West Wing: So Long, Farewell.... - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

MahlerIsGod · 01-23-2006, 03:23 AM

Greetings Kids,
This sounds really odd but The West Wing was one of the best shows on TV I would say in the past 10-15 years and I am glad its over. The first four seaons of this show are absolutely classic. Superb writing, acting, directing, etc. After Sorkin left it deteriorated quickly and its painful to watch a thing of beauty fall on such hard times. Thats why I was kindve relieved when I read it had been canceled. It will be a long time before a show of this quality and calibre is on the air again. I will truly miss the "Its Good To Be An American" moments.

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynam...01-22-13-56-51

maleficent · 01-23-2006, 04:39 AM

the story for those, like me, who hate clicking links

Quote:

NBC Cancels 'West Wing' After 7 Seasons

By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- NBC's political drama "The West Wing," which briefly made bureaucrats hip and won four Emmy awards for best drama, will end this spring with the inauguration of a new fictional president.

NBC announced the series' conclusion after seven seasons on Sunday. In the end, it fell victim to television's democratic process: sinking ratings, particularly after this season's move to Sunday nights.

The series will end May 14, preceded by an hour's retrospective.

Actors and producers toasted the show's end Sunday night at a cocktail party with television critics, who championed the series from the beginning.

"We knew we had a special show and we remained as a family," said Martin Sheen, who portrayed President Josiah Bartlet. "We all knew that we weren't going to get this kind of a chance again."

Series producers have only in the past few days decided who would win the presidential campaign that has been this season's main story; it will be revealed in April. The contest pits a Democrat played by Jimmy Smits and a Republican portrayed by Alan Alda, and the show's writers have fought over who should win.

"It's been quite a brawl," said John Wells, executive producer.

The decision to cancel it was made before actor John Spencer, who played former presidential chief of staff Leo McGarry, died of a heart attack Dec. 16, said Kevin Reilly, NBC entertainment president.

Wells told reporters in November that he figured the end was near.

Although "The West Wing" briefly considered it calling it quits after Spencer's death, or remaking episodes featuring him that were filmed but not yet aired, Wells said they ultimately decided to use the late actor's work.

It's been tricky working the death into the story line; McGarry was a candidate for vice president, and producers found there was no constitutional provision for what happens when a candidate dies so close to the election.

"We're now dealing with the death of a character we loved after having dealt with the death of a person we loved," Wells said.

Lawrence O'Donnell, a former Washington insider who is one of the show's executive producers, said he knew the show was making a cultural impact when he found politicians who rarely watch TV were fans. He found it a better place to debate issues than real political shows on TV, he said.

Actor Bradley Whitford said he once heard from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who was upset that nobody seemed to care when his television counterpart died.

"I actually would get lobbied by lobbyists," he said. "I thought they wanted my autograph. But they were lobbying to get their issues mentioned on the show."

Producers are negotiating the return of Rob Lowe, the early series star who left because he was upset by his diminished role, for the finale. Series creator Aaron Sorkin - responsible for the rapid-fire style of dialogue - has no plans to return.

Sheen said the show's most positive impact on the country was, during a cynical time, to make people realize the important job that public servants perform.

"The government continues because of people who care for the country," he said.

Meanwhile, NBC announced a reshuffling of its midseason schedule, effective after the Winter Olympics. "Las Vegas" will move from Monday to Friday; "The Apprentice" will be shifted again to Monday; "Law & Order" will air an hour earlier on Wednesdays; and the game show "Deal or No Deal" will be a regular Monday show.

I'd agree that this was one of the best shows on television... the dialog was snappy, and it didn't insult your intelligence by trying to explain everything... the show had some preachy type moments, but all in all - it was definitely a good hour's worth of entertainment. i will miss it - but to be honest, this season has been such a disappointment, i wish they pulled the plug last year...

Bill O'Rights · 01-23-2006, 05:24 AM

I loved the West Wing. I, too, will miss it. (syndication will be my friend) But, like Mal, I think that it's been kept on life support for far to long.

edit
Deal or No Deal will be a regular Monday show?! Oh...just shoot me now.

Kadath · 01-23-2006, 05:49 AM

First, BoR:
Executive Beta: *rolls dice* "Game shows are back."

Second: I am also happy/sad it is over. I was enjoying the change of pace the election brought from the formula, but it's time for the show to end. Also, it'll be nice to take the number of shows I watch every week down to 2 -- 3 is just too many.

Lucifer · 01-25-2006, 02:21 PM

for a Canadian weighing in, I too am sad that it's over. It was a great show, but I felt that it had lost it's way in the last season. The first and second seasons were just spectacular, the acting was top-notch, and the drama just didn't let up for a minute.

maleficent · 04-10-2006, 08:08 AM

It seems that The west wing is trying to go out with a bit of a bang... last nights episode was one of the better episodes this season... Good writing, i'm sure most of the acting was heartfelt... I'm not a cryer at television shows.. but it had be bawling a bit last night on Josh's final like of the episode...

so - -who's gonna be the vice president?

RickB · 04-10-2006, 09:02 AM

I'm thinking it's going to be C.J. They were having Charlie make too big a deal about pushing her into thinking about what job she wanted after leaving the White House. Also, she didn't seem to want to go. This would also allow them to examine the whole Hillary question and how the country would perceive a woman in one of the two top spots.

