Oh thank god we're on similar pages regarding Studio 60. I should say, Bob and I watch it religiously in the Sorkin sense, in that we're stupefyingly obsessive about a show we despise. It takes about an hour and a half to watch because I have to pause it every minute to laugh hysterically and/or put my face in my hand and let Bob do bits.
Last night when the parents from Columbus said "we felt like bigshots!" I turned to Bob and said, "oh, I get it, that's because they're from Columbus, but they are from Columbus in the Depression! My thought was confirmed when two people from Columbus (1) were incredibly thoughtlessly racist (2) birthed one of the three biggest stars on a broadcast network's flagship show (that airs on Friday, when everyone's watching television!) and didn't know what show he was on (3) thought that a Gypsy Rose Lee reference meant their son was hanging out with strippers (4) didn't know Who's On First, not to mention Abbott & Costello and (5) all of this was because they had a son who was a soldier. Because that makes sense.
But then when Eli Wallach showed up and apparently Bud Friedman had influence over someone who was paid to make people laugh, not to mention booked a comic from the 1980s, I thought "this is some sophisticated narrative where they're showing the events from the POV of a bunch of time travelers from the 30s, 50s and 80s!"
I had to change my mind when one of the most powerful women in Hollywood turned into a Sorkinesque bundle of need in front of her employees; the only black character turned out to have been almost involved in a murder from the ghetto; three women in Hollywood had no idea what a director, writer and executive producer were; a $300K contract was given to a man who couldn't write funny standup, let alone sketches, because he was black and talked about race (hey, look, I found someone who is a funny black comedian in LA, it's not hard at all: [link] the youngest member of a sketch show had his parents show up to a wrap party and then claims in all seriousness that Who's on First will make someone laugh for days and days-- that's when I realized that it's more the case that Sorkin doesn't know anything about people, places, and things.