The Newsroom.

[Harvey]

He was credited on nearly every episode of the four seasons of The West Wing he did, yes. But (a) this episode order is 10 compared to 22 and (b) who knows if that will be the case here.

[CaptainCanada]

I expect he'll be doing the writing. With a cable show where the entire season is completed before airing, and a smaller episode order, he's got every opportunity to.

[Guy Gardener]

Wikipedia says that he wrote the first 6, no one is listed for the final four, but that he has a shared credit with episode 3 with a Gideon Yago who is a former news anchor for CBS and MTV and a technical expert on the news who has a book on the subject.

[foxhot]

Sorkin is so distinctive a writer that it will be VERY evident should he not write any episode. His script for THE SOCIAL NETWORK was a brilliant approach on a potentially infantile topic.
Steve Jobs, according to the recent bio, actually objected to the style and/or color of a breathing ventilator when he was in urgent need of medical assistance. It almost sounds so ridiculous I wonder whether that could be true. And lots of what Jobs has given the world is still very irrelevant or overrated to me. But if Sorkin writes his life story, as is expected, I'll be first in line.

Marillion: ''Sorkin has been hot and cold for me.. He's liberal, so I know I'm going to get a healthy dose of that.. I do think it's daring of him to make McAvoy a moderate conservative but I will be interested to see if he keeps a balance to the feel of the show.''

HBO hasn't much balance but they do go for incredible writing. We're probably lucky to have a conservative central character for this new show, but since moderate and conservative are usually seen as contradictions in terms for modern TV, I doubt he'll fall on his party's side too often. In comparison, the well-written but far from balanced WEST WING only seemed to endorse one Republican position regarding school vouchers (almost as an afterthought after a comment from Dule Hill's Charlie). Plus the show contained only two major non-liberals: Ainsley Hayes, who vanished after defecting to a CBS crime procedural, and Alan Alda's presidential candidate, who lost to Jimmy Smits. Sorkin claimed that the original plan was to have the election go to Alda, before John Spencer's untimely death altered the script scenario. I'm also skeptical Sorkin would have a positive Republican as the lead on a popular show endorsing Republican values. But, again, bottom line, he's one hell of a writer. As Spencer's Leo McGarry said to President Bartlet, never be ashamed of smartness.

[Harvey]

^^
Sorkin left the show after season four; he didn't have anything to do with the season 6-7 election storyline with Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits. You're thinking of John Wells, the EP who became showrunner in season five after Sorkin's departure (but was with the show for the entire run).

[foxhot]

That's a good point. We could say the network mentality goes beyond Sorkin. But as it was his original show, it's hard to see Alda getting the presidency and staying to his character's base.

[Harvey]

Sorkin created the show, but he wasn't involved with seasons 5-7. NBC fired him after season four. I tend to believe that Alda was going to win until Spencer died. The show went to great lengths to make him sympathetic and moderate.

[foxhot]

A good point made again.

[Data Holmes]

Harvey wrote:

---

He was credited on nearly every episode of the four seasons of The West Wing he did, yes. But (a) this episode order is 10 compared to 22 and (b) who knows if that will be the case here.

There was a bit of an issue with the writers on WW when Sorkin ran things about that. He would take the writers "finished" script and go through keeping all the story elements but rewriting the whole thing. It kept a constant feel/tone to the show, but screwed a lot of writers out of money.

[Guy Gardener]

It doesn't work like that.

Producers buy scripts. they own these scripts and can do whatever they want with them. In return writers get residuals.

Because he's the producer, Aaron gets a writing credit no matter how much or little he fiddles with the original product.

I'm sure its more complicated, and there is probably a way that a producer can screw over the little guy, but what's Aaron supposed to do when he pays some grunt for a script and they deliver substandard material?

To Aaron everyone must be substandard.

To Aaron on coke, God is an inferior hack.

"Giraffes".

Fuck him.

[Harvey]

Not exactly. Showrunners, as part of their job, do a final pass on every script, but most don't take the amount of credit that Sorkin did on The West Wing. Credit, of course, determines how much the writers get paid. Sorkin was, deserved or not, taking money from writers that they wouldn't see taken on other shows.

[Guy Gardener]

Oh, I believe you when he said he screwed them.

Berman has a 170 writing credits for voyager and 97 writing credits for Enterprise.

Dude was so asleep at the wheel, but he still sleeps on a mound of money.

Someone writes a script, sells it to a producer, who makes it into tv, who sells it to the network (affilates, further sales over seas), who then have to kick back money to the screen writers guild and the screen writers guild every time they run or rerun a show depending on personal contracts vs. the minimum obligations of the SAG & SWG bylaws.

So if X number of dollars is paid to the total number of writers for an episode, then a complete individual payout is going to be better than a two or three, or four way split after a producer and the writing room finish with the final draft.

Although a writers room is an extension of the producer and not maintaining individual rights.

[Harvey]

Guy Gardener wrote:

---

Berman has a 170 writing credits for voyager and 97 writing credits for Enterprise.

Huh? He has the created by credit on both shows, as well as DS9, but the number of episodes that he took a writing credit on (written by, story by, or teleplay by) are a fraction of the number of total episodes. In contrast, Sorkin took a writing credit on all by four episodes (IIRC) in the 88 that he oversaw as show runner.

[Guy Gardener]

Damn it.

My entire world view is changed.

[Sci]

Guy Gardener wrote:

---

Someone writes a script, sells it to a producer, who makes it into tv, who sells it to the network (affilates, further sales over seas), who then have to kick back money to the screen writers guild and the screen writers guild every time they run or rerun a show depending on personal contracts vs. the minimum obligations of the SAG & SWG bylaws.

Well, no, that's only how it works if the script was written by a freelancer. Scripts writing by staff writers aren't "sold" to the producers.