re: Sports Night (98-00)

The show started with a laugh track and over the course of the first ten episodes, they phase it out. The show is much better without it.

Looking back on it, I think it's much better than anything else Sorkin has ever done on TV. In fact, he's still stealing from SportsNight for gags and plotlines in Newsroom. It's one thing to do it for West Wing, but ten years later, he's still picking the carcass. I like West Wing, but I think Sorkin's a better comedy writer, and this is before he got full of himself. In fact, Dan often gets smacked for verbalizing Sorkin's liberal elitism ("No rich young white guy has ever gotten anywhere with me by comparing himself to Rosa Parks.")

This show, essentially, highlights the weaknesses of the rest of Sorkin's TV career.