HBO's The Newsroom: Bigfoot is Real

Presentation on HBO's The Newsroom Opens with Bigfoot as Apex Predator primate

On July 2nd we reported the new hit HBO series The Newsroom was going dedicate an episode on whether or not Bigfoot has a place in the news. While we couldn't wait to have a hit TV show talk about Bigfoot, we were afraid the Bigfoot parts would only last for a fleeting moment, or marginalized to the punchline of a joke. But, we also hoped it would be more, after all, this TV series is brought to us by the Aaron Sorkin, an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The West Wing, and the Facebook docudrama The Social Network. 

We were not disappointed.

Neal Sampat (Dev Patel) plays the resident internet geek/blogger on The Newsroom. He begins the episode talking about Bigfoot at a party, later in the episode he actually convinces the news team to watch his power point presentation on Bigfoot: The Apex Predator primate.

Just the fact that the character was not a punchline and sincere in his pursuit of Bigfoot is satisfying by itself, using terms like apex predator? Well, that's icing on the cake. Not only does apex predator sound cool, but it is great descriptor of Bigfoot. Apex predators (also known as top-level predators) are predators with no predators of their own, residing at the top of their food chain.

We were nice enough to piece together just the Bigfoot parts in the video below. While many of the Bigfoot arguments are familiar to us, the ones in this episode are not familiar (or even used) in mainstream media. Kudos to Aaron Sorkin for his portrayal of Bigfooters.  

HBO's The Newsroom will Pitch, "Bigfoot is Real"

The cast of The Newsroom, Dev Patel (far left) pitches Bigfoot is Real in episode 4

It may be a fleeting moment in a single episode of paid cable. But this is not just any TV show. This is The Newsroom written by Aaron Sorkin, one of the most famous writers in entertainment. Aaron Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The West Wing, the Facebook docudrama The Social Network. 

His newest venture is The Newsroom on HBO, an attempt to romanticize what happens behind the scenes of a TV news program. 

According to the episode guide for season one, on July 15, 2012 Newsroom blogger, Neal Sampat (Dev Patel) will pitch a Bigfoot is real segment for the nightly news show.

EPISODE 1.04 : I'll Try to Fix YouWill's "mission to civilize" takes a hit when he finds himself in the tabloid spotlight. Wade approaches Will with info on the government's flagging ability to fight financial crime; Don gets Maggie to fix Jim up with her roommate Lisa; Sloan strikes out as a matchmaker; and Neal's "Bigfoot is real" pitch falls on deaf ears. Against Reese's wishes, Will refuses to follow the media rumor mill and make a call on a breaking story. src: AceShowbiz

 You may remember Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire.