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The West Wing (TV series)
Encyclopedia
The West Wing is an American television serial
drama created by Aaron Sorkin
that was originally broadcast on NBC
from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006. The series is set in the West Wing
of the White House
—where the Oval Office
and offices of presidential senior staff are located—during the fictional Democratic
administration
of Josiah Bartlet
(played by Martin Sheen
).
The West Wing was produced by Warner Bros. Television
. For the first four seasons, there were three executive producers, Aaron Sorkin
(lead writer of almost all the first four seasons), Thomas Schlamme, and John Wells
. After Sorkin left the program, John Wells became the sole executive producer.
It first aired on NBC in 1999, and has been broadcast by many networks in several other countries. The series ended its seven-year run on May 14, 2006.
The show received positive reviews from critics, political science
professors, and former White House staffers. In total, The West Wing won three Golden Globe Award
s and 26 Emmy Award
s, including the award for Outstanding Drama Series, which it won four consecutive times from 2000 through 2003. The show's ratings waned in later years, following the departure of series creator Aaron Sorkin
(who wrote or co-wrote 85 of the first 88 episodes) after the fourth season, yet it remained popular among high-income viewers, with around 16 million viewers, a key demographic for the show and its advertisers.
. Sorkin served as executive producer for the pilot episode alongside director Thomas Schlamme and John Wells
. Kristin Harms and Llewellyn Wells were producers for the pilot. Michael Hissrich acted as a co-producer.
The first season proper saw the return of all of the pilot production team along with the addition of Ron Osborn and Jeff Reno as consulting producers and Rick Cleveland
as a second co-producer with Robert W. Glass as an associate producer. Glass left the production team after only five episodes. Osborn and Reno departed after nine episodes. Paul Redford
served as a story editor
throughout the first season. Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr. worked as executive story editor for the second half of the season.
With the second season Kevin Falls
became a co-executive producer. Cleveland left the production team and Redford and O'Donnell were promoted to co-producer. Peter Parnell
, and Patrick Caddell
became co-producers and Julie Herlocker and Mindy Kanaskie became associate producers. O'Donnell was promoted again to producer five episodes into the season and Hissrich joined him twelve episodes into the season.
The third season saw the departure of Parnell, Caddell, and Herlocker and the temporary absence of O'Donnell. Director Christopher Misiano
became a supervising producer and Patrick Ward
came aboard as an associate producer. Redford was promoted to producer. With the thirteenth episode of the third season director Alex Graves
became an additional supervising producer and Eli Attie
joined the writing staff as a story editor.
The fourth season marked the temporary departure of Hissrich. Misiano and Graves became co-executive producers alongside Falls. Attie was promoted to executive story editor and Debora Cahn
became a staff writer. The fourteenth episode of the season saw Redford promoted to supervising producer and Kanaskie, Ward and Attie promoted to co-producers.
The fifth season saw the departure of both Sorkin and Schlamme as executive producers. Schlamme remained attached to the series as an executive consultant. John Wells remained the sole executive producer and showrunner. Co-executive producer Kevin Falls also left the show. O'Donnell rejoined the production team as a consulting producer. Wells also added Carol Flint
, Alexa Junge
, Peter Noah
, and John Sacret Young
as consulting producers. Andrew Stearn came aboard as a producer and Attie was promoted to producer. Cahn became story editor and Josh Singer replaced her as staff writer. With the tenth episode Flint, Junge, Noah and Sacret Young became supervising producers.
With the sixth season Misiano and Graves were promoted to executive producers. Redford and Junge left the production team and Dylan K. Massin became a co-producer. Cahn was promoted to executive story editor and Singer replaced her as story editor. Lauren Schmidt filled the staff writer role. The fourth episode saw the departure of original crew member Llewellyn Wells. Debora Cahn was promoted to co-producer with the fourteenth episode.
The seventh season saw Noah and O'Donnell promoted again, this time becoming additional executive producers. Attie became a supervising producer. Hissrich returned to his role as producer for the final season.
to portray the many positions involved in the daily work of the federal government. The President, the First Lady
, and the President's senior staff and advisers form the core cast
. Numerous secondary characters, appearing intermittently, complement storylines that generally revolve around this core group.
Each of the principal actors made approximately $75,000 an episode, with Sheen's
most recently confirmed salary being $300,000. Rob Lowe also had a six-figure salary, reported to be $100,000, because his character originally was supposed to have a more central role. Disparities in cast salaries led to very public contract disputes, particularly by Janney
, Schiff
, Spencer
, and Whitford
. During contract negotiations in 2001, the four were threatened with breach of contract
suits by Warner Bros.
However, by banding together, they were able to persuade the studio to more than double their salaries. Two years later, the four again demanded a doubling of their salaries, a few months after Warner Bros had signed new licensing deals with NBC and Bravo.
John Spencer
, who played Leo McGarry
, died from a heart attack
on December 16, 2005 — about a year after his character experienced a nearly fatal heart attack on the show. A brief memorial
message from Martin Sheen
was broadcast before "Running Mates", the first new episode that aired after Spencer's death. The loss of Spencer's character was addressed beginning with the episode "Election Day
", which aired on April 2, 2006.
In an interview on the Season 1 DVD, Bradley Whitford
said that he was originally cast as Sam, even though Aaron Sorkin had created the Josh character specifically for him. In the same interview, Janel Moloney stated she had originally auditioned for the role of C.J. and that Donna, the role for which she was eventually cast, was not meant to be a recurring character. Other actors were seriously considered for other roles, including Alan Alda
and Sidney Poitier
for the president, Judd Hirsch
for Leo, Eugene Levy
for Toby, and CCH Pounder
for C.J.
Most episodes follow President Bartlet and his staff through particular legislative or political issues. Plots can range from behind-closed-doors negotiating with Congress to personal problems like post-traumatic stress disorder, from which Josh suffers during the second season. The typical episode loosely follows the President and his staff through their day, generally following several plots connected by some idea or theme. A large, fully connected set of the White House allows the producers to create shots with very few cuts and long, continuous master shot
s of staff members walking and talking through the hallways. These "walk and talk
s" became a trademark of the show. The final two seasons presented a narrative change, with the focus of the show divided between plots in the West Wing with President Bartlet and his remaining senior staffers and plots revolving around the rest of the main cast on the campaign trail for the 2006 election.
, for which Aaron Sorkin
wrote the screenplay, and in which Martin Sheen
played the White House Chief of Staff. Unused plot elements from the film and a suggestion from Akiva Goldsman
inspired Sorkin to create The West Wing.
According to the DVD commentary, Sorkin intended to center the show on Sam Seaborn and the other senior staff with the president in an unseen or a secondary role. However, Bartlet's screen time gradually increased, and his role expanded as the series progressed. Positive critical and public reaction to Sheen's performance raised his character's profile, decreasing Lowe's perceived significance. In addition, according to Sorkin, the storylines began to focus less on Sam and more on Josh Lyman, the Deputy Chief of Staff. This shift is one of the reasons for Lowe's eventual departure from the show in the fourth season.
For the first four seasons, Sorkin wrote almost every episode of the series, occasionally reusing plot elements, episode titles, character names, and actors from his previous work, Sports Night
, a sitcom in which he began to develop his signature dialogue style of rhythmic, snappy, and intellectual banter. Fellow executive producer and director Thomas Schlamme championed the "walk and talk
", a continuous shot tracking in front of the characters as they walk from one place to another that became part of The West Wing' s signature visual style. Sorkin's hectic writing schedule often led to cost overruns and schedule slips, and he opted to leave the show after the fourth season, following increasing personal problems, including an arrest for possession of "what were believed to be hallucinogenic mushrooms." Thomas Schlamme also left the show after the fourth season. John Wells
, the remaining executive producer, took the helm after their departure.
The West Wing aired on Wednesday nights from its debut until the end of its sixth season, not moving from its 9:00 time slot in any of those seasons. NBC elected to move the series to Sunday nights for what proved to be its final season, and the series finale aired on May 14, 2006. The West Wing took a large ratings hit with the move, which put it up against ABC
's Top 20 hit Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
, and CBS' Top 30 hit Cold Case in its timeslot.
Former White House Press Secretary
Dee Dee Myers
as well as expert pollster Patrick Caddell
served as consultants for the show from the beginning, helping writers and actors depict the West Wing accurately. Other former White House staffers, such as Peggy Noonan
and Gene Sperling
, have served as consultants for brief periods.
A documentary special in the third season compared the show's depiction of the West Wing to the real thing. Many former West Wing denizens applauded the show's depiction of the West Wing, including advisor David Gergen
, Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers
, Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger
, Chief of Staff Leon Panetta
, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove
, and former Presidents Gerald Ford
, Jimmy Carter
, and Bill Clinton
.
While critics often praised The West Wing for its writing, others faulted the show as unrealistically optimistic and sentimental. A large part of this criticism came from the perceived naiveté of the characters. Television critic Heather Havrilesky asked, "What rock did these morally pure creatures crawl out from under and, more important, how do you go from innocent millipede to White House staffer without becoming soiled or disillusioned by the dirty realities of politics along the way?"
Dr. Staci L. Beavers, associate professor of political science
at California State University, San Marcos
, wrote a short essay, "The West Wing as a Pedagogical Tool", concerning the viability of The West Wing as a teaching tool. She concluded, "While the series’ purpose is for-profit entertainment, The West Wing presents great pedagogical potential." The West Wing, in her opinion, gave greater depth to the political process usually espoused only in stilted talking points on shows like Face the Nation
and Meet the Press
. However, the merits of a particular argument may be obscured by the viewer's opinion of the character. Beavers also noted that characters with opposing viewpoints were often set up to be "bad people" in the viewer's eyes. These characters were assigned undesirable characteristics having nothing to do with their political opinions, such as being romantically involved with a main character's love interest. In Beavers's opinion, a critical analysis of the show's political views can present a worthwhile learning experience to the viewer.
One of the stranger effects of the show occurred on January 31, 2006, when The West Wing was said to have played a hand in defeating a proposal backed by Tony Blair
's government in the British House of Commons
, during the so called "West Wing Plot". The plan was allegedly hatched after a Conservative
Member of Parliament
watched the episode, "A Good Day", in which Democrats block a bill aimed at limiting stem cell research, by hiding in an office until the Republican Speaker calls the vote.
look at the Clinton presidency. On the other hand, some Republicans have admired the show since its inception, before even the departure of Sorkin and the show's resulting shift toward the center. In his 2001 article "Real Liberals versus The West Wing", Mackubin Thomas Owens
wrote,
Journalist Matthew Miller wrote, "although the show indeed has a liberal bias on issues, it presents a truer, more human picture of the people behind the headlines than most of today's Washington journalists."
In its first season, The West Wing attracted critical attention in the television community with a record nine Emmy
wins. The show has been praised for its high production values and repeatedly recognized for its cinematic
achievements. With a budget of $6 million per episode, many consider each week's show to be a small feature film. However, many in the television community believe that the true genius of the show was Sorkin's rapid-fire and witty scripts.
The West Wing is noted for developing the "walk-and-talk"—long Steadicam
tracking shot
s showing characters walking down hallways while involved in long conversations. In a typical "walk-and-talk" shot, the camera leads two characters down a hallway as they speak to each other. One of these characters generally breaks off and the remaining character is then joined by another character, who initiates another conversation as they continue walking. These "walk-and-talks" create a dynamic feel for what would otherwise be long expository dialogue, and have become a staple for dialogue-intensive television show scenes.
, 2001
, 2002
, and 2003
, tying Hill Street Blues
and L.A. Law
for most won in this category. Each of its seven seasons earned a nomination for the award. With its 27 total awards, The West Wing ranks 4th all-time in number of Emmy Awards won by a series, behind Frasier
(37), The Mary Tyler Moore Show
(29), and Cheers
(28). It is the most honored program in the drama series categories.
The series shares the Emmy Award
record for most acting nominations by regular cast members (excluding the guest performer category) for a single series in one year. (Both Hill Street Blues
and L.A. Law
also hold that record). For the 2001–2002 season nine cast members were nominated for Emmys. Allison Janney, John Spencer and Stockard Channing each won an Emmy (for Lead Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress respectively). The others nominated were Martin Sheen (for Lead Actor), Richard Schiff, Dule Hill and Bradley Whitford (for Supporting Actor), and Janel Moloney and Mary-Louise Parker (for Supporting Actress). In addition, that same year Mark Harmon, Tim Matheson and Ron Silver were each nominated in the Guest Actor category (although none won the award). This gave the series an Emmy Award record for most acting nominations overall (including guest performer category) in a single year, with 12 acting nominations.
Twenty individual Emmys were awarded to writers, actors, and crew members. Allison Janney is the record holder for most wins by a cast member, with a total of four Emmys. The West Wing won at least one Emmy in each of its seasons except the sixth.
In addition to its Emmys, the show won two Screen Actors Guild
(SAG) Awards, in 2000
and 2001
, Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Martin Sheen is the only cast member to have won a Golden Globe, and he and Allison Janney are the only cast members to win a SAG award (best actor and best actress, respectively). In both 1999 and 2000, The West Wing was awarded the Peabody Award
for excellence in broadcasting.
The following table summarizes award wins by cast members:
Many cast members have been Emmy-nominated for their work on The West Wing but have not won, including Martin Sheen—who was nominated for six of the seven seasons of the series without receiving the award—as well as Janel Moloney, who was nominated twice, and Dulé Hill, Rob Lowe, and Mary-Louise Parker
, who were all nominated once. Matthew Perry
, Oliver Platt
, Ron Silver
, Tim Matheson
, and Mark Harmon
have also received Emmy nominations for guest starring on the show.
Tommy Schlamme won two Emmys for Directing (in 2000 and 2001), and Christopher Misiano
won a Directing Emmy in 2003. The West Wings only Emmy for Writing was in its first season, when Rick Cleveland
and Aaron Sorkin
shared the award for "In Excelsis Deo
".
W. G. "Snuffy" Walden
received an Emmy Award for Main Title Theme Music in 2000 for "The West Wing Opening Theme".
Readers of TV Guide
voted the cast of The West Wing their Best Drama cast of all time, ranking at 37% of the votes, beating Lost
, which registered 23%. (The cast of Friends
won for Best Comedy.)
in 2000, many wondered whether the liberal show could retain its relevance and topicality. However, by exploring many of the same issues facing the Bush administration from a Democratic point of view, the show continued to appeal to a broad audience of both Democrats and Republicans.
In its second season episode "The Midterms
", President Bartlet admonishes fictional radio host Dr. Jenna Jacobs for her views regarding homosexuality
at a private gathering at the White House. Dr. Jacobs is a caricature of radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger
, who strongly disapproves of homosexuality. Many of the president's Biblical
references in his comments to Dr. Jacobs appear to have come from an open letter
to Dr. Schlessinger, circulated online in early May 2000.
The Bartlet administration experiences a scandal during the second and third seasons that has been compared to the Monica Lewinsky
affair. President Bartlet was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1992. The scandal centers around President Bartlet's nondisclosure of his illness to the electorate during the election. He is investigated by an opposition Congress for defrauding the public and eventually accepts Congressional censure
. Multiple sclerosis advocacy groups have praised the show for its accurate portrayal of the symptoms of MS and stressing that it is not fatal. The National MS Society commented:
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the start of the third season was postponed for a week, as were most American television premieres that year. A script for a special episode was quickly written and began filming on September 21. The episode "Isaac and Ishmael
" aired on October 3 and addresses 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 illustrated the show's flexibility in addressing current events. The cast of the show state during the opening of the episode that it is not part of The West Wing continuity
.
While the September 11 attacks are not referenced in The West Wing continuity, the country does enter into a variation of the War on Terrorism
. The war begins during the show's third season, when a plot to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge
was uncovered; in response, the President orders the assassination of terrorist leader Abdul ibn Shareef
. This storyline draws similarities to the real-world U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
as well as U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia
, as it brings the Middle East to the forefront of U.S. foreign relations and elevated terrorism as a serious threat in The West Wing universe. In Seasons 3, 4 and 5, the fictional Bahji terror group seems to act as a fictional stand-in for the real world Al Qaeda, but in Seasons 6 and 7, characters mention Al Qaeda itself as a threat, despite no clearly stated history of Al Qaeda terror attacks in The West Wing continuity (although Nancy McNally does refer to Osama Bin Laden
as a potential threat at the beginning of Season 2
.)
In the middle of the fourth season, Bartlet's White House is confronted with the genocide in the fictional African country of Equatorial Kundu which was compared to the Rwandan Genocide
of 1994. The result was new foreign policy doctrine for Bartlet Administration and military intervention to stop the violence, which came after much hesitation and reluctance to call the conflict a genocide. In reality, the Clinton Administration did not intervene in Rwanda, making series events look like a moral imperative
.
In the sixth and seventh seasons, The West Wing explores a leak of top-secret information by a senior staffer at the White House. This leak has been compared to the events surrounding the Valerie Plame affair
. In the storyline, the International Space Station
is damaged and can no longer produce oxygen
for the astronaut
s to breathe. With no other methods of rescue available, the President is reminded of the existence of a top-secret military space shuttle
. Following the President's inaction, the shuttle story is leaked to a White House reporter, Greg Brock (analogous to Judith Miller
), who prints the story in The New York Times. Brock will not reveal his source and goes to jail for failing to do so, as did Miller. In order to stop the investigation, in which authorities suspect Chief of Staff C.J. Cregg, Toby Ziegler admits to leaking the information, and the President is forced to dismiss him. In comparison, the Plame affair resulted in the arrest and conviction of "Scooter" Libby
, the vice president's chief of staff. However, Libby was convicted of perjury in testimony to a grand jury. No one was convicted for "blowing the cover" of Plame. (Richard Armitage
, an official in the Bush State Department, acknowledged leaking information about Plame to reporters but was never charged with a crime.) Libby's two and a half year prison sentence was later commuted by President Bush, though the other facet of his sentence ($250,000 fine) stood and was duly paid. In the series finale, President Bartlet, as one of his last official acts, pardons Ziegler.
Other issues explored in The West Wing include:
, appear more often than others. Many other government officials, such as mayors, governors, judges, representatives, and senators, have been mentioned and seen as well.
Fictional locations inside the United States have been created to loosely represent certain places:
A near meltdown
at the nuclear plant becomes the focus of an October surprise
for Republican nominee Senator Arnold Vinick
during the 2006 presidential election, due to Vinick's strong pro-nuclear stance and revelations of his active lobbying for the construction of the plant. This was seen to be a key factor in Vinick's narrow defeat in the election by Democratic nominee Congressman Matt Santos
.
is a fictional town in New Hampshire. It is stated to be a very small community of only 63 people, of whom 42 are registered voters, that votes at one minute past midnight on the day of the New Hampshire primary
, hours before the rest of the state, and has accurately predicted the winner of every presidential election
since William Howard Taft
in 1908
. It is based on the true New Hampshire communities of Hart's Location
and Dixville Notch
, which in real life do vote before the rest of the state during the primaries, and also loosely upon the concept of "bellwether states
" in US presidential elections.
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
that was used as the setting of a bombing in the beginning of the fourth season.
, Yasser Arafat
, Fidel Castro
, Queen Elizabeth II
, King Bhumibol Adulyadej
, King
Carl Gustaf
, Thabo Mbeki
and Osama bin Laden
. However, when a peace accord was worked out between Israel
and the Palestinian Authority at the start of the show's sixth season, the Chairman
of the Palestinian Authority was the fictional Nizar Farad, not Arafat. (By that time in the real world, Arafat was dead and a successor, Rawhi Fattuh
, had been elected.)
Entire countries are invented as composite pictures that epitomize many of the problems that plague real nations in certain areas of the world:
's presidency, although there is occasional overlap. Fictional Presidents who served between Nixon and Bartlet include one-term Democrat D. Wire Newman (James Cromwell
) and two-term Republican Owen Lassiter.
Leo McGarry is mentioned as being Labor Secretary
in the administration that was in office in 1993 and 1995. In the first season, an outgoing Supreme Court Justice tells President Bartlet that he had been wanting to retire for 5 years, but waited "for a Democrat." The season four episode "Debate Camp" features a flashback to the days just before Bartlet's inauguration, as Donna Moss
meets with her Republican predecessor, Jeff Johnson, who makes it clear that the outgoing Republican administration has been in office for eight years. In season six Leo says that the Republicans have been "out of power for eight years", and Republicans at their convention say "eight (years) is enough".
The passage of time on the show relative to that of the real world is somewhat ambiguous when marked by events of shorter duration (e.g., votes, campaigns). Sorkin has noted in a DVD commentary track for the second season episode "18th and Potomac
" that he has tried to avoid tying The West Wing to a specific period of time. Despite this, real years are occasionally mentioned, usually in the context of elections and President Bartlet's two-term administration.
The show's presidential elections are held in 2002 and 2006, which are the years of the midterm elections in reality (these dates come from the fact that in the season 2 episode "17 People
", Toby specifically mentions 2002 as the year of the president's reelection campaign.). The election timeline in The West Wing matches up with that of the real world until early in the sixth season, when it appears that a year is lost. For example, the filing deadline for the New Hampshire primary
, which would normally fall in January 2006, appears in an episode airing in January 2005.
In an interview, John Wells stated that the series began one and a half years into Bartlet's first term and that the election to replace Bartlet was being held at the correct time. However the season 1 episode "He Shall from Time to Time" shows the preparations for Bartlet's first regular State of the Union address, that is one year into his presidency.
In the season 5 episode "Access
", it is mentioned that the Casey Creek crisis occurred during Bartlet's first term, and network footage of the crisis carries the date of November 2001.
opponent. It is mentioned that Bartlet won the third and final debate, which was held eight days before election day in St. Louis
, Missouri
, and that this helped swing a close election in his favor. Josh Lyman
said in the days prior to the election "Bartlet punched through a few walls" as the result seemed too close to call, before the result broke his way. Leo McGarry
said the same thing in "Bartlet for America
" when he said "It was eight days to go, and we were too close to call".
The campaign for the Democratic nomination is extensively addressed. In the episodes "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I
", "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II
" and "Bartlet for America", flashbacks are used to tell how Bartlet defeated Texas Senator John Hoynes
(Tim Matheson
) and Washington Senator William Wiley for the Democratic nomination. The flashbacks also reveal how Leo McGarry persuaded Bartlet, who was then governor of New Hampshire
, to run for president and how Bartlet ultimately selected John Hoynes as his choice as running mate.
' s 2002 presidential election pits Bartlet and Vice President John Hoynes against Florida Governor Robert Ritchie (James Brolin
) and his running mate, Governor Jeff Heston of Wyoming. Bartlet faces no known opposition for renomination, though Democratic Senator Stackhouse does launch a brief independent campaign for the presidency. Ritchie, not originally expected to contend for the nomination, emerges from a field of seven other Republican candidates by appealing to the party's conservative base with simple, "homey" sound bites.
Bartlet's staff contemplates replacing Vice President John Hoynes on the ticket with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Admiral
Percy Fitzwallace
(John Amos
), among others. After it is clear that Ritchie will be the Republican nominee, Bartlet dismisses the idea, declaring that he wants Hoynes in the number two spot because of "four words," which he writes down and hands to his staffers to read: "Because I could die."
Throughout the season it is anticipated that the race will be close, but a stellar performance by Bartlet in the sole debate between the candidates helps give Bartlet a landslide victory in both the popular and electoral vote.
A speed-up in The West Wing' s timeline, in part due to the expiration of many cast members' contracts and a desire to continue the program with lower production costs, resulted in the omission of the 2004 midterm elections and an election during the seventh season. The sixth season extensively details the Democratic and Republican primaries. The seventh season covers the lead-up to the general election, the election, and the transition to a new administration. The timeline slows down to concentrate on the general election race. The election, normally held in November, takes place across two episodes originally broadcast on April 2 and April 9, 2006.
