Bartlet4America News Archive

At ‘The West Wing,’ White House revolving door keeps spinning

By ELLEN GRAY
San Jose Mercury News

President Bush, still fighting to get his controversial nominee for attorney general confirmed by the Senate, would probably like a job like Aaron Sorkin's.

When the creator of NBC's “The West Wing” wants to give someone a job in his White House, he just calls casting.

And when he's finished with his appointees, they're off the payroll until he wants them again.

In fact, aside from President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his immediate staff, no one's full-time in Sorkin's White House, where even the the vice president (Tim Matheson) and the first lady (Stockard Channing) are day players.

But before our new Republican president seizes on the usual liberal “West Wing” as a model for cutting federal spending, he might want to consider the downside of downsizing:

You can't always get who you want.

Wednesday night, for instance, as chief of staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) tries to sell the president on the merits of a particular missile defense system, he'll have to do it without the backing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

John Amos, who's played Adm. Percy Fitzwallace in a recurring role, is busy these days on CBS' “The District,” where he's playing the mayor of Washington, D.C.

“I would love to get him back,” Sorkin confessed in a recent interview. “He was so valuable to the show last year. And we've been in touch with him.”

He's also hoping to be able to maintain some contact with Bartlet's feisty vice president.

“Tim Matheson's a very busy guy,” he said. And bound to get busier: He's set to star in “Breaking News,” a show about a 24-hour cable news network that will premiere in June on TNT.

“We don't know” if he'll be able to squeeze in the vice presidency, Sorkin said. “The way it works is, I'll be thinking about an episode and as soon as I get into my head that I might need one of our returning regulars. ... I'll call casting and I'll find out about availability. If they're not available, if they're up to something else,” he'll go in a different direction that week.

No one ever seems to be completely forgotten, though.

Even Moira Kelly, who left the cast at the end of last season largely because her character, a political strategist, hadn't been given much to do, might reappear at some point, Sorkin hinted.

Ed Begley Jr. will be guest-starring in an upcoming episode as a junior senator from North Dakota, he said.

“In some ways, he's going to remind you of Ralph Nader and that's going to be coming at them from the left,” he said. “He's the darling of the environmental lobby, and the darling of any number of liberal causes, and now he's planning on causing trouble for Bartlet, in terms of re-election,” he said.

“I want to hold out the possibility that Mandy re-emerges as this guy's campaign” manager, Sorkin said.

Would Kelly be up for that?

“I hope that if we asked her, she would, that she had a good enough time doing the show that she'd come back,” he said.

Already scheduled to return is Emily Procter, who had a four-episode arc this season as a conservative named Ainsley Hayes who was hired to spice things up in the White House counsel's office.

“She'll be back in a two-parter that we're doing right now,” Sorkin said. “She's going to serve any number of purposes -- she's there as an extremely bright and very, very passionate Republican. She's also someone who works for the White House counsel's office and it's fun to tell those stories. She's also, you know, a very charming and attractive woman who has a comedic relationship with Rob Lowe,” he said.

Another Sorkin favorite, Roger Rees, returns this week as Lord John Marbury, and Channing and Marlee Matlin, who plays pollster Joey Lucas, will both be back in the Feb. 7 episode, as Bartlet delivers his State of the Union.

But even as he takes a temp-agency approach to casting, Sorkin himself is strictly full-time these days.

After spending last season writing both “The West Wing” and ABC's “Sports Night,” he's now reveling in the writer's equivalent of monogamy.

“I no longer feel that I have a secret family someplace,” he said. “You never want to write two things at once. Two shows, two plays, two movies -- you just don't want to be writing two things at once.”

Expect a ‘West’ Fling For Series’ Janney

by Mitchell Fink
New York Daily News

Attention, "West Wing" fans: The on-again, off-again TV relationship between Allison Janney and Timothy Busfield is definitely off again.

