Then his upcoming HBO show should be just the calming soporific you need.
Big Hollywood’s Pam Meister looks at Sorkin’s latest pilot script:
The show, which is as yet unnamed, takes place behind the scenes of News Night with Will McCallister, a show broadcast by the fictitious United Broadcasting Systems. Will McCallister is the pseudo-Olbermann clone who knows a lot about sports, can’t be bothered to remember the names of his staffers, and can’t seem to hold on to an executive producer (E.P.) for longer than 14 weeks. In fact, in the show’s opener, Will is given the unhappy news that his current E.P. Don has elected to join Will’s protégé, who has just been given his own show, and Don is taking most of the production staff with him.
Amongst the few junior staffers who are still on Will’s team are Maggie, Steve and Neal. Maggie and Steve are involved romantically, even though such fraternization amongst co-workers is discouraged, and the relationship is not going well.
Even worse is the news that Will’s boss Charlie Skinner, who is the president of the cable news division, has gone behind Will’s back and replaced Don with Mackenzie MacHale, a top-notch producer whose own chance at on-air stardom at a rival network fizzled and who is now in need of a job.
So, it’ll be just like every other show Sorkin has ever written, except with an even less thinly veiled Sorkin stand-in plopped down in the middle of it. Instead of “Jed Bartlet” or “Dan Rydell” or “Matt Albie” spouting Sorkin’s comforting liberal truisms, this time his babbling puppet will be named “Will McCallister” and will be a lot like Sorkin’s pal Olbermann. But with one important caveat: since it’s HBO, he’ll be able to tell you what he really thinks of Sarah Palin without those meddlesome network censors getting in the way.
America didn’t want to watch the real Olbermann on basic cable. They stayed away in droves from Sorkin’s last show on NBC. Good night and good luck to this one. Sayyyyy, if he’s still looking for a title… Nah, Clooney already used it.