Congressman Matt Santos
(D-TX
) (Jimmy Smits
) is nominated on the fourth ballot at the Democratic National Convention
, during the sixth season finale. Santos was planning to leave Congress
before being recruited to run for the presidency by Josh Lyman
. Santos polled in the low single digits in the Iowa caucus
and was virtually out of the running in the New Hampshire primary
before a last-ditch direct television appeal vaults him to a third-place finish with 19% of the vote. Josh Lyman, Santos's campaign manager, convinces Leo McGarry
to become Santos' running mate.
Senator Arnold Vinick
(R-CA
) (Alan Alda
) secures the Republican nomination, defeating Glen Allen Walken
(John Goodman
) and the Reverend Don Butler
(Don S. Davis
), among others. Initially, Vinick wants Butler to become his running mate. However, Butler does not want to be considered because of Vinick's stance on abortion
. Instead, West Virginia
Governor Ray Sullivan
(Brett Cullen
) is chosen as Vinick's running mate. Vinick is portrayed throughout the sixth season as virtually unbeatable because of his popularity in California, a typically Democratic state, his moderate views, and his wide crossover appeal. Vinick, however, faces difficulty with the pro-life
members of his party as a pro-choice
candidate, and criticism for his support of nuclear power following a serious accident at a Californian nuclear power station.
On the evening of the election, Leo McGarry suffers a massive heart attack
and is pronounced dead at the hospital, with the polls still open on the West Coast. The Santos campaign releases the information immediately, while Arnold Vinick
refuses to use Leo's death as a "stepstool" to the presidency. Santos emerges as the winner in his home state of Texas, while Vinick wins his home state of California. The election comes down to Nevada
, where both candidates need a victory to secure the presidency. Vinick tells his staff repeatedly that he will not allow his campaign to demand a recount of the votes if Santos is declared the winner. Josh Lyman is seen giving Santos the same advice, although the Santos campaign does send a team of lawyers down to Nevada. Santos is pronounced the winner of the election, having won Nevada by 30,000 votes, with an electoral margin of 272–266.
According to executive producer Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr., the writers originally intended for Vinick to win the election. However, the death of Spencer forced him and his colleagues to consider the emotional strain that would result from having Santos lose both his running mate and the election. It was eventually decided that the last episodes would be rescripted by John Wells
. Other statements from John Wells, however, have contradicted O'Donnell's claims about a previously planned Vinick victory. The script showing Santos winning was written long before the death of John Spencer. In 2008 O'Donnell stated to camera "We actually planned at the outset for Jimmy Smits to win, that was our .. just .. plan of how this was all going to work, but the Vinick character came on so strong in the show, and was so effective, it became a real contest ... and it became a real contest in the West Wing writer's room."
in real life) has a gruelling but successful primary campaign against a more experienced candidate (Bob Russell on the show, Hillary Clinton in real life) and a third candidate who has been damaged by claims of infidelity (John Hoynes on the show, John Edwards
in real life) and chooses an experienced Washington insider as his running mate (Leo McGarry on the show, Joe Biden
in real life), whereas the Republican contest is determined early in the primary season with an aging "maverick" senator of a Western
state being the nominee (Arnold Vinick on the show, John McCain
in real life) who himself chooses a younger, more socially conservative running mate from a smaller state (Ray Sullivan on the show, Sarah Palin
in real life).
Writer Eli Attie called David Axelrod
to talk about Obama after Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention speech and says that he "drew inspiration from [Obama] in drawing [the Santos] character," while actor Jimmy Smits says that Obama "was one of the people that I looked to draw upon." Writer and producer Lawrence O'Donnell says that he partly modeled Vinick after McCain. Obama's former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel
, is said to be the basis of the Josh Lyman
character, who became Santos' Chief of Staff. However, executive producer Lawrence O'Donnell denies this claim.
as Chief of Staff, who in turn calls on former colleague Sam Seaborn to be Deputy Chief of Staff. In need of experienced cabinet members, Santos taps Arnold Vinick as Secretary of State
, believing the senior statesman to be one of the best strategists available and respected by foreign leaders. Santos eventually decides on Eric Baker, the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania and at one point the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, as his choice for vice president, and submits his name to Congress under the terms of the 25th Amendment. While the show ends
before he can be confirmed, it is implied he would face little opposition from Republicans due to the backing of Secretary of State Vinick.
President Bartlet's final act as President of the United States is pardoning Toby Ziegler
, who had violated federal law by leaking classified information about a military space shuttle. The series ends with Bartlet returning to New Hampshire. Having said his goodbyes to his closest staff, former President Bartlet tells President Santos, "Make me proud, Mr. President", to which Santos responds, "I'll do my best, Mr. President."
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drama created by Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
that was originally broadcast on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006. The series is set in the West Wing
West Wing
The West Wing is the building housing the official offices of the President of the United States. It is the part of the White House Complex in which the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, the Situation Room, and the Roosevelt Room are located...
of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
—where the Oval Office
Oval Office
The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...
and offices of presidential senior staff are located—during the fictional Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
administration
Administration (government)
The term administration, as used in the context of government, differs according to jurisdiction.-United States:In United States usage, the term refers to the executive branch under a specific president , for example: the "Barack Obama administration." It can also mean an executive branch agency...
of Josiah Bartlet
Josiah Bartlet
Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet is a fictional character played by Martin Sheen on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is President of the United States for the entire series until the last episode, when his successor is inaugurated...
(played by Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
).
The West Wing was produced by Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...
. For the first four seasons, there were three executive producers, Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
(lead writer of almost all the first four seasons), Thomas Schlamme, and John Wells
John Wells (TV producer)
John Marcum Wells is an American theater and television producer, writer and director. He is best known for his role as executive producer and show runner of the television series ER, Third Watch, and The West Wing. His company, John Wells Productions, is currently based at Warner Bros. studios in...
. After Sorkin left the program, John Wells became the sole executive producer.
It first aired on NBC in 1999, and has been broadcast by many networks in several other countries. The series ended its seven-year run on May 14, 2006.
The show received positive reviews from critics, political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
professors, and former White House staffers. In total, The West Wing won three Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
s and 26 Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s, including the award for Outstanding Drama Series, which it won four consecutive times from 2000 through 2003. The show's ratings waned in later years, following the departure of series creator Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
(who wrote or co-wrote 85 of the first 88 episodes) after the fourth season, yet it remained popular among high-income viewers, with around 16 million viewers, a key demographic for the show and its advertisers.
Crew
The series was created by Aaron SorkinAaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
. Sorkin served as executive producer for the pilot episode alongside director Thomas Schlamme and John Wells
John Wells (TV producer)
John Marcum Wells is an American theater and television producer, writer and director. He is best known for his role as executive producer and show runner of the television series ER, Third Watch, and The West Wing. His company, John Wells Productions, is currently based at Warner Bros. studios in...
. Kristin Harms and Llewellyn Wells were producers for the pilot. Michael Hissrich acted as a co-producer.
The first season proper saw the return of all of the pilot production team along with the addition of Ron Osborn and Jeff Reno as consulting producers and Rick Cleveland
Rick Cleveland
Rick Cleveland is an American television writer, playwright and monologist, best known for writing on the HBO original series, Six Feet Under and NBC's The West Wing....
as a second co-producer with Robert W. Glass as an associate producer. Glass left the production team after only five episodes. Osborn and Reno departed after nine episodes. Paul Redford
Paul Redford
Paul Redford is an American television writer and producer.Redford was a story editor and writer for Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night. He also worked on Sorkin's next series The West Wing. Redford joined the crew in the first season as a story editor and regular writer...
served as a story editor
Story editor
Story editor is a job title in motion picture and television production, also sometimes called "supervising producer". A story editor is a member of the screenwriting staff who edits stories for screenplays....
throughout the first season. Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr. worked as executive story editor for the second half of the season.
With the second season Kevin Falls
Kevin Falls
Kevin Falls is an American television writer and producer. He was the creator and showrunner of the NBC television drama Journeyman. He worked as a consulting producer and writer on Shark. He served as an executive producer for the short lived Lyon's Den. He was a co-executive producer for both The...
became a co-executive producer. Cleveland left the production team and Redford and O'Donnell were promoted to co-producer. Peter Parnell
Peter Parnell
Peter Parnell is an American playwright. His plays include The Cider House Rules, Flaubert's Latest, Hyde in Hollywood, An Imaginary Life, QED, Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, Romance Language, Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World, and Sorrows of Stephen.Parnell is also noted for...
, and Patrick Caddell
Patrick Caddell
Patrick Hayward "Pat" Caddell is an American public opinion pollster and a political film consultant.-Biography:...
became co-producers and Julie Herlocker and Mindy Kanaskie became associate producers. O'Donnell was promoted again to producer five episodes into the season and Hissrich joined him twelve episodes into the season.
The third season saw the departure of Parnell, Caddell, and Herlocker and the temporary absence of O'Donnell. Director Christopher Misiano
Christopher Misiano
Christopher Misiano is an American television director and producer known most notably for his work on ER, The West Wing and more recently Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip....
became a supervising producer and Patrick Ward
Patrick Ward
Patrick Ward is an Australian actor noted for several performances on Australian television.-Career:Ward played a guest television role in police procedural Matlock Police in 1973...
came aboard as an associate producer. Redford was promoted to producer. With the thirteenth episode of the third season director Alex Graves
Alex Graves
Alex Graves is an American television director, writer and producer.He is best known for his work on the hit series The West Wing, where he served as Producer, Supervising producer, Co-executive producer, and finally Executive producer. In 2007, he directed and executive produced the pilot for the...
became an additional supervising producer and Eli Attie
Eli Attie
Eli Attie is a writer and political operative. He served as chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore from 1997 until Gore's concession of the 2000 election, and before that worked for President Bill Clinton and House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt....
joined the writing staff as a story editor.
The fourth season marked the temporary departure of Hissrich. Misiano and Graves became co-executive producers alongside Falls. Attie was promoted to executive story editor and Debora Cahn
Debora Cahn
Debora T. Cahn is an American television writer, most notable for her work on The West Wing.In 2005, Cahn won a Writers Guild of America award for writing the fifth season episode entitled "The Supremes"....
became a staff writer. The fourteenth episode of the season saw Redford promoted to supervising producer and Kanaskie, Ward and Attie promoted to co-producers.
The fifth season saw the departure of both Sorkin and Schlamme as executive producers. Schlamme remained attached to the series as an executive consultant. John Wells remained the sole executive producer and showrunner. Co-executive producer Kevin Falls also left the show. O'Donnell rejoined the production team as a consulting producer. Wells also added Carol Flint
Carol Flint
Carol Flint is a American television producer and writer best known for her work on ER and The West Wing. Flint started her writing career with television series China Beach . After that series ended she started working on the television series L.A...
, Alexa Junge
Alexa Junge
Alexa Junge is a television writer, producer and screenwriter. She is best known for her work on the series Friends.Four-time Emmy and WGA Award nominee, Junge grew up in Los Angeles, attended Barnard College where she wrote The Columbia Varsity Show with David Rakoff and Jeanine Tesori. Junge...
, Peter Noah
Peter Noah
Peter Noah is an American television writer and producer. He served as an executive producer and regular writer for the NBC drama The West Wing. Noah first became involved with the series as a consulting producer and regular writer for the fifth season and was promoted to supervising producer...
, and John Sacret Young
John Sacret Young
John Sacret Young is an author, producer, director, and screenwriter primarily in television. Young has been nominated for seven Emmys and seven Writers Guild of America Awards, winning two WGA Awards....
as consulting producers. Andrew Stearn came aboard as a producer and Attie was promoted to producer. Cahn became story editor and Josh Singer replaced her as staff writer. With the tenth episode Flint, Junge, Noah and Sacret Young became supervising producers.
With the sixth season Misiano and Graves were promoted to executive producers. Redford and Junge left the production team and Dylan K. Massin became a co-producer. Cahn was promoted to executive story editor and Singer replaced her as story editor. Lauren Schmidt filled the staff writer role. The fourth episode saw the departure of original crew member Llewellyn Wells. Debora Cahn was promoted to co-producer with the fourteenth episode.