Janney, who plays C.J., the tart-tongued White House press secretary on the Emmy Award-winning series, is telling people that Busfield's character, Danny, a reporter covering the White House, must now step aside for a new man who is poised to enter her character's life. "Some tall, dark, handsome man," she said. "It's going to happen real soon, and if people are sharp and with it, they'll notice right away who it is." Allison Janney

Janney would not reveal too much about the person except to say that he is not yet a part of the show. "My guess," she said, "is that he will be introduced within the next couple of weeks."

Another "West Wing" co-star, Richard Schiff, who plays White House communications director Toby Ziegler, also has been spilling some beans about upcoming story lines.

"We've just shot the episode dealing with the State of the Union address," he said. "Toby is the major architect of that speech. While the speech is being given, DEA agents are taken hostage in Colombia. It's about the drug war, like the movie 'Traffic.'"

C'mon, Get Real

Speaking of "The West Wing," its creator, Aaron Sorkin, revealed his cynical side when chatting with Scott Sassa after the NBC West Coast president accepted an award at an industry function in Beverly Hills.

During his speech, Sassa made a point of defending his network's decision last year not to jump head-first into the reality-TV wars. NBC focused its attention elsewhere, Sassa said, "because our number-one commitment is to scripted TV."

After the event, as Sassa and Sorkin waited for their cars at valet parking, the exec was overheard inviting Sorkin to see some of the early XFL football games, which NBC will begin televising Feb. 3.

Sorkin's response was quick and to the point. He said, "So much for scripted TV."

All the President’s Manias

By FIONA MORROW
The Guardian (U.K.)

Martin Sheen is revelling in the role of U.S. President Bartlet in the TV series The West Wing, opening here this week. But, as he tells Fiona Morrow, his real-life political activism gave the studio a scare

Recently Martin Sheen has taken to keeping a tape of Hail To The Chief in his pocket and, when driven around the Warner Bros lot in Burbank, California, he slips it into the shuttle van's player, winds down the window, and waves magisterially to anyone who happens to be passing. It's not that heading the hottest show on US network television has gone to his head, it's more that he's having a ball and he wants everyone to know about it.

"I'm having the time of my life," he beams.

We're sitting in the Oval Office, Sheen's current place of business where he plays President Josiah Bartlet of The West Wing, a fact which clearly still tickles the hell out of him. And so it should: with nine Emmys and some 20m viewers, The West Wing is the best thing that could have happened to the 60-year-old actor, still best known for performances he gave in Badlands, and Apocalypse Now — over two decades ago.

But a populist drama series set behind the scenes at the White House wouldn't be on everyone's most-likely-to-succeed list, and, given that the show largely consists of interior dialogue scenes about the political process, it's a pretty good indication of how sharp the scripts are that it has taken off so unequivocally.

For Sheen though, the possibility of addressing the social issues he regards as vitally important — poverty, alcoholism and gun control, among many others — to a potentially huge audience was always going to be hard to resist: "It's not an accident I got this part," he suggests. "If Bartlet had been a Republican, you wouldn't see me sitting here, I promise you."

A reformed alcoholic and drug abuser, Sheen has devoted his life to the causes which his hatred of injustice and deeply held Catholic faith draw him to. He's known for flying off at the first sign of trouble to put himself on the line for what he believes in; he has been arrested more than 70 times for the causes he supports. His engagement with grassroots politics may give Warners a mild headache, but it has undoubtedly added a certain frisson to an already highly charged show, and anyway, Sheen is not about to put his life on hold for them: "They've never gotten in my face about my activism, and it would be a very serious mistake if they were to do so," he says emphatically. "They knew who I was, and what I stood for when they offered me the job."

Despite the protestations of writer Aaron Sorkin and producer John Wells (also of ER), Sheen is quick to see similarities between Bartlet and the outgoing president, one of his heroes, Bill Clinton. "Bartlet is a very intelligent man, with great heart and a great sense of humour who plays fair and enjoys being the president. I think all of these qualities are reflective of Clinton, who I think history will reveal as a great president."

He has little sympathy with the post-Lewinsky critics: "I think it should have been just the opposite — rather than condemnation for his sexuality, we should have celebrated that he could accomplish such great things, and be so human. It's a sad reflection of our country that we still haven't dealt with our sexuality."

