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Re: 2006-07 Primetime Television


MadAdder

If you could only pick one, which show would you watch faithfully?  

10 members have voted

  1. 1. If you could only pick one, which show would you watch faithfully?

    • Friday Night Lights
      3
    • 30 Rock
      0
    • Kidnapped
      0
    • Vanished
      1
    • Smith
      0
    • The Nine
      1
    • Studio 60
      4
    • The Class
      0
    • Six Degrees
      1


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I like Studio 60 and haven't missed it yet.  It is exactly what I expected from an Aaron Sorkin show.  Like West Wing but at SNL.  I bet if Jordan McDeere were in charge of the real NBC then it wouldn't get cancelled.

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(with John Goodman guest starring in a couple of them)

Must resist catering budget joke...

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As far as new shows - Heroes is by far the best in my oppinion.  Unpredictable, unique and also a throwback to the old comic book ideas.  wonderful.

Dawn and I are "24" addicts

We also watch  Lost, Smallville, and Amazing Race.  I hate to admit it but we also love Gilmore Girls and I'm secure enough in my manhood to say so...almost

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I just keep waiting for the cheerleader in Heroes to start talking about race and football and always remebering the titans.

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lol praetor, yes my wife had to inform me of who that girl was...also since I have an 11 year old daughter...that is also the girl from disney channel's Tiger Cruise.  Yes it's weak but I have seen it.  Heroes is an awesome show...wife has to turn her head at some of the gross parts but it's worth it.

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Good news for Studio 60 fans:

Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme had everyone down to set this afternoon and announced that Studio 60 had 9 more episodes picked up, giving us a full 22 for the season and employment until May or so. Woot!

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Here's the best review I've found on Studio 60 http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0002928.cfm, and usually the site for my "will I see it or not" barometer.

I'm alarmed by some of the discussion here (as well as that by some of the pastoral staff at a HUGE church in Houston touting Studio).  It's this overwhelming relativism which has crept into contemporary Christian thought and watered down our Biblical worldview.  It says, "Hey, they're not that bad..." and justifies not only our tolerance but even our support.

Now, I'm not out there railing against this show or others like it.  Why would someone like Sorkin know any better?  What should we expect from an unredeemed mind and heart?  I'm not even offended...or at least I try not to be.  If my goal is "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me," then who's offense is it?  When Hollywood slams Christians or portrays us as the narrow-minded stereotype, well yeah, I start to bristle; until I can get my perspective back in Philippians 2 ("in humility..."). 

Sorry for the preaching, but hey, I'm right in the thick of it, too.  I worked on Friday Night Lights (the movie)...(been called several times to work on the TV series but have declined) and others.  But the gray area is decreasing; the dark is getting darker, and the light is getting lighter...

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While I'm at it, I'm baffled when I hear Christians talking about rushing home from Sunday night service to watch their Tivo-ed Desperate Housewives.  I'm like, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND?  What are you doing????

P.S.  Adder, this is NOT a jab at you.  Kudos to guys like us who have to close our eyes, ears, and minds at times on and around the set.  And congrats for landing a gig through next May!  I definitely know how that feels...it rocks!  Just watch for the opportunities God gives you and take them (spiritual and vocational)...

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I'm not a fan of Sorkin's writing... (I find it pretentious) but do I find it offensive or worrisome? Not really. Plus I'm pro adder. I totally agree on Desperate Housewives; can't understand how that show is even on the air.

Ah Friday Night Lights... the only movie I've ever gone to see because of the soundtrack (Explosions in the Sky)

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I don't know, I guess I just don't see how this kind of stuff is so inflammatory and offensive.  I love Studio 60, I do, I'll confess, so maybe I'm just biased--but I think that a religion which cannot honestly (even irreverently sometimes) look at itself, as in the way in which we approach our God, will always be the brand of extremism which we are so ardently fighting internationally and fearing domestically.

Thus far, as far as I've been keeping score at least, Sorkin and the rest have yet to go after God; they instead (and very often) go after the people who make quite illogical and unreasonable claims about God or what it means to be his followers.  Whether or not Sorkin's religious views are anywhere near orthodox, it might be a really helpful balancing force in the blind radicalism that so often characterizes our corner of the Christian movement.

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Heh, no worries. And thanks for the words of advice and encouragement, I appreciate it.

Aaron's writing definitely has a narrower appeal than shows like Grey's Anatomy or any of the CSI's. I think it's an acquired taste for sure, but not everyone will like it, and that's alright.

I do think that the current storyline with Harriet and the gay marriage thing is an interesting one. To catch everyone up, on the show she was asked about her position on gay marriage, her reply was "The Bible says it's a sin, but it also says 'judge not lest ye be judged', so it's up to smarter people than me to decide." She was basically saying "I don't know". Well that didn't go over too well with the gay community, she got confronted by a couple of gay street toughs, Tom steps in to break it up and ends up in Nevada with John Goodman. The next episode gets into this more and ties it together nicely, but it was the first time I'd remembered in recent history that on television a Christian was being persecuted, even though Harriet wasn't necessarily condemning gay marriage. I think her character is pretty well written. She has her faults, she tries her best to live according to her convictions, but she's far from perfect. Her character is based on Kristen Chenoweth (from what I've read they sound a lot alike), whom Aaron once dated.

