For his latest creation, Studio 60 on The Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin has packed up his dense banter and righteous moral indignation, and moved them—along with some familiar faces—3,000 miles west from the White House to a Saturday Night Live-esque comedy show in L.A. The travel hasn’t altered Sorkin’s focus—Studio 60, like The West Wing before it, is a show about politics in America. But on Studio 60 it’s not Republicans who are the enemy. It’s the people who won’t stomach the broadcasting of ideas they disagree with, who are dumbing down television, stifling free speech, and damaging democracy. It’s Christian conservatives. And who are their natural opponents? That’s right—the animating conflict of Studio 60 pits Jews, atheists, and open-minded believers against the Christian right.
In the pilot’s opening minutes, Studio 60‘s executive producer Wes Mendel (played by Judd Hirsch), has an on-screen breakdown in which he decries the atrocious state of television. In his outburst—immediately precipitated by the network’s decision to ax an apparently hilarious sketch titled “Crazy Christians” for fear of offending religious groups— Wes rants that the only things the “candyass” networks are truly scared of are the FCC and “every psycho religious cult getting positively horny at the thought of a boycott.” (We never get to see this sketch. Judging from the ones that we do, it’s probably for the best.)