The West Wing

[JHyde]

Yeah, that's the one. It's the quote from The West Wing that I actually think about the most, in terms of one line that just can sit at the back of my head when I'm doing stuff. The other is Toby's great bit: "You know, a funny thing happened when the White House got demystified. People started to think that any bozo could do it." (I might have that one slightly wrong.)

'20 Hours in America' is also great because it has Amy Adams in it, a tiny bit part. 'Catch Me If You Can' should have started her career seriously, but it waited another 5 years until Junebug.

I love Donna telling them both to shut up and why. I love poor Sam running on no sleep after several days straight (I know that feeling all too well, just without the good reasons!). I love Charlie slamming that kid into the door and basically stepping in to help the guy out before his life went really bad. I love CJ getting some hope from Bartlett's speech at the end of the dinner (I still get chills at that bit, even if he did rip off Tom Hanks). And I love Bruno calling Sam a freak.

Proper, vintage Sorkin. Pity that some of the writing in the back end of season 4 was so appalling, the worst the show saw, I think. And Sorkin also wrote the episodes I like the least in the whole show.

Allison Janney has two new shows coming out this fall in the US. She's in William H Macy's new show (the only thing I am not looking forward to about Shameless is Emmy Rossum - the rest of it looks bloody fantastic) doing a recurring but seminal role and also Mr Sunshine. I know nothing about the latter apart from the fact that she is meant to also be doing a recurring role in that too.

I don't know whether any of you guys have ever seen any of Sports Night but it really is worth a look. If only to see where Felicity Huffmann and Peter Krause started out in TV. The first six episodes of Sports Night are really, really good stuff and the whole stuff was basically a forerunner to a single camera non sitcom comedy that also incorporated drama really well. Sorkin loves to re-use his own stuff though. Some of Jeremy's (Josh Malina's) and Dan's best lines get recycled for WW. I also notice Josh Charles finally seems to have another good part and it's about bloody time. He's also a great actor.

A side point - how awesome are William H Macy and Felicity Huffmann? I am not much for celebrity couples but those guys are so cool.