The West Wing is an American
television serial drama created by
Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast from 1999 to 2006. It was produced/written by Sorkin (for the first four seasons) and also produced by
Thomas Schlamme. After season four it was produced by
John Wells. The series is set in the
West Wing of the
White House, the location of the
Oval Office and offices of presidential senior staff, during the fictional
Democratic administration of
Josiah Bartlet (played by
Martin Sheen).
The West Wing was produced by
Warner Bros. Television. It first aired on
NBC in 1999, and has been broadcast by many
networks in
dozens of other countries. The series ended its seven-year run on May 14, 2006.
[Bauder, David. "NBC Cancels 'West Wing' After 7 Seasons." ABC News. January 22, 2006. Accessed February 12, 2006.]
The show received positive reviews from critics,
political science professors, and former White House staffers. In total,
The West Wing won two
Golden Globe Awards and 26
Emmy Awards, a tie with
Hill Street Blues for the most Emmy Awards ever won by a television drama series. Included in this record-equalling haul were four straight awards for Outstanding Drama Series (2000–2003).
["Awards for The West Wing" IMDB.com. Accessed December 10, 2005.] The show's ratings waned in later years, after series creator Aaron Sorkin (who wrote or co-wrote 85 of the first 88 episodes) left the show after the fourth season, yet it remained popular among high-income viewers, a key demographic for the show and its advertisers.
[Byrne, Bridget. "Will NBC Reelect West Wing?" Originally printed in E!Online. October 10, 2002. Reprinted at Bartlet4America. Accessed December 12, 2005.]
Crew
The series was created by
Aaron Sorkin. 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 Cadell 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, Cadell, 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.
Cast
The West Wing employed a broad
ensemble cast 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 advisors form the core
cast. Numerous
secondary characters, appearing intermittently, complement storylines that generally revolve around this core group.
[
wing cast.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Third season cast members of The West Wing (from left to right): (top) [[Dulé Hill],
Allison Janney,
Richard Schiff,
Janel Moloney (bottom)
Rob Lowe,
Stockard Channing,
Martin Sheen,
John Spencer, and
Bradley Whitford]]
Each of the principal actors made approximately $75,000 an episode, with
Sheen's most recently confirmed salary being $300,000.
[ Errico, Marcus. "Détente on West Wing Set." E!Online. July 21, 2001. Accessed December 12, 2005.][ Accessed December 13, 2005.] 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.
[ Accessed December 13, 2005.] 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.
[Haberman, Lia. "West Wing Salarygate." July 28, 2003. Accessed December 16, 2005.]
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 ran before "
Running Mates", the first new episode that aired after Spencer's death. The loss of Spencer's character was addressed by the series beginning with the episode "
Election Day", which aired on April 2, 2006.
Different performers had been originally considered for many of the roles.
Bradley Whitford states in an interview on the Season 1 DVD that he was originally cast as Sam, though the character of Josh was the role Whitford had wanted and for which he had auditioned. In addition, Josh's character had been written specifically for him by Aaron Sorkin. In the same interview, Janel Moloney states that she had originally auditioned for the role of C.J., and that the role she eventually received, Donna, was not meant to be a recurring character. Other actors who were seriously considered included
Alan Alda and
Sidney Poitier for the President,
Judd Hirsch for Leo,
Eugene Levy for Toby, and
CCH Pounder for C.J.
[Sassone, Bob. "A look back at The West Wing: Entertainment Weekly in 60 seconds" tvsquad.com. May 7, 2006. Accessed May 19, 2006.]
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 ("
Five Votes Down") to personal issues like sex ("
Pilot", "
Take out the Trash Day") and personal drug use (a major plotline throughout the first and second seasons). 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 shots of staff members walking and talking through the hallways. These "
walk and talks" 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 main cast on the campaign trail for the
2006 election.
- In the first season, the administration is in the middle of its first year and is still having trouble settling in and making progress on legislative issues.
- The second season brings scandal as 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 must face off with the newly elected Speaker of the House over the future of the federal budget.
- The sixth season chronicles the quest to replace Bartlet in the next election, following the primary campaign of several candidates from both parties.
- In the seventh season, the president must face a leak of confidential information about a secret NASA program from inside the White House, while the Democratic and Republican candidates battle to replace him in the general election.
Development
[
statedinner2.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Josiah Bartlet|President Bartlet] (second from left) talks via speakerphone with a
Navy sailor while (from left to right)
Toby Ziegler,
Abigail Bartlet,
Sam Seaborn, and
Leo McGarry]] look on.