The seventh season saw Noah and O'Donnell promoted again, this time becoming additional executive producers. Attie became a supervising producer. Hissrich returned to his role as producer for the final season.
Cast
The West Wing employed a broad ensemble castEnsemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
to portray the many positions involved in the daily work of the federal government. The President, the First Lady
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
, and the President's senior staff and advisers form the core cast
Casting (performing arts)
In the performing arts, casting is a pre-production process for selecting a cast of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance.-Casting process:...
. Numerous secondary characters, appearing intermittently, complement storylines that generally revolve around this core group.
| Actor/Actress | Character | Original position (Bartlet era) | Subsequent positions held (Bartlet era) | Position at series end (Santos era) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stockard Channing Stockard Channing Stockard Channing is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role as Ouisa Kittredge in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its... |
Abigail Bartlet | First Lady First Lady First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime... |
||
| Dulé Hill Dulé Hill Karim Dulé Hill is an American actor and tap dancer. He is best known for his roles as personal presidential aide Charlie Young on the NBC drama television series The West Wing, and as pharmaceutical salesman-private detective Burton "Gus" Guster on the USA Network television comedy-drama Psych... |
Charlie Young Charlie Young Charles 'Charlie' Young is a fictional character played by Dulé Hill on the television serial drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he is the Personal Aide to President Josiah Bartlet.-Creation and development:... |
Personal Aide to the President Body man A body man is, in U.S. political jargon, a personal assistant to a politician or political candidate. A body man accompanies the politician or candidate virtually everywhere, often arranging lodging, transportation or meals, and providing companionship, snacks, a cell phone, and any other... (Seasons 1–6) |
Deputy Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff (Seasons 6–7) | |
| Allison Janney Allison Janney Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :... |
Claudia Jean "C.J." Cregg C. J. Cregg Claudia Jean "C. J." Cregg is a fictional character played by Allison Janney on the television serial drama The West Wing. From the beginning of the series until the sixth season, she is White House Press Secretary in the administration of President Josiah Bartlet... |
Press Secretary White House Press Secretary The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration.... (Seasons 1–6) |
Chief of Staff White House Chief of Staff The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley.-History:... (Seasons 6–7) |
|
| Moira Kelly Moira Kelly Moira Kelly is an American actress. She is best known for playing single mother Karen Roe on the teen drama One Tree Hill. She also directed two episodes of the series: "Resolve" and "I Slept with Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me"... |
Mandy Hampton Mandy Hampton Dr. Madeline 'Mandy' Hampton is a fictional character played by Moira Kelly on the American serial drama television series The West Wing. She was White House media consultant during the first season of the show, and the former girlfriend of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, with whom... |
White House Media Consultant (Season 1) | ||
| Rob Lowe Rob Lowe Robert Hepler "Rob" Lowe is an American actor. Lowe came to prominence after appearing in films such as The Outsiders, Oxford Blues, About Last Night..., St. Elmo's Fire, and Wayne's World. On television, Lowe is known for his role as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing and his role as Senator Robert... |
Sam Seaborn Sam Seaborn Samuel Norman "Sam" Seaborn is a fictional character portrayed by Rob Lowe on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is best known for being Deputy White House Communications Director in the Josiah Bartlet administration throughout the first four seasons of the series.-Creation and... |
Deputy Communications Director White House Communications Director The White House Director of Communications, also known as Assistant to the President for Communications, is part of the senior staff of the President of the United States, and is responsible for developing and promoting the agenda of the President and leading its media campaign... (Seasons 1–4) |
Deputy White House Chief of Staff | |
| Janel Moloney Janel Moloney Janel Moloney is an American actress, best known for her role as Donnatella "Donna" Moss on the television series The West Wing.-Personal life:... |
Donna Moss Donna Moss Donnatella "Donna" Moss is a fictional character played by Janel Moloney on the television serial drama The West Wing. Donna is a recurring character during the first season, although she appears in every episode, making her a de facto regular... |
Senior Assistant to Josh Lyman (Seasons 1–6) | Russell Campaign Spokesman/Santos Campaign Spokesman (Seasons 6–7) | Chief of Staff to the First Lady |
| Richard Schiff Richard Schiff Richard Schiff is an American actor. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on the NBC television drama The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award... |
Toby Ziegler Toby Ziegler Tobias Zachary 'Toby' Ziegler is played by Richard Schiff on the television serial drama The West Wing. For most of the series' duration he is White House Communications Director.-Creation and development:... |
Communications Director White House Communications Director The White House Director of Communications, also known as Assistant to the President for Communications, is part of the senior staff of the President of the United States, and is responsible for developing and promoting the agenda of the President and leading its media campaign... |
||
| Martin Sheen Martin Sheen Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be... |
Josiah "Jed" Bartlet Josiah Bartlet Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet is a fictional character played by Martin Sheen on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is President of the United States for the entire series until the last episode, when his successor is inaugurated... |
President of the United States President of the United States The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.... |
||
| John Spencer John Spencer (actor) John Spencer was an American film and television actor. He was most widely known for playing White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on the NBC political drama series The West Wing, which earned him an Emmy Award in 2002.-Early life:Spencer was born as John Speshock, Jr. in New York City, and... |
Leo McGarry Leo McGarry Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White... |
Chief of Staff White House Chief of Staff The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley.-History:... (Seasons 1–6) |
Senior Advisor to the President (Season 6)/Democratic Candidate for Vice President (Season 7) | |
| Bradley Whitford Bradley Whitford Bradley Whitford is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles as Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman on the NBC television drama The West Wing, as Danny Tripp on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as Dan Stark in the Fox police buddy-comedy The Good Guys, as... |
Josh Lyman Josh Lyman Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration... |
Deputy Chief of Staff (Seasons 1–6) | Santos for President Campaign Manager (Seasons 6–7) | White House Chief of Staff |
| Joshua Malina Joshua Malina Joshua Charles Malina is an American film and stage actor. He is perhaps most famous for portraying Will Bailey on the NBC drama The West Wing and Jeremy Goodwin on Sports Night.-Personal life:... |
Will Bailey Will Bailey William "Will" Bailey, is a fictional character played by Joshua Malina on the television serial drama The West Wing, holding various posts in the White House Office of Communications, Office of the Vice President and a backbencher Congressman .-Character biography:Will grew up in Belgium, as his... |
Deputy Communications Director Speechwriter A speechwriter is a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches that will be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are used by many senior-level elected officials and executives in the government and private sectors.-Skills and training:... (Seasons 4–5) |
Chief of Staff to Vice President Bob Russell (Seasons 5–7) White House Communications Director (Season 7) |
|
| Mary McCormack Mary McCormack Mary Catherine McCormack is an American actress. Best known for her work in television, she has had leading roles as Justine Appleton in the series Murder One , as Deputy National Security Adviser Kate Harper in The West Wing and as Mary Shannon in In Plain Sight .Her film roles include Private... |
Kate Harper | Deputy National Security Advisor Deputy National Security Advisor The Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor is a member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, serving as deputy to the President's National Security Advisor.... (Seasons 5–7) |
||
| Kristin Chenoweth Kristin Chenoweth Kristin Chenoweth is an American singer and actress, with credits in musical theatre, film and television. She is best known on Broadway for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown , for which she won a Tony Award, and for originating the role of Glinda in the musical... |
Annabeth Schott Annabeth Schott Annabeth Schott, played by Kristin Chenoweth, is a fictional character on the political drama The West Wing. She joined the Bartlet administration in Season 6 as the Deputy Press Secretary for Media Relations following the promotion of C.J. Cregg to White House Chief of Staff... |
Deputy Press Secretary (Season 6) | Santos for President campaign team (Season 7) | Press Secretary to the First Lady |
| Jimmy Smits Jimmy Smits Jimmy Smits is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman Matt Santos on The West Wing... |
Matt Santos Matt Santos Matthew Vincente "Matt" Santos is a fictional character on the American television show The West Wing, played by Jimmy Smits. His initial appearance is as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Houston, Texas. According to West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie, Santos was based on the then... |
Congressman from Texas (Season 6) | Democratic candidate for President (Seasons 6–7) | President of the United States |
| Alan Alda Alan Alda Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H... |
Arnold Vinick Arnold Vinick Arnold Vinick is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing played by Alan Alda.-Biography:A Republican senator from California and Republican presidential nominee, he is narrowly defeated by Democrat Matt Santos in the 2006 presidential election, with Vinick winning the popular... |
Senator from California (Season 6) | Republican candidate for President (Seasons 6–7) | Secretary of State |
Each of the principal actors made approximately $75,000 an episode, with Sheen's
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
most recently confirmed salary being $300,000. Rob Lowe also had a six-figure salary, reported to be $100,000, because his character originally was supposed to have a more central role. Disparities in cast salaries led to very public contract disputes, particularly by Janney
Allison Janney
Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :...
, Schiff
Richard Schiff
Richard Schiff is an American actor. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on the NBC television drama The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award...
, Spencer
John Spencer (actor)
John Spencer was an American film and television actor. He was most widely known for playing White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on the NBC political drama series The West Wing, which earned him an Emmy Award in 2002.-Early life:Spencer was born as John Speshock, Jr. in New York City, and...
, and Whitford
Bradley Whitford
Bradley Whitford is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles as Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman on the NBC television drama The West Wing, as Danny Tripp on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as Dan Stark in the Fox police buddy-comedy The Good Guys, as...
. During contract negotiations in 2001, the four were threatened with breach of contract
Breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance....
suits by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
However, by banding together, they were able to persuade the studio to more than double their salaries. Two years later, the four again demanded a doubling of their salaries, a few months after Warner Bros had signed new licensing deals with NBC and Bravo.
John Spencer
John Spencer (actor)
John Spencer was an American film and television actor. He was most widely known for playing White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on the NBC political drama series The West Wing, which earned him an Emmy Award in 2002.-Early life:Spencer was born as John Speshock, Jr. in New York City, and...
, who played Leo McGarry
Leo McGarry
Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White...
, died from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on December 16, 2005 — about a year after his character experienced a nearly fatal heart attack on the show. A brief memorial
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
message from Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
was broadcast before "Running Mates", the first new episode that aired after Spencer's death. The loss of Spencer's character was addressed beginning with the episode "Election Day
Election Day Part I
"Election Day Part I" is episode 148 of The West Wing. It is set during the 2006 presidential election.- Plot :The episode opens with the Santos campaign staff enjoying drinking in a hotel bar and revealing the various "intimate relationships" between the staffers as they all head off to bed...
", which aired on April 2, 2006.
In an interview on the Season 1 DVD, Bradley Whitford
Bradley Whitford
Bradley Whitford is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles as Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman on the NBC television drama The West Wing, as Danny Tripp on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as Dan Stark in the Fox police buddy-comedy The Good Guys, as...
said that he was originally cast as Sam, even though Aaron Sorkin had created the Josh character specifically for him. In the same interview, Janel Moloney stated she had originally auditioned for the role of C.J. and that Donna, the role for which she was eventually cast, was not meant to be a recurring character. Other actors were seriously considered for other roles, including Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
and Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier
Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...
for the president, Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...
for Leo, Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, television director, producer, musician, and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies, and television movies. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, as Noah Levenstein...
for Toby, and CCH Pounder
CCH Pounder
Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder , known professionally as C. C. H. Pounder , is a Guyanese-American film and television actress...
for C.J.
Plot
The West Wing, like many serial dramas, stretches storylines over several episodes or entire seasons. In addition to these larger storylines, each episode also contains smaller arcs which usually begin and end within an episode.Most episodes follow President Bartlet and his staff through particular legislative or political issues. Plots can range from behind-closed-doors negotiating with Congress to personal problems like post-traumatic stress disorder, from which Josh suffers during the second season. The typical episode loosely follows the President and his staff through their day, generally following several plots connected by some idea or theme. A large, fully connected set of the White House allows the producers to create shots with very few cuts and long, continuous master shot
Master shot
A master shot is a film recording of an entire dramatized scene, from start to finish, from an angle that keeps all the players in view. It is often a long shot and can sometimes perform a double function as an establishing shot...
s of staff members walking and talking through the hallways. These "walk and talk
Walk and talk
Walk and talk is a distinctive storytelling-technique used in filmmaking and television production in which a number of characters have a conversation en route. The most basic form of walk and talk involves a walking character that is then joined by another character. On their way to their...
s" became a trademark of the show. The final two seasons presented a narrative change, with the focus of the show divided between plots in the West Wing with President Bartlet and his remaining senior staffers and plots revolving around the rest of the main cast on the campaign trail for the 2006 election.
