Aaron Sorkin's Crack About Television

"Studio 60" writer Aaron Sorkin's slip of the tongue incited mad blogging by critics. (By Reed Saxon -- Associated Press)

Sorkin said he always regretted that the lateness of "The West Wing" scripts meant the cast and director Schlamme did not get a chance to do their best with the material.

"It was like Excedrin and old-fashioned cloth diapers in the schoolyard," said Steven Weber, who plays the head of the network on "Studio 60."

"First of all, welcome to the panel, Steven," Sorkin said. Turning to critics, he added, "And, seriously, I'll give you each one hundred dollars if we can just get the crack quote out. It's just an expression; I didn't mean anything by it."

Manic blogging.

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NBC Universal has cut a deal with NBC Universal to make Webisodes of the comedy series "Nobody's Watching" for the NBC Universal Web site after the pilot, which was made in 2005 for the now-defunct WB network but was not picked up, somehow got put up on YouTube (with which NBC Universal has since brokered an output deal) and was downloaded about 600,000 times, according to NBC Universal.

Isn't viral vertical integration wonderful?

If successful, NBC will take the scripts that are being developed and turn it into a series for NBC's prime time.

In a news release, NBC Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly said, "This comedy pilot has generated a life of its own, and we are intrigued by its potential to develop into a series." At Summer TV Press Tour 2006 Friday, Reilly swore NBC didn't put the failed pilot up on YouTube.

"I think this is just the first of many television shows to be rescued by the Internet," added Executive Producer Bill Lawrence, who also does NBC's "Scrubs" and who critics here are betting was the one who slapped this sucker on YouTube, once they'd ruled out Reilly.

"Nobody's Watching" is about two slackers from Ohio who think TV sitcoms bite and come to Hollywood and a network gives them the chance to create their own sitcom, which they think is "awesome!" The network records their every movement for a reality TV series.

Now about those downloads, which NBC put at 600,000 though the YouTube site shows about 400,000 views, not downloads, per segment over the four weeks it's been up. (The pilot appears on YouTube in three segments.)

For comparison's sake, since the Associated Press wrote earlier this week that Jaclyn Smith, who sells clothing at Kmart, is expanding into home furnishings, her Web site has jumped from about 10,000 hits a day to nearly 80,000.