Studio 60 (6/7/07): "K & R"

[disco]

Was tonight's in HD?? It was 16x9, it SAID "NBC HD", but just didn't look that crisp...in fact, the commercials looked better than the show itself...

[Einselen]

The past two weeks my local affiliate has been sending the HD signal to the SD channel (if that makes sense at all). I see a D in the left hand side of my screen and it has been confusing me, until I read your post.

[LoadStar]

Got me... the local affiliate was in "squeeze mode" because of POTENTIAL of severe weather, so they dropped the HD feed to 4:3 SD, then took the SD feed and shrunk it down to fit in their banner on the left hand side and bottom. Grr.

[Rob Helmerichs]

Studio 60 is never really the H-est of D...I guess it's some kind of weird stylistic choice. But the image has always been pretty soft and murky, except when they went to Nevada.

[disco]

Studio 60 is never really the H-est of D...I guess it's some kind of weird stylistic choice. But the image has always been pretty soft and murky...It's my first couple weeks with an HD-DVR, so I actually get to watch prime-time in HD...I really looked forward to Studio 60 in HD...but, oh well...

[mrmike]

It was a good episode, though.

[madscientist]

It looked fine here: not squeezed etc. Must have been your local affiliate.

I liked this episode although it was kind of filler: nothing much resolved. I chuckled at Danny's comment that the surest way to get a large female audience was to have a pregnancy in distress. The proposal was sappy but I liked it anyway ("3 carats, 'F' color ..." "Yes!! Are you kidding me?")

I'm wondering if one of the big conflicts next week will be that they offer money for Tom's brother and he gets upset that the other two guys don't get ransomed. Tom seems to be the only one thinking of the other guys.

The 8 years of arguments was slightly amusing, although I thought they didn't give Harriette much to say; Matt got all the good lines. I thought the flashbacks would be annoying but I actually liked them.

I can't say I'm going to miss this show terribly, but I'll miss it somewhat. I really wonder if it'll end "cleanly" or if we'll have some major plot points unresolved.

[DevdogAZ]

The 8 years of arguments was slightly amusing, although I thought they didn't give Harriette much to say; Matt got all the good lines. I thought the flashbacks would be annoying but I actually liked them.
That's because Aaron Sorkin writes the show, not Kristen Chenowith. ;)

I really liked this ep. I liked the interplay between the serious stuff and the occasional joke. Kind of cool to see some of the flashbacks.

When they showed the flashback where Matt was talking to Danny about Andy's baby, what exactly was Danny's position with the show? I always thought he was a writer during their first stint, but clearly he wasn't. Since Wes was the E.P., what was Danny?

Interesting juxtaposition of Andy missing all the news about the war because he was in the hospital with his wife while she had a baby, and now Danny and Jordan are going to miss everything that goes on with the Mark Jeter situation while they're in the hospital having their baby.

Mike Cannon makes another appearance on another show.

[vman41]

I kept waiting for Kernigan and Richie to show up.

[Unbeliever]

Drat! I was too slow tonight!

Though I can imagine a Sorkinesque argument between proponents of the 1TBS vs GNU coding styles. *grin*

--Carlos V.

[ThePennyDropped]

I kept waiting for Kernigan and Richie to show up.

I have to admit, that was my first thought, too. :o

Good to know I'm still a geek at heart.

--Debbie

[cwoody222]

What WAS the meaning of the title?

I thought the kidnapping / ransom thing was stupid. Like NBS would really pony up $10mil for a sketch comedy "star"'s brother?

Other than that, good stuff.


Oh, and I also noticed that the HD quality was less than desireable. Glad to hear it wasn't just me or my signal. Especially during the hospital scenes it looked "grainy". But not in an artsy way. Whatever they're going for isn't working.

[jamesbobo]

While Danny is using his cell phone in the hospital did anyone notice the "do not use cell phone" sign in the background?

Very early in the show someone asks "are we being fired?"

[DancnDude]

What WAS the meaning of the title?

I thought the kidnapping / ransom thing was stupid. Like NBS would really pony up $10mil for a sketch comedy "star"'s brother?

Other than that, good stuff.


Oh, and I also noticed that the HD quality was less than desireable. Glad to hear it wasn't just me or my signal. Especially during the hospital scenes it looked "grainy". But not in an artsy way. Whatever they're going for isn't working.
K&R was the name of the group supposedly able to get the kidnapped people back for $$. I think it was only mentioned by the tech guy when he was chatting with the lawyer.

And I agree on the HD quality. For one, they kept putting up weather alerts which popped them back into SD (why can't they just imbed this on top of an HD feed?), and when it was in HD it looked grainy to me as well.