- In the first season, the administration is in the middle of its second year and is still having trouble settling in and making progress on legislative issues.
- The second season covers the aftermath of the shooting at RosslynRosslyn, VirginiaRosslyn is an unincorporated area in Northern Virginia located in the northeastern corner of Arlington County, Virginia, north of Arlington National Cemetery and directly across the Potomac River from Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Rosslyn encompasses the Arlington neighborhoods of North Rosslyn...
, the 2000 midterm elections and dealings with a new Congress, and sees scandal when the White House is rocked by allegations of criminal conduct and the President must decide whether he will run for a second term. - The third and fourth seasons take an in-depth look at the campaign trail and the specter of both foreign and domestic terrorism.
- In the fifth season, the president begins to encounter more issues on the foreign front, while at home he faces off with the newly designated Speaker of the HouseSpeaker of the United States House of RepresentativesThe Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
, battles controversy over Supreme Court appointments and oversees a daring plan to save Social Security. - The sixth season chronicles the quest to replace President Bartlet in the next election, following the primary campaigns of several candidates from both parties, while the President himself attempts to build his legacy, but finds his ability to govern compromised by his illness.
- In the seventh season, the president must face a leak of confidential information about a secret DoD program from inside the White House, while the Democratic and Republican candidates battle to succeed him in the general election.
Development
The series developed following the success of 1995 theatrical film The American PresidentThe American President (film)
The American President is a 1995 romantic comedy film directed by Rob Reiner and written by Aaron Sorkin. It stars Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox and Richard Dreyfuss...
, for which Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
wrote the screenplay, and in which Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
played the White House Chief of Staff. Unused plot elements from the film and a suggestion from Akiva Goldsman
Akiva Goldsman
Akiva J. Goldsman from Walker Valley, New York is an American screenwriter and film producer. He received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture....
inspired Sorkin to create The West Wing.
According to the DVD commentary, Sorkin intended to center the show on Sam Seaborn and the other senior staff with the president in an unseen or a secondary role. However, Bartlet's screen time gradually increased, and his role expanded as the series progressed. Positive critical and public reaction to Sheen's performance raised his character's profile, decreasing Lowe's perceived significance. In addition, according to Sorkin, the storylines began to focus less on Sam and more on Josh Lyman, the Deputy Chief of Staff. This shift is one of the reasons for Lowe's eventual departure from the show in the fourth season.
For the first four seasons, Sorkin wrote almost every episode of the series, occasionally reusing plot elements, episode titles, character names, and actors from his previous work, Sports Night
Sports Night
Sports Night is an American television series about a fictional sports news show also called Sports Night. It focuses on the friendships, pitfalls, and ethical issues the creative talent of the program face while trying to produce a good show under constant network pressure...
, a sitcom in which he began to develop his signature dialogue style of rhythmic, snappy, and intellectual banter. Fellow executive producer and director Thomas Schlamme championed the "walk and talk
Walk and talk
Walk and talk is a distinctive storytelling-technique used in filmmaking and television production in which a number of characters have a conversation en route. The most basic form of walk and talk involves a walking character that is then joined by another character. On their way to their...
", a continuous shot tracking in front of the characters as they walk from one place to another that became part of The West Wing
John Wells (TV producer)
John Marcum Wells is an American theater and television producer, writer and director. He is best known for his role as executive producer and show runner of the television series ER, Third Watch, and The West Wing. His company, John Wells Productions, is currently based at Warner Bros. studios in...
, the remaining executive producer, took the helm after their departure.
The West Wing aired on Wednesday nights from its debut until the end of its sixth season, not moving from its 9:00 time slot in any of those seasons. NBC elected to move the series to Sunday nights for what proved to be its final season, and the series finale aired on May 14, 2006. The West Wing took a large ratings hit with the move, which put it up against ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Top 20 hit Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is a reality television series providing home renovations for less fortunate families and community schools etc...
, and CBS' Top 30 hit Cold Case in its timeslot.
Critical reactions
The West Wing offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the fictional Bartlet White House. The show's legitimacy, political slant, idealist representations of Washington, as well as notable writing and film merits have generated considerable discussion.Realism
The West Wing is not completely accurate in its portrayal of the actual West Wing; however, former White House staffers agree that the show "captures the feel [of the West Wing], shorn of a thousand undramatic details."Former White House Press Secretary
White House Press Secretary
The White House Press Secretary is a senior White House official whose primary responsibility is to act as spokesperson for the government administration....
Dee Dee Myers
Dee Dee Myers
Dee Dee Myers served as White House Press Secretary for the first two years of the Clinton administration, from January 20, 1993 to December 22, 1994.-Early life and education:...
as well as expert pollster Patrick Caddell
Patrick Caddell
Patrick Hayward "Pat" Caddell is an American public opinion pollster and a political film consultant.-Biography:...
served as consultants for the show from the beginning, helping writers and actors depict the West Wing accurately. Other former White House staffers, such as Peggy Noonan
Peggy Noonan
Peggy Noonan is an American author of seven books on politics, religion, and culture and a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal...
and Gene Sperling
Gene Sperling
Gene B. Sperling is an American lawyer and political figure, currently serving as a Counselor to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. He is also on the staff of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he serves as Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center on Universal Education. He...
, have served as consultants for brief periods.
A documentary special in the third season compared the show's depiction of the West Wing to the real thing. Many former West Wing denizens applauded the show's depiction of the West Wing, including advisor David Gergen
David Gergen
David Richmond Gergen is an American political consultant and former presidential advisor who served during the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He is currently Director of the Center for Public Leadership and a professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School. Gergen is...
, Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers
Dee Dee Myers
Dee Dee Myers served as White House Press Secretary for the first two years of the Clinton administration, from January 20, 1993 to December 22, 1994.-Early life and education:...
, Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
, Chief of Staff Leon Panetta
Leon Panetta
Leon Edward Panetta is the 23rd and current United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama since 2011. Prior to taking office, he served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency...
, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove
Karl Rove
Karl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...
, and former Presidents Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
, Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, and Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
.
While critics often praised The West Wing for its writing, others faulted the show as unrealistically optimistic and sentimental. A large part of this criticism came from the perceived naiveté of the characters. Television critic Heather Havrilesky asked, "What rock did these morally pure creatures crawl out from under and, more important, how do you go from innocent millipede to White House staffer without becoming soiled or disillusioned by the dirty realities of politics along the way?"
Social impact
Despite acclaim for the veracity of the series, Sorkin believed, "our responsibility is to captivate you for however long we've asked for your attention." Former White House aide Matthew Miller noted that Sorkin "captivates viewers by making the human side of politics more real than life—or at least more real than the picture we get from the news." Miller also noted that by portraying politicians with empathy, the show created a "subversive competitor" to the cynical views of politics in media. In the essay "The West Wing and the West Wing", author Myron Levine agreed, stating that the series "presents an essentially positive view of public service and a healthy corrective to anti-Washington stereotypes and public cynicism."Dr. Staci L. Beavers, associate professor of political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at California State University, San Marcos
California State University, San Marcos
California State University San Marcos is a public, coeducational university and one of the 23 general campuses of the California State University system. located in San Marcos, California, a suburban town in north San Diego County. It was founded in 1989 as the 20th CSU campus and was the first...
, wrote a short essay, "The West Wing as a Pedagogical Tool", concerning the viability of The West Wing as a teaching tool. She concluded, "While the series’ purpose is for-profit entertainment, The West Wing presents great pedagogical potential." The West Wing, in her opinion, gave greater depth to the political process usually espoused only in stilted talking points on shows like Face the Nation
Face the Nation
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer is an American Sunday-morning political interview show which premiered on the CBS television network on November 7, 1954. It is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television...
and Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
. However, the merits of a particular argument may be obscured by the viewer's opinion of the character. Beavers also noted that characters with opposing viewpoints were often set up to be "bad people" in the viewer's eyes. These characters were assigned undesirable characteristics having nothing to do with their political opinions, such as being romantically involved with a main character's love interest. In Beavers's opinion, a critical analysis of the show's political views can present a worthwhile learning experience to the viewer.
One of the stranger effects of the show occurred on January 31, 2006, when The West Wing was said to have played a hand in defeating a proposal backed by Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's government in the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
, during the so called "West Wing Plot". The plan was allegedly hatched after a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
watched the episode, "A Good Day", in which Democrats block a bill aimed at limiting stem cell research, by hiding in an office until the Republican Speaker calls the vote.
"The Left Wing"
Journal columnist Naomi Pfefferman once referred to The West Wing as "The Left Wing..." because of its portrayal of an ideal liberal administration, and the moniker has also been used by Republican critics of the show. Chris Lehmann, former deputy editor and regular reviewer for The Washington Post's Bookworld, characterized the show as a revisionistHistorical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
look at the Clinton presidency. On the other hand, some Republicans have admired the show since its inception, before even the departure of Sorkin and the show's resulting shift toward the center. In his 2001 article "Real Liberals versus The West Wing", Mackubin Thomas Owens
Mackubin Thomas Owens
Mackubin Thomas Owens is an American military historian and conservative political figure. He is currently the Associate Dean of Academics for Electives and Directed Research and Professor of Strategy and Force Planning for the Naval War College, as well as a contributing editor to National...
wrote,
Journalist Matthew Miller wrote, "although the show indeed has a liberal bias on issues, it presents a truer, more human picture of the people behind the headlines than most of today's Washington journalists."
Filming techniques and reactions
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
wins. The show has been praised for its high production values and repeatedly recognized for its cinematic
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
achievements. With a budget of $6 million per episode, many consider each week's show to be a small feature film. However, many in the television community believe that the true genius of the show was Sorkin's rapid-fire and witty scripts.
The West Wing is noted for developing the "walk-and-talk"—long Steadicam
Steadicam
A Steadicam is a stabilizing mount for a motion picture camera that mechanically isolates it from the operator's movement, allowing a smooth shot even when moving quickly over an uneven surface...
tracking shot
Tracking shot
In motion picture terminology, a tracking shot is a segment in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly, a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken...
s showing characters walking down hallways while involved in long conversations. In a typical "walk-and-talk" shot, the camera leads two characters down a hallway as they speak to each other. One of these characters generally breaks off and the remaining character is then joined by another character, who initiates another conversation as they continue walking. These "walk-and-talks" create a dynamic feel for what would otherwise be long expository dialogue, and have become a staple for dialogue-intensive television show scenes.
Awards
In its first season, The West Wing garnered nine Emmys, a record for most won by a series in its first season. In addition, the series received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 200052nd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 52nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held Sunday, September 10, 2000. The awards show was hosted by Garry Shandling and was broadcast on ABC...
, 2001
53rd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 53rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were finally held Sunday, November 4, 2001, seven weeks late. The awards show was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres and was broadcast on CBS. The ceremony was re-scheduled twice from its original date of September 16 at the Shrine Auditorium because of the September...
, 2002
54th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held Sunday, September 22, 2002. Nominations were announced July 22, 2002. The awards show was hosted by Conan O'Brien and was broadcast on NBC...
, and 2003
55th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 55th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held on September 21, 2003. The awards show was broadcast on FOX. Nominees are listed below; winners are in bold.-Outstanding Drama Series:* 24, Fox* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS...
, tying Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
and L.A. Law
L.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
for most won in this category. Each of its seven seasons earned a nomination for the award. With its 27 total awards, The West Wing ranks 4th all-time in number of Emmy Awards won by a series, behind Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
(37), The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...
(29), and Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
(28). It is the most honored program in the drama series categories.
