Aaron Sorkin

From The TV IV

Aaron Sorkin

Birth name	Aaron Benjamin Sorkin
Born	June 9, 1961 in New York City, New York, USA
Notable Shows	Sports Night The West Wing Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Notable Episodes	The West Wing: 1x10 - In Excelsis Deo The West Wing: 2x22 - Two Cathedrals
Awards	Emmy (Best Writing (2000; with Rick Cleveland) Humanitas Prize (2002)

Aaron Sorkin is a TV writer/producer, a film writer and a playwright. He is best recognised as the creator of multi-Emmy award winning series The West Wing for NBC.

1 Biography
2 Writer
- 2.1 Staff Writer
- 2.2 Episode Writer
3 Producer
- 3.1 Television
4 Memorable Moments
5 Awards and Accolades
6 Trivia

[edit] Biography

After graduating from Syracuse University with a bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre, Sorkin had high hopes of acting but he soon realised his true passion lay in writing.

Among his greatest hits on Broadway was the 1989 play A Few Good Men, which was made into a feature in 1992, kick-starting his Hollywood career. He went on to write 2 movies: Malice (1993) and The American President (1995) before moving into television creating a 30-minute comedy called Sports Night (1998), and the following year he created the 60-minute series that made him famous: The West Wing (1999)—a series that was honoured with 13 Emmy Awards for its first season alone.

As a writer, Aaron Sorkin has received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (The West Wing). In addition, he has received numerous nominations and awards at the Golden Globes, Television Critics Association Awards, Producers Guild Golden Laurel Awards and the Writers Guild of America Awards.

Sorkin was arrested on April 15, 2001 after guards at a security checkpoint at the Burbank Airport found magic mushrooms, marijuana and crack in his carry-on bag. He was later ordered to a drug-diversion program. While the public scrutiny of his drug addiction raised some bad publicity for The West Wing at the time, it also lent credibility to the on-screen portrayal of addiction and substance abuse by one of the show's lead characters (John Spencer's Leo McGarry).

For reasons that were never made public, Sorkin, along with his good friend and colleague Thomas Schlamme, left The West Wing after its fourth season leaving John Wells to assume full control of the series.

Sorkin has completed a screenplay based on the story of Philo Farnsworth (entitled The Farnsworth Invention), to be directed by Schlamme, and was reported to be signed on to adapt George Crile's Charlie Wilson's War for Tom Hanks' production company. His play A Few Good Men also continues to do the rounds. It recently made the move to London's West End where Rob Lowe (formerly of The West Wing) played the lead.

Sorkin worked again with NBC on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip during the 2006–2007 season, which stars Matthew Perry, who was nominated for an Emmy for his guest appearance on The West Wing. The series, despite high praise from critics and devoted Sorkin fans, was poorly rated and was a source of hemorrhaging money for the network. Some complaints about the show cited Sorkin using the show's main characters, Matt Albie and Harriet Hayes, to work out his own relationship baggage with Kristin Chenoweth and his reuse of several plots, character types and concepts from his previous two shows. The series was not picked up for a second season during the 2007–2008 upfronts.

[edit] Writer

[edit] Staff Writer

Series	Season(s)
Sports Night	1
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip	1