[hefe]

K&R was the name of the group supposedly able to get the kidnapped people back for $$. I think it was only mentioned by the tech guy when he was chatting with the lawyer.

And I agree on the HD quality. For one, they kept putting up weather alerts which popped them back into SD (why can't they just imbed this on top of an HD feed?), and when it was in HD it looked grainy to me as well.
I wasn't sure if it was the name of the group of the type of "insurance," but K&R most definitely referred to Kidnapping & Ransom.

[DevdogAZ]

K&R was the name of the group supposedly able to get the kidnapped people back for $$. I think it was only mentioned by the tech guy when he was chatting with the lawyer.
No, the company that did the hostage recovery was called Trask Security. As hefe said, K&R stands for Kidnapping & Ransom, which is not only the name of the crime, but also the type of insurance coverage you can buy to protect against it.

And this was K&R Part 1. Next week is K&R Part 2. So the fact that there wasn't that much in this episode to do with K&R will certainly be rectified.

This was the 3rd of the summer burnoff episodes. How many are there total? Six?

[askewed]

Is there any chance of saving Studio 60?

[Unbeliever]

Is there any chance of saving Studio 60?

Nope. Not likely. The sets have been struck.

--Carlos V.

[busyba]

I kept waiting for Kernigan and Richie to show up.
:D:up:

+1

[DevdogAZ]

Is there any chance of saving Studio 60?
Even in the summer it's finishing in 3rd place in the ratings, behind reruns of shows like Grey's Anatomy and Shark, so I don't think there's any chance that NBC would want to save it. It just wasn't making them any money.

[DevdogAZ]

I kept waiting for Kernigan and Richie to show up.

Drat! I was too slow tonight!

Though I can imagine a Sorkinesque argument between proponents of the 1TBS vs GNU coding styles. *grin*

--Carlos V.

I have to admit, that was my first thought, too. :o

Good to know I'm still a geek at heart.

--Debbie
I had to google this one, and yes, you guys truly are geeks.

;)

[edc]

K&R stands for Kidnapping & Ransom, which is not only the name of the crime, but also the type of insurance coverage you can buy to protect against it.


"My friend has offices around the world, including Latin America, where kidnapping's an industry. We consult on 'K&R' insurance -- that's kidnap and ransom."

"Companies take out insurance on their employees getting kidnapped?"

"Absolutely, that's where they get the ransom money."

"How does the ransom money get to the kidnappers?"

"There's a company you've never heard of called 'Trask Security.' We use them in Columbia, but they're well connected in the near-east."

"Who are they?"

"Former CIA, former Special Ops, former KGB, secret service. They deal with the locals."

[bicker]

If the first bunch of episodes were as good as K&R, maybe Studio 60 would have made it! :)

[smak]

No matter what side of Matt & Harriet's longtime argument you come down on, it's so out of the ordinary to see something like that even addressed on network TV.

Pretty refreshing. Too bad S60 didn't catch on.

-smak-

[madscientist]

I kept waiting for Kernigan and Richie to show up.Wow, me too! But I wasn't brave enough to post it :o ObGeek: I went to a talk by Brian Kernighan on this super newfangled programming language "C++" back in 1987 or 1988. How time flies!

Re Matt and Harriet's argument: I actually agree with Matt on most of what he said but I wish they had given Harriet better lines. Of course, maybe she doesn't have better lines :p :)

[Highspeedhomer]

I so wish S60 could be saved some how, some way.

[edc]

I so wish S60 could be saved some how, some way.

Get down on your knees and pray to Aaron Sorkin!

[DevdogAZ]

Get down on your knees and pray to Aaron Sorkin!
He doesn't believe in prayer.

[osterber]

The hospital scenes were done in the 'ER' set, right? It all looked way too familiar.

And is anyone else a little concerned on the reality side that a woman goes into the ER with possible pregnancy complications, which they determine to be preeclampsia, and it's still the doc who's going into sports medicine working on her, and nobody has called for an OB consult?

-Rick

[stargazer21]

The hospital scenes were done in the 'ER' set, right? It all looked way too familiar.

And is anyone else a little concerned on the reality side that a woman goes into the ER with possible pregnancy complications, which they determine to be preeclampsia, and it's still the doc who's going into sports medicine working on her, and nobody has called for an OB consult?

-Rick
:::snicker::: The medical stuff was driving me crazy. But I just did what I sometimes have to do during House...pause it and remind myself that it's not a medical documentary and to enjoy the damn show. :) When I start it back up, I'm cool. :D

I'm really gonna miss this show. :(

[porges]

As either an in-joke or an unavoidable irony: Bradley Whitford's best-known pre-WW role was as the husband in the famous ER episode "Love's Labor's Lost", in which his wife has preeclampsia.

