It would be simple to underestimate the intensity with which Web sites fetishize TV programs — and the impact they have on the show's creators. It is now standard Hollywood practice for executive producers (known in trade argot as ''show runners'') to scurry into Web groups moments after an episode is shown on the East Coast. Sure, a good review in the print media is important, but the boards, by definition, are populated by a program's core audience — many thousands of viewers who care deeply about what direction their show takes.
Any notion that the Hollywood telegentsia hovers above the fan-site fray was shattered two years ago when Aaron Sorkin, creator of ''The West Wing,'' bitterly responded to an online complaint; he posted under his own name on Television Without Pity (or, as it was then called, Mighty Big TV). A year later, Sorkin wrote a ''West Wing'' episode that savaged TWoP and its ilk, portraying hard-core Internet users as obese shut-ins who lounge around in muumuus and chain-smoke Parliaments. It was his best and loudest available form of revenge against a phenomenon that has not always treated him fondly. One disgruntled ''West Wing'' viewer recently demanded on TWoP that Sorkin show his fictional president and first lady ''being nice to each other some time.'' She went on: ''I don't mean show us they love each other — that's been established. I mean call each other something other than 'Jackass' and 'Medea.' Or give each other a kiss hello. Something!''
John Wells, executive producer of ''E.R.'' and ''The West Wing,'' knows better than to shrug off Web sites' feedback. ''We always have someone on the writing staff assigned to keep track of them,'' Wells says. ''Though we don't often need to assign that duty. There's always a writer who's in there all the time and can give you a clear sense of what's going on. I don't overreact to the boards, but I pay real attention to messages that are thoughtful. If you ignore your customer, you do so at your peril.'' Okay NYT, we are now available for our profile.
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