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" Back in the forties and fifties, directors like Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder kept their characters talking constantly, which meant more dialogue per minute of screen time. Aaron Sorkin, the obsessive scribebehind A Few Good Men, Sports Night, and The West Wing (he wrote every episode of the show&amp;#039;s first four years), is in many ways a throwback to the old masters of repartee. The characters that inhabit his courtrooms and soundstages and Beltway back offices speak with an addictively propulsive wit that would play nicely between Hepburn and Grant. The average hour-long pilot runs about sixty pages; the dialogue-driven pilot for Sorkin&amp;#039;s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip comes in at seventy-six. But it sure reads quick. In the new show, which will debut in September, Sorkin focuses on a universe as cutthroat as politics, but with better-looking people: network television. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip revolves around a sketch-comedy show (think SNL) that is rapidly losing its edge (think SNL). As the pilot opens, the network has decided to kill an offensive (but funny) skit, pushing longtime executive producer Wes Mendell over the edge. He delivers a live on-air tirade decrying the pathetic, corporate-controlled state of American television.  Meanwhile, the network&amp;#039;s brand-new president, the young and attractive Jordan McDeere, is attending a welcoming dinner party thrown by chairman Jack Rudolph. When their collective cell phones buzz with news of the meltdown, Jordan, Jack, and a handful of other network execs (including head flack Shelly Green) rush back to their office for an emergency meeting on the snowballing disaster.... Studio 60 on the Sunset StripPilot, Third Draft Scene 16: INT. CONFERENCE ROOM--NIGHT A bank of twelve televisions is being turned on for the benefit of JACK, JORDAN, and everyone else in the room. The volume will get turned up on the monitors that interest them, and there are a growing number, which will all start to play simultaneously. SHELLY This is what we&amp;#039;ve grabbed off the air from the last half hour or so. They&amp;#039;re cued up, so you can just-- JACK&amp;#039;s already hit the remote. MONITOR NO. 1 In a scene reminiscent of Paddy Chayefsky&amp;#039;s classic film Network, Studio 60 executive producer Wes Mendell hijacked tonight&amp;#039;s live broadcast and instructed his audience to-- MONITOR NO. 2 In a stunning impression of Peter Finch&amp;#039;s Oscar-winning performance in the 1976 film Network, Wes Mendell, longtime executive producer of Studio 60-- MONITOR NO. 3 He was mad as hell, and he wasn&amp;#039;t gonna take it anymore. The NBS flagship program Studio 60, celebrating its twentieth season on the air, had a message for its viewers tonight-- MONITOR NO. 4 Disaster and embarrassment at NBS as tonight&amp;#039;s broadcast of Studio 60 got off to a start that would&amp;#039;ve made Paddy Chayefsky smile-- JACK You believe this?  JORDAN I say they&amp;#039;ve heard of Paddy Chayefsky, that&amp;#039;s a step in the right direction. JACK Everybody sit down. People start to take seats and as JORDAN sits, SHELLY, the head of publicity, confides in her. SHELLY (quietly) That was a faux pas back there. JORDAN (quietly) Where? SHELLY (quietly) At the dinner party. You don&amp;#039;t compliment the caterer in front of the hostess. JORDAN (quietly) I don&amp;#039;t want to start throwing my weight around right away, Shel, but that&amp;#039;s probably not gonna be a high priority tonight.  JACK Shelly, muzzles on the cast, mouths shut, nobody talks until I say so. Howard, what&amp;#039;s legal thinking? HOWARD They&amp;#039;re looking at the tape. There could be anything from the FCC to a class-action suit. JACK What about the news division? ALAN They&amp;#039;re not gonna like the crack about having theme music and a logo for the war.  JACK Advertiser relations? ZELDA We&amp;#039;re trying to get &amp;#039;em on the phone, but it&amp;#039;s not easy this late on a Friday. MICHAEL Same thing with the affiliates. JACK (beat) The remark about worm eating and Who Wants to Screw My Sister? He was talking about our shows? MICHAEL We don&amp;#039;t know. JORDAN&amp;#039;s trying not to laugh. JACK Is there something funny about this? JORDAN God, Jack, there&amp;#039;s like seven things funny about this. We&amp;#039;re not sure which sister-pimping show he was talking about? MICHAEL I meant that-- JORDAN The FCC doesn&amp;#039;t have us on anything, and a lawsuit wouldn&amp;#039;t pass the laugh test.  HOWARD They&amp;#039;re worried a class-action suit-- JORDAN Being brought by who? People with bad taste? They all got together and hired a lawyer? Mitch, the advertisers and affiliates are gonna be plenty happy when they see the West Coast overnights and the fast nationals, and by the way, you can try, but you can&amp;#039;t stop the cast from talking to the press. Certainly not the Big Three. ALAN The news division? JORDAN The news division can kiss me. Report the damn news. HOWARD The Big Three--what does Detroit have to do with this? JACK She&amp;#039;s talking about--not the car companies--she&amp;#039;s talking about Harriet Hayes, Tom Jeter, and Simon Stiles; they&amp;#039;re the leaders in the group. Jordan, are you saying we&amp;#039;re overreacting to this hideous, humiliating, and possibly actionable event that occurred on our air? JORDAN No, I&amp;#039;m saying you&amp;#039;re dramatically underreacting to it. We don&amp;#039;t care about any of this?  