Despite his enthusiasm for the project, Sheen is not without criticism; he is greatly frustrated by Bartlet's willingness to bomb the Middle East at any opportunity, and he remains unsure of the rosy glow in which the president is always framed. "We can be too sentimental, but then I think that is how the office is generally seen — and, God save us, presidents do become sentimental," he laughs, adding "We had an old actor in there who was precious little else."

The biggest single criticism of The West Wing — a show which has hooked liberals and conservatives alike — is that Bartlet is just too good to be true. When I suggest to Sheen that (much as I love the drama) it's just too soft, too aspirational, too schmaltzy a view of politics to really hit home, he whispers conspiratorially, "I agree with you".

Sheen's own politics are inseparable from his religion: "Your faith has to cost you something, otherwise you have to question its value. I do the things I do because I cannot not do them and feel good about being human. Our faith, our religion, has to connect us to our humanity because that's how we find ourselves in others. I just try and be as human and as giving as I can be and know that it will never be enough."

When I suggest that he's sounding too good to be true himself, he lets out a peal of laughter before offering a different analysis: "My faults are known to those closest to me, are rumoured by those furthest away, and are confirmed to my confessor where they belong."

Fans Get Look Inside ‘West Wing’

Zap2it.com

LOS ANGELES — While President Bush was addressing Congress for the first time Tuesday night, the nation's other president was holding court in North Hollywood with some of his key staff.

Martin Sheen, along with Rob Lowe, Richard Schiff, Janel Moloney and Dule Hill, was taking part in a special look at "The West Wing" put on by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Series creator and executive producer Aaron Sorkin was also on hand, along with executive producer Thomas Schlamme.

Those in attendance got an insight into how Sorkin came up with the idea for the series and how he works on weekly storylines. Sorkin explained the show came out of a lunch with "ER" producer John Wells.

"I just thought we'd eat," Sorkin said of the lunch, which also involved several agents. Asked about possible TV series he'd like to do, Sorkin used his screenplay for "American President" as inspiration.

"There was a deal instantly, before coffee came," Sorkin laughed.

As for the ideas behind each week's storylines, Sorkin said he has no "political sophistication" at all and only strives for drama. Viewer feedback did help him come up with the cliffhanger finale for the first season, when the President and his staff were fired upon by white supremicists. Hate mail from viewers in repsonse to the interracial relationship between the President's youngest daughter and the President's aide sparked the idea.

"The startling thing is that I couldn't believe they'd been watching the series to that point," Sorkin said, describing the letters as "horrible."

"Those letters were really something else."

Not only was "An American President" an inspiration for the show -- Sorkin says the initial script was so long for the film, he was able to use "little shards of leftover stories" for "West Wing." The film also brought Martin Sheen and Sorkin together, and the experience led Sheen to want to work with the writer again. The man who plays President Josiah Bartlet said he brought very little to the character, explaining it is "entirely the creation" of Sorkin.

However, no one was talking about how this season may end. Sorkin joked that he had just come up an idea for the finale, but was told by Schlamme to "Just say no" if asked about future storylines.

Bush in a cameo role? No thanks, ‘West Wing’ producers say

by GAIL SHISTER
Philadelphia Inquirer

PASADENA, Calif. - Mushrooms or pepperoni?

Before he became president-elect, George W. Bush pitched a cameo as "a pizza delivery guy" on NBC's The West Wing, says creator-exec producer Aaron Sorkin.

More than a year ago, "somebody in the Bush campaign" called West Wing's production offices and asked whether Bush, not the official Republican candidate at the time, "could do a cameo as a pizza delivery guy or something," according to Sorkin.

"It was a real call, absolutely," Sorkin said in an interview Wednesday night at an NBC bash during the TV critics' press tour.

"I don't think it was anybody very high up in the campaign. I'm sure whoever called wasn't totally in tune with the policy of West Wing. We don't do that kind of thing."

