Aaron Sorkin Says Monica Lewinsky Scandal Delayed Season 1 of ‘The West Wing’: ‘There Was a Sense That Everyone’s Going to Roll Their Eyes’

> In reminiscing about the show in a recent interview with The New York Times, Sorkin shared that the timetable for when the show was supposed to be made had to be shifted as a result of a real-life political scandal.

> “The pilot was supposed to happen a year earlier than it did, and Monica [Lewinsky] happened, and there was a sense that everyone’s going to roll their eyes, let’s hold off for a year,” said Sorkin. “I wanted it to feel like our world. But I didn’t mention presidents after Eisenhower, maybe even earlier. I didn’t make any pop culture references, because in a world where Britney Spears has the No. 1 hit, Bill Clinton is president. That’s why everybody on the show loved Gilbert and Sullivan.”