[edit] Episode Writer

Series	Episode	Airdate
Sports Night	2x01 - Special Powers	October 5, 1999
Sports Night	2x02 - When Something Wicked This Way Comes	October 12, 1999
Sports Night	2x03 - Cliff Gardner	October 19, 1999
Sports Night	2x04 - Louise Revisited	October 26, 1999
The West Wing	1x01 - Pilot	September 22, 1999
The West Wing	1x02 - Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc	September 29, 1999
The West Wing	1x03 - A Proportional Response	October 6, 1999
The West Wing	1x04 - Five Votes Down	October 13, 1999
The West Wing	1x05 - The Crackpots and These Women	October 20, 1999
The West Wing	1x06 - Mr. Willis of Ohio	November 3, 1999
The West Wing	1x07 - The State Dinner	November 10, 1999
The West Wing	1x09 - The Short List	November 24, 1999
Sports Night	2x07 - Kyle Whitaker's Got Two Sacks	December 14, 1999
The West Wing	1x10 - In Excelsis Deo	December 15, 1999
Sports Night	2x08 - The Reunion	December 21, 1999
The West Wing	1x11 - Lord John Marbury	January 5, 2000
Sports Night	2x10 - The Giants Win the Pennant, the Giants Win the Pennant	January 11, 2000
The West Wing	1x12 - He Shall, from Time to Time	January 12, 2000
Sports Night	2x11 - The Cut Man Cometh	January 18, 2000
Sports Night	2x12 - The Sweet Smell of Air	January 25, 2000
The West Wing	1x13 - Take Out the Trash Day	January 26, 2000
Sports Night	2x14 - And the Crowd Goes Wild	February 8, 2000
The West Wing	1x14 - Take This Sabbath Day	February 9, 2000
The West Wing	1x15 - Celestial Navigation	February 16, 2000
The West Wing	1x16 - 20 Hours in L.A.	February 23, 2000
Sports Night	2x15 - Celebrities	February 29, 2000
Sports Night	2x16 - The Local Weather	March 7, 2000
Sports Night	2x17 - Draft Day: Part I - It Can't Rain at Indian Wells	March 14, 2000
Sports Night	2x18 - Draft Day: Part II - the Fall of Ryan O'Brian	March 21, 2000
The West Wing	1x17 - The White House Pro-Am	March 22, 2000
Sports Night	2x20 - Bells and a Siren	April 4, 2000
The West Wing	1x18 - Six Meetings Before Lunch	April 5, 2000
The West Wing	1x19 - Let Bartlet Be Bartlet	April 26, 2000
The West Wing	1x20 - Mandatory Minimums	May 3, 2000
Sports Night	2x21 - La Forza Del Destino	May 9, 2000
The West Wing	1x21 - Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics	May 10, 2000
Sports Night	2x22 - Quo Vadimus	May 16, 2000
The West Wing	1x22 - What Kind of Day Has It Been?	May 17, 2000
The West Wing	2x01 - In the Shadow of Two Gunmen (1)	October 4, 2000
The West Wing	2x02 - In the Shadow of Two Gunmen (2)	October 4, 2000
The West Wing	2x03 - The Midterms	October 18, 2000
The West Wing	2x04 - In This White House	October 25, 2000
The West Wing	2x05 - And It's Surely to Their Credit	November 1, 2000
The West Wing	2x06 - The Lame Duck Congress	November 8, 2000
The West Wing	2x07 - The Portland Trip	November 15, 2000
The West Wing	2x08 - Shibboleth	November 22, 2000
The West Wing	2x09 - Galileo	November 29, 2000
The West Wing	2x10 - Noël	December 20, 2000
The West Wing	2x11 - The Leadership Breakfast	January 10, 2001
The West Wing	2x12 - The Drop In	January 24, 2001
The West Wing	2x13 - Bartlet's Third State of the Union	February 7, 2001
The West Wing	2x14 - The War at Home	February 14, 2001
The West Wing	2x15 - Ellie	February 21, 2001
The West Wing	2x16 - Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail	February 28, 2001
The West Wing	2x17 - The Stackhouse Filibuster	March 14, 2001
The West Wing	2x18 - 17 People	April 4, 2001
The West Wing	2x19 - Bad Moon Rising	April 25, 2001
The West Wing	2x20 - The Fall's Gonna Kill You	May 2, 2001
The West Wing	2x21 - 18th and Potomac	May 9, 2001
The West Wing	2x22 - Two Cathedrals	May 16, 2001
The West Wing	Sx01 - Isaac and Ishmael	October 3, 2001
The West Wing	3x01 - Manchester (1)	October 10, 2001
The West Wing	3x02 - Manchester (2)	October 17, 2001
The West Wing	3x03 - Ways and Means	October 24, 2001
The West Wing	3x04 - On the Day Before	October 31, 2001
The West Wing	3x05 - War Crimes	November 7, 2001
The West Wing	3x06 - Gone Quiet	November 14, 2001
The West Wing	3x07 - The Indians in the Lobby	November 21, 2001
The West Wing	3x08 - The Women of Qumar	November 28, 2001
The West Wing	3x09 - Bartlet for America	December 12, 2001
The West Wing	3x10 - H. Con-172	January 9, 2002
The West Wing	3x11 - 100,000 Airplanes	January 16, 2002
The West Wing	3x12 - The Two Bartlets	February 30, 2002
The West Wing	3x13 - Night Five	February 6, 2002
The West Wing	3x14 - Hartsfield's Landing	February 27, 2002
The West Wing	3x15 - Dead Irish Writers	March 6, 2002
The West Wing	3x16 - The U.S. Poet Laureate	March 27, 2002
The West Wing	3x17 - Stirred	April 3, 2002
The West Wing	3x18 - Enemies Foreign and Domestic	May 1, 2002
The West Wing	3x19 - The Black Vera Wang	May 8, 2002
The West Wing	3x20 - We Killed Yamamoto	May 15, 2002
The West Wing	3x21 - Posse Comitatus	May 22, 2002
The West Wing	4x01 - 20 Hours in America (1)	September 25, 2002
The West Wing	4x02 - 20 Hours in America (2)	September 25, 2002
The West Wing	4x03 - College Kids	October 2, 2002
The West Wing	4x04 - The Red Mass	October 9, 2002
The West Wing	4x05 - Debate Camp	October 16, 2002
The West Wing	4x06 - Game On	October 30, 2002
The West Wing	4x07 - Election Night	November 6, 2002
The West Wing	4x08 - Process Stories	November 13, 2002
The West Wing	4x09 - Swiss Diplomacy	November 20, 2002
The West Wing	4x10 - Arctic Radar	November 27, 2002
The West Wing	4x11 - Holy Night	December 11, 2002
The West Wing	4x12 - Guns Not Butter	January 8, 2003
The West Wing	4x13 - The Long Goodbye	January 15, 2003
The West Wing	4x14 - Inauguration (1)	February 5, 2003
The West Wing	4x15 - Inauguration: Over There (2)	February 12, 2003
The West Wing	4x16 - The California 47th	February 19, 2003
The West Wing	4x17 - Red Haven's on Fire	February 26, 2003
The West Wing	4x18 - Privateers	March 26, 2003
The West Wing	4x19 - Angel Maintenance	April 2, 2003
The West Wing	4x20 - Evidence of Things Not Seen	April 23, 2003
The West Wing	4x21 - Life on Mars	April 30, 2003
The West Wing	4x22 - Commencement	May 7, 2003
The West Wing	4x23 - Twenty Five	May 14, 2003

[edit] Producer

[edit] Television

Series	Year(s)	Title	Season(s)
Sports Night	1998-2000	Executive Producer	1	2
The West Wing	1999-2003	Executive Producer	1	2	3	4
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip	2006-present	Executive Producer	1