The series developed following the success of 1995 theatrical film
The American President, for which
Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay. 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.
["Lowe confirms West Wing exit." BBC News. July 25, 2002.]
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 developed 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.
[Overlaps between West Wing & Other Sorkin Writings. West Wing Continuity Guide.] Sorkin's hectic writing schedule often led to cost overruns and schedule slips,
[Carter, Bill. "The West Wing Comes to Terms With the G.O.P." New York Times. September 23, 2003. Reprinted at Bartlet 4 America. Accessed December 12, 2005.] and he opted to leave the show after the fourth season, following increasing personal problems, including an arrest for possession of illegal drugs.
also left the show after the fourth season.
John Wells, the remaining executive producer, took the helm after their departure.
The show aired its
series finale on Sunday, May 14, 2006. It had suffered a significant ratings fall after being placed in the same timeslot as
ABC's Top 20 hit
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and
CBS' Top 30 hit
Cold Case.
Critical reactions
[
snl2 121402.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Former Vice President [[Al Gore] appeared in a
Saturday Night Live]] skit with The West Wing cast members, on the show's Oval Office set.
The West Wing offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of America's most powerful address,
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and the show's legitimacy, political slant, and film merits have generated considerable discussion.
Realism
The West Wing is not completely accurate in its portrayal of the actual West Wing
[Levine, Myron A. "The West Wing and the West Wing." Reprinted in The West Wing: The American Presidency as Television Drama. Edited by Peter C. Rollins and John E. Connor. 2003.]; however, former White House staffers agree that the show "captures the feel
the West Wing, shorn of a thousand undramatic details."
[Miller, Matthew. "The Real White House." Brill's Content. Reprinted at Bartlet4America. March 1, 2000.]
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.
[Millman, Joyce. "Don't blame me, I voted for Martin Sheen!". Salon.com. September 11, 2000. Accessed December 10, 2005.] A large part of this criticism came from the perceived naiveté of the characters. Television critic Heather Havrilesky asked "… 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?"
[Havrilesky, Heather. "Will The West Wing go south?". May 14, 2003. Accessed December 10, 2005.]
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."
[{www.pbs.org/newshour/media/west_wing/sorkin.html}] 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 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.
[Beavers, Staci L. "The West Wing as a Pedagogical Tool." PS: Political Science & Politics. December 24, 2001. Reprinted in The West Wing: The American Presidency as Television Drama. Edited by Peter C. Rollins and John E. Connor. 2003.]
One of the stranger impacts of the show occurred on January 31, 2006, when
The West Wing was said to have played a hand in defeating
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 passed the President's stem cell bill by hiding in an office until the Republican Speaker calls the vote.
["West Wing Plot" The Daily Telegraph. February 2, 2006.]
"The Left Wing"
The West Wing was sometimes called "
The Left Wing" by detractors because of its portrayal of an ideal
liberal administration and an alleged penchant for demonizing conservatives.
[JewishJournal.com][City Says Goodbye to 'West Wing,' Its Chattier Self (washingtonpost.com)][New Statesman - The war on culture] Chris Lehmann characterized the show as a
revisionist look at the Clinton presidency: an attempt to solidify the Clinton legacy and to make America forget the
Whitewater and
Lewinsky scandals.
[Lehmann, Chris. "The Feel-Good Presidency: The Pseudo-Politics of The West Wing." Reprinted in The West Wing: The American Presidency as Television Drama. Edited by Peter C. Rollins and John E. Connor. 2003.] 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.
["‘West Wing’ goes more bipartisan" MSNBC.com. September 18, 2003.] 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."
Filming techniques and reactions
[
trackingshot.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Sam Seaborn] and
Josh Lyman]] converse in the hallway in one of The West Wing's noted tracking shots.
In its first season,
The West Wing attracted critical attention in the film 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.
[Richmond, Ray. "West Wing 100th episode." JoshLyman.com. January 7, 2004. Accessed December 12, 2005.] However, many in the film community believe that the true genius of the show was Sorkin's rapid-fire and witty scripts.
["Next week on The West Wing … erm" Guardian Unlimited. Accessed December 10, 2005.]
The West Wing is noted for developing the "walk-and-talk"—long
Steadicam tracking shots 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.
[Smith, Greg M. "The Left Takes Back the Flag." Accessed December 10, 2005.]
Awards
In its first season,
The West Wing garnered nine Emmys, a record for most won by a series in a single season. In addition the series has received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in
2000,
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. As of 2006,
The West Wing ranks 8th all-time in number of Emmy Awards won by a series.
