Never Argue With A Drunk Or A

Trying To Guess What The (mass) Audience Wants And Then Trying To Satisfy That Is Usually A Bad Recipe For Getting Something Good.

But Hbo Is Less Interested In How Many People Are Watching Than In How Much The People Who Are Watching Are Liking The Show. They Didn't Set Up Their Business Model To Make Writers Happy. It's Just A Nice Unintended Consequence.

Make No Mistake About It, You Are Dumb. You’re A Group Of Incredibly Well-educated Dumb People. I Was There. We All Were There. You’re Barely Functional. There Are Some Screw-ups Headed Your Way. I Wish I Could Tell You That There Was A Trick To Avoiding The Screw-ups, But The Screw-ups, They’re A-coming For Ya. It’s A Combination Of Life Being Unpredictable, And You Being Super Dumb.

I'm A Playwright. All I Care About Is The Play Being Good.

The Monica Lewinsky Scandal Was Happening At The Very Time I Was Writing The West Wing Pilot And It Was Hard, At Least For Americans, To Look At The White House And Think Of Anything But A Punch Line. Plus A Show About Politics, A Show That Took Place In Washington, Had Just Never Worked Before In American Television. So The Show Was Delayed For A Year.