"Studio 60" cast hates show?

From Heather: Yay! Studio 60 was picked up! Congrats on the exclusive
scoop. I'm so happy, but I want to know: Is it true the people working
on the show didn't want it to be picked up?
Sadly, that is pretty much what I've heard—many of the people who work
on the show were hoping it wouldn't survive. Such a shame, 'cause the

Obveeus...

I think this author is confusing 'hope it would not survive' with 'did not
expect it to survive and so had already begun to look for other work'.

Steven L....

Obviously what happened is that when the ratings were disappointing, the
cast started lining up attractive gigs elsewhere in anticipation of
needing to find other work, and now they've got to cancel out on those.
They probably went to 23 different auditions for 23 different gigs and
wasted everybody's time.

show has gotten so good! I'm also told that NBC would pay a massive
penalty for canceling the show, so it would actually cost the same
amount to halt production as it would to keep making it.

Obveeus...

Pay a penalty to whom? Did the production studio have a cancellation
penalty built into the contract or something?

Rob Jensen...

Apparently, yes. The network would have had to have paid a penalty
for not airing it that was so high that it was worthwhile enough to
pick up the show for the rest of the season rather than take the
penalty hit.

What I read in another thread here seemed to indicate that the studio took a
cut in pay just to make sure the complete season was filmed; expecting that
they would make the money back on a DVD set for the season.

Rob Jensen...

The two are not mutually exclusive. Warners could be enforcing the
must-carry penalty toward the network *and* telling principals in the
show (Sorkin, Schlamme, certain stars) that perhaps they need to take
a pay cut in the short term to keep what's clearly a good show going.

Obveeus...

Was Warner Brothers asking principals to take pay cuts? I thought they were
just picking up NBC's half of the tab (or some large chunk of NBC's portion
of the tab) in order to convince NBC to keep the show on the air for a full
season. Warner Brothers will then be able to make their money (they hope)
back on the DVD sales.

Rob Jensen...

I think your theory is more likely than mine -- Paramount did the same
thing with UPN for the last season of ENT, but I think, too, that
ENT's budget was cut for that final season to bear some of the brunt
of the cut in the fees Paramount was collecting from the network.

Conversely, everybody at 7th Heaven that's stayed with it this season
took substantial pay cuts to keep it going, including show creator
Brenda Hampton *and* lead actors Collins and Hicks. It's not as if
Sorkin, Whitford or Perry *need* the money, either.

-- Rob

-- Rob

muzicmakr...

Argh. That's not the type of insider info I like to find out about. It
hurts my enjoyment of the show.

Rob Jensen...

I don't think they so much were hating the show as much as the moral
was so low they were just wanting the show to be put out of its misery
so that they could move onto other jobs. Now that the show has been
picked up for the rest of the season and its fate more secure, I their
attitudes toward the show are going to change quickly, if they haven't
already.

-- Rob