The West Wing Pilot Script

The original The West Wing pilot script written by Aaron Sorkin. Love reading old scripts like this.

The West Wing Pilot Script

I enjoy reading movie and TV show scripts. One of the best is the script for the pilot of The West Wing written by Aaron Sorkin (pdf). If you are familiar with the show at all it is very difficult to read the script without picturing the actual characters as they were cast. The script and dialog written by Sorkin is so good that I think I'd prefer to own the script over the DVD of the show.

Two minor things to note about the original script:

(1) Leo McGarry (played on the show by the late John Spenser) was originally called Leo Jacobi. Not sure why the name was changed. Maybe when John Spencer was cast the name was changed to better reflect Spencer's heritage?

(2) There was always a character called Charlie who was the President's "body man". In the original script he's just a sharply dressed 19-year old taking a year off from Georgetown. I like the way he evolved into the Charlie Young played by Dule Hill (complete with this new Charlie's back-story).

Top 5 - Last Five Movies I've watched

Here's an odd Top 5 list - the last 5 movies I've watched (because with self-quarantining I'm watching more TV). Please note - these are in order of latest watched not a ranking.

1. Thor: Ragnarok - what a fun movie. I've re-watched most of the Marvel movies since this started and Ragnarok remains one of my favorites.

2. Molly's Game - watched this two nights ago. Thoroughly enjoyed it so much that I'm adding the book it's based off onto my book Wish List. Was surprised that the movie was directed by and the screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin but I shouldn't have been surprised because the dialog was that good (going to have to re-watch to see if there's a walk and talk scene). BTW pretty sure that the douchebag actor Play X was Tobey Maguire in real life.

3. Magic & Bird - an HBO documentary that I've sen before but not for a couple of years. Big Larry Bird fan and watching this brings back so many great memories of those Celtics and Lakers teams of the 1980's. Really enjoyable documentary.

4. Team America: World Police - this sadly does not hold up for me. Maybe the third or fourth time seeing this and the jokes have lost their shock or maybe I've matured? 

5. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - had seen the first two movies in the theater but as big a fan I am of the franchise  the more it becomes a cartoon the less interest the franchise holds for me. Still was an enjoyable movie.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

I hope this idea works. Dad tries to get son a job by offering free beer incentive.

Glenn Beck made $80 million last year while Keith Olbermann can't find a job. That's certainly one way to look at it.

Heh heh - If Aaron Sorkin wrote for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Ken Levine is one funny guy.

Ken Tremendous has a good appreciation of Kevin Youkilis' time in Boston.

Joe Posnanski also has a good take on Youk.

One final take on Kevin Youkilis. I agree 100% that the Red Sox got much more out of Youkilis than he got out of them.

Wow - as Chris Lindsay points out Coke makes so many products that if you drank one every day it would take over 9 years to try them all.

The West Wing Pilot Script

I enjoy reading movie and TV show scripts. One of the best is the script for the pilot of The West Wing written by Aaron Sorkin (pdf). If you are familiar with the show at all it is very difficult to read the script without picturing the actual characters as they were cast. The script and dialog written by Sorkin is so good that I think I'd prefer to own the script over the DVD of the show.

Two minor things to note about the original script:

(1) Leo McGarry (played on the show by the late John Spenser) was originally called Leo Jacobi. Not sure why the name was changed. Maybe when John Spencer was cast the name was changed to better reflect Spencer's heritage?

(2) There was always a character called Charlie who was the President's "body man". In the original script he's just a sharply dressed 19-year old taking a year off from Georgetown. I like the way he evolved into the Charlie Young played by Dule Hill (complete with this new Charlie's back-story).

Moneyball Back On?

It looks like Moneyball is not dead as a feature film. I enjoy Aaron Sorkin's writing of dialogue as much or more than the next guy but I still don't see Moneyball as worthy of being made into a picture.

I'm a big Michael Lewis fan and I'd suggest The New New Thing focusing in on the character of Jim Clark or a adaptation of The Blind Side as two Lewis books more worthy of being made into a film than Moneyball.