Link: The Farnsworth Invention, by James E. O’Neal.  Granted, it’s all very "technical," but this might be one of the most comprehensive blog entries I’ve read yet that explains all this teeth-gnashing over a Broadway play: In taking issue with a particular chamber of commerce’s version of the landing of the Mayflower, Will Rogers once […]

Like me, this blogger came to the show as an avid fan of Aaron Sorkin’s previous work. I, too, always felt a twinge of sadness at the final fade-out of a West Wing episode.  "That’s it?" I’d wonder.  "It’s over?  Now what am I gonna do?"  Turning of the TeeVee was usually the best solution

It never dawned on me that when the David Sarnoff character says in his opening speech that "the ends do justify the means," that he was talking about the play itself…Link: Show Showdown: The Farnsworth Invention. The Farnsworth Invention is a clever, well-written, exciting piece of semi-fiction. Those expecting it to be more are clearly

Now for something completely different. At the heart of this whole "Farnsworth -v- Sarnoff" story is the American patent system, which has changed considerably in the 200+ years since the Constitution first authorized Congress to protect the rights of "authors and inventors."  Now there is legislation brewing that would make the already crippled patent system

Another blogger in the peanut gallery chimes in on  Fact & Fiction. Although I mostly enjoyed Aaron Sorkin’s sweeping saga The Farnsworth Invention, I felt cheated by the denouement, in which small-time inventor Philo Farnsworth squares off against RCA honcho David Sarnoff in a patent lawsuit that would lead to the creation of television. It’s

After devoting a full page-and-half to the other big play that opened the same week — Tracy Letts’ "August: Osage County" — The New Yorker  offers a whole two paragraph’s for Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention.  Here’s one of them:  To enjoy the play’s historical elements, one must push past Sorkin’s shiny competence and search

From last Friday, another item from our friends at the New York Post: Trailing the pack is Aaron Sorkin’s "The Farnsworth Invention," about the battle between Philo Farnsworth, who invented television, and David Sarnoff, who stole the idea. The reviews for the show were mixed, and the box office is taking in less than $50,000

Another more or less favorable review, spoiled in the end by the pesky vicissitudes of actual history: We certainly can forgive "The Farnsworth Invention" for fudging some facts, but in the climactic patent ruling scene, Sorkin’s script strays too far. It portrays the court siding with RCA, while historical accounts and Farnsworth fanatics insist it

I was gonna let the dead horse lie for a while and not post this from Time Out New York, but then I got that comment telling me to "calm down" since it’s "only" a play… The big picture that results, however, is curiously fuzzy. The frank unreliability of both men’s narration provides cover for