Still, Sorkin was "very tickled" by the Bush request. "My first reaction was, 'God, somebody is watching our show!' We would have done it but for the fact it's wrong for West Wing." A spokesman for the Bush transition team could not be reached for comment yesterday. Bob Dole, the '96 GOP nominee, offered his acting services, too, Sorkin says, and was turned down. "If somebody like Bob Dole has even heard of the show, I can't tell you how flattering it is to me. I wish I could use him."

Though Sorkin says he receives ideas for story lines from real-life politicians pushing a particular issue, he tries to avoid using recognizable personalities on West Wing because it would upset the credibility of Democratic President Josiah Bartlett's (Martin Sheen's) White House. Sorkin says he still "feels uncomfortable" about an episode last season in which Bartlett and his staff fly to Hollywood for a fund-raiser. Tonight host Jay Leno, among other celebs, appeared in a party scene around a swimming pool.

"Where there is a Jay Leno, Bill Clinton is President of the United States, and we immediately know that," Sorkin says. "Moreover, for Leno to do a scene with [press secretary] C. J. Cregg [Allison Janney] a week after Allison was on Tonight is a strange line that's a little difficult to pinpoint, but you want to be able to.

"It started to feel like a Larry Sanders Show, trying to get mileage out of tossing around a contemporary name."

For that reason, in Wednesday's episode, the name of Maureen Dowd was changed to a fictional handle in a story line involving "a powerful New York Times columnist." Back to Clinton, now that he'll have some time on his hands, would Sorkin change his policy against using real people in the show?

"God, he would upstage all of us. He's going to be a charismatic force out there. There's something really funny that he's sticking around Washington. It's got to be driving some people crazy. He's going to be a real movie star in that town."

Interview with Aaron Sorkin

Comedy Central.com

Interview with Aaron Sorkin
Creator and Executive Producer of "Sports Night" and "The West Wing"

How did you come to create "Sports Night"? What was your original inspiration?
I lived for about two years in the Four Seasons Hotel here in Los Angeles. I'm from New York; I was out here writing the screenplay to "The American President," and I was spending most of my time alone in a hotel room. I would work very late into the night, actually very early into the morning, and to keep me company I would have the television set on in my room, always tuned to ESPN. In the mornings, when I was going to bed, around 5 or 6 AM, ESPN would play the previous night's "SportsCenter" in a loop about four times in a row. I just loved the show, loved the people on the show, and I'd watch all four in a row as I was falling asleep. That was when I began thinking, "Gee, I'd like to write something that takes place behind the scenes at a national cable sports news show."

Is "Sports Night" a comedy or a drama?
"Is it a comedy or a drama?" That's generally not a question I try and answer for myself before I'm going to write something. The example I would use is, if you're driving in your car and you're listening to a rock 'n' roll station on the radio and a song comes on, and in the song you hear elements of jazz and folk and you hear strings in there ... it's not necessary to answer the question, "Is this jazz, is this folk, or is this rock?" before you decide to listen to it and like it or not. I think that Larry Gelbart with "M*A*S*H" showed us that if you just respect the reality of the situation, you can have a series that's both funny and emotional, not just in the same episode, but oftentimes in the same scene. So it was both.

What is your background? Had you worked in television before?
No, I'd never worked in television. I'd written a play, "A Few Good Men," that opened on Broadway when I was 28 in 1989, and I came to Hollywood to make a movie, then did two other movies, "Malice" and "The American President." "Sports Night" was my first television show, "The West Wing" was the second.

Did you grow up watching a lot of sitcoms?
I grew up watching all of the sitcoms. But it turns out I can't really write them. What I write is something else.

Were you a sports fan (or a sports show fan) before "Sports Night"?
No, I wasn't a big sports fan growing up. You know, I knew a little, just enough to get by in conversation. It was really ESPN's "SportsCenter" that turned me into a sports fan. But it wasn't so much sports that hooked me, it was that watching the show, you kind of think, "Gee, that would be a fun place to work. I'd make good friends, I'd meet my girlfriend there, this seems hip, this seems fun." So as a writer, that's kind of your cue to say, "Maybe I'd like to make up my own world behind the scenes there."

