Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip Guide, DVD

See the video of the scenes with “O Holy Night” played by the New Orleans musicians.

Timothy Busfield as Cal Shanley NBC Photo: Chris Haston

Broadcast: December 4, 2006
Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin
Story by: Christina Kiang Booth and Cinque Henderson
Directed by: Dan Attias

Music - the band of players from New Orleans:

Dave Walker reports in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reported the day before the episode: “Troy ‘Trombone Shorty’ Andrews will make his acting debut on national television during Monday night’s episode of ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,’ which will conclude with a band of New Orleans musicians playing a Christmas carol.
“In the episode… multi-instrumentalist Andrews plays a New Orleans evacuee drafted to sub for one of the trumpet players in the show’s house band.
“The story then expands to include a reunion of displaced New Orleans musicians for the show’s finale.
“In a telephone interview, Schlamme said Andrews and the rest of the group — which includes tubist Kirk Joseph, drummer Bob French and trumpeter Mervin ‘Kid Merv’ Campbell, among others — were assembled with the help of Bill Taylor of the Tipitina’s Foundation….”
You can see video of the scene with the New Orleans musicians playing “O Holy Night” and you can see it below.

References / Trivia:

• TV.com reports, “The theme of this episode is the FCC new indecency rules” and how they might relate to a live news broadcast: “In a recent hearing in front of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, the lawyer for the FCC explained that news (live or not) are exempted from the rule.
  This means that this specific scenario would not warrant any action by the FCC under current regulations.”

• TV.com also explains this reference: Suzanne: “I called K-Earth 101. I told them that Matthew Albie wants to hear some Perry Como.” Their allusions section reports that “K-Earth 101 (KRTH, 101.1 FM) is an actual radio station in the Los Angeles area. Their playlist consists of “oldies music, generally from 1964 to 1979.”

Quotes:

• Matt to his writers, “How is it I’m Jewish, and I’m the only one with Christmas spirit? Come to think of it, how is it I’m in the only Jew in a comedy writer’s room?”

Description:

• “A holiday show is prepared and Matt (Matthew Perry) is determined to bring Christmas spirit to Los Angeles while Danny (Bradley Whitford) wrestles with his true feelings for Jordan (Amanda Peet). Steven Weber, D.L. Hughley, Sarah Paulson, Nathan Corddry and Timothy Busfield also star.” (source NBC)
• “Matt wants to bring the spirit of Christmas to Los Angeles when he and the "Studio 60" team put on a holiday show. Meanwhile, Danny tries to figure out his true feelings for Jordan.” (source TV Guide)

You can also listen to just the music in an mp3.