So I guess someone at TVNZ isn't overly fond of Aaron Sorkin. Who's he? The guy who created The West Wing that TVNZ eventually canned because it didn't rate enough even though there was a loyal fan base who, for the last series, had to view it after 11pm.
Aaron Sorkin is also responsible for TV2's new Thursday night's show, Studio 60 at the Sunset Strip, screened at – you guessed it – 10.30pm.
It's about the backstage politics of a weekly sketch comedy (think Saturday Night Live) and in its first episode the producer, Wes, played by Judd Hirsch, does a Peter Finch from the 1976 movie, Network, and goes live on air to unleash a bilious attack on the state of American television.
He's as mad as hell because he had to pull his best written sketch just minutes before the show, and he's not going to take it any more.
What does he say? Stuff that sounds horribly familiar and all too pertinent to our own situation. Such as? That any cutting edge political commentary or satire is lobotomised by the networks, that art is subjugated to commerce, and directors have become glorified pornographers. Speaking of which, those girls on Deal or No Deal should be getting a dirt margin having to wear those low-cut dresses in this bad weather.
As Wes warms to his theme, the vision mixer in the control room during the live show refuses to stop filming while a confused studio audience titters.
Meanwhile, Jordan, played by Amanda Peet, has just been made president of NBS, and, against her boss's better judgment, decides not to sack Wes and to appoint a controversial but brilliant writing producing duo, Matt and Danny, to be in charge of Studio 60.
Matt, or is it Danny, is played by Matthew Perry from Friends. Felicity Hoffman from Desperate Housewives and Ed Asner (aka Lou Grant) are in the mix as well.
The lines are witty and clever but, unfortunately, I missed a lot of Amanda Peet's dialogue because of her rapid- fire delivery. I got the idea, however, that she is one helluva woman who men fear and desire. Except, that is, for Jack, her close-eyed boss and the chairman of NBS, who looks like Michael Douglas before he went and had all those unfortunate facelifts.
"I'm not like every other heterosexual man. I don't find you charming," he says staring her down and telling Jordan her ass is on the line if she doesn't knock the show into the front porch.
That's fighting talk. Everyone on this show is involved in a moral crusade to save television from the scum it has become, and the big C-word here is compromise as the troops rally to inject truth, justice and the American way back into comedy. Sounds awfully serious to me, but it's always good watching somebody biting the hand that feeds them, thus opening up a faux dialogue about the state of television.
The only trouble was it all got a bit silly when Matt broke up with his girlfriend, an actress on the show, because she sang in front of some fundamental Christians and he cannot find it in himself to forgive her appalling lapse in taste and compromise.
She hangs her pretty head and apologises but he just can't compromise his values on this one, and he turns on his heel and walks away with his hands in his pockets looking so like a "Friend". He's a man of honour, get it, and when he discovers that his dear pal and producing buddy Danny is compromised because he tested positive to cocaine and cannot be insured for 18 months, Matt compromises himself to take the job at Studio 60 so that he can stay loyal to his friend.
The episode ends with Matt and Danny walking out on to the main stage as the grips, gaffers and all the people who help make it happen gather round to applaud the brave boys who, as one flunky breathlessly says, have been sent here to "save us".
And if you're wondering what happened to the vision mixer who was told he was going to be sacked and who looked like that "ginga" advertising guy from Thirty Something, now aged fifty-something, he got to keep his job.
He let Wes carry on his spiel for a whole 53 seconds before cutting him off and Danny says that if he'd let him carry on for 54 seconds, he would have given him a raise. They're that noble.
Maybe this show will only appeal to people who work in TV but it's fascinating watching Americans so self- consciously reclaim the moral high ground through a "daring new comedy". No-one will watch it at this time, anyway, so we don't have to trouble ourselves with any of that.