Five Ways to Fix Studio 60

As I am waiting for this much hyped show to realize it's potential, I thought I'd go over some of the things that would help to improve Studio 60.

1. Get Rid of Christine Lahti. Nothing against the actress whatsoever, but her character has no place on Studio 60. She is a Vanity Fair reporter doing a story on the show and Matt and Danny and we have seen her more than we have regular characters on the show, including those mentioned in the opening credits. This doesn't make any sense, and neither does her constant presence. Her character doesn't add anything to the show except for name recognition, and this show already has a lot of that, and we are still swimming in mediocrity.

2. Eliminate the Harriet is a Christian Storyline. It really isn't funny or even entertaining or moving to watch what ends up being very preachy rhetoric about Christians and their beliefs. Not only is this storyline unnecessary, it is very off-putting and I would think alienates many viewers.

3. Scrap the Sketches. Studio 60 can learn a lot from an excellent show that came before it, also created by Aaron Sorkin. Sports Night. On Sports Night, when they shot their version of "SportsCenter" as part of their show as they did almost every episode, except for a few times, the episodes were centered around the making of that show, the writing, story ideas, real news stories (all sports news, of course), and then Sports Night would end with Danny and Casey beginning the show and it would fade out to the credits. This change needs to be implemented pronto on Studio 60. They desperately need to cut their ubiquitous un-funny sketches. It has gotten rather painful to watch what they consider funny.

4. Re-Write D.L. Hughley's Character. D.L. Hughley has never been a great actor but he's never been this bad, and it's not him, it's his character. D.L. is really a stand up comedian and despite that, he hasn't made me laugh once on this show. His character brings nothing to the show besides possibly being the token black character. This needs to change. His character needs to be re-written so he is not carrying some sort of chip on his shoulder and becomes the star of the show within a show we are told he is. D.L.'s talents as a comedian have not been used in developing this character, even though they may think to the contrary. As one of the leads to the show within a show that is supposed to be a sketch comedy, they need to draw on the comedian's strengths to develop this character into a show asset.

5. More Amanda Peet. For whatever reason, Amanda Peet isn't always the most popular or well liked actress by some, but even people who usually were not big fans have liked her in her role as Jordan McDeere on Studio 60. She's funny, witty, brash, and underused on this show. She has great chemistry with Steven Weber and especially with Bradley Whitford, and both of those relationships should be spotlighted more than they are.

Hopefully NBC and Aaron Sorkin will take note of some of these things to help revamp this show. Last week's show was an improvement over the last several weeks, but still nothing spectacular. I'm waiting for those new scripts that were ordered to premiere, presumably that will be episode 14. If there isn't significant improvement by then, I doubt I will stick around to watch this show go down in flames.