If you need a “Studio 60″ fix while waiting for new episodes of the dramedy to return next week, I highly recommend you check out the new interview with director/producer Tommy Schlamme in the Christian satire magazine “The Wittenburg Door.” The magazine (which is forbidden in most Christian bookstores in part because of its habit of allowing the occasional profanity to find its way into articles) somehow scored an afternoon on the series’ NBC lot and found out the real story about the creation of Harriet Hayes, or as “The Door” refers to her, “The Best Christian on TV.”
During the interview, Schlamme confirms that both he and writer/creator Aaron Sorkin are agnostic Jews who are “very interested in religion, both the best and the worst of it” and describes his affection for the Christians he knew growing up in Houston , who hugged him and told him they were “sorry” he was going to hell. He also confirms that, yes, indeed, the Harriet Hayes character is modeled after Sorkin’s ex-girlfriend, actress Kristin Chenoweth (supposedly, she once told him to accept Jesus Christ as his savior or get out) but he also shares that “Saturday Night Live” cast member Victoria Jackson–also a Christian–was also an inspiration because she (unlike the fictional Harriet) once refused to be in a sketch entitled “Crazy Christians.”
But, in one more baby step toward ending the culture war in our country, Schlamme has promised that “The Wittenburg Door” will be making an appearance on “Studio 60″ very soon. In the article, Schlamme states he is such a fan of the magazine now that he is planning on placing copies of it in Harriet’s dressing room for the rest of the season.
posted January 9, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Found something else with Wittenburg in it. Movie fanatic fictional book SWAP by Sam Moffie