The newsroom trailer(Aaron Sorkin. Might have cocaine in it)

**Kedd** · 04-02-2012, 10:35 AM

Looks good

**silverboy** · 04-02-2012, 01:13 PM

That trailer really took Jay Leno down a notch.

**Brian Schirmer** · 04-02-2012, 01:26 PM

Honestly, if the entire show was just Jeff Daniels sitting on that stage getting skewered and then crucifying the student audience, then I would watch. I enjoy Sorkin that much.

**David Aspmo** · 04-02-2012, 01:28 PM

Season 4 of West Wing is better than season 3.

**Patton** · 04-02-2012, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by David Aspmo

Season 4 of West Wing is better than season 3.

Yeppers.

**J. Wilson** · 04-02-2012, 02:24 PM

The first four seasons of West Wing were fantastic. Sorkin was fired/left after that and the show went downhill for most of Season 5 before rebounding to being a better show in Season 6 and 7.

And this trailer looks really good.

However, let's remember that the pilot for Studio 60 had everyone raving and then the show went in the crapper.

I'm going to be watching but I want to see the show before I anoint the show.

**Dark Sasha** · 04-02-2012, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by J. Wilson

The first four seasons of West Wing were fantastic. Sorkin was fired/left after that and the show went downhill for most of Season 5 before rebounding to being a better show in Season 6 and 7.

And this trailer looks really good.

However, let's remember that the pilot for Studio 60 had everyone raving and then the show went in the crapper.

I'm going to be watching but I want to see the show before I anoint the show.

But this is also really in his wheelhouse and a soap box he can really stand on. Studio 60's trajectory was insane. It was this SNL drama about Afghanistan and NBC airing a show about the UN and Japanese business meetings and all this other crap.

**David Aspmo** · 04-02-2012, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by Dark Sasha

But this is also really in his wheelhouse and a soap box he can really stand on. Studio 60's trajectory was insane. It was this SNL drama about Afghanistan and NBC airing a show about the UN and Japanese business meetings and all this other crap.

In the broadest terms, it was about American culture, and slightly more specifically the red state/blue state cultural divide.

All of the big ongoing plots (Matt and Harriet's contentious relationship, Matt and Danny quitting over the potential boycott, scripted vs. reality television, the media coverage contrasted against the personal effect of the wars in the Middle East, etc.) fall under that theme. Behind the scenes of an SNL-like show is as good a setting as any to explore that theme.

**Dark Sasha** · 04-02-2012, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by David Aspmo

In the broadest terms, it was about American culture, and slightly more specifically the red state/blue state cultural divide.

All of the big ongoing plots (Matt and Harriet's contentious relationship, Matt and Danny quitting over the potential boycott, scripted vs. reality television, the media coverage contrasted against the personal effect of the wars in the Middle East, etc.) fall under that theme. Behind the scenes of an SNL-like show is as good a setting as any to explore that theme.

But at the same time, it did not necessarily understand the SNL format or framework it was trying to mimic. There is no way 3 writers could've produced an SNL show week to week nor would they care about blowing people's minds or survive the stress that would put on normal people who are not Aaron Sorkin. An actual newsroom is the place you can do that more effectively because it is direct and works with Sorkin's dead-on and direct style of writing.

**David Aspmo** · 04-02-2012, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by Dark Sasha

But at the same time, it did not necessarily understand the SNL format or framework it was trying to mimic. There is no way 3 writers could've produced an SNL show week to week nor would they care about blowing people's minds or survive the stress that would put on normal people who are not Aaron Sorkin.

Well, sure, I think that this was Sorkin doing a "write what you know" thing, and yeah, it's not an accurate representation of the real writing process at SNL, but I don't think it invalidates the entire show or anything. And, really, the show started working much better once they got rid of the pretense of having a writer's room, and just embraced the idea of making it parallel Sorkin's way of writing a television series.

By the way, I've watched through the entire series several times now (probably do it once a year), and I don't even remember this "blow people's minds" line you keep citing. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but it's not this defining moment that you seem to think it was.