Get me the writer!

If you actually read the news about television, which seems, if not an oxymorom, just sorta odd when you think about it, then you probably know that one of the big questions on everyone's mind coming into the new fall season revolves around whether or not The West Wing will continute thrive without creator and writer Aaron Sorkin.

That said, this question is only relevant to the tiniest subgroup of TV watchers anywhere, which consists of TV critics and obsessive fans who actually have the slightest idea who writes their favorite TV shows. Having spent a little bit of time in the latter category back in my X-Files fandom days, I have to wonder if the amount of ink spent on Sorkin is indicative of, well, anything.

Before you eviscerate me, I think Sorkin is a gifted writer, and it's likely that The West Wing will lose something with his departure. I just have my doubts as to whether or not 95% of the people watching the show will (a) notice, or (b) care. We, as Americans, aren't typically the most perceptive of sorts, and if 2 out of 3 of us can't even identify one of nine Democratic presidential candidates, can we reasonably expect to identify someone on a TV show that we only know by name if we actually watch the credits?

I'm not going anywhere in particular with this, just that, well, most people are not hyper-connected to the vagaries of the TV world. Also, most people are really dumb. Thank [insert deity of choice here] we're not most people, eh?