"There's always been a conflict between art and commerce. And now I'm telling you that art is getting its ass kicked."

When Air Force One banked away from us and into the blue beyond last May, I lamented the loss of The West Wing, which, for seven long years, kept our hopes alive that with decent leadership government really could be a place where good people do great things.

But Aaron Sorkin--the mind behind The West Wing--and friends are back, and where the West Wing offered an alternate view of government, their hot new series is taking aim at the cowardice that has become the television media.

While those of you in the great U.S. of A. have to wait until tomorrow for the premiere of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, we in Canada were treated to it tonight on CTV.

After a sketch called "Crazy Christians" is cut at the last minute by the suits, the director of a top TV comedy show blows his stack on camera one night. Now Jordan McDeere, the young, new president of the National Broadcasting System (Amanda Peet, good for her for snagging this role!) has to move quickly to save the network from a media disaster. She decides to hire a dangerous but brilliant writer-director team to run the show and bring integrity and humour back. The catch is that Matt Albie and Danny Tripp were fired from Studio 60 just four years ago by the network's CEO, Jordan's new boss.

So here come Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford into what promises to be utter chaos.

Check out the show; it's the top of my list this fall. Mondays at 10:00 p.m. on NBC, and in Canada you can get it a night earlier: Sundays on CTV at 10.