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 gives 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 have been 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.
In addition to its Emmys, the show has 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:
| Actor
| Awards won
|
| Alan Alda
| Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2006)
|
| Stockard Channing
| Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2002)
|
| Allison Janney
| 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
| Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2000)
|
| Martin Sheen
| Golden Globe, Best Actor in a TV Series - Drama (2001)
|
| SAG Award, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (2000, 2001)
|
| John Spencer
| Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2002)
|
| Bradley Whitford
| Emmy, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2001)
|
W.G. "Snuffy" Walden received an Emmy Award for Main Title Theme Music in 2000 for "The West Wing Opening Theme".
Many cast members have been Emmy-nominated for their work on
The West Wing but have not won, including Martin Sheen—who was nominated each year for all 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.
Exploration of real world issues
[
situation room.jpg|right|thumb|200px|In the [[White House Situation Room],
Leo McGarry waits for
President Bartlet]]'s decision on a controversial bombing campaign.
The West Wing often features extensive discussion of current or recent political issues. After the real-world election of Republican President
George W. Bush 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. According to Barbara Mikkelson of snopes.com, many of the president's
biblical references in his comments to Dr. Jacobs are thought to have come from an open letter to Dr. Schlessinger, circulated online in early May 2000.
[Mikkelson, Barbara "Letter to Dr. Laura." Snopes.com. 2004.]
The Bartlet administration experiences a scandal during the second and third seasons that has been compared to the
Monica Lewinsky affair.
[Sepinwall, Alan "Exit poll: West Wing is sinking. Why?" NJ.com. Reprinted at Bartlet4America. November 6, 2002.] 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.
[
actingpresident.jpg|right|thumb|200px|In a surprising plot twist, [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]
Glen Allen Walken temporarily becomes
Acting President]] when Zoey Bartlet is kidnapped.
While the September 11 attacks do not occur 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. At the end of the fourth season, the conflict escalates when
Zoey Bartlet (
Elisabeth Moss), the president's youngest daughter, is kidnapped by Islamic extremists from a fictional country named
Qumar. The result of this kidnapping is the bombing of
Qumar. 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
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,
Clinton Administration didn't 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.
[Clabby, Consuela. "Leaky Politics: The West Wing versus The Bush Administration." SMRT-TV. October 31, 2005].]["'The Ticket': Leak Investigation" FootnoteTV. September 25, 2005.] In the storyline, the
International Space Station is damaged and can no longer produce
oxygen for the
astronauts 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
Lewis 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) stands until Libby's appeals were to be considered.
Other issues explored in
The West Wing include:
- North Korean and Iranian nuclear ambitions
- Strained relations and a state of brinksmanship between India and Pakistan
- Legislation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement
- The formation of the Minuteman Project
- Peacemaking and terrorism in Israel, West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including a peace negotiation at Camp David, similar to the Camp David 2000 Summit.
- The genocide in Darfur, Sudan
- AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa
- The Northern Ireland peace process
- War on Drugs and conflict in Colombia
- Controversy over Intelligent design in schools
- Brinksmanship and potential conflict between the People's Republic of China and Republic of China over Taiwan's political status (including a situation similar to the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis when the PRC holds military exercises in response to the ROC's first democratic elections)
- A hate crime murder, similar to the death of Matthew Shepard
- A federal government shutdown
- The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (referred to directly, along with the fictional Marriage Recognition and Sanctity of Marriage Acts)
- Anthrax attacks against the Bartlet Administration
- The deaths of 3 Americans in the attack on a diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip
- A mysterious nuclear detonation in the Indian Ocean, similar to the Vela Incident
- A bombing of apartment blocks in Moscow, leading to allegation that the Russian President orchestrated the attacks
- Federal funding for the arts.
- The Isla Perejil crisis, between Morocco and Spain in 2002, is portrayed in the fifth season episode Disaster relief where both Greece and Albania fight against each other for the control of a deserted islet, inhabited only by goats (as Perejil does).
The West Wing universe
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 Defense, 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 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.
Hartsfield's Landing
Hartsfield's Landing 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 twelve 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.
Kennison State University
Kennison State is a fictional
university in
Iowa 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 have fictional rulers. Some real persons mentioned in
The West Wing include
Muammar al-Gaddafi,
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, Arafat was dead, and a successor had been elected,
Rawhi Fattuh.)
