Studio 60: It's a Wonderful Restaurant!

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Riiight...so apparently this week is "Product Placement" week on NBC. The Office had their Staples shredder bit, 30 Rock had the "pos-mens," and now Studio 60 has pretty much the exact same plot as 30 Rock: network higher-ups need more ad revenue, and so are pressuring producers into increasing product placement. Does anyone else get the feeling that NBC execs held a meeting a month ago in which they pressured producers into increasing product placement? Yeeeah...

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30 Rock's Snapple bit managed to be clever and funny, again worthy of an Arrested Development comparison, since the "Burger King: It's a wonderful restaurant" bit with Tobias and Carl Weathers set the benchmark for all self-mocking product placements to come. Studio 60 similarly (although far less hilariously/cleverly) managed to increase product placement simply by talking somewhat negatively about product placement, so the NBC executives should be happy campers. Among the brand names bandied about: Samsung, Sony, and Nokia. Oh, and Jordan actually has the line (speaking of the show's audience), "They like iPods, and so do I." I'd call that a "pos-men," wouldn't you?

In other news (brought to you by the Ford F-150: Built Ford Tough), Ricky and Ron leave the show to work on a Peripheral Vision Man sitcom for Fox. They take all the writers with them but the British chick and the stand-up comedian guy. As Matt points out, it's not a big deal since he was writing all the sketches anyway. Which apparently sucked this week, but we didn't have to see them, so I'm not going to harp on that point.

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Harriet wants to do a lingerie spread for some magazine to increase her marketability, but Tom and Simon are pretty sure the magazine just wants to brag about getting a religious chick semi-naked. Um, duh. Jordan may or may not be getting fired soon, and I may or may not be writing an angry letter to Aaron Sorkin soon.

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Overall, I think the show is starting to find its sea legs, even if it's not quite there yet. Fewer sketches, less harping at Middle America, more character-created drama, and more Christine Lahti next week (I don't know why I love her on this show, but I definitely do). Well-played, Sorkin. Oh, and I seriously, SERIOUSLY covet that fiber optic cactus from the scene with Matt and Harriet. It would go so well with my fiber optic palm tree!