JACK What do we care about? JORDAN That they&amp;#039;re gonna say he was right. JACK What? JORDAN That he was right.(beat) They&amp;#039;re gonna say he was right. Every cable show&amp;#039;s gonna have nonstop roundtables about how Hollywood&amp;#039;s taking our national culture to hell on a speedboat, and we just became the symbol of that. I don&amp;#039;t know who the bookers are even gonna get who&amp;#039;s gonna be on our side. People for the American Way isn&amp;#039;t gonna show up to defend NBS&amp;#039;s prime-time schedule.  JACK When the hell did there become two sides to this?  JORDAN When you fired Wes. He&amp;#039;s a martyr now. JACK Jordan, you can&amp;#039;t be suggesting--this is what happened in the damn movie--you can&amp;#039;t be suggesting we give him his show back. JORDAN No, what he did was unforgivably irresponsible, and he put his cast and crew in a terrible position. He&amp;#039;s done at this network. JACK Then what are you suggesting? JORDAN Let&amp;#039;s talk in my office. JORDAN gets up and exits. JACK, with not many choices, follows her out into-- Scene 17: INT. CORRIDOR--CONTINUOUS --where JORDAN&amp;#039;s standing there. JORDAN I don&amp;#039;t know where my office is. JACK shakes his head as he wonders how much worse this night can get. JACK What are you suggesting? JORDAN We need a new story, and Studio 60 needs a new executive producer and head writer. I want to hire Matt Albie and Danny Tripp. JACK No, no, no, no, no, no, no. JORDAN Yeah. JACK I have a history with those two guys. JORDAN No kidding. JACK I fired them. JORDAN I know the history, Jack. People in Kansas know the history. That&amp;#039;s why it&amp;#039;s a good story. It&amp;#039;s a big story, and we get to control it. We&amp;#039;re gonna hire two people who hate your guts, and we&amp;#039;re gonna do it-- JACK You know-- JORDAN Listen: &amp;#039;cause we&amp;#039;re committed to quality. It&amp;#039;s a tacit admission of guilt and a silent act of contrition, and that&amp;#039;s what&amp;#039;s required here. JACK What the hell am I guilty of? JORDAN JACK-- JACK What am I guilty of? JORDAN I could read you the charges, but we don&amp;#039;t have that kind of time. JACK You talk to your bosses at NBC like this? JORDAN Every day. That&amp;#039;s how I became president of a network. JACK If I hire these guys back, I&amp;#039;ll look completely deballed. JORDAN You don&amp;#039;t need all the fingers on one hand to count the number of people who care about your balls right now. JACK I got news for you, sister: As long as I&amp;#039;m one of &amp;#039;em, so are you. JORDAN They&amp;#039;re exceptionally qualified, it&amp;#039;s a splashy choice, they&amp;#039;re classy-- JACK They&amp;#039;re classy. JORDAN They are, and we need that right now. JACK My thought was we&amp;#039;d promote Ronald Oswald and Richard Tahoe. They&amp;#039;ve been co-execs for three years, they know what they&amp;#039;re doing, they know the current cast and staff, it&amp;#039;ll bring stability, and they&amp;#039;re--what&amp;#039;s the word I&amp;#039;m looking for-- JORDAN Hacks. Ron Oswald and Ricky Tahoe are hacks, and stability isn&amp;#039;t what we&amp;#039;re looking for; we&amp;#039;re looking for surprise. JACK The most expensive thing in television is executive producers you can&amp;#039;t control. JORDAN The most expensive thing in television is a show that doesn&amp;#039;t work.  JACK You&amp;#039;re never gonna get these guys to come back to television. JORDAN I will. JACK How? JORDAN I&amp;#039;ll get &amp;#039;em. JACK You know something I don&amp;#039;t know? JORDAN Yeah, and we&amp;#039;re keeping it that way. JACK When do you want to do this? JORDAN Now. Tonight. I want this all done and together for a press conference Monday at noon to announce and take questions. JACK You&amp;#039;re gonna get all this done on a Friday night? JORDAN Yeah. JACK Do you have a thing for one of these guys? Or both of these guys? JORDAN (beat) (smiles) I don&amp;#039;t know either one of them personally. Is that a question you were asked when you hired me? JACK You bet your ass it was. JORDAN I need to get started now. I need to get to Matt and Danny. JACK I&amp;#039;m gonna want to meet with &amp;#039;em before any hands are shaken. JORDAN They&amp;#039;re not gonna audition for you, Jack. JACK We&amp;#039;re gonna have a conversation. JORDAN And what will you say in this conversation? JACK Whatever I damn well please.  (beat) I don&amp;#039;t think it&amp;#039;s a secret to you that I want Wilson White&amp;#039;s job. I&amp;#039;m gonna be CEO of TMG, and to do that I&amp;#039;ve gotta show White I can delegate when it comes to the network and particularly the entertainment division. But you saw how fast I fired Wes Mendell? Screw this up and I&amp;#039;ll fire you faster. I&amp;#039;m not like every other heterosexual man in show business, Jordan. I don&amp;#039;t find you charming. And you&amp;#039;ve earned the loyalty of absolutely no one.  (beat) So you go ahead and take your first steps toward making us all classy again. We&amp;#039;ve been waiting for you. (points) And that&amp;#039;s your office. JACK walks off. JORDAN enters her dark, empty office. She looks out her window at Sunset below and, to the left, Studio 60. FADE TO BLACK--END OF ACT ONE  * 100 things you need to know now. Coming in October, a special issue devoted to the other ninety-nine imperative people, things, places, ideas, and works of art that insiders know about and you didn&amp;#039;t. Until now. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a687/esq0806studio60-130/>