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[[folder: Series/Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip ]]

[[WMG:Tim Batale is a real person]]
The singer claimed that narcotics made her confuse real and imaginary conversations. But even if we accept that and apply it to Matt, she never mentioned creating entirely imaginary people and thinking they were real. Therefore, there really was a Tim Batale working for Studio 60. It's just that the weirder conversations with him were Matt's imagination, and Tim was too stoned to show up for the group photo.
* If that's the case, it's a helluva conincidence that "Tim Batale" just happens to be an anagram of "Matt Albie".

[[WMG: NBS shut down shortly after the series finale]]
Because the writers started the FCC plotline and never resolved it.

[[WMG: NBS is what the Creator/DuMont Network would have become if it had survived to the present day]]
Because it has too long a history to be an upstart - it was around during blacklist season - and because it ''competes'' with networks that also exist in RealLife. Creator/{{NBC}} exists, Creator/{{FOX}} exists...
* Corollary: the world of Studio 60 still has studio-owned movie theaters.
* I'm pretty sure that Studio 60 mentions being in the old [=DuMont=] theater at least once in the series.

[[WMG: In the show's world, the US never invaded Iraq.]]
As you'd expect from Sorkin, there was lots of discussion of the War on Terror and US politics in general on the show. So it's odd that neither Iraq or any location within Iraq was ever mentioned. The simple explanation is that in the show's world, the US invaded Afghanistan but not Iraq. We already know it's an alternate history, with the NBS network and the history of the studio. When Jack rages about "fighting two wars" he's referring to Afghanistan and somewhere other than Iraq that the US is fighting.
** Ya had me until the last sentence... if there is another war going on, and they haven't made any references to ''that'' one, how is the situation any different?

[[WMG: The show is set in the same world as the Film/{{Watchmen}} movie]]
"NBS" is the network in the Watchmen movie's viral advertising. After the end of Watchmen, history continued on a course that resulted in a world almost identical to our own.

[[WMG: Matt is a time traveller.]]
Matt is the only one who remembers Tim Batale (who was clearly erased by [[Series/DoctorWho the Crack]]) and looks exactly the same age in the flashbacks as he does in the 'now'.

[[WMG: The sketches aren't as bad as we think.]]
Or at least not as bad as the ones before Matt Albie showed up.

The series begins with the guy in charge of Studio 60 having a nervous breakdown on air and lambasting ''all of television'' because the one sketch he liked got cut. And after Matt takes over writing, people say the ShowWithinAShow is "the best its been in years."

Maybe ''Studio 60'' was just so abysmal before that the mediocre sketches we see are gold compared to what Studio 60 aired in the years we're not shown.

[[WMG: Matt Albie is an AlternateUniverse version of Chandler Bing from ''Series/{{Friends}}'']]
In ''Friends'', Chandler Bing eventually gets bored of his [=IT=] job, quits it, and chooses to become a copywriter. This series takes place in an alternate universe, where Chandler realised his passion for writing much earlier and never took a corporate job, instead choosing to move to Los Angeles to try his luck as a comedy writer. The strongest proof for this theory is "The Friday Night Slaughter", where we meet the 1999 version of Matt who's pretty much indistinguishable from Chandler. In ''Friends'' Chandler is constantly mocked for his odd name and he's shown to be embarrassed of it, so it makes sense he would change it to more neutral "Matt Albie" while trying to break into the entertainment industry. Because he moved to [=LA=], Chandler never became friends with Joey, Phoebe, Monica, or Rachel, and living on opposite coasts meant his friendship with Ross became more distant, which is why he never mentions Ross in this show.

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