Tonight — opening night of the fall TV season — viewers will get a jolt. A fictional character suddenly rants about television.

"We've all been lobotomized by this country's most influential industry," he fumes.

TV aims for stupid 12-year-olds, he says. "People are having contests to see how much they can be like Donald Trump ... We're eating worms for money." It's all become a "greed-filled whorehouse."

That's a fierce start to a powerful show — "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." Remarkably, it's on NBC — the same network that has shows with Trump ("The Apprentice") and worm-eating ("Fear Factor").

"Those are two shows ... that, I'll be perfectly honest with you, I've never seen," said Aaron Sorkin, creator of "Studio 60."

Still, he knows the ideas behind them and he's not happy. "Television is a terribly influential part of this country," Sorkin said. "When things that are very mean-spirited and voyeuristic go on TV, I think it's bad crack in the school yard."

Now he's created a show that has drawn raves from critics. The same thing happened when Sorkin created "The West Wing." He produced its first four seasons, winning four straight Emmys; then he was fired, ostensibly for being late with scripts.

That was forgiven, however, when he wrote the "Studio 60" script. "CBS and NBC were bidding for it," Sorkin said.

NBC got it, complete with those anti-NBC assaults.

"We didn't take it personally," said Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment. "I think (he's making) social commentary at the culture at large."

The setting is a show a lot like "Saturday Night Live." The producer (Judd Hirsch) makes his rant on live TV; the director (Tim Busfield) refuses to cut away. "I'm waiting for him to say something that isn't true," he says.

Soon, the network chiefs (Steven Weber, Amanda Peet) need a new producer. They turn to an outspoken duo, played by Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry — two characters who are a lot like the real-life duo of Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme.

One (Sorkin in real life, Perry on the show), is a writer, outspoken and eccentric. The other (Schlamme/Whitford) is a director, solid and stable.

In the show, it's the director who has had a drug problem. In real life, it's the writer, Sorkin — who, moments after his "bad crack" comment about reality TV, said he regretted saying it.

In other ways, however, the characters reflect Sorkin and Schlamme. "It's a little weird," admits Whitford.

About the demands of an hourlong series, Sorkin quotes writer David Mamet: "Doing a play or a movie is like running a marathon. Doing a television series is like running until you die."

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