Why Aaron Sorkin Left The West Wing After Season 4

Why Aaron Sorkin Left The West Wing After Season 4

After writing more than 80 screenplays for his political drama The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin left after season 4. Here’s what led to his departure.

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Why Aaron Sorkin Left The West Wing After Season 4

Aaron Sorkin parted ways with his political drama The West Wing in 2003 – here’s why the fourth season of the show was the creator’s last. After a spontaneous pitch during a meeting with producer John Wells in 1997, Sorkin’s idea of a TV show centered on White House staff members became a possibility. The project was put on hold in light of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and concerns about an audience’s ability to take a White House drama seriously, but NBC eventually gave it a green light, and the pilot episode of The West Wing premiered in 1999. Sorkin remained the show’s principal writer and one of its executive producers until he left after season 4.

Regarded by many as a prime example of good television, The West Wing follows the day-to-day matters of the federal government’s Executive branch. At the helm of the ensemble cast is Martin Sheen, who plays the iconic fictional president Josiah “Jed” Bartlet. Among the president’s staff are characters portrayed by John Spencer, Allison Janney, Rob Lowe, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, Janel Moloney, Dulé Hill, and Stockard Channing. The series concluded in 2006 with its seventh season and is available for streaming on HBO Max. Although ratings saw a slight decline after Sorkin’s departure, the show has still retained some popularity among loyal viewers.

Sorkin’s separation from The West Wing stemmed from professional and personal reasons. As the primary writer, he created more than 80 screenplays during his time working for the show – one for nearly every episode of the first four seasons. This contributed to a lot of pressure for Sorkin, and budget overruns and production delays often came as a result of his time-consuming writing process. After a while, the network decided to adopt a new approach. Sorkin mentioned the creative differences that led to his departure from The West Wing in a 2003 interview for the Charlie Rose Show: “NBC and Warner Brothers came to me and said, ‘Listen, beginning in Season Five, this is how we have to do the show from now on, not like this.’ And I made the decision [that I wasn’t] going to be able to do my best work under those conditions.” According to The Guardian, one of those conditions was a new flat rate for producer earnings that happened regardless of the show’s success and revenue, which Sorkin wasn’t keen on.

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But the tensions with the network weren’t the only factor that played into Sorkin’s exit from The West Wing. In early 2001, shortly after he, Sheen, and Spencer received the Phoenix Rising Award for previously overcoming drug abuse, Sorkin was arrested at a Los Angeles airport after a security machine picked up marijuana, mushrooms, and crack cocaine stowed in his bag. Sorkin had previously checked into rehab for drug use in 1995 and went back again on court orders upon the 2001 incident. He was still working for The West Wing during that time, having just wrapped the second season. He told The Guardian that his manic writing habits and drug use unfortunately fed into one another during that time, and his unreliability became an issue for the show’s production.

Thomas Schlamme, a long-time collaborator with Sorkin, also left The West Wing at the same time as his colleague, having worked as executive producer and occasionally directed some episodes. Wells took over as the head writer and showrunner, with directors Alex Graves and Christopher Misiano becoming executive producers for seasons 6 and 7 and Lawrence O’Donnell Jr. and Peter Noah writing for season 7. Sorkin did appear in the series finale in a brief cameo appearance as one of President Bartlet’s staff members. Despite all that surrounded his departure, he told Charlie Rose of his appreciation for what the show meant for his career. “The West Wing was without a doubt the best four years of my professional life,” Sorkin said.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/west-wing-aaron-sorkin-leave-after-season-4-why/

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