IMDB Game: Sorkin Edition

So, a few of my favourites have done this, so I’ve decided to give it a go as well. The rules are you look up a favourite film/TV show on IMDB and quote random facts about it.

What I’ll be doing is setting it around a theme. To start with, my favourite writers. To start that, Aaron Sorkin.

A Few Good Men:

Tom Cruise’s Jack Nicholson impersonation (when his character is quoting Col. Jessup) was not scripted.

Wolfgang Bodison was working for Rob Reiner on A Few Good Men (1992) as a location scout when Reiner decided he was perfect for the part of Lance Corporal Harold Dawson. Reiner said he looked like a marine.

The word “sir” is used 164 times during the movie. That’s an average of once every 50 seconds.

The Aaron Sorkin trademark of showing two characters walking down a hallway toward a moving camera talking sidelong to one another (as seen in The American President (1995), “Sports Night” (1998) and “The West Wing” (1999)) originated on this movie. A scene between Kaffe and Ross was written as being set in an office, but Rob Reiner, in an effort to create more action on screen, suggested that it be changed so that they were walking down a hallway… and the rest is history.

Cameo: [Aaron Sorkin] the screenwriter appears as a lawyer in a bar talking to a woman about one of his cases.

The line: “You want me on that wall! You need me on that wall!” was originally written in the script as “…you want me on that wall. You need me there…” but was changed by either Jack Nicholson or Rob Reiner during production.

Screenwriter William Goldman did an uncredited re-write of the screenplay. Aaron Sorkin was so impressed by Goldman’s new dialog (as well as changes that tightened the story) that he re-wrote and re-published the play to incorporate the changes.

The American President:

The dialogue refers explicitly at one point to the films of Frank Capra. Capra’s grandson, Frank Capra III, was first assistant director of this film.

The telephone number President Shepherd gives Sydney to call him back (456-1414) is in fact the number to the White House (area code 202).

The Oval Office set was originally constructed for Dave (1993) and subsequently used for “The West Wing” (1999). Anna Deavere Smith has appeared in all 3 productions.

One of the few rare PG-13 movies allowed to keep its PG-13 rating despite the use of the word “fuck” three times (all within 15 minutes of each other), but none used in sexual context.

President ‘Bill Clinton’ and his staff granted permission for the cast and production design team to visit the White House on several occasions.

Camp David is strictly off-limits to the public and the media. The production designer used someone’s personal snapshots from the Nixon Era and a lot of imagination when designing the set.

The West Wing:

A Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire was a member of the Second Continental Congress in 1776 and signed the Declaration of Independence. Martin Sheen’s character is supposed to be his descendant.

Martin Sheen was originally only scheduled to appear in four episodes per season. It was only after the pilot was filmed that it was decided to make him a regular cast member.

The show has a strong connection to the “Revenge of the Nerds” series of movies. Bradley Whitford, who plays Josh Lyman, played Roger in Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987). Timothy Busfield, who played Danny Concannon in several episodes, was Arnold Poindexter in the first two “Revenge…” movies. Ted McGinley, who has played anchorman Mark Gottfried in several episodes, played Stan Gable in the first, third, and fourth “Revenge…” movies. James Hong, who played the Chinese ambassador in an episode, played Snotty in the second movie. John Goodman, who played President Glenallen Walken, was the football coach in Revenge of the Nerds (1984).

In “The Drop In”, Bartlet gives a speech to the Global Defense Council, a fictional environmental lobby group that was central to the plot of The American President (1995), also written by Aaron Sorkin.

The set is supposedly so realistic that Warner Brothers studio tour groups are not permitted inside the sound stages where the show is filmed due to White House security concerns. (Some exterior sets, including the South Portico, may be viewed on the tour.)

On the set of the series one day, Allison Janney was entertaining the cast and crew by lip-synching to an obscure spoken jazz piece called “The Jackal”, by Ronnie Jordan. Aaron Sorkin liked it so much that he wrote it into the next episode of the show (“Six Meetings Before Lunch”) as a ritual of C.J.’s.

This was the first American drama series to react to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Aaron Sorkin wrote a special episode (“Isaac and Ishmael”) that was filmed and broadcast within only a couple of weeks. The episode, which featured the lead characters discussing a terrorist threat upon the US and being locked down inside the White House due to the name of a man on a Terrorist Watch List matching that of an (innocent) White House worker, was not considered part of “West Wing” continuity.

Leo’s “Big Block of Cheese” story is true. Andrew Jackson received an enormous block of cheese from the people of New York and, when he hadn’t touched it in two years, gave it to the people of D.C. to celebrate Washington’s birthday. They finished it in two hours.

The character of Mandy (played by Moira Kelly) was abandoned after the first season. Aaron Sorkin and Kelly both agreed that the character had run its course. However, Sorkin never explained on the show what happened to Mandy – the character just disappeared. This gave birth to the term “Mandyville”, a refrence to where characters go when they disappear from a series.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote an open letter addressed to Josh Lyman when he suggested closing a military base in upstate New York on the show. In the same letter she praised Toby Ziegler for saving Social Security in an earlier episode.

Martin Sheen’s somewhat unusual way of putting his jacket on is caused by an injury to his arm sustained at his birth.

The blackboard in Josh Lyman’s office used to keep track of votes often features the names of real-life U.S. Senators.

The California assembly was adjourned by a San Francisco democrat for the purposes of mourning the death of Dolores Landingham, President Bartlett’s secretary in the first two series, when she died in a car accident. The actress Kathryn Joosten lived on.

According to an interview that he gave to The New York Times, executive producer Lawrence O’Donnell and his fellow writers had planned for Vinick to win the election until John Spencer’s sudden death in December 2005. After that, they decided that Santos losing both his running mate and the election would be too difficult for the audience to watch, and they changed the election’s outcome.

Right after President Bartlett spouts off a list of Bible quotes to Jenna Jacobs to illustrate their inapplicability, Sam Seaborn takes a crab puff from her. This is not an isolated gesture of stealing food; Leviticus 11:10 indicates that shellfish are an “abomination”, so Sam’s action in effect continues the President’s argument.

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip:

The title of the show was originally “Studio 7 on the Sunset Strip”. The title was changed after it was discovered that there was a short-lived WB game show by the name of “Studio 7”.

Matthew Perry originally turned down the role of Matt Albie but Aaron Sorkin did not want to have anyone else play the part and apparently would not take “No” for an answer. Perry reconsidered and decided to jump on board.

Immediately above the countdown board in Matt’s office is a black-on-white strip bearing the legend “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. G. Marx”

The character of Harriet Hayes is loosely modeled after creator Aaron Sorkin’s former girlfriend, Kristin Chenoweth.

And finally: Best. Protest. EVER!

Will

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