appreciated.

And yeah, even when Colbert isn't in top form, I'm still laughing.