Unlike most newcomers to network television, Aaron Sorkin, the executive producer of “Sports Night,” isn’t afraid to speak candidly about his experiences.
He has carried on a well-documented debate with the network over its insistence on using a laugh track on most episodes of “Sports Night,” and he has refused to participate in sweeps-period stunts.
Sorkin, best known for writing the films “A Few Good Men” and “The American President,” also is critical of ABC’s preseason publicity campaign, which he thinks was designed to convince audiences that they were getting a traditional sitcom, instead of a show more akin to such genre-bending fare as “M*A*S*H,” “All in the Family” and the film “Broadcast News.”
“It’s a very hard show to explain, and, in half-hour television, a different kind of show is anathema,” suggests Sorkin, who also serves as executive producer. “Half-hour television lives in its familiarity. (ABC doesn’t) want to program 8:30 Tuesday night, they want to program 7 to 10 p.m, so they need a show that’s as much like `Spin City’ as possible–and this isn’t like `Spin City’ or anything else that they’ve got.”
“People aren’t easily fooled, and they certainly aren’t fooled twice . . . so, I think it worked against us,” he said, during an interview in his office on the Disney lot. “People tuned in expecting the kind of show they were used to seeing on Tuesday nights, and found `Sports Night’ wasn’t it. Their initial reaction probably was, `This isn’t funny,’ or, `What’s going on? If it’s a sports show, why isn’t a bowling ball glued to somebody’s hand? Where’s Ted Baxter?’ None of those things happened.”
Consequently, “Sports Night” lost a lot of momentum in its first few weeks on the air, and audiences are only now finding themselves hooked by the complex mix of comedy, drama, flawed characters, intelligent writing and fine ensemble acting. As for the numbers, Sorkin isn’t at all disappointed.
“Of course, we want the most amount of people to watch the show as possible, but, for me, even being 50th means we get about 10 million people every Tuesday night,” he reasoned. “Where I cut my teeth, if I got 75 people into a church basement in Soho on a Friday night, that meant you were sold out. Ten million people is a huge number of people for any writer . . . it’s 9.5 million more people than I played to in a year-and-a-half on Broadway.”
Going into February sweeps, Sorkin turned down requests to bring in guest celebrities and participate in a “Blizzard Night” stunt designed to cross-promote ABC’s “The Storm of the Century” mini-series.
“We owe the audience more than saying, `It’s blizzard night on ABC. Catch the blizzard on “Dharma & Greg,” “Drew Carey” and “Sports Night” ‘ . . . Who cares?” he argues, with passion. “In no other medium would you find this kind of disrespect for its own product. You would not, I assure you, have blizzard night on Broadway.
“And, the idea of asking everybody here to work 18-hour days and then saying, `Oh, by the way, in the middle of our show, we’re going to do a commercial for Stephen King, if nobody minds,’ is ridiculous. The network has pulled me off the air twice in February, as a punishment because I didn’t do the blizzard.”
Sorkin writes all of the show’s scripts himself and insists he doesn’t dial it up for sweeps periods.
“I’m not saving the really good stories for sweeps, and I’m not a fan of stuntcasting,” he said. “It’s hokey and it makes us look bad. The idea that we could do a show wonderfully well and have the network promote it by saying, `Mark McGwire’s going to be on “Sports Night” this week’ . . . it’s not what I signed up for.”
Not surprisingly, ABC executives have a different perspective on sweeps.
“We want people to get as excited about the show as we are, so any way to put the red flag up and say, `Hey, look over here and watch us,’ is what we want,” explained Carolyn Ginsburg Carlson, senior vice president for comedy series. “Promotionally, `Sports Night’ has been a huge priority for us this year. We believe that when people come to the show and watch it, they’ll watch it again.”
Ginsburg Carlson said that she’s encouraged by surveys showing that the series is reaching the key 18-49 demographic, and the audience isn’t restricted to men.
“At first, people were concerned that a series called `Sports Night’ wouldn’t attract women, but they have figured out that the themes Aaron writes about are for them too,” she said. “This is a show about relationships and people working together . . . not sports, although they definitely are a big part of it.”
Though they’re not recruiting volunteers for a “Sport Night” tag day, both Sorkin and Ginsburg Carlson said they wouldn’t mind seeing a “save-our-show” campaign take shape among viewers. They also think that chances are good that it will be picked up for a second season.
“I think we have a much better chance than 50-50, and I say that because of the confidence I have in ABC and Disney,” said Sorkin. “I think that the show really speaks for itself, and if no one has been able to hear it speak for itself, critics have been phenomenal in speaking for it. That can’t be ignored.
“I feel uncomfortable asking people to take up our cause. . . . They’ve got a lot better things to do, and we all get paid pretty well around here.”
Fearing he’s made it sound as if working on “Sports Night” is some kind of a nightmare, Sorkin stresses, “This actually is the best job I’ve ever had and the most fun. I get a little bit emotional because the dedication that everyone has here to the show is moving and it shows up on your television screen.”
In conclusion, he also pulls back on some of his criticism of the network.
“I spend a certain amount of time in the press flinging spitballs at ABC–obviously starting with the laugh-track thing–but I will say this: It wasn’t an easy show to greenlight and to put on their air. Everybody at ABC has a been a big supporter of a show that I think was 53rd last week.
“No one has said, `You’ve got to get a talking dog and show more cleavage.’ I’d say the same thing about Disney and Imagine Entertainment, our production company. I’m so proud of the work we do . . . I just wish it were OK to be No. 50.”