[fliptheflop]

Whoa whoa best known? Somebody has forgotten Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise. :)

[aindik]

When they showed the flashback where Matt was talking to Danny about Andy's baby, what exactly was Danny's position with the show? I always thought he was a writer during their first stint, but clearly he wasn't. Since Wes was the E.P., what was Danny?

In the pilot, Matt and Danny were accepting an award for a movie that Matt wrote and Danny directed. And he lost a job directing another movie when it got out that he failed a drug test. I'm going to assume that Danny had Cal's job that first time around. Was Cal in any of the flashbacks?

This was a good episode. Cal's "where do you think the money's gonna go" point was a very good one.

[LoadStar]

In the pilot, Matt and Danny were accepting an award for a movie that Matt wrote and Danny directed. And he lost a job directing another movie when it got out that he failed a drug test. I'm going to assume that Danny had Cal's job that first time around. Was Cal in any of the flashbacks?
Television directing is almost totally unlike film directing. My personal guess is that Danny was an associate producer under the executive producer, Wes Mendell.

(Matt as the head of the writing room would have also likely had the title of "producer.")

[aindik]

Television directing is almost totally unlike film directing. My personal guess is that Danny was an associate producer under the executive producer, Wes Mendell.

(Matt as the head of the writing room would have also likely had the title of "producer.")

You're probably right. They must have had some fairly high positions, as they were Wes' replacements for the post-9/11 meeting with Jack.

[murgatroyd]

I kept waiting for Kernigan and Richie to show up.

My husband made the K&R joke also. ;)

Jan

[IJustLikeTivo]

I kept waiting for Kernigan and Richie to show up.

That joke pretty much pegs the geek-o-meter.

[jwjody]

I didn't relate K&R to Kernigan and Ritchie, but when I saw the post about Kernigan and Ritchie I was sitting here thinking, "What does C Programming have to do with this show? Did something go over my head?"

J

[aindik]

I didn't relate K&R to Kernigan and Ritchie, but when I saw the post about Kernigan and Ritchie I was sitting here thinking, "What does C Programming have to do with this show? Did something go over my head?"

J

+1. I know who Kernigan and Ritchie are, but never associated them as "K&R."

[hyde76]

Interesting juxtaposition of Andy missing all the news about the war because he was in the hospital with his wife while she had a baby, and now Danny and Jordan are going to miss everything that goes on with the Mark Jeter situation while they're in the hospital having their baby.


Has everyone forgotten that Andy's wife and Baby were killed in a car wreck? Recalling that while watching his joy at having the baby was wrenching. The show has finally gotten good and it's sad NBC is not giving it a chance.

[BrettStah]

Isn't is spelled "Kernighan"?

[madscientist]

Isn't is spelled "Kernighan"?Yes.

MoreObGeek: For those who didn't recognize "K&R", it just means you weren't hacking C back in the day. Before ANSI, then ISO, standardized the C programming language the only "standard" was the book Kernighan and Richie wrote. For lack of a better term, the language described by the book was referred to as "K&R C" and the language described by the standard was called "ANSI C", now "ISO C", or just "standard C". So, "K&R" was quite a common term in programming circles. You hear it much less now because you very rarely run into code written for K&R C anymore (the original ANSI C standard was published in 1989 after all!)

[Jonathan_S]

And this was K&R Part 1. Next week is K&R Part 2. So the fact that there wasn't that much in this episode to do with K&R will certainly be rectified.
Hmm, and it looks like the week after is K&R Part 3. Doesn't look like this plays out quickly.

[jgerry]

...
When they showed the flashback where Matt was talking to Danny about Andy's baby, what exactly was Danny's position with the show? I always thought he was a writer during their first stint, but clearly he wasn't. Since Wes was the E.P., what was Danny?

Interesting juxtaposition of Andy missing all the news about the war because he was in the hospital with his wife while she had a baby, and now Danny and Jordan are going to miss everything that goes on with the Mark Jeter situation while they're in the hospital having their baby.
...
And let's remember where we met Andy (Mark McKinney) before. He was the writer that was depressed in earlier episodes because his wife and kid(s?) were killed in a car accident. Matt & Danny hired him to teach the new writers how to write. It was really jarring to see him show up all happy in the flashback, but knowing what was going to happen to his family within a few years. [EDIT: oops, someone mentioned in a previous post]

I thought the HD looked crappy too. And worse than that, my feed (Atlanta, Comcast cable) kept dropping out for 2-4 seconds, turning the screen black and dropping the sound. And when it wasn't dropping out entirely, it was literally flipping back and forth between HD and SD. Come on TV engineers, it can't be that difficult!!