You've now created a critically acclaimed show which was cancelled ("Sports Night") and one of the best and most popular shows on television ("The West Wing").
The two experiences are actually more similar than you might think. "Sports Night" was an incredibly rewarding experience. We would have liked to have made more, but we made forty-five episodes that we're incredibly proud of, so I'm happy that Comedy Central is going to be showing them now. I got to work with people that I loved, and we had a great time. Maybe because, you know, I have a playwright's mindset, and plays close, and, you know, "A Few Good Men" was a hit on Broadway and ran six months less than "Sports Night" did. So, I don't feel burned at all by "Sports Night." It was really a gratifying experience. Yes, it's better to be a top-ten show and have a network that's fully behind you, yes, that's a lot better. But I wouldn't change the "Sports Night" experience for anything.

What did you learn from making "Sports Night?" What would you do differently? Did any of these lessons rub off onto "The West Wing?"
You know, writing a TV series is, in a lot of ways, very different from writing a movie or a play. When I'm writing a play or a movie, I take two years to do it. When I'm done, we make it, take a curtain call, there's milk and cookies, you take a little while, and when you think of something, you write a new thing. And with series television, there's an episode that's got a script that has to be written; you're writing every day; and as soon as you turn in the script, you feel happy for about a minute, and then you realize all that means is that you haven't started the next one yet. And you have no ideas for the next one. It was nice to be able to start with half-hour before going to hour.

Can you talk about writing a half-hour format show ("Sports Night") versus an hour format show ("The West Wing")? Sometimes "Sports Night" seems to beg to be a full hour long.
Other than one being twice as long as the other, which isn't insignificant... well, at first I felt limited, because I tend to write very long anyway, and you know, the first drafts of the things that I've written have been much longer than even what's made it onto the screen, which has been pretty long, and I thought, "My God, a half-hour show is twenty-one-and-a-half minutes long. I can't set my margins in twenty-one-and-a-half minutes. How can I possibly tell a story in twenty-one-and-a-half minutes?

I was also concerned about the limitations on language and content. In "Sports Night", the first thing that you have to do is sell the reality of it, that these really are people in New York, at a national cable tv sports show. There have been plenty of television shows about television shows - "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is the best of them. The success or failure of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" did not depend on our actually believing that that's how the 6 o'clock news is done - that there are three people who work there. There's a weather guy, there's Murray, and there's Lou, you know. Nor did the success or failure of "Murphy Brown" depend on our thinking that there are five people doing "Sixty Minutes" every week and that they're meeting around a linoleum table by the elevator, near the lobby - it's a comedy set; that's how they have to do that show. The success or failure of "Sports Night" - because we weren't just going to be doing jokes on "Sports Night" - because it wasn't going to be vaudeville - depended on what we had to first sell .. this really is what we're saying it is - and then we can yuk it up all we want, and we can also do stories about Natalie being assaulted in the locker room, and Jeremy's father having an affair - you know that kind of sober story.

I guess my point is this: because of the particular nature of "Sports Night" there were writing chores you had to attend to before you could start writing the jokes, which took up more space. But I think the Comedy Central audience is going to see that from the beginning; we start out with ABC doing everything they can - and part of what people like about half hour television is that it is comforting, it feels the same. It can be on in your living room, your kitchen and you're not really paying attention, but the sound of it is soothing. The look of it is all the same; it's three walls and a door. There's no knocking on the doors; people say their lines and they cross and they go away.

"Sports Night" was not that - and ABC needed to convince people that it wasn't anything to be afraid of, that it was just like "The Drew Carey Show" and so stuck a laugh track on it... and the Comedy Central audience is going to see from that first episode that the laugh track gets dialed down and down and down until at the end of the first season, when I would barely "laugh" the show at all. Maybe three places tops, and only at times when six or seven people on the crew couldn't contain their laughter. And then at the second season, there's no laugh track at all. So we got permission to stop shooting it in front of an audience.

ABC wanted a sitcom flavor; they wanted to create a comedy block. You start yourself off with "Dharma and Greg," and it just wasn't going to fit in that peg. You know, the struggle was us saying, "Let us do what the show is and let it succeed or fail based on what it is, and not make it try to be something else."