Kadath · 04-10-2006, 05:00 PM

RickB:
Brilliant! I didn't even think about that. I just hope it isn't Josh, he's the worst fit. As the President once said, "I want to be 'the guy.' You want to be the guy 'the guy' counts on."
So I enjoyed the most recent episode; it seems like the writers are having fun with the last episodes, doing this last one all about casual sex (including Donna and Josh at last for the people who wanted it) and calling Al Gore out for ruining his political career, etc.

maleficent · 04-10-2006, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kadath

calling Al Gore out for ruining his political career.

that was an absolutely brilliant conversation... and worth suffering thru this season for it...

MahlerIsGod · 04-10-2006, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maleficent

so - -who's gonna be the vice president?

I am betting (and I would bet heavy) its Sam Seaborn. Though, the conversation The Pres had with CJ about not being able to run had me thinking......No it will be Sam. Poetic Justice that when Sam left the show it started into its nosedive and comes back only at the end.

maleficent · 04-11-2006, 09:51 AM

'West Wing' Writers' Novel Way of Picking the President

Quote:

Like many political campaigns, the presidential election depicted last night on "The West Wing" on NBC would have had a different ending had it been held four months ago.
Paul Drinkwater/NBC
But the reversal of fortune for Matt Santos — the Democratic nominee, played by Jimmy Smits, who was the victor — had nothing to do with any shift in opinion among voters.

Instead, Lawrence O'Donnell, an executive producer of the show, said he and his fellow writers had declared Santos the winner only after the death, in mid-December, of John Spencer, who portrayed Santos's running mate, Leo McGarry. At the time of Mr. Spencer's death, the plot for last night's episode had been set: the election was to be won by Alan Alda's Arnold Vinick, a maverick Republican (modeled a bit on Senator John McCain), whom many Democrats (including the Democrats who write the show) could learn to love.

But after Mr. Spencer died, Mr. O'Donnell said in a recent interview, he and his colleagues began to confront a creative dilemma: would viewers be saddened to see Mr. Smits's character lose both his running mate and the election? The writers decided that such an outcome would prove too lopsided, in terms of taxing viewers' emotions, so a script with the new, bittersweet ending — including the election-night death of Mr. Spencer's character — was undertaken by John Wells, executive producer of "The West Wing" and "E.R."

The loss of Mr. Spencer, who had been on "The West Wing" since its inception seven years ago, imposed a layer of grief on the sadness and nostalgia the cast would feel in the weeks leading to the final day of production. NBC announced in January that primarily because of falling ratings, it was not renewing the series for next season.

The final episode of "The West Wing" is not be broadcast until May 14, but the show effectively ended for Martin Sheen, who plays President Bartlet, and for his fellow cast members on March 31, when they filmed their last scene together. Appropriately, it shows the president striding around the White House for final goodbyes to the applause of his staff members, in a scene filmed on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, Calif.

An impromptu cast party followed shortly thereafter in and around the trailer of Allison Janney, who plays Bartlet's chief of staff, C. J. Cregg, said Bradley Whitford, who portrays Josh Lyman, most recently manager of the Santos campaign.

"This show is probably the first line in my obituary," Mr. Whitford said. "Everyone knows they got lucky with this one."

For a series that sought to provide a backstage glimpse of White House politics, however stylized and idealized, it seems appropriate to assess its legacy, political and otherwise, as its conclusion nears.

On that score, Mr. Sheen was offered an opportunity to see how his character's appeal would play in a real-life campaign. Not long ago, he said, he was approached by Democratic Party representatives from his native state, Ohio, to see if he would be interested in running for the United States Senate after he left the show. Though he would have had little trouble drafting a campaign platform — he is a fierce opponent of nuclear power and the war in Iraq, and a champion of human rights — he turned them down.

"I'm just not qualified," he said. "You're mistaking celebrity for credibility."

Nonetheless, Mr. O'Donnell, a onetime adviser to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, said he was especially proud of the show's response to the increasingly shrill political debate in the real world, particularly on cable news. As it became tougher to learn much of any substance from programs like "Crossfire" on CNN, now defunct, "The West Wing" seemed to delve deeper into real issues like health care and education, as exemplified by the raw, one-hour live debate last fall between Matt Santos and Arnold Vinick.

"Political talk on TV has degenerated so much," said Mr. O'Donnell, who is also a political analyst on MSNBC. "You can say something complex on 'The West Wing' and you will not suffer a screaming interruption by three other panelists."

It may not come as any surprise to viewers, given that President Bartlet was a Democrat, but there were no registered Republicans in the most recent incarnation of the "West Wing" writers' room, which included Eli Attie, a former speechwriter for Al Gore. Though the show began at the end of the Clinton administration, it soon found its creative niche by evoking a parallel reality, one that imagined how the White House might have been different if George W. Bush had not been elected to two terms.

As the war in Iraq escalated, Mr. Sheen said he came to liken the show's role to that of good, escapist fiction.

"In order to sometimes get a different perspective on what's going down in the world, to reach back to your humanity, you read novels," Mr. Sheen said. "We're like the reading of a novel."

Which is not to say that President Bartlet escaped making some of the hard decisions that President Bush faced in real life. This year, Bartlet was shown agonizing over whether to commit 10,000 American