Hey, It Worked For George Lucas
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The latest headline from The Onion:
Aaron Sorkin Announces New ‘West Wing’ Animated Series at SorCon.
(Hey, it worked for George Lucas.)
This is yet another reason why I really love The Onion.
Because every once in awhile I read something so hilarious, it had to have been written by someone like me.
(After I read that last sentence, I realize it came off far more egotistical sounding than I meant. It’s not that only people like me are funny. Rather, it takes a certain person with similar tastes and talent to write something that I would find particularly funny.)
As I’ve mentioned before, often the best forms of satire are, rather than mean-spirited, affectionate jabs at a target with which the author is well acquainted.
In this case, that target is the immensely talented and heavily scrutinized screenwriting auteur Aaron Sorkin.
Speaking as someone who is still rewatching episodes of Studio 60 on iTunes, I was very amused by the premise of the article. And slightly intrigued by the possibility.
I know, I know. That’s pathetic.
I don’t know if this makes me a “Sorkie,” one of the legion of dedicated fans who idolize Sorkin — and his right-hand director, Tommy! Schlamme! — but I’m pretty sure that it makes me a huge nerd.
But I don’t care.
I really dig Sorkin’s work. It just fits me in a way other shows don’t.
I had a conversation with a friend once, who was telling me why she didn’t like the show, and eventually it boiled down to the fact that she didn’t like the fact that the characters talked so fast and were so clever.
“Real people don’t talk like that,” she said.
But I talk like that!, I wanted to say.
I didn’t, though, because, really, she’s right. Real people don’t talk like that.
At least not all the time, anyway. Real people don’t have professional writers crafting eloquent bon mots at every turn. Real people don’t usually have the impressive dramatic range and comedic timing to carry Sorkin’s trademark walk-and-talk staccato.
But God help us if our biggest problem with a TV show is that it makes us a little smarter.
And for the record, I’m still holding out for a Sports Night feature film. If Joss Whedon’s Firefly fans got Serenity, then we should get this, it’s only fair. There”s gonna be a 10-year anniversary DVD reissue this year, so maybe that will drum up some support.
Come on, folks.
Someone get working on this.
Felicity Huffman, Peter Krause, Josh Charles, Joshua Malina, Sabrina Lloyd, Robert Guillaume… throw in a little Janel Moloney, Dule Hill… who wouldn’t watch that?
I’m telling you.
This needs to happen. ]]>