SORKIN: Tommy [Schlamme, the show's director] and I aren't the world’s most efficient producers; when other people are going home at 6 and 7, we’re still shooting at midnight and 1 a.m. And the second year of Sports Night was also the first year of The West Wing, so Tommy and I were doing both at the same time.Imagine that. Sorkin not only had two network series on the air at the same time, but wrote every episode of both of them. Other showrunners have had simultaneous primetime projects (from Norman Lear in the 1970s to Chuck Lorre today), but even with a staff that contributes ideas and research, that's an amazing amount of high-level writing.
KRAUSE: I think [Aaron] would admit to you himself that he bit off far more than he could chew that second season of Sports Night, in between writing all the episodes of the first season of West Wing and all the episodes of the second season of Sports Night. The creative output during that year is unmatched, but I think it took its toll on him, too.
Labels: television