Modified On October 10, 2006
Anyone see tonight’s episode? The hourlong drama, a fictionalization of SNL, has plenty of Aaron Sorkin’s snappy, Bringing-Up-Baby dialogue and obscure references. But it must be lauded for providing at least what feels like a backstage peek at the production of a sketch comedy show.
SPOILER ALERT
Tonight’s episode, however, has an A-plot that has D. L. Hughley‘s character reading a bit about ADHD (on their equivalent of Weekend Update) which turns out to be ripped off, word for word, from an obscure comic (named “Lenny Gold”) who performed the bit a year or two earlier “at the Laugh Factory.” (A video snippet of which was discovered minutes later by a reporter who is backstage, doing a feature on the show.)
Minutes after the show wraps, the head writer of the show is apprised of the theft and he immediately freaks and starts talking about reprisals from the original author and starts screaming about “get me legal,” and how they’re going to have to re-tape portions of the show and apologize, and how everyone connected to the show is going to be named as a defendant. (The reporter, portrayed by Christine Lahti, sniffs, “Well, if you accuse a writer of plagiarism, you might as well call him a child molester.”)
Huh? We wish! Has there been a show like SNL that ever once worried about possibly ripping off a comedian? Not that this kind of thing happens that often, but, if it did, do you think they’d be waking up any attorneys or loading in a second audience or re-taping segments? We don’t think so.
The eventual outcome is that Matt (Matthew Perry’s character) has been putting so much pressure on the writers to produce material that one of them felt the need to submit material that was… lifted.
Turns out the whole thing is a false alarm. Turns out that Lenny Gold is contacted and cops to stealing the bit from one Ben Barkley, former writer for Studio 60. Turns out further that Barkely– who hasn’t written for the show in nine years– wrote the bit when in the employ of the show and, therefore, the bit is the property of the show. Nothing to see here, folks. (We like how the head writers wouldn’t give up the harried writer/child molester dude. They instead chose to blame the head writer for exerting too much pressure on the staff! Yeah, right!)
The show is, we assumed, eerily accurate when it comes to depicting the production of a weekly network televisione sketch show. Now, we’re not so sure. Apparently, there isn’t enough drama in a week of production to fill up an hourlong episode of a fictionalized version of the show and they feel compelled to make up dreck like that detailed above.
We just love how the comic in the plot was eventually found out to be a thief! Nice!
FOS Tommy James points out, quite rightly, that the role of Lenny Gold was played by real-life standup comic Fred Stoller.