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Scripting a Tragedy: The "Isaac and Ishmael" Episode of The West Wing as Parable

Following the events of September 11, 2001, most of the entertainment industry was trying to avoid references to violence and terrorism. During this time, however, Aaron Sorkin wrote and produced a special episode of the series The West Wing, which was broadcast 3 weeks after the attacks. The broadcast of this program-titled "Isaac and Ishmael"-was met with a decidedly captious critical reaction. We suggest that this episode can be productively viewed as a parable-designed to provoke an audience toward introspective thought rather than easy answers. We speculate that, although this program may have been broadcast to an audience that was not ready to accept its message, the form of the parable presents interesting possibilities for network television programming.