MONDO EXTRAS

It's no secret that Aaron Sorkin used the late Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip to work out some of his career and personal issues by creating very thinly veiled versions of real-life people and populating his show with them. But although some characters' real progenitors are easy to identify, others may not be as obvious. To you. Don't worry -- we've laid it all out for you.

Character: Matthew "Matt" Albie (Matthew Perry)
Occupation: Screenwriter
Thinly Veiled Fictional Gloss On: Studio 60 creator and scribe Aaron Sorkin, also a TV writer with a stunted ability to delegate to other people (who are, by definition, not going to be as talented, dedicated, or righteous as he), a poorly concealed drug habit, and an annoying haircut

Character: Danny Tripp (Bradley Whitford)
Occupation: Producer
Thinly Veiled Fictional Gloss On: Thomas Schlamme, beloved Sorkin intimate (who left The West Wing along with Sorkin, probably due to an overabundance of integrity) who, if his real-life relationship with our genius auteur is as homoerotically charged as what we saw between Danny and Matt, probably should just leave his wife, Christine Lahti, and move to Vermont to set up housekeeping with Sorkin, because damn. (Also: points deducted for not calling the character "Danny Schlanny".)

Character: Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet)
Occupation: Network President
Thinly Veiled Fictional Gloss On: Jamie Tarses -- once the youngest TV network president ever, now a sad footnote of history (like so many "youngest-ever" Hollywood wunderkinds before and since)