It\u2019s no surprise that Victoria Jackson watches \u201cStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip,\u201d the latest slice-of-elite-life offering from Aaron \u201cWest Wing\u201d Sorkin.<\/p>\n\n
After all, one of the main characters in this drama set inside a late-night sketch comedy show \u2014 a fictional West Coast version of \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d \u2014 is Harriet Hayes, a blonde, female, singing comedian who is a born-again Christian.<\/p>\n\n
This got Jackson\u2019s attention real quick.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m the only blonde, female, singing, born-again Christian comedian in the history of \u2018Saturday Night Live.\u2019 I\u2019m pretty sure there\u2019s only one of me,\u201d said Jackson, in the high, child-like voice that is her trademark. After watching the pilot episode, she asked her husband, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on? Was that me?\u201d It was, she said, \u201cPretty strange. It hit close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Jackson knows enough about the struggling NBC series to know that the pivotal romance between the Hayes character and the \u201cEast Coast liberal Jewish atheist\u201d writer Matt Albie is based, in large part, on the real-life romance between Sorkin and the Tony Award-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth, an outspoken Christian.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard on a very private level,\u201d Chenoweth told the Toronto Star. \u201cI once told Aaron, `Unless you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior, then get the hell out,\u2019 and he laughed for two minutes. Then I see it on the show in a different way. \u2026 I went on The 700 Club to promote an album of Christian songs I had recorded and, yes, Aaron and I argued about that. But it doesn\u2019t mean I want to watch that disagreement flung up on the screen for all America to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Chenoweth stressed that the character \u201cis literally me and some of it is not me at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Jackson feels the same way. She has seen scenes that appear to have been based on events \u2014 on-stage and off \u2014 during her SNL seasons from 1986-92, when the \u201cTonight Show\u201d veteran worked with Dana Carvey, Julia Sweeney, Dennis Miller, Nora Dunn, Mike Myers, Jan Hooks, David Spade and others. Take, for example, that \u201cStudio 60\u201d pilot that focused on a comedy sketch entitled \u201cCrazy Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
That was the name Jackson assigned to a sketch she was asked to perform, leading her to plead for relief from executive director Lorne Michaels. He heard her out and assigned another actress to do the part. The sketch bombed in dress rehearsal and vanished.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt was a legitimate sketch that was making fun of what they called extreme Christians,\u201d said Jackson. \u201cYou know, there are Christians out there that make life rather embarrassing for other Christians. \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cNow I can make fun of people who have a Jesus toaster and Jesus salt and pepper shakers and Jesus napkin holders. That\u2019s fair. But this time they wanted me to kneel down in a comedy show and pretend to pray \u2014 to get a laugh. I just couldn\u2019t do it. I told Lorne that I thought I\u2019d start crying or shaking. Prayer is real. I think prayer is talking to God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Jackson said it\u2019s important that her colleagues worked with her and tried to respect her beliefs. Still, it was sometimes hard to do comedy when few \u2014 if any \u2014 of the writers truly understood her faith and, thus, her strengths as a comic.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cStudio 60\u201d is doing a good job of showing this kind of tension, she said. It also helps that Harriet Hayes is not being portrayed as \u201cone of those Christian clich<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s no surprise that Victoria Jackson watches \u201cStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip,\u201d the latest slice-of-elite-life offering from Aaron \u201cWest Wing\u201d Sorkin. After all, one of the main characters in this drama set inside a late-night sketch comedy show \u2014 a fictional West Coast version of \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d \u2014 is Harriet Hayes, a blonde, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[251,324,1545,771,844],"class_list":["post-1411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-comedy","tag-entertainment","tag-popular-culture","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-television"],"yoast_head":"\n