Iconic The West Wing TV Series Actually Happened by Accident
What we now know as one of the greatest political dramas on TV used to be nothing short of a bluff.
The West Wing has been ranked among the best TV shows of all time by many, but even though it may be all about the behind-the-scenes drama in the White House, the series start was far away from a well-planned scheme.
In fact, it was more of a mistaken blunder; moreover, the series creator, Aaron Sorkin, once admitted that he basically came up with the pitch for the show on the spot, even though he never actually planned on pitching anything.
The entire thing happened during a regular dinner with some of Sorkin's friends, among whom was Oscar-winning director Akiva Goldsmith. The latter was the one to casually mention that the movie The American President, which Sorkin wrote, would be a great TV show.
Sorkin responded he wasn't trying to do a TV series, even though he believed the idea was great.
But the next day, he showed up to lunch — and "clearly misunderstood what the lunch was supposed to be about."
"[...] I walked into the restaurant and saw that it was John, three guys from CAA, and people from Warner Bros. who were expecting me to pitch an idea. Rather than say, ‘Um, you know, I think there has been a misunderstanding’ and say I didn’t have any ideas to pitch, I said, ‘I want to do a TV show about senior staffers at the White House,’" Sorkin recalled when speaking to EW.
The West Wing creator-to-be didn't even have a pitch prepared. Instead, he was "kind of spitballing" and making it up on the spot. His background from The American President research actually helped a lot; but what also helped was the fact that Warner Bros. didn't really asked for a lot of details.
Instead, they let him go away and write. This was a perfect thing to do, as it resulted in what is now hailed as one of the best television series of all time.
The West Wing aired on NBC from 1999 to 2006, set primarily in the West Wing of the White House (duh), and focused on the daily routine of the Oval Office personnel and senior White House staffers.
If you feel like streaming The West Wing, you can do so on Apple TV.
Source: EW