The West Wing (television)

The West Wing is a popular and widely acclaimed American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin for NBC which has aired since 1999 and is currently airing shows from its seventh season in its new time slot, 8pm on Sundays (Eastern and Pacific). The show is set in the White House ? which serves as the residence of the President and his family ? during the fictional Democratic administration of Josiah "Jed" Bartlet. The West Wing of the White House is the location of the President's Oval Office and the offices of most of his senior staff. The show is produced and co-written by John Wells.

Show's evolution

The series had its roots in the 1995 theatrical film The American President, for which Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay. Sorkin took unused plot elements from that film and created entirely new characters around them. From all of this The West Wing was created.

Related Topics:
1995 - The American President - Aaron Sorkin

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Initially, the character of the President was intended to be an unseen or a secondary role, but it was expanded as the series progressed. Positive critical and public reaction to Sheen's sometimes Clintonesque performance raised his character's profile, sidelining Lowe's Seaborn. This shift is one of the reasons for Lowe's departure from the show during its fourth season http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2150891.stm.

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Paradoxically, according to a BBC News report (2002/07/25), "The West Wing is credited with reviving Lowe's career after a video emerged of him having sex with an underage girl while attending a Democratic National Convention in 1988."

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The West Wing often features extensive discussion of current or recent political issues, and with the real-world election of Republican President George W. Bush in 2000, many wondered whether the show could retain its relevance and topicality.

Related Topics:
George W. Bush - 2000

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Following 9/11, the third season premiere was postponed a week. A script for a special episode was quickly written and filming began on September 21. "Isaac and Ishmael" finished shooting in about a week, an incredibly quick turnaround time for a TV drama. The episode aired on October 3 and addressed the sobering reality of terrorism in America and the wider world, albeit with no specific reference to September 11. While Isaac and Ishmael received mixed critical reviews, it nonetheless illustrated the show's flexibility in addressing current events.

Related Topics:
September 21 - October 3 - Terrorism - September 11

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For the first four seasons, Sorkin wrote nearly every episode of the series. The stress of meeting deadlines may have contributed to his increasing personal problems, including a very public arrest for possession of illegal drugs followed by a couple of unsuccessful attempts at rehab. Although he eventually appeared to get his life back on track, he opted to leave the show after the fourth season, leading many to expect that the show would develop a more bipartisan footing. Plot themes centering on foreign policy (perhaps mindful of overseas syndication), for example, have grown more common, arguably making the show more approachable. Though it is still occasionally derided as The Left Wing, the show's award-winning writing, high production values, and acclaimed standard of ensemble acting, plus an unprecedented accuracy in showing how the presidency operates (demonstrated in a special documentary episode interviewing actual past West Wing staffers which aired during Season 3), have earned The West Wing respect. Even many who do not share its unambiguously expressed views admit to the educational value of the series.

Related Topics:
Rehab - Left Wing

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The perceived switch of emphasis from Sorkin's dialogue-centric style of writing to John Wells' focus on plot-driven drama has angered some of the show's fan base, a few of whom feel so passionately about the switch that they are http://dontsaveourshow.org/ actively campaigning for the show to be cancelled, citing Sorkin's departure as the sole cause of the show's "decline". However, most viewers continue to enjoy the show, stating that despite Sorkin's departure it is still far superior to other shows, and in its theme unique among drama series.

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Season 6's plotlines, including the replacement of Leo McGarry as White House Chief of Staff by former Press Secretary C.J. Cregg, have lent themselves to more of the witty rapid-fire dialogue for which Sorkin's scripts were noted. This trend appears to be accelerating with the sometimes inadvertently-comic Toby Ziegler taking on new duties as acting press secretary, the transfer of Bartlet's bodyman Charlie Young to C.J. Cregg's staff, and departures from the West Wing of Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman and his senior assistant Donna Moss to the campaigns of opposing Democratic presidential candidates. The addition of Kristin Chenoweth as Cregg's potential replacement has also been a breath of fresh air for the series. Generally, the series has rebounded somewhat after a low point including most of the fifth season and the first two episodes of the sixth season. The recent episode "Faith Based Initiative", written by series regular Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman), reminded some of the rapid-fire, politically intricate and yet dryly witty scripts from the first few seasons which made the Sorkin-created and penned drama such a big hit. Ironically, the episode chronicled Lyman's departure from the White House to run the presidential campaign of Congressman Matt Santos.

Related Topics:
Bodyman - Kristin Chenoweth - Faith Based Initiative - Bradley Whitford - Matt Santos

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The passage of time on the show relative to that of the "real world" has always been somewhat ambiguous. When The West Wing premiered in late 1999, the Bartlet Administration was said to have been in office for a little less than a year, implying that Bartlet was initially elected in 1998. (In real life, U.S. presidential elections were held in 1996, 2000, and 2004.) In the second season episode "17 People", Toby Ziegler questions whether Vice President Hoynes will be dropped from the 2002 ticket, specifically mentioning the year. That election was held in the fall of 2002 in real world time, but it appears that sometime in the middle of season 5 a year was lost; the filing deadline for the New Hampshire primary (which in show time is January 2006) was in the episode "Faith Based Initiative", which aired in January 2005. However, in interviews http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/ap/20041013/109771080000.html given before the start of season 6, John Wells stated that the beginning of season 1 took place 1 1/2 years into Bartlet's first term and thereby implied that the election to replace Josiah Bartlet was being held at the correct time without a year being missing. This is demonstrably false, however, as numerous references in each season date the first season to the first year of office and place each subsequent season, at least until the fifth, a year later. This statement also does not explain why only three years have passed since the election in 2002 or why an important event such as the midterm elections of Bartlet's second term was not addressed. The only explanation is the large hole in the middle of season 5.

Related Topics:
John Wells - Josiah Bartlet - Midterm elections

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