The West Wing - 'The West Wing Was an Accident'

At Paley Fest NY on October 4, 2019, Aaron Sorkin, creator of "The West Wing," tells how he conceived the idea for a White House-based show and the way that it came about by accident.

[prayus]

💐 if only reality could mirror fantasy❤

[donelliot]

Who would have figured that a TV show just about people talking to each other would be so superb and such a hit. Don't remember any explosions or guns, other than CJ at the shooting range and Mark Harmon getting cancelled.

[blabbermouth]

Didn't Sports Night come out before West Wing?

[jimoconnell]

The only thing that does not hold up with Aaron Sorkin's story is that he was already writing Sports Night (a TV show) before West Wing came out.

[godholio]

It raised an entire generation of bureaucrats and political drones to give up when talking reasonably doesn't immediately work. Great job.

[DUIChamp]

Love the West Wing and LOVE Star Trek Strange New Worlds and Akiva Goldsman.

[cdjhyoung]

Nice piece, but I have one complaint. This is the Television Industry being recorded here for posterity, by the television insiders themselves. Could you please improve the production quality? The lighting in these pieces is always poor, audio quality is terrible across the board. This one with Sorkin is reasonably good, but even here the lighting is too harsh. Please, we know that your people really do know how to do all of these things better.

[gheller]

In talking about early television, I guess he forgot about a little show called I Love Lucy.

[folarinosibodu]

Oh to be white. I hear so many of these stories, "I did not know what I was doing yet they gave me the job". "I did not know what vfx supervisor was, yet I was thrust into it".