Watching another show set in the world of TV news is good cause to pine for the work of Aaron Sorkin.
One would think people who work in television know something about its inner workings. Yet with the exception of Sorkin’s forays into the medium, TV shows about TV are almost invariably clichéd — a pattern that continues with NBC’s new comedy “Great News.”
A sort-of TV news version of “30 Rock” overseen by that show’s stewards, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, “Great News” recycles gags as old as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” That begins with the plucky female producer, Katie (Briga Heelan), and includes a bombastic, neurotic anchorman, played by John Michael Higgins, and his bubble-headed, athlete-dating co-anchor (Nicole Richie).
“What’s a Walter Conkrite?” the latter asks brightly, when someone mentions CBS News’ legendary Walter Cronkite.
Granted, the backdrop is really just an excuse for a workplace comedy, with a family twist: Katie’s boss (Adam Campbell) essentially punishes her by hiring her overbearing mom (“SCTV’s” Andrea Martin) as an intern on the program.
Nevertheless, if TV writers bring such a blunt, heavy-handed approach to fictional TV, just imagine what they do to lawyers, doctors and cops.
Sorkin, notably, bucked this trend, first with “Sports Night,” then “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and finally HBO’s “The Newsroom.”
None of those shows, notably, were major hits (“Studio 60” was canceled, while the thematically similar “30 Rock” ran for years), but they at least got the language and pacing largely right — something that has consistently eluded most other programs with TV and especially newsrooms settings.
In addition, Sorkin wove in hot-button issues and made his characters smart and passionate about their calling. Sorkin’s writing had its flaws — he was a little too enamored with workplace romances — but its depth generally stood as a stark departure from caricatures that have been the norm elsewhere.
This isn’t to say that newsroom blowhards don’t exist, or that Higgins isn’t funny as the woefully demanding newsman. After all, “30 Rock” largely got away with its backstage shenanigans — including the crazy stars and megalomaniacal network executive — because of the cleverness of the writing and Alec Baldwin’s scenery-gobbling performance. (Similarly, Garry Shandling’s brilliant “The Larry Sanders Show” basically set the standard for spinning cliches into comedy gold.)
In its quieter moments, “Great News” weaves in a rather sweet thread regarding mother-daughter relationships, as well as the obligatory sexual tension between Katie and her executive producer. There’s even something mildly touching about what motivates mom to go back to work, having been shaken by a friend’s death.
The best bits, however, come more in spite of the TV environment than because of it. And like most of the TV shows that even satirically seek to pull back the curtain on one of America’s favorite pastimes, that’s about as much good news as “Great News” can muster.
“Great News” premieres April 25 at 9 p.m. on NBC.
