Although it failed to garner any spots on my "Best of the New Fall Season" list, the new Aaron Sorkin genre-bending "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" is definitely one of the best. Not only is it strongly acted, written and directed; it's ridiculously intelligent, a little too intelligent for most American audiences perhaps? Take last week's episode, for example. One of the major storylines revolved around an elderly gentleman creeping back stage of Studio 60 in order to secure an old photograph of when the Philco Comedy Hour used to broadcast out of the Studio. TV scholars will recognize the obvious references to the Golden Age of television when shows were single sponsored and live. This was also a time when television was sympathetic to the Communist cause in order to maintain their credentials as representing the public interest, convenience and necessity. This old man was trying to obtain a picture of him in the writers room with the other writers before he was brought before HUAC and blacklisted. He makes numerous references to the Hollywood Ten, claiming his name was Bessie Bibberman etc. The average American viewer, like my mother, would have absolutely no idea what these subtle jokes were referring to, even if they did see "Good Night and Good Luck." It's severely smart humor that makes a college education completely worth it.
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