Sketchy Times Critic Gets Skittish

LET'S PUT ON A SKIT Shufflin' Crew Considering the writer's infamy, it's not such a big deal, but something jumped out at us while reading the New York Times's Alessandra Stanley's TV Watch column about NBC's twin-SNL-esque prime-time shows, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and 30 Rock:

"30 Rock" had a wobbly start: Alec Baldwin's star turn as Jack Donaghy, a mad, mercurial network executive, eclipsed everyone else, including the show's creator and star, Tina Fey, who plays Liz Lemon, a single, 30-something head writer of a skit comedy show.

It may seem like a minor semantic quibble, but it's one that Studio 60 addressed head-on in episode six, "The Wrap Party." In that episode, Tom Jeter (played by Nate Corddry) is asked by his mother how the writers come up with all those funny "skits." As recounted by the Huffington Post's Eat the Press blog, Jeter blows up at his mother and shouts:

We don't do skits, Mom. Skits are when the football team dresses up as the cheerleaders and thinks it's wit. Sketches are when some of the best minds in comedy come together and put on a national television show that's watched and talked about by millions of people.

Then again, it's probably just a mistake.