Monday, August 07, 2006

Did NBC Greenlight Tina Fey Sitcom To Placate Lorne Michaels?

The usually dependable Roger Friedman of Foxnews.com insists Lorne Michaels (the creator of "SNL") was so angry about Aaron Sorkin's new drama taking place behind the scenes of an "SNL" type show that Michaels forced NBC to take a SITCOM taking place behind the scenes of an "SNL" type show. And why is that better? That's not how I remember the development of both shows -- in fact, I thought Tina Fey's show was delayed by outside factors and that's the only reason both hers and Sorkin's show are debuting at the same time. Plus, it means "SNL" has lost Fey. Even more oddly, Friedman mentions how Zach Braff says this may be his last season on "Scrubs." No surprise there, since it wasn't even certain "Scrubs" would be back one more year. But then Friedman suggests the show -- which barely got renewed and only at the last second (numerous reports described how they believed they were doing the series finale) -- will go on without Braff because it finally scored an Emmy nomination for Best Sitcom. Not a chance.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a question -- what's the last thing Lorne Michaels did to earn the right to have any kind of say at NBC?

Michael in New York said...

I'd say hiring Eddie Murphy, back in the early 80s.