The series shares the Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
record for most acting nominations by regular cast members (excluding the guest performer category) for a single series in one year. (Both Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
and L.A. Law
L.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
also hold that record). For the 2001–2002 season nine cast members were nominated for Emmys. Allison Janney, John Spencer and Stockard Channing each won an Emmy (for Lead Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress respectively). The others nominated were Martin Sheen (for Lead Actor), Richard Schiff, Dule Hill and Bradley Whitford (for Supporting Actor), and Janel Moloney and Mary-Louise Parker (for Supporting Actress). In addition, that same year Mark Harmon, Tim Matheson and Ron Silver were each nominated in the Guest Actor category (although none won the award). This gave the series an Emmy Award record for most acting nominations overall (including guest performer category) in a single year, with 12 acting nominations.
Twenty individual Emmys were awarded to writers, actors, and crew members. Allison Janney is the record holder for most wins by a cast member, with a total of four Emmys. The West Wing won at least one Emmy in each of its seasons except the sixth.
In addition to its Emmys, the show won two Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
(SAG) Awards, in 2000
2000 Screen Actors Guild Awards
The 7th Screen Actors Guild Awards, given on 11 March 2001, honoured the best screen actors of 2000.-Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:*Jamie Bell - Billy Elliot as Billy Elliot...
and 2001
2001 Screen Actors Guild Awards
-Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:*Russell Crowe - A Beautiful Mind as John Nash*Kevin Kline - Life as a House as George Monroe*Sean Penn - I Am Sam as Sam Dawson*Denzel Washington - Training Day as Alonzon Harris...
, Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Martin Sheen is the only cast member to have won a Golden Globe, and he and Allison Janney are the only cast members to win a SAG award (best actor and best actress, respectively). In both 1999 and 2000, The West Wing was awarded the Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
for excellence in broadcasting.
The following table summarizes award wins by cast members:
| Actor | Awards won |
|---|---|
| Alan Alda Alan Alda Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H... |
Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2006) |
| Stockard Channing Stockard Channing Stockard Channing is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role as Ouisa Kittredge in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its... |
Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2002) |
| Allison Janney Allison Janney Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :... |
Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2000, 2001) |
| Emmy, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (2002, 2004) | |
| SAG Award, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (2000, 2001) | |
| Richard Schiff Richard Schiff Richard Schiff is an American actor. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on the NBC television drama The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award... |
Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2000) |
| Martin Sheen Martin Sheen Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be... |
Golden Globe Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign... , Best Actor in a TV Series — Drama (2001) |
| SAG Award, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (2000, 2001) | |
| John Spencer John Spencer (actor) John Spencer was an American film and television actor. He was most widely known for playing White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on the NBC political drama series The West Wing, which earned him an Emmy Award in 2002.-Early life:Spencer was born as John Speshock, Jr. in New York City, and... |
Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2002) |
| Bradley Whitford Bradley Whitford Bradley Whitford is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his roles as Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman on the NBC television drama The West Wing, as Danny Tripp on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as Dan Stark in the Fox police buddy-comedy The Good Guys, as... |
Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2001) |
Many cast members have been Emmy-nominated for their work on The West Wing but have not won, including Martin Sheen—who was nominated for six of the seven seasons of the series without receiving the award—as well as Janel Moloney, who was nominated twice, and Dulé Hill, Rob Lowe, and Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress, known for her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin, for which she has received several nominations and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2006...
, who were all nominated once. Matthew Perry
Matthew Perry (actor)
Matthew Langford Perry is a Canadian-American actor and comedian, best known for his Emmy-nominated role as Chandler Bing on the popular, long-running NBC television sitcom Friends...
, Oliver Platt
Oliver Platt
Oliver James Platt is a Canadian-American actor. He is currently starring in the Showtime original series, The Big C with Laura Linney.-Early life:...
, Ron Silver
Ron Silver
Ronald Arthur "Ron" Silver was an American actor, director, producer, radio host and political activist.-Early life:...
, Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
, and Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon is an American actor who has been starring in American television programs and films since the mid-1970s, after a career as a collegiate football player with the UCLA Bruins. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the CBS series NCIS.-Early life:Harmon was born Thomas...
have also received Emmy nominations for guest starring on the show.
Tommy Schlamme won two Emmys for Directing (in 2000 and 2001), and Christopher Misiano
Christopher Misiano
Christopher Misiano is an American television director and producer known most notably for his work on ER, The West Wing and more recently Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip....
won a Directing Emmy in 2003. The West Wings only Emmy for Writing was in its first season, when Rick Cleveland
Rick Cleveland
Rick Cleveland is an American television writer, playwright and monologist, best known for writing on the HBO original series, Six Feet Under and NBC's The West Wing....
and Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
shared the award for "In Excelsis Deo
In Excelsis Deo
"In Excelsis Deo" is the 10th episode of the first season of The West Wing. It originally aired on NBC December 15, 1999, as the show's Christmas special. Events circle around Toby getting involved in the fate of a deceased Korean War veteran, reactions to a severe hate crime, and the ongoing...
".
W. G. "Snuffy" Walden
W. G. Walden
W. G. Snuffy Walden is a musician and composer for television shows. He has been awarded or nominated for numerous Emmy Awards and BMI Awards.- Early life :...
received an Emmy Award for Main Title Theme Music in 2000 for "The West Wing Opening Theme".
Readers of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
voted the cast of The West Wing their Best Drama cast of all time, ranking at 37% of the votes, beating Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
, which registered 23%. (The cast of Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
won for Best Comedy.)
Nielsen ratings
| Season | Timeslot | Season Premiere | Season Finale | TV Season | Ranking | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Wednesday 9:00 pm | September 22, 1999 | May 17, 2000 | 1999–2000 | #27 | 12.95 |
| 2nd | October 4, 2000 | May 16, 2001 | 2000–2001 | #13 | 17.00 | |
| 3rd | October 3, 2001 | May 22, 2002 | 2001–2002 | #7 | 17.14 | |
| 4th | September 25, 2002 | May 14, 2003 | 2002–2003 | #26 | 12.88 | |
| 5th | September 24, 2003 | May 19, 2004 | 2003–2004 | #29 | 11.78 | |
| 6th | October 20, 2004 | April 6, 2005 | 2004–2005 | #35 | 11.14 | |
| 7th | Sunday 8:00 pm | September 25, 2005 | May 14, 2006 | 2005–2006 | #72 | 8.08 |
Exploration of real world issues
The West Wing often features extensive discussion of current or recent political issues. After the real-world election of Republican President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
in 2000, many wondered whether the liberal show could retain its relevance and topicality. However, by exploring many of the same issues facing the Bush administration from a Democratic point of view, the show continued to appeal to a broad audience of both Democrats and Republicans.
In its second season episode "The Midterms
The Midterms
"The Midterms" is the 25th episode of The West Wing and the 3rd episode of the second season.-Plot:This episode is fast paced, taking place over the course of 12 weeks at the end of the 106th Congress, and focusing primarily on the run-up to the midterm elections. Josh is out of the office for the...
", President Bartlet admonishes fictional radio host Dr. Jenna Jacobs for her views regarding homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
at a private gathering at the White House. Dr. Jacobs is a caricature of radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger
Laura Schlessinger
Laura Catherine Schlessinger is an American talk radio host, socially conservative commentator and author. Her radio program consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and has occasionally featured her short monologues on social and political topics...
, who strongly disapproves of homosexuality. Many of the president's Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
references in his comments to Dr. Jacobs appear to have come from an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
to Dr. Schlessinger, circulated online in early May 2000.
The Bartlet administration experiences a scandal during the second and third seasons that has been compared to the Monica Lewinsky
Monica Lewinsky
Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
affair. President Bartlet was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1992. The scandal centers around President Bartlet's nondisclosure of his illness to the electorate during the election. He is investigated by an opposition Congress for defrauding the public and eventually accepts Congressional censure
Censure
A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spiritual penalty imposed by a church, and a negative judgment pronounced on a theological proposition.-Politics:...
. Multiple sclerosis advocacy groups have praised the show for its accurate portrayal of the symptoms of MS and stressing that it is not fatal. The National MS Society commented:
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the start of the third season was postponed for a week, as were most American television premieres that year. A script for a special episode was quickly written and began filming on September 21. The episode "Isaac and Ishmael
Isaac and Ishmael
"Isaac and Ishmael" is a non-sequential episode of The West Wing which unofficially launched the third season in 2001. The episode was a response to the 9/11 attacks and was written and filmed within two weeks of that event and aired before the third season officially began.-Plot:The main cast...
" aired on October 3 and addresses the sobering reality of terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
in America and the wider world, albeit with no specific reference to September 11. While "Isaac and Ishmael" received mixed critical reviews, it illustrated the show's flexibility in addressing current events. The cast of the show state during the opening of the episode that it is not part of The West Wing continuity
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
.
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. The war begins during the show's third season, when a plot to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
was uncovered; in response, the President orders the assassination of terrorist leader Abdul ibn Shareef
Abdul ibn Shareef
Abdul Ibn Shareef, former defense minister of Qumar, is a fictional character played by Al No'mani on the television serial drama The West Wing.-Character history:...
. This storyline draws similarities to the real-world U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
as well as U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, as it brings the Middle East to the forefront of U.S. foreign relations and elevated terrorism as a serious threat in The West Wing universe. In Seasons 3, 4 and 5, the fictional Bahji terror group seems to act as a fictional stand-in for the real world Al Qaeda, but in Seasons 6 and 7, characters mention Al Qaeda itself as a threat, despite no clearly stated history of Al Qaeda terror attacks in The West Wing continuity (although Nancy McNally does refer to Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
as a potential threat at the beginning of Season 2
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I
"In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I" is the 23rd episode of The West Wing and the first episode of the second season.-Plot:After the shooting at Rosslyn President Bartlet is rushed back towards the White House … but the limo has to turn around quickly when it's discovered he's been hit in the side...
.)
In the middle of the fourth season, Bartlet's White House is confronted with the genocide in the fictional African country of Equatorial Kundu which was compared to the Rwandan Genocide
Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
of 1994. The result was new foreign policy doctrine for Bartlet Administration and military intervention to stop the violence, which came after much hesitation and reluctance to call the conflict a genocide. In reality, the Clinton Administration did not intervene in Rwanda, making series events look like a moral imperative
Moral imperative
A moral imperative is a principle originating inside a person's mind that compels that person to act. It is a kind of categorical imperative, as defined by Immanuel Kant. Kant took the imperative to be a dictate of pure reason, in its practical aspect. Not following the moral law was seen to be...
.
In the sixth and seventh seasons, The West Wing explores a leak of top-secret information by a senior staffer at the White House. This leak has been compared to the events surrounding the Valerie Plame affair
Plame affair
The Plame Affair involved the identification of Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer. Mrs. Wilson's relationship with the CIA was formerly classified information...
. In the storyline, the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
is damaged and can no longer produce oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
for the astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s to breathe. With no other methods of rescue available, the President is reminded of the existence of a top-secret military space shuttle
Military space shuttle
A military space shuttle would be the military equivalent of NASA's space shuttle. Many experts believed that it is extremely unlikely that NASA, the United States Department of Defense or any other Federal agency could keep the existence of such a spacecraft secret, given the official knowledge...
. Following the President's inaction, the shuttle story is leaked to a White House reporter, Greg Brock (analogous to Judith Miller
Judith Miller (journalist)
Judith Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, formerly of the New York Times Washington bureau. Her coverage of Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction program both before and after the 2003 invasion generated much controversy...
), who prints the story in The New York Times. Brock will not reveal his source and goes to jail for failing to do so, as did Miller. In order to stop the investigation, in which authorities suspect Chief of Staff C.J. Cregg, Toby Ziegler admits to leaking the information, and the President is forced to dismiss him. In comparison, the Plame affair resulted in the arrest and conviction of "Scooter" Libby
Lewis Libby
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is a former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, later disbarred and convicted of a felony....
, the vice president's chief of staff. However, Libby was convicted of perjury in testimony to a grand jury. No one was convicted for "blowing the cover" of Plame. (Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage (politician)
Richard Lee Armitage, GCMG AC CNZM was the 13th United States Deputy Secretary of State, the second-in-command at the State Department, serving from 2001 to 2005.-Early life and military career:...
