I have faith in Aaron Sorkin

Go ahead and click play if you wanna hear the song that's running through my head while I start writing this.

A few years ago I used to work 2nd shift and my typical day would start with me waking up in the morning to catch the am replay of the previous evenings The Daily Show with Jon Stewart followed by Sports Night running in syndication. I have been a fan of The Daily Show since way back when Craig Kilborn was hosting it (before he left to take over the Late Late Show opposite Conan O'Brien). Kilborn got his start on TV cohosting ESPN's Sports Center which is obviously the show Aaron Sorkin based Sports Night on. Interesting fact: in an episode of Sports Night, Casey McCall (played by Peter Krause, who bears a passing resemblance to Kilborn) is said to have passed up a chance to take Conan's spot.

I'll get back to The Daily Show in a minute, but first I want to talk about Sports Night. It ran from 1998-2000 and was created by Aaron Sorkin a name I still didn't know while I enjoyed reruns of a canceled show about sports which isn't about sports at all. Two things drew me to Sports Night: one the rapid-fire dialog that contained more jokes and bits of random knowledge than any other program I had ever seen before, and two the amazing music (both original score and popular songs) that fit each episode perfectly and influenced my emotions more than straight dialog ever could. That music was provided by W. G. Snuffy Walden, (another name I didn't know at the time) who also provided the music for another favorite of mine, My So-Called Life.

Getting back to The Daily Show, my favorite episode (if that's the right term) is the first one after 9/11 (something I think of as my generation's Kennedy assasination). I remember where I was when I heard about the tragedy. At the time, the Daily Show was on vacation so instead of watching TV, I was playing on the internet. My mother had called and asked me to fix the phone wiring in her new place and when she picked me up she asked if I had been watching the news. I spent the day trying to hook up her phone but was not sure if I had been successful since most phone lines were tied up all day. The television was awash with news programs showcasing the event, people coming together to clean up, and trying to help a wounded nation deal with such an overwhelming affront, but all I kept waiting for was Jon Stewart to come back and let me know it was ok to laugh again. Feel free to watch the video below and see just how amazing he was at that.



Fast forward to a few years later when I discovered another Aaron Sorkin show in syndication, The West Wing. At a time when I was unemployed and things like TV and the internet were more than minor obsessions for me, I was struck by this show's rapid-fire dialog and music as well as it's ability to spark my interest in political issues. I remained a fan of the show even after Aaron Sorkin stopped writing it, but definitely noticed it had lost a bit of it's flair and anxiously awaited a day when he would return to bring me new entertainment to obsess over. Following the conclusion of The West Wing, NBC returned with Sorkin's latest masterpiece, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

For those who haven't caught it (get with the program, the season finale was tonight) it's modeled after Sports Night, but this time the show is about an SNL type of program, and is directed in the same big budget movie style that made The West Wing so compelling. While the first season left me nervous over an extremely long hiatus, it came back with a vengeance and finished off with an episode showing off Sorkin's amazing skill at flashbacking. The finale's story bounces between current (fictional) events in the war, and events from 2001 (see how I finally brought things around and start making complete sense).

Ok so maybe I don't make complete sense since this post doesn't really feel like it has a point, but I just was so moved by tonights show that I felt the need to spend hours writing about how events in my life have come together to lend profound signifigance to a TV program (one of very few) that can move me to tears with it's identifiable characters, stirring plots, and poignant musical selection.