NBC math: "30" + "60" does not equal 2 times SNL

Right: Bradley Whitford jumps in while Matthew Perry (front) and Aaron Sorkin react at the "Studio 60" press session in California.

Before we go any further, let’s clear up something. Yes, it is true that NBC is putting on two shows this fall that are set behind the scenes at a popular and fictional comedy sketch show. Yes, it is true that the shows-within-the-shows bear more than a passing resemblance to “Saturday Night Live,” which also happens to air on NBC.

But “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” from “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin couldn’t be more unlike Tina Fey’s new workplace comedy, “30 Rock,” unless, of course, they didn’t share the identical premise.

See? That clears things right up.

Truth be told, the media’s addiction to trend stories is probably too strong to reverse the perception that the public is having two “SNL” tribute shows foisted on them in the same TV season.

But that didn’t stop the people behind the two series from trying. They appeared this weekend before the nation’s TV critics, pleading their cases to be judged by their own show’s merits.

First up was the “Studio 60” panel on Friday. The show’s stars, including former “Friend” Matthew Perry and “West Wing’s” Bradley Whitford, were on hand, but the writerly Sorkin dominated the Q-and-A. This was partly because TV critics want to ask questions that only producers can answer, but partly it’s that Sorkin makes for such great copy, on the page and off. His famously last-minute rewrites, his love life and an incident at the Burbank airport a few years back (more on that in a moment) only amplify the tumult of his scripts.

When asked for his reaction to “30 Rock,” Sorkin said he hadn’t seen it yet, but “my intention is to take Tina’s ideas, use twice as many words and turn them into our show.”

Seriously, though.

“Listen, at its heart, ‘Studio 60’ is the same thing that ‘The West Wing’ was at its heart and the same thing ‘Sports Night’ was before that,” said Sorkin, referring to his other show-inside-a-show that aired on ABC. “It’s about a group of people committed to professionalism, committed to each other, committed to what they’re doing.” And just as political issues were at the heart of “The West Wing,” Sorkin said, “I think that ‘Studio 60’ is tooled up to deal with issues of the culture wars in an interesting way.”

Sorkin’s co-producer Tommy Schlamme chimed in. “I think the truth of it is, they’re all backstage shows,” he said.

By the way — and by the way, I’ve noticed Hollywood types say “by the way” an awful lot — despite two years of low ratings, “Sports Night” was in Sorkin’s view “a smashing success,” and not just because it introduced the world to Peter Krause and Felicity Huffman. “It ran for two years and that was a real long time for me, and I had a great time doing it and was proud of that show,” he said.

But back to “Studio 60.” Sorkin believes it was crucial to make it look and feel like “SNL,” though as he explained, the show-within-the-show is actually a “20-year-old competitor of ‘SNL’ on a different network,” and judging from the pilot, it’s a competitor even more lame than “SNL” itself.

In to save the day come two alumni of “Studio 60” (the fake show), played by Perry and Whitford, whose characters are highly regarded by their peers but not so much by authority figures.

But before that can happen, the old “Studio 60” producer must be asked to leave. This task is made easy by the fact that said producer, played in the pilot masterfully by Judd Hirsch, has an on-air meltdown. It doesn’t borrow from Howard Beale in “Network” so much as channel him, with updated digs at people who eat worms on TV or want to emulate Donald Trump.

Hey, “Fear Factor” and “The Apprentice” are NBC shows, too. What’s up with that? In trying to answer that question, Sorkin wound up providing the afternoon’s most memorable line and possibly this press tour’s biggest faux pas.

“Those are two shows,” said Sorkin, “that I’ll be perfectly honest with you, I’ve never seen. I guess I can guess what they’re about. … I do think that television is a terribly influential part of this country and that when things that are very mean-spirited and voyeuristic go on TV, I think it’s bad crack in the school yard.”

Wait a minute — did the guy once busted for possession of cocaine and hallucinogenic mushrooms at Burbank airport actually use the word “crack” as a punch line?

“Why did I use that word?” Sorkin said, moments after using it.

That line made a few hundred TV critics and NBC employees roar — and gave this press tour its first new catchphrase, with Perry offering up his own variation involving Vicodin a few minutes later (recall his own problem with painkillers).

By contrast, the “30 Rock” session on Saturday reflected the personality of Fey: smart, sensible, married, efficient. Fey and Lorne Michaels — the creator of “SNL” and, as with so many “SNL” alums, her shepherd into the greener pastures of show business — deftly fielded a flurry of queries about her sitcom.

“Tina, I don’t mean to insult you by asking this question,” one critic began.

“Then think, because you should not do it,” she said.

“I won’t,” promised the critic, but before he could continue, Fey disarmed the room: “One hundred twenty-five pounds,” she said.

Michaels said he will do “tests” in September to determine Fey’s successor on “Weekend Update.” Asked if “SNL” losing its head writer was an acceptable tradeoff, Michaels coolly replied, “It was time for Tina to do her own show. I think the show will be great. Anything that makes for another good show on television, I think is a good thing.”

For women looking to break through in television, Fey’s ascension is a very good thing: She’s not only the creator and producer of “30 Rock,” but the lead writer and star. So take that, Dick Van Dyke.

As for any confusion with “Studio 60,” Fey left the punch lines to her boss.

“They are the hour show, and they have a ‘60’ in it, and we’re the half-hour show, and we have ‘30’ in it,” Michaels deadpanned. Then, the 30-year master of late-night comedy paused for effect and added, “So I think people will be able to clearly distinguish which is which.”