Kube

Somone listed Aaron Sorkin as someone credited as Aaron "I wish I hadn't written Issac ans Ishmael" Sorkin.

Has he publically expressed regret?

I thought the episode was very good.

wendersfan

I hope so. I stopped watching The West Wing because of that episode.

Count Dooku

Aaron Sorkin
Sometimes Credited As:
Aaron 'Maybe I Shouldn't Have Written "Isaac and Ishmael"' Sorkin

Obviously Sorkin would never be credited that way, so it's somebody's idea of a joke.

Based on the experience of reading Sorkin's postings back in the day, when TWOP was Mighty Big TV, he seems more like the type of person who stubbornly defends himself, not the kind that easily admits mistakes.

I don't think he has, or ever would, express regret about that episode.
--Is there a commentary track for it on the DVD?

Personally, I don't think he has anything to regret.
Arguments can be made about the quality of the result, but his intentions were good, and just the fact that he got an episode responding to the 9-11 attacks on the air within a month is an accomplishment to be proud of (IMHO).

lisadoris

Nope. Three commentaries on that set but not for that particular episode. though I thought it was heavy-handed, the episode doesn't seem to be anything Sorkin would regret.

sherm42

Heavy handed it putting it mildly. It was horribly condescending.

Basically, it treated all of America as little children who were too stupid to understand anything about why 9/11 happened. In the end, the episode itself was incredibly short sighted. A one hour lecture to America.

Count Dooku

Considering how many Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9-11 attacks, I would say that this:

... is a fair accessment of the situation.

sherm42

There may be a fair amount of people in this country that are that stupid, but the people who were watching West Wing at that time were probably not among them.

As such, I can completely understand why West Wing fans felt that their intelligence was being insulted.

Kube

I didn't think he credited himself as that....I was wondering if he said that in an interview?

I thought that episode was a very interesting way of talking about things that people were talking about at the time. I thought the idea behind the brothers coming together at the end was great. And that terrorism has a zero percent success rate.

Tommy Ceez

Why, because watching the West Wing makes you smart?

wendersfan

No, but traditionally it had the audience with the highest levels of income and education of any network show.

Doc MacGyver

yeah... and...?

Mostly below the Mason Dixon...

I feel ya on this, but keep in mind that this episode aired within a month of the attacks. It was the only fictional show to do so that quickly, and it was advertised to shit by NBC, so the audience tuning in was probably much larger than the normal west wing fans... so it's hard to ignore that large a pulpit to idiot america. And I give it some credit for not being reactionary but basically telling everyone to chill.

All that being said, I do find myself skipping that ep when I'm rewatching season 3...


Doc

Tommy Ceez

Where do you get this from?

Count Dooku

It's fairly common knowledge to people who care about such things.

That's why, even when The West Wing's ratings dropped, it was able to maintain it's ad revenues.
The show's audience demographics are so desirable to the folks selling luxury cars and mutual funds.

Kube

I heard in one of the commentaries, that Sorkin didn't want to air any episode of the show and that NBC said that they had to. They wanted to air the season's premiere that was light and funny. So, he wrote this instead.

I'm not ashamed to say that I learned a few things.

wendersfan

Pretty much everywhere. For example:http://www.medialifemagazine.com/new...ws1monday.html

LasVegasMichael

I may be a "stupid American child," but at least I know how to spell assessment.


High horse, party of one, your tables ready!

Count Dooku

TABLE'S --with an apostrophe.