Entire countries are invented as composite pictures that epitomize many of the problems that plague real nations in certain areas of the world:
Qumar
Qumar, a fictional oil-rich, terrorist-sponsoring
Middle Eastern state, is repeatedly a source of trouble for the Bartlet administration. According to maps on the show, Qumar lies in southern
Iran, directly across the important
Strait of Hormuz. After the
September 11 attacks, it became the main venue for the show's terrorism subplots.
Jabal Nafusah (also the name of a real-life Libyan city) seems to be the largest city and the capital, according to maps shown of the country. Qumar is an
absolute monarchy, ruled by a
sultan and his family. The country is a former British protectorate. The nation was
first introduced in the third season where it was mentioned as a close ally of the United States. Qumar continues on the show to be a U.S. ally, though the Sultan and other officials were extremely troubled by the
assassination, bombing campaign and invasion. As a result of the air strikes, gas pipelines were damaged, leading to economic troubles for the country and its European allies.
During the final season episode "The Cold", a situation room map shows the Persian Gulf clearly, but omits Qumar.
Equatorial Kundu
Equatorial Kundu is a fictional African nation blighted by
AIDS and a civil war resembling the 1994
Rwandan genocide.
When Kundu was
first mentioned in season 2, it is led by President Nimbala who is executed by the end of the episode. In January 2003 of the series' timeline ("
Inauguration, Part I"), the Arkutu-run government of President Nzele (described as a "sadistic madman") begins an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Induye in Bitanga, killing 200 people. The violence soon spreads outside Bitanga and into the countryside. In
President Josiah Bartlet's second
inaugural address ("
Inauguration Over There"), he announces the new
Bartlet Doctrine for the use of force: America shall intervene whenever there are humanitarian interests at stake. With that new doctrine, Bartlet sends a brigade of the
82nd Airborne Division, the
101st Airborne Division, and a
Marine expeditionary unit, a force of 11,000 troops in total, to Kundu ("
The California 47th"). As of the episode "
Twenty Five," US forces are still operating in Kundu.
In its original appearance, Kundu's location is somewhat ambiguous. President Nimbala and his aide appear to speak
Setswana, a
Bantu language spoken in South Africa and Botswana, which would imply a
Southern African setting. The Season 4 appearance seems to more firmly place the country in
West Africa, near to the
Ivory Coast and
Ghana. Its capital city is Bitanga, which contains a major airport, TV station and a radio station.
Presidential elections
Fictional timeline
In general,
The West Wing attempts to create an
alternative reality, in which there is a subtly different set of historical truths in the
1970s,
1980s and
1990s. In particular, the show tries to suggest that the last "real" president in its timeline is
Richard Nixon, and to chart the careers of its principal players in the light of that decision. Nevertheless, there are occasions in which more contemporary presidents are implied.
Skewed from reality
[
recruit josh.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Leo McGarry] (left) asks
Josh Lyman to consider joining then
New Hampshire Governor Bartlet]]'s 1998 presidential campaign
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, directly prior to Bartlet's. 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." In the season four episode "Debate Camp", we see in 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 and in the sixth season Leo says the Republicans have been "out of power for eight years" and Republicans at their convention say "eight (years) is enough", emphasizing that the President before Bartlet was a Republican.
The passage of time on the show relative to that of the real world is somewhat ambiguous when marked by events of smaller 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, setting them off by two years from actual presidential elections in the United States (e.g., 1996, 2000, 2004, etc.). 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.
[Elber, Lynn. "West Wing Eyes Successor for Bartlet." Yahoo! Entertainment. October 13, 2004.]
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.
Intrusion of reality
Despite the attempt to establish a fictional timeline, minor evidence of real-life post-Nixon presidencies can sometimes be found in the show. In the second-season episode "Galileo," a portrait of
Bill Clinton can be seen hanging on the wall of the
White House Situation Room. Also in the second season, "The Stackhouse Filibuster" features a plaque identifying
CJ Cregg's briefing room as the
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, which could imply the existence of a
Ronald Reagan presidency. In the sixth season episode, "A Good Day", a picture of
Jimmy Carter can be seen hanging on a wall in the White House.
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
Republican 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 was punching brick 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" 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.
2002 presidential election
The West Wing's 2002 presidential election pits Bartlet and Vice President John Hoynes against Florida Governor
Robert Ritchie (
James Brolin) and his running mate, Jeff Heston. 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.
2006 presidential election
[
Smits.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[Matt Santos] and
Leo McGarry at the 2006
Democratic National Convention]].
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's running mate. However,
John Spencer, the actor portraying Leo McGarry, died on December 16, 2005.
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 (