, an official in the Bush State Department, acknowledged leaking information about Plame to reporters but was never charged with a crime.) Libby's two and a half year prison sentence was later commuted by President Bush, though the other facet of his sentence ($250,000 fine) stood and was duly paid. In the series finale, President Bartlet, as one of his last official acts, pardons Ziegler.
Other issues explored in The West Wing include:
- North KoreaNorth KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
n and IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian nuclear ambitions - Strained relations and a state of brinkmanshipBrinkmanshipBrinkmanship is the practice of pushing dangerous events to the verge of disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome...
between India and PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan... - Legislation of the Central American Free Trade AgreementDominican Republic-Central America Free Trade AgreementThe Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement, commonly called DR-CAFTA, is a free trade agreement . Originally, the agreement encompassed the United States and the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and was called CAFTA...
- The formation of the Minuteman Project
- Peacemaking and terrorism in IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, West BankWest BankThe West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
and the Gaza StripGaza Stripthumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
. - The genocideGenocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
in DarfurDarfur conflictThe Darfur Conflict was a guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in...
, SudanSudanSudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the... - AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara... - The Northern Ireland peace processNorthern Ireland peace processThe peace process, when discussing the history of Northern Ireland, is often considered to cover the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Belfast Agreement, and subsequent political developments.-Towards a...
- War on DrugsWar on DrugsThe War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
and conflict in Colombia - Controversy over Intelligent designIntelligent designIntelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
in schools - Brinksmanship and potential conflict between the People's Republic of China and Republic of ChinaRepublic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
over Taiwan's political statusPolitical status of TaiwanThe controversy regarding the political status of Taiwan hinges on whether Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu should remain effectively independent as territory of the Republic of China , become unified with the territories now governed by the People's Republic of China , or formally declare... - A federal government shutdown
- The 1996 Defense of Marriage ActDefense of Marriage ActThe Defense of Marriage Act is a United States federal law whereby the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. Under the law, no U.S. state may be required to recognize as a marriage a same-sex relationship considered a marriage in another state...
- Anthrax attacks2001 anthrax attacksThe 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
against the Bartlet Administration - Federal funding for the arts
Domestic
All contemporary domestic government officials in The West Wing universe have been fictional. President Bartlet has made three appointments to the fictional Supreme Court and maintains a full cabinet, although the names and terms of all members have not been revealed. Some cabinet members, such as the Secretary of DefenseUnited States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
, appear more often than others. Many other government officials, such as mayors, governors, judges, representatives, and senators, have been mentioned and seen as well.
Fictional locations inside the United States have been created to loosely represent certain places:
San Andreo
San Andreo is a fictional California city. It is located near San Diego, has a population of 42,000 and is the location of the San Andreo Nuclear Generating Station.A near meltdown
Nuclear meltdown
Nuclear meltdown is an informal term for a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency or by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission...
at the nuclear plant becomes the focus of an October surprise
October surprise
In American political jargon, an October surprise is a news event with the potential to influence the outcome of an election, particularly one for the U.S. presidency...
for Republican nominee Senator Arnold Vinick
Arnold Vinick
Arnold Vinick is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing played by Alan Alda.-Biography:A Republican senator from California and Republican presidential nominee, he is narrowly defeated by Democrat Matt Santos in the 2006 presidential election, with Vinick winning the popular...
during the 2006 presidential election, due to Vinick's strong pro-nuclear stance and revelations of his active lobbying for the construction of the plant. This was seen to be a key factor in Vinick's narrow defeat in the election by Democratic nominee Congressman Matt Santos
Matt Santos
Matthew Vincente "Matt" Santos is a fictional character on the American television show The West Wing, played by Jimmy Smits. His initial appearance is as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Houston, Texas. According to West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie, Santos was based on the then...
.
Hartsfield's Landing
Hartsfield's LandingHartsfield's Landing
"Hartsfield's Landing" is episode 58 of The West Wing. Dulé Hill, who plays Charlie Young, was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 for his performances in this and the Enemies Foreign and Domestic episodes.-Plot:...
is a fictional town in New Hampshire. It is stated to be a very small community of only 63 people, of whom 42 are registered voters, that votes at one minute past midnight on the day of the New Hampshire primary
New Hampshire primary
The New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years , as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November.Although only a...
, hours before the rest of the state, and has accurately predicted the winner of every presidential election
United States presidential election
Elections for President and Vice President of the United States are indirect elections in which voters cast ballots for a slate of electors of the U.S. Electoral College, who in turn directly elect the President and Vice President...
since William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
in 1908
United States presidential election, 1908
The United States presidential election of 1908 was held on November 3, 1908. Popular incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt, honoring a promise not to seek a third term, persuaded the Republican Party to nominate William Howard Taft, his close friend and Secretary of War, to become his successor...
. It is based on the true New Hampshire communities of Hart's Location
Hart's Location, New Hampshire
Hart's Location is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. Since 1948, the town has been one of the first places to declare its results for the New Hampshire Presidential primary and U.S. Presidential elections....
and Dixville Notch
Dixville Notch, New Hampshire
Dixville Notch is an unincorporated village, with a population of approximately 75, in the Dixville township of Coos County, New Hampshire, USA. The town is known for being one of the first places to declare its results during United States presidential elections and the New Hampshire primary...
, which in real life do vote before the rest of the state during the primaries, and also loosely upon the concept of "bellwether states
Bellwether
A bellwether is any entity in a given arena that serves to create or influence trends or to presage future happenings.The term is derived from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram leading his flock of sheep.The movements of...
" in US presidential elections.
Kennison State University
Kennison State is a fictional universityUniversity
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city...
that was used as the setting of a bombing in the beginning of the fourth season.
Foreign
While several real-world leaders exist in the show's universe, most foreign countries depicted or referred to on the show have fictional rulers. Real people mentioned in The West Wing include Muammar al-GaddafiMuammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
, Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
, Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
, Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
, King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Bhumibol Adulyadej
Bhumibol Adulyadej is the current King of Thailand. He is known as Rama IX...
, King
Monarch of Sweden
The monarchy of Sweden is the constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom of Sweden. The present monarch, Carl XVI Gustaf, has reigned since 15 September 1973. He and his immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
Carl Gustaf
Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
Carl XVI Gustaf is the reigning King of Sweden since 15 September 1973, succeeding his grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf because his father had predeceased him...
, Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...
and Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
. However, when a peace accord was worked out between Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the Palestinian Authority at the start of the show's sixth season, the Chairman
President of the Palestinian National Authority
The President of the Palestinian National Authority is the highest-ranking political position in the Palestinian National Authority ....
of the Palestinian Authority was the fictional Nizar Farad, not Arafat. (By that time in the real world, Arafat was dead and a successor, Rawhi Fattuh
Rawhi Fattuh
Rawhi Fattuh is the former Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and was the interim President of the Palestinian Authority, following the death of Yasser Arafat on November 11, 2004 until January 15, 2005. Under Palestinian law, he was to hold the post for 60 days until an election is...
, had been elected.)
Entire countries are invented as composite pictures that epitomize many of the problems that plague real nations in certain areas of the world:
- Qumar is a fictional, oil-rich, powerful, Middle Eastern state. A former British protectorate now ruled by a sultanSultanSultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
and his family, it hosts a major US airbase and is frequently a source of trouble for the Bartlet administration. The nation is first introducedThe Women of Qumar"The Women of Qumar" is the 53rd episode of The West Wing. This episode marks the first appearance of Amy Gardner, played by Mary-Louise Parker, who guests stars in every following season of The West Wing....
in the third season as a close ally of the United States but is criticized for its harsh treatment of women. After the September 11 attacks, it became a major venue for the show's terrorism subplots, including one where convincing evidence is discovered that Qumari Defense Minister Shareef is planning terrorist acts against US infrastructure and President Bartlet authorizes his assassination by a covert operations team.
- Equatorial Kundu is a fictional African nation blighted by AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
and a civil war resembling the 1994 Rwandan genocideRwandan GenocideThe Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate...
.
Fictional timeline
The West Wing universe diverges from history after Richard NixonRichard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
's presidency, although there is occasional overlap. Fictional Presidents who served between Nixon and Bartlet include one-term Democrat D. Wire Newman (James Cromwell
James Cromwell
James Oliver Cromwell is an American film and television actor. Some of his more notable roles are in Babe , for which he earned Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Star Trek: First Contact , L.A...
) and two-term Republican Owen Lassiter.
Leo McGarry is mentioned as being Labor Secretary
United States Secretary of Labor
The United States Secretary of Labor is the head of the Department of Labor who exercises control over the department and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all other issues involving any form of business-person controversies....
in the administration that was in office in 1993 and 1995. In the first season, an outgoing Supreme Court Justice tells President Bartlet that he had been wanting to retire for 5 years, but waited "for a Democrat." The season four episode "Debate Camp" features a flashback to the days just before Bartlet's inauguration, as Donna Moss
Donna Moss
Donnatella "Donna" Moss is a fictional character played by Janel Moloney on the television serial drama The West Wing. Donna is a recurring character during the first season, although she appears in every episode, making her a de facto regular...
meets with her Republican predecessor, Jeff Johnson, who makes it clear that the outgoing Republican administration has been in office for eight years. In season six Leo says that the Republicans have been "out of power for eight years", and Republicans at their convention say "eight (years) is enough".
The passage of time on the show relative to that of the real world is somewhat ambiguous when marked by events of shorter duration (e.g., votes, campaigns). Sorkin has noted in a DVD commentary track for the second season episode "18th and Potomac
18th and Potomac
-Plot:A crisis in Haiti takes much of the President and Leo's time, while the senior staff are planning the announcement of the President's MS. The democratically-elected new Haitian President is facing a military coup and the U.S. finds itself in the middle of the storm when a U.S. diplomat...
" that he has tried to avoid tying The West Wing to a specific period of time. Despite this, real years are occasionally mentioned, usually in the context of elections and President Bartlet's two-term administration.
The show's presidential elections are held in 2002 and 2006, which are the years of the midterm elections in reality (these dates come from the fact that in the season 2 episode "17 People
17 People
"17 People" is the 40th episode of The West Wing. The episode was written as a "bottle episode" to save money as the series had run up large over time costs. The episode starts the same night as the Stackhouse Filibuster, and takes place entirely within the West Wing main set. Other than the main...
", Toby specifically mentions 2002 as the year of the president's reelection campaign.). The election timeline in The West Wing matches up with that of the real world until early in the sixth season, when it appears that a year is lost. For example, the filing deadline for the New Hampshire primary
New Hampshire primary
The New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years , as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November.Although only a...
, which would normally fall in January 2006, appears in an episode airing in January 2005.
In an interview, John Wells stated that the series began one and a half years into Bartlet's first term and that the election to replace Bartlet was being held at the correct time. However the season 1 episode "He Shall from Time to Time" shows the preparations for Bartlet's first regular State of the Union address, that is one year into his presidency.
In the season 5 episode "Access
Access (The West Wing)
-Plot:Producing a program on past and present White House press secretaries, a television documentary crew follows C.J. around to film a "typical" day. But the presence of outsiders adds stress when a crisis involving a terrorist shootout with the FBI has a smiling C.J. trying to keep the story a...
", it is mentioned that the Casey Creek crisis occurred during Bartlet's first term, and network footage of the crisis carries the date of November 2001.
1998 presidential election
Bartlet's first campaign for president is never significantly explored in the series. Bartlet won the election with 48% of the popular vote, 48 million votes, and a 303–235 margin in the Electoral College. Bartlet faced three debates with his RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
opponent. It is mentioned that Bartlet won the third and final debate, which was held eight days before election day in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, and that this helped swing a close election in his favor. Josh Lyman
Josh Lyman
Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...
said in the days prior to the election "Bartlet punched through a few walls" as the result seemed too close to call, before the result broke his way. Leo McGarry
Leo McGarry
Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White...
said the same thing in "Bartlet for America
Bartlet for America
"Bartlet for America" is the 53rd episode of The West Wing.-Plot:It is December 23, but no one at the White House is feeling much in the Christmas spirit. Indeed, the most pressing holiday matter is a threat to firebomb black churches in Tennessee on Christmas Eve...