I think our show has drawn both fire,and praise from religious groups, conservatives, and liberals, and I'm not too sure what to make of that. Aaron's primary objective isn't to use the show as a soapbox to preach his views (many of with I'm sure I'd disagree with if I talked to him about them), his primary objective is to make money and keep 200 or so people employed. After that (and if any of you saw the pilot you saw how clear he made it) the television industry hasn't done society any favors. He brings up issues not to make any certain group out to be bad or wrong or stupid, he does it because he wants us to discuss these things among ourselves after watching the show, and a lot of people don't like that or aren't used to it, they'd rather talk about if Derek and Meredith or getting together or how they can't believe detectives found a hair under a fingernail.

I definitely think the first few episodes of the show have come off as preachy, and Aaron has definitely been toning it down lately and I feel like the next few episodes might even be the best yet (though personally I think Nevada Day Part I was better than II, but that's just my opinion).

Anyways, with all this talk about soapboxes, I think I'm going to get off of mine and go get some sleep, lol.

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Whether or not Sorkin's religious views are anywhere near orthodox, it might be a really helpful balancing force in the blind radicalism that so often characterizes our corner of the Christian movement.

"Blind radicalism" is a really interesting way to describe "our corner of the Christian movement."  Would you say that that term describes your own personal faith, 8EL3K6? 

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Sorkin identifies himself as Jewish, but I think he thinks of it more as a culture than a religion, if that makes any sense. I don't think he's a fan of organized religion, in the sense that he thinks that when people get together to interpret something (Bible, Torah, Koran, etc.) that the followers tend to just blindly follow as opposed to studying for themself and coming up with their own ideas about it. He doesn't look down on people of any faith, except maybe those who think they have all the answers or who play the religion card for their own gain.

I think a good example would be in the pilot of West Wing, Josh, one of President Bartlett's staff members, was debating with a religious conservative and says "Your God is too busy being indeited for tax fraud!". Well that annoyed religious groups, who called for his resignation, so both sides got together and the religious group basically says, "Okay, we'll let you keep him, but the President has to say something in support of school prayer, partial-birth abortion, etc." Then the discussion gets heated and one of them incorrectly names one of the Ten Commandments. Then Bartlett shows up and kicks them out basically, then basically says to Josh "I never wanna hear you say anything like that again".

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  • 5 months later...

Good article, but I think the writer was missing the point. Aaron doesn't hate Christians, he dated one not too long ago . . .

I know this is an ancient discussion, but I came across a reference that I thought was interesting.  The Christian that Aaron Sorkin dated was Kristin Chenoweth (which may have already been mentioned in the earlier discussion, but I couldn't find it), who, as it turned out, was born and grew up in BROKEN ARROW, OK!  She's an Okie!  And from my very own town.  According to her blurb on Wikipedia, she considers herself a liberal Christian, and has a significant gay following.  According to the story, when she released a Christian CD, she went on 700 Club to promote it, then later said people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "are scary," in an obvious attempt to pander to her gay fans, who complained about her being on 700 Club.  Not cool.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting to see that Kristin Chenoweth was from the Tulsa area, or more specifically, from Broken Arrow.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Yeah, Kristen and Aaron dated, and apparently they still have a really strong friendship (he flew out to New York to see a new play she was in about 5 months or so ago).

I took a look back at this thread, which I started almost a year ago, and I think it's interesting to see what few shows survived.

Friday Night Lights barely got picked up, as did 30 Rock. Studio 60, The Nine, Vanished, Six Degrees, Kidnapped, Smith, and The Class are all gone (and of those, Studio 60 and The Class were the only ones that ran a whole season!)

Anyways, I'm sure it's just a couple months or so when I post a thread about this for the new shows for the upcoming season (I've heard a lot of good things, but then again, I said that last year and look where it got me, lol). Sarah Connor Chronicles is supposed to be a good one for Fox, Eli Stone for ABC is supposed to be solid, Private Practice is a spinoff for Kate Walsh's character on Grey's Anatomy, and Journeyman should be able to benefit from being on NBC in the timeslot after Heroes (the old S60 timeslot).

Anyways, this past year has taught me one thing about television - it really is a crapshoot if you're working for a rookie show. The safe thing is to get on an established show like Grey's Anatomy, one of the CSI's, Desperate Housewives, Two and a Half Men, Survivor, or a show like Dancing With The Stars or American Idol. In my opinion, those are the ONLY shows on right now that are guaranteed to go for another 4+ years, and even then I'm just guessing.

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