4. Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Trust Aaron Sorkin not to rest on his laurels and instead create something truly incendiary. Studio 60 was a backstage examination of the making of a comedy skit show - think of it as a more serious version of 30 Rock, though true to form, it's still imbued with that acid-tongued wit that has made Sorkin's...everything...hugely fun to watch. The problem is that Sorkin really pulled out the big guns in terms of content; the show attacks the very notion of network TV as well as Conservative values, which didn't go down very well with many people, crippling its ratings, especially when it was faced stiff competition from the far safer, more accessible Tina Fey creation mentioned above. Knowing it was circling the drain, the writing team did introduce a rather unfortunate romance in an attempt to increase viewership, but it did little to help, and after a (mostly) great first season, it fell into the TV abyss.