Just heard a song on Sports Night, the show that Shandyman put me onto about a year ago, but only just got around to watching. Why oh why did I wait? It’s brilliant. Fast, sharp, witty dialogue. Of course, as it’s from Aaron Sorkin. Him of A Few Good Men and The West Wing. Don’t give up after the pilot, or the first few episodes, it gets better.

Of course, I like the stato-geek guy. In one episode, he’s trying to come to terms with something his dad did, so he blurts on about Orion:

There’s a lot of great stuff on Orion, the God and also the constellation. Most people only see the belt, which is formed by Delta, Epsilon and Zeta, three second magnitude stars that are equally spaced in a straight line. Beneath the belt is a line of fainter stars and of these stars, Theta isn’t really a star at all. It’s actually the brightest part of the Orion nebula. So this great pink star in the sword of Orion turns out to be something far more…complicated and interesting. My father’s been having an affair with a woman for 27 years.

Like The West Wing, it can bring a tear to the eye. In the episode Eli’s Coming, you see a glimpse of West Wing season three and four finales — nowhere near as powerful and over in a moment, but I just loved the song they used. Eli’s Coming by Three Dog Night. Listen to it.

BTW Shandy, Sorkin is working on The Farnsworth Invention:

The Farnsworth Invention tells the story of Philo Farnsworth, a boy genius from Utah who, at 22, invented television only to become involved in an all-or-nothing battle with David Sarnoff, the young president of RCA and America’s first communications mogul.

“Invented television” What?!?!? This better not be another U-571. John Logie Baird anyone? Farnsworth did the preliminary work on the CRT, anyone knows that, if you just read what I did! However, he was 14 when he thought of it. Fourteen!? Wasn’t he supposed to be spending most of his time developing new wanking techniques?

Anyway, check out Sports Night and Eli’s Coming.