Aaron Sorkin created four television shows over the last 15-plus years. In the last five years, he has found great success writing feature films, and may continue exclusively on that path now that he's wrapped up the final season of "The Newsroom."
"I know the whole 'Never say never' stuff," Sorkin told the Los Angeles Times as he finished writing the final episodes for his HBO series in May. "But I'm pretty certain I'm about to write my last three episodes of television."
The writer, known for his distinctive dialogue, created three TV series between 1998 and 2007, including ABC's "Sports Night," NBC's "The West Wing" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." He then took a five-year hiatus from television to write two Oscar-nominated films, "The Social Network" and "Moneyball," the former of which won him his only Academy Award.
"The Newsroom," a show set behind-the-scenes of a fictional cable news program called "News Night," will end after three seasons. It's Sorkin's second longest running show behind the critically acclaimed and award-winning "The West Wing."
"I want to be really clear about this. Really clear about this," Sorkin said leading up to how he feels about his TV career. "I've loved every minute I've spent in television. And I've had much more failure, as traditionally measured, than success in television. I've done four shows, and only one of them was the 'West Wing.'"
"The West Wing" won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series during each of the first four seasons Sorkin ran the show (he and director Thomas Schlamme departed the series before season five). The political drama collected 26 trophies total during its seven-season run.
HBO waited longer than usual to green-light a third season, as Sorkin had to decide whether he wanted to come back to do one more. The second season finale wrapped up many of the storylines and could have served as a series finale, but the creator found an idea he wanted to explore for another season.
"Once I knew how I wanted to end it, it really started to get fun," Sorkin told Zap2it. "I think this season is, in fact, the best of the three. I didn't want to come back and do the third season unless there was a good story to tell, and we were able to come up with one."
Although not a new series, Sorkin may return to TV to adapt his 1988 play "A Few Good Men" for a live production on NBC. The playwright previously adapted the play for a 1992 movie starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson.
Sorkin would be tasked with adapting his play for a live TV production. The network continues to work out other details such as casting, a director and possible premiere date.
"The Newsroom" premieres its six-episode final season on Nov. 9 at 9 p.m. on HBO.