[Einselen]

I thought the HD looked crappy too. And worse than that, my feed (Atlanta, Comcast cable) kept dropping out for 2-4 seconds, turning the screen black and dropping the sound. And when it wasn't dropping out entirely, it was literally flipping back and forth between HD and SD. Come on TV engineers, it can't be that difficult!!

At that point they should have just taking the SD signal and upconverted, that is if the HD signal was dropping out from network, which is what it sounds like was happening.

[Rob Helmerichs]

And I agree on the HD quality. For one, they kept putting up weather alerts which popped them back into SD (why can't they just imbed this on top of an HD feed?), and when it was in HD it looked grainy to me as well.
We had a weather event last night, and I happened to glance at the NBC station, and they DID overlay the weather alert over the HD. I've never seen that on other stations. And that station is the only one locally that does their own HD programming (i.e., news). So perhaps in order to do the overlay over the HD feed, you need to have HD production capabilities that most stations don't have yet..?

[Amnesia]

MoreObGeek: For those who didn't recognize "K&R", it just means you weren't hacking C back in the day. To me, "K&R" referred to the book itself much more than it did to the version of C that the book described. When you wanted to look something up, you asked "Hey---anyone have their K&R handy?"

[JYoung]

Where the Hell was Lucy?
Her boyfriend's getting hit with all this stuff and no one can be bothered to tell her?

[TAsunder]

Finally got a chance to see it. This episode was wildly uneven. Once again the best scenes were with Jack and/or Cal. This was my least favorite of the 3 burn offs so far. The pregnancy is really pretty boring, as well as acted/written a little too much like a 1940's stage play, and though the tom's brother thing got a little more interesting, all the over the top political mumbo jumbo kind of distracted from the human element for me.

[mattack]

That's because Aaron Sorkin writes the show, not Kristen Chenowith.

Sarah Paulson.

Kristen Chenowith was on The West Wing. (I know she's also some kind of Broadway star, but I know her from The West Wing and her short-lived sitcom.. Her character and CJ had a funny moment when CJ said (approx quote) "I can't believe we're the same species." CJ is gargantuan and Kristen is obviously short.)

[aindik]

Sarah Paulson.

Kristen Chenowith was on The West Wing. (I know she's also some kind of Broadway star, but I know her from The West Wing and her short-lived sitcom.. Her character and CJ had a funny moment when CJ said (approx quote) "I can't believe we're the same species." CJ is gargantuan and Kristen is obviously short.)

DevdogAZ meant Kristen Chenoweth.

The relationship between Matt and Harriet is, by all accounts, based on the real life relationship between Aaron Sorkin and Kristen Chenoweth. The reason Matt got all the good lines is because Sorkin was writing them.

[DevdogAZ]

DevdogAZ meant Kristen Chenoweth.

The relationship between Matt and Harriet is, by all accounts, based on the real life relationship between Aaron Sorkin and Kristen Chenoweth. The reason Matt got all the good lines is because Sorkin was writing them.
Thank you.

[Ruth]

I didn't think the episode was good at all.

Someone said the medical stuff was bothering them -- well, the legal stuff was awful too. "An express train to the Supreme Court"?! Please, that is absurd. No lawyer would ever say that -- especially since they were talking about a state law claim that is incredibly unlikely to even raise federal issues!

And the whole kidnapping/hostages thing -- I just felt like the writers missed the West Wing so they decided to write an episode of that instead of S60. Their employment defense attorney just happens to have the number of Iraq hostage rescuers on her cellphone? That makes no sense at all. Just seemed like way too much of a stretch and totally out of place.

[Gai-jin]

One more vote for 'I'm really going to miss this one'. This was a great show before the hiatus, and is still great after. It really sucks that it's not coming back.

It was rather odd this week, seeing the guy from Las Vegas with a 'stache...

[johnperkins21]

If the first bunch of episodes were as good as K&R, maybe Studio 60 would have made it! :)

They were.

[Kevdog]

I'll miss this show some. To me, the decision to focus so much on Matt and Harriette was a disaster. She's just not interesting. Nor is their relationship. They have no chemistry at all together. Which becomes so much more obvious when their scenes are followed by scenes that feature Danny and Jordan. The religion stuff seems forced and unnatural.

I didn't know their relationship was based on Sorkin's relationship with Chenoweth.

[bicker]

They were.Nah, not really. I liked them because I liked Whitford and Perry and Peet, and the banter, etc., but the episodes were not as good as K&R.