NBC Promises No Musty TV This Fall

"SNL" vet Tracy Morgan and head writer Tina Fey in the new series "30 Rock," about a head writer for an "SNL"-type show. (By Eric Liebowitz)

Not so NBC's other "SNL"-ish series, Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 at Sunset Strip," which is getting the Thursday 9 p.m. hour, opposite CBS's "CSI."

The show's clips did not go over well. When the A-list ensemble cast took the stage, they died, too, right from the start, when "West Wing" alum Bradley Whitford joked, "It's been almost 24 hours since I starred on an NBC series," and Matthew Perry said they all were there to lower people's expectations about the show. Which was, of course, supposed to be a joke, only they did.

Sorkin's new show bumps "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" to the Thursday 8 p.m. hour, replacing "Joey," which has been canceled.

According to Reilly, who for sentimental reasons still refers to Thursday as NBC's "flagship" night, network suits mulled another four-comedy-into-"ER" format on Thursday, but decided against it because "I think our competitors would look and say: 'They've got four comedies there; let's go after them.' "

Which was funny, because that happened early in this millennium.

Besides, Reilly noted, some people will wind up calling "Studio 60" a comedy, in much the same way people call "Desperate Housewives" a comedy, at least at Golden Globe and Emmy time.

Hey, works for us.

Aaron Sorkin and executive producer-director Tommy Schlamme "have put together a piece of work here that really makes you proud to be in television," Reilly told the press, who reacted with dreamy "if only I had a buck for every time a network suit said that" looks.

One reporter wondered how NBC planned to deal with Sorkin's widely covered issues with deadlines and controlled substances. Sorkin has already delivered five scripts, Reilly responded.

"He's back, he's in good health and he's one of a kind," Reilly said.

Another big Thursday change: "ER" will tag-team its time slot with a new drama. That's so the medical drama will not repeat next season; NBC will instead broadcast 13 originals in a row, take the show off the air and fill the 10 p.m. hour with a new mob drama from Paul Haggis called "The Black Donnellys." When that's run its course, original "ER" episodes will return in the spring.

In its 12th season, "ER" is still holding its own when original episodes air, but it goes into cardiac arrest in reruns.