Sorkin Getting WGAW Chayefsky Award

By
( )
published

Aaron Sorkin is being honored by the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW).

The creator of West Wing and The Newsroom will receive WGAW's 2017 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for TV writing for his body of work.

He will receive the award Feb. 19 in Beverly Hills.

In addition to West Wing and The Newsroom, Sorkin's TV credits include Sports Night and Studio 60on the Sunset Strip.

His 1995 screenplay for The American President set the stage later in the decade for NBC's West Wing, which won 26 primetime Emmys and is considered one of the best dramas in TV history (Sorkin also won two Peabody awards). Sorkin is scheduled to return to TV, and NBC, with the 2017 live version of his Broadway play A Few Good Men.

Like Sorkin, Chayefsky was a playwright and film writer who was also a much-decorated TV dramatist.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.