Without a doubt, Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing remains one of the most influential shows of all time. This is especially true of the political drama genre. While some get royally perturbed when celebrities such as Harry Styles make political statements, or when they try to actually intervene in politics, fiction with an inherently political bend is almost always more accepted. And it tends to be far more clever as it gives us an emotional experience that is somewhat removed from reality. However, shows like The West Wing shed light on real issues that the United States and the world have faced, currently face, and will continue to deal with for years to come.

Writer Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme's masterful NBC show has garnered quite a fanbase, many of whom are fascinated by the behind-the-scenes of the series. But many don't know the true origin of the show. Thanks to an eye-opening article by The Hollywood Reporter, we now know a lot more.

Let's take a look.

The Inception Of The West Wing

The NBC drama, which explored the personal lives of those working at The White House as well as the political obstacles around them, was showered with Emmys and critical praise during its run. It won fans from all sorts of people, granted it pleased those with a more liberal ideology more than conservatives. Regardless, it remains one of the most successful shows in its genre. Even though some of the cast was changed during the show's run and Aaron Sorkin himself left his showrunner role, the series remains pretty consistent and influenced shows like Scandal and House of Cards.

So, how did Aaron come up with the idea for the show in the first place?

"I didn't really know anything about television beyond watching a lot of it," Aaron Sorkin admitted to The Hollywood Reporter. "My plan was to come up with an idea for a new play or movie, but my agent wanted me to meet with [television producer] John Wells, and I said, 'Sure.' The night before the meeting, there were some friends over at my house, and at some point [Akiva Goldsman and I] slipped downstairs to sneak a cigarette. Kivi knew about the meeting and said, 'Hey, you know what would make a good series? That.' He was pointing at the poster for The American President."

The American President is a 1995 film directed by Rob Reiner that Aaron was tasked with writing. It followed the romance between the president and an environmental lobbyist.

"'But this time you'd focus on the staffers.' I told him I wasn't going to be doing a series and that I was meeting with John to meet John — I wanted to hear stories about China Beach and ER, and I especially wanted to hear about his years as stage manager for A Chorus Line," Aaron said. "The next day I showed up for the lunch, and John was flanked by executives from Warner Bros. and agents from CAA. John got down to business and said, 'What do you want to do?' And instead of saying, 'I'm sorry, there's been a misunderstanding. I don't have anything to pitch,' I said, 'I'd like to do a series about staffers at the White House.' And John said, 'We've got a deal.'"

Related: We Totally Forgot These Actors Were On The West Wing

Getting NBC On Board

At the time, executive producer John Wells had a deal with NBC because the network wanted him to be involved with the hit medical drama ER. Therefore, there was an opening to produce a show of his choosing.

"But they didn't want to do it right away," John Wells said. "[NBC said] 'The American audience isn't interested in politics' and "there's plenty of that on Sunday morning television" were some of the things I recall hearing. But I insisted on getting it made if I was going to stay with ER."

The script was the next thing to be put forward, and even a stellar writer like Aaron Sorkin wasn't sure that those running NBC would be convinced by it.

Related: The Real Origin Of 'Pretty Little Liars'

"Don Ohlmeyer and Warren Littlefield were running NBC at the time the pilot script was delivered," Aaron explained. "Sitting in a meeting in Warren's office with John, my sense was that the network executives were respectfully underwhelmed. Referring to one of the stories in the pilot that was about Cuban refugees fleeing to America on inner tubes and should we or should we not send the Coast Guard out to help them, one of the execs suggested that it might be better if [Bradley Whitford's character] Josh Lyman went out and saved them himself. I tried not to make it an awkward pause before I said, 'You mean actually swim?' He said, 'No, that would be ridiculous. I mean he rents a boat. A motorboat, a skiff, but the boat's too small to get all the refugees on board and he has a moment like Oskar Schindler where he's saying, 'I could have rented a bigger boat! I could have saved that guy over there and those kids over there!' It was hard to avoid the awkward pause then because I honestly didn't know if I was being messed with or not, and I didn't want to insult the executive or appear to be difficult to work with (even though I badly needed the network to pass because by this point ABC had ordered 13 episodes of Sports Night) so I said, 'That's worth thinking about.' Sometime in the middle of shooting the first season of Sports Night, Don Ohlmeyer and Warren Littlefield were replaced at NBC by Scott Sassa, who took The West Wing out of the drawer."

Scott Sassa, as well as Warner Brothers TV executive Peter Roth, were completely into the script and didn't' dare give Aaron the type of ridiculous notes their predecessors did. Still, Peter Roth did have his reservations:

"My introduction to Aaron Sorkin was when I called him and said, 'I think this is the most brilliant script I've ever read, but you should know that in the history of television, there has never been a successful series set in Washington, D.C., on broadcast television.' To which he said, 'Why should I care about that?'"

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