" when he said "It was eight days to go, and we were too close to call".
The campaign for the Democratic nomination is extensively addressed. In the episodes "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I
"In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I" is the 23rd episode of The West Wing and the first episode of the second season.-Plot:After the shooting at Rosslyn President Bartlet is rushed back towards the White House … but the limo has to turn around quickly when it's discovered he's been hit in the side...
", "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II
"In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II" is the 24th episode of The West Wing.-Plot:The episode opens with the surviving member of the trio of gunmen from the Rosslyn assassination sitting in the Dixie Pig restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia...
" and "Bartlet for America", flashbacks are used to tell how Bartlet defeated Texas Senator John Hoynes
John Hoynes
John Hoynes is a fictional character played by Tim Matheson on the American television series The West Wing. Hoynes is Vice President of the United States during the first four seasons of the show....
(Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson
Tim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
) and Washington Senator William Wiley for the Democratic nomination. The flashbacks also reveal how Leo McGarry persuaded Bartlet, who was then governor of New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, to run for president and how Bartlet ultimately selected John Hoynes as his choice as running mate.
2002 presidential election
The West WingJames Brolin
James Brolin is an American actor, producer and director, best known for his roles in soap operas, movies, sitcoms, and television. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin and husband of singer/actress Barbra Streisand.-Early life:...
) and his running mate, Governor Jeff Heston of Wyoming. Bartlet faces no known opposition for renomination, though Democratic Senator Stackhouse does launch a brief independent campaign for the presidency. Ritchie, not originally expected to contend for the nomination, emerges from a field of seven other Republican candidates by appealing to the party's conservative base with simple, "homey" sound bites.
Bartlet's staff contemplates replacing Vice President John Hoynes on the ticket with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and is the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense...
Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
Percy Fitzwallace
Percy Fitzwallace
Admiral Percy "Fitz" Fitzwallace, played by John Amos, is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing. In the universe of the show, he is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff....
(John Amos
John Amos
John Amos is an American actor and former football player. His television work includes roles in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Good Times, the miniseries Roots, and a recurring role in The West Wing. He has also appeared on Broadway and in numerous motion pictures in a career that spans four decades...
), among others. After it is clear that Ritchie will be the Republican nominee, Bartlet dismisses the idea, declaring that he wants Hoynes in the number two spot because of "four words," which he writes down and hands to his staffers to read: "Because I could die."
Throughout the season it is anticipated that the race will be close, but a stellar performance by Bartlet in the sole debate between the candidates helps give Bartlet a landslide victory in both the popular and electoral vote.
2006 presidential election
Congressman Matt Santos
Matt Santos
Matthew Vincente "Matt" Santos is a fictional character on the American television show The West Wing, played by Jimmy Smits. His initial appearance is as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Houston, Texas. According to West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie, Santos was based on the then...
(D-TX
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
) (Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman Matt Santos on The West Wing...
) is nominated on the fourth ballot at the Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
, during the sixth season finale. Santos was planning to leave Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
before being recruited to run for the presidency by Josh Lyman
Josh Lyman
Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...
. Santos polled in the low single digits in the Iowa caucus
Iowa caucus
The Iowa caucuses are an electoral event in which residents of the U.S. state of Iowa meet in precinct caucuses in all of Iowa's 1784 precincts and elect delegates to the corresponding county conventions. There are 99 counties in Iowa and thus 99 conventions...
and was virtually out of the running in the New Hampshire primary
New Hampshire primary
The New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years , as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November.Although only a...
before a last-ditch direct television appeal vaults him to a third-place finish with 19% of the vote. Josh Lyman, Santos's campaign manager, convinces Leo McGarry
Leo McGarry
Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White...
to become Santos' running mate.
Senator Arnold Vinick
Arnold Vinick
Arnold Vinick is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing played by Alan Alda.-Biography:A Republican senator from California and Republican presidential nominee, he is narrowly defeated by Democrat Matt Santos in the 2006 presidential election, with Vinick winning the popular...
(R-CA
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
) (Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
) secures the Republican nomination, defeating Glen Allen Walken
Glen Allen Walken
Glen Allen Walken is a fictional character on The West Wing played by John Goodman....
(John Goodman
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
) and the Reverend Don Butler
Don Butler
Reverend Don Butler is a recurring character on the American television show The West Wing, a conservative televangelist from Virginia played by Don S. Davis. He was a candidate for the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United States in the 2006 election, but was defeated by...
(Don S. Davis
Don S. Davis
Don Sinclair Davis PhD was an American character actor, theatre professor, painter and captain in the United States Army.-Career:He was perhaps best known for playing General George S...
), among others. Initially, Vinick wants Butler to become his running mate. However, Butler does not want to be considered because of Vinick's stance on abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. Instead, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
Governor Ray Sullivan
Ray Sullivan
Ray Sullivan was a fictional Republican governor of West Virginia, played by Brett Cullen. He was a recurring character on the American television show The West Wing. He was the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2006 election, and the running mate of Arnold...
(Brett Cullen
Brett Cullen
Peter Brett Cullen is an American actor who has appeared in numerous motion pictures and television programs. Early in 2007, he was cast as the role of an estranged father to one of the American football players, Tim Riggins , in the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights.Cullen was born in Houston,...
) is chosen as Vinick's running mate. Vinick is portrayed throughout the sixth season as virtually unbeatable because of his popularity in California, a typically Democratic state, his moderate views, and his wide crossover appeal. Vinick, however, faces difficulty with the pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
members of his party as a pro-choice
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
candidate, and criticism for his support of nuclear power following a serious accident at a Californian nuclear power station.
On the evening of the election, Leo McGarry suffers a massive heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
and is pronounced dead at the hospital, with the polls still open on the West Coast. The Santos campaign releases the information immediately, while Arnold Vinick
Arnold Vinick
Arnold Vinick is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing played by Alan Alda.-Biography:A Republican senator from California and Republican presidential nominee, he is narrowly defeated by Democrat Matt Santos in the 2006 presidential election, with Vinick winning the popular...
refuses to use Leo's death as a "stepstool" to the presidency. Santos emerges as the winner in his home state of Texas, while Vinick wins his home state of California. The election comes down to Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, where both candidates need a victory to secure the presidency. Vinick tells his staff repeatedly that he will not allow his campaign to demand a recount of the votes if Santos is declared the winner. Josh Lyman is seen giving Santos the same advice, although the Santos campaign does send a team of lawyers down to Nevada. Santos is pronounced the winner of the election, having won Nevada by 30,000 votes, with an electoral margin of 272–266.
According to executive producer Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr., the writers originally intended for Vinick to win the election. However, the death of Spencer forced him and his colleagues to consider the emotional strain that would result from having Santos lose both his running mate and the election. It was eventually decided that the last episodes would be rescripted by John Wells
John Wells (TV producer)
John Marcum Wells is an American theater and television producer, writer and director. He is best known for his role as executive producer and show runner of the television series ER, Third Watch, and The West Wing. His company, John Wells Productions, is currently based at Warner Bros. studios in...
. Other statements from John Wells, however, have contradicted O'Donnell's claims about a previously planned Vinick victory. The script showing Santos winning was written long before the death of John Spencer. In 2008 O'Donnell stated to camera "We actually planned at the outset for Jimmy Smits to win, that was our .. just .. plan of how this was all going to work, but the Vinick character came on so strong in the show, and was so effective, it became a real contest ... and it became a real contest in the West Wing writer's room."
Similarities to 2008 U.S. presidential election
Similarities between the fictional 2006 election and the real-life 2008 U.S. presidential election have been noted in the media: young ethnic minority Democratic candidate (Matthew Santos on the show, Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
in real life) has a gruelling but successful primary campaign against a more experienced candidate (Bob Russell on the show, Hillary Clinton in real life) and a third candidate who has been damaged by claims of infidelity (John Hoynes on the show, John Edwards
John Edwards
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...
in real life) and chooses an experienced Washington insider as his running mate (Leo McGarry on the show, Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
in real life), whereas the Republican contest is determined early in the primary season with an aging "maverick" senator of a Western
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
state being the nominee (Arnold Vinick on the show, John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
in real life) who himself chooses a younger, more socially conservative running mate from a smaller state (Ray Sullivan on the show, Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
in real life).
Writer Eli Attie called David Axelrod
David Axelrod (political consultant)
David M. Axelrod is an American political consultant based in Chicago, Illinois. He is best known as the top political advisor to President Barack Obama, first in Obama's 2004 campaign for the U.S. Senate in Illinois and later as chief strategist for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Following...
to talk about Obama after Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention speech and says that he "drew inspiration from [Obama] in drawing [the Santos] character," while actor Jimmy Smits says that Obama "was one of the people that I looked to draw upon." Writer and producer Lawrence O'Donnell says that he partly modeled Vinick after McCain. Obama's former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel
Rahm Emanuel
Rahm Israel Emanuel is an American politician and the 55th and current Mayor of Chicago. He was formerly White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama...
, is said to be the basis of the Josh Lyman
Josh Lyman
Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...
character, who became Santos' Chief of Staff. However, executive producer Lawrence O'Donnell denies this claim.
Santos transition
As the series sunsets with Bartlet's final year in office, little is revealed about Matt Santos' presidency, with the last few episodes mainly focusing on the Santos team's transition into the White House. Santos chooses Josh LymanJosh Lyman
Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...
as Chief of Staff, who in turn calls on former colleague Sam Seaborn to be Deputy Chief of Staff. In need of experienced cabinet members, Santos taps Arnold Vinick as Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
, believing the senior statesman to be one of the best strategists available and respected by foreign leaders. Santos eventually decides on Eric Baker, the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania and at one point the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, as his choice for vice president, and submits his name to Congress under the terms of the 25th Amendment. While the show ends
Tomorrow (The West Wing)
"Tomorrow" is the 154th episode and the series finale of the American television show The West Wing. It originally aired on May 14, 2006.-Plot:...
before he can be confirmed, it is implied he would face little opposition from Republicans due to the backing of Secretary of State Vinick.
President Bartlet's final act as President of the United States is pardoning Toby Ziegler
Toby Ziegler
Tobias Zachary 'Toby' Ziegler is played by Richard Schiff on the television serial drama The West Wing. For most of the series' duration he is White House Communications Director.-Creation and development:...
, who had violated federal law by leaking classified information about a military space shuttle. The series ends with Bartlet returning to New Hampshire. Having said his goodbyes to his closest staff, former President Bartlet tells President Santos, "Make me proud, Mr. President", to which Santos responds, "I'll do my best, Mr. President."
See also
- List of characters on The West Wing
- List of politicians on The West Wing
- List of The West Wing broadcasters and home video releases
- List of The West Wing episodes
- The American President
- Politics in fictionPolitics in fictionThis is a list of fictional stories in which politics features as an important plot element. Passing mentions are omitted from this list.-Written works:*The Republic by Plato*Panchatantra This is a list of fictional stories in which politics features as an important plot element. Passing...
- Sports NightSports NightSports Night is an American television series about a fictional sports news show also called Sports Night. It focuses on the friendships, pitfalls, and ethical issues the creative talent of the program face while trying to produce a good show under constant network pressure...
, Aaron Sorkin's first television series. Many of its storylines were recycled in The West Wing. - Studio 60 on the Sunset StripStudio 60 on the Sunset StripStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip was an American dramedy television series created and written by Aaron Sorkin. It ran for 22 episodes.The series takes place behind the scenes of a live sketch comedy show on the fictional television network NBS , whose format is similar to that of NBC's...
, Aaron Sorkin's next television series after The West Wing.
External links
General- TheWestWing.tv a fan site with videos and DVDs
- The West Wing Episode Guide
- White House Museum: "The West Wing of The West Wing" with layout, pictures, and reviews comparing the TV West Wing to the real West Wing
Articles
- PBS Newshour Special Report on The West Wing
- Interview about The West Wing with Martin Sheen and Richard Schiff, May 6, 2009 on The Alligator; 6 minutes. (Flash player)