Can you talk about Thomas Schlamme and his contribution as an Executive Producer and Director?
Tommy Schlamme's contribution is equal to mine. I don't want it to seem like he contributed 20% or something. It's absolutely equal to mine - on both "Sports Night" and "The West Wing".

There was a very well known, much awarded and justifiably awarded television director, probably the most well-known television director. ABC wanted him to direct the pilot and I met with him and clearly his instinct was also, "Well this is great, but it needs to be more like a sitcom. These two guys, these two anchors - one of them needs to be the neat guy, the other one needs to be the sloppy guy. One a gay guy, one a straight guy; one the fat guy, one the thin guy. It's got to be like that. And I said, "God, I don't know anything, I'm not in television. You're an incredible success and I'm sure you're right, but I'm not going to do that." And the network got very upset with me, that I had sent him packing.

The next day a meeting had been set up with Tommy, who I'd never met but whose work I knew. He'd directed a couple of features, he'd directed plenty of half hour television, but he was also one of the hands responsible for "The Larry Sanders Show" and the look and feel of "Larry Sanders," which I love - which everybody loves. But I was scared the day before by the network, and I didn't want to send Tommy packing, and this other director had really put this bug in my ear, so my first question to Tommy was, "Listen, Tommy, if you were to direct this pilot, it's an unusual half-hour, what touchstones, what comfort zones would you put in this show to make people feel like, hey this is just a regular half-hour, like other half-hours?" He replied, "None - I want to do the one that you wrote."

So not only was he hired right away but I fell in love with him right away. And right after he directed the pilot and the show was picked up, I asked him to stay on as an Executive Producer of the show, not only direct as many of the episodes as he could but also take over many if not most of the non-writing chores on the show. So that partnership was born. Tommy, in addition to really creating the look of both shows, does the heavy lifting as a producer, is the one working with all of the directors who come in when he's not directing, is the person talking to me about the script as soon as I turn it in. He was the one making design decisions, casting decisions, and he's in all the money meetings that I would not be in or would not be capable of contributing in. We've been working together ever since.

Last year was the overlap year, when we were doing "Sports Night" and "The West Wing" at the same time, and that was difficult to say the least. There was no way it would have been attemptable without Tommy, without my knowing that wherever I wasn't, Tommy was going to be there.

Can you talk about the cast?
It's a great cast. Felicity Huffman is one of those people I would hope to work with for the rest of my life. I'm nuts about her. I think we all felt incredibly lucky to be able to work with Robert Guillaume for two years. I think it scared the hell out of us when Robert had his stroke in the middle of the first season of the show. After six or eight weeks, he came back and did the season finale, and did the entire second season recovering from a severe stroke. This is a man who has been working as an actor for half a century, a wonderful, beautiful man and a fantastic actor, and we were all so lucky to work with him. Josh Malina is one of my oldest friends and has been in every single thing I've written ... "A Few Good Men" on Broadway, "Malice," "American President" ... I wrote the role of Jeremy in "Sports Night" for him. Sabrina Lloyd is a very sweet actress, Peter Krause and Josh Charles are great, wonderful cast. I miss them all.

How did the specific actors influence their characters, and vice versa?
They didn't have anything to do with their characters. I don't quite work that way. I write the script, I listen at the table read for things, I talk to the director, an actor will come to me at rehearsal and ask to talk to me about this moment: "What does it mean?" Or, "It would help me out if I could say something like this." And I'll say yes or no. Unless the actor is a really good writer, in which case I would say, "Give me a week off and write the script yourself."

What informed your ability to create such strong female characters for "Sports Night"?
I'm the son of a strong woman, the brother of one, the husband of one. Three weeks ago, I became the father of one. I think that's probably the biggest reason why that would happen.

What happened when Robert Guillaume had his stroke?
When he had a stroke, Isaac had a stroke. You'll see in the second season that he had to walk with the use of a cane, his speech was slightly slurred - though not nearly as slurred as you might think, because he worked very, very hard, both in physical therapy and speech therapy. It was very important to him that he come back to work. It was a heroic effort coming back. You see in the second half of the episodes things that Tommy created on the set with these steadycam shots, where people were flying around the set - it had a lot of acreage to it, a lot of holes and hallways and newsrooms and stuff like that carved into the set. Yet we will find him [Isaac] sitting behind his desk, almost always.

What had you envisioned for the third season? Any juicy tidbits for the fans out there? What about Natalie and Jeremy? What about Casey and Dana? What about Isaac and the sale of the Network?
I had a lot of thoughts at the time, and now they all seem to have turned into "West Wing" ideas, somehow. I think we would have shown a lot more of New York; I think maybe some new characters would have been introduced.

From the credits, you seem to have written every episode. Was there a traditional "writing staff"? Please talk about the structure of your writing process.
I'm not so much a showrunner or a producer. I'm really a writer.

I like to write, that's what I signed up for. There's no reason to pay me unless I'm going to be writing; there's nothing else I can do. Basically, there was a staff, we batted around ideas together. If there was research that needed to get done, it got done. While I was writing a script, they were in the other room talking about next week's show, you know, "Let's get Aaron some ideas, some suggestions," so that as soon as the table read is over on Monday, I can go out of the room and say, "Okay, what are you guys thinking about for next week?" They'd pitch some ideas, I'd kind of pick one or two, and start talking about that. But mostly I'd just be lying on my couch in desperation.

When you look back on "Sports Night", which episode(s) are your favorites? Which characters are your favorites? Least favorites? Any bombs?
There really aren't any that I don't like. An episode called, "The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee," an episode called, "Eli's Coming." "Small Town" is a favorite of mine. A lot of episodes from the first season and I'm nuts about a bunch in the second season.

There was one episode - and only one episode - I wish I could get back. It was one early in the second season where Dana (Felicity Huffman) comes back from a restaurant without panties, without wearing underwear, and we're to get to the bottom of how that happened. It was a stupid and salacious story, the point of which was that people could get away with saying the word "panties" on television many times.

Why didn't you pursue any of the offers to revive "Sports Night"?
I pursued many of the offers - well, okay, I pursued one of the offers to revive "Sports Night" on HBO. A deal could not be made between ABC and HBO. The reason why I was interested in HBO was that I felt that HBO would give me a number of things that would be great - creative opportunities that we didn't have on a broadcast network. In other words, the full range of language and situations was going to be available to me on an episodic budget in which we could do a really good show. A network that already had a reputation for doing very good and innovative stuff, and that was getting the attention of critics and the public, and a thirteen episode season as opposed to a twenty-two episode season - in fact that would fit in nicely with the hiatus of West Wing. I would be minimizing the overlap time between the two shows and I would be doing as good a job as I possibly could on both of them. That situation did not exist at Showtime, it did not exist on TNT, it did not exist on The Animal Channel, any of the places that had said they wanted to do the show.

Then Showtime came along. They made a very generous financial offer for an additional two seasons of the show, an additional forty-four episodes. I had become less interested in the situation that Showtime was presenting in continuing the show, and said, "Well, the show's going to have to continue without me." and Showtime did not want to pursue it under those circumstances.

I was really very proud of the show, and it didn't trouble me so much that the show was never a popular hit. As I said, I liked the forty-five episodes that we did, and I didn't want it to go out in an undignified manner. I didn't want to be doing the show on The Cooking Channel; I just wanted it to live as it was.

How does it feel to have the show re-run on Comedy Central?
I LOVE it airing on Comedy Central. Comedy Central is absolutely where it belongs. And the irony is that it's going to be up against the number one show on television, Thursday nights at 10 PM; I enjoy that too.

Would you have any advice for a young writer looking to get into television?
Just keep writing. You know, write. Write for yourself. You should read everything, you should write for yourself, you should remember that particularly if you're going into film and television, you'll meet a lot of people along the way who are going to tell you the rules and the things you can't do. Those people who are telling you the rules don't know anything AT ALL, and you shouldn't under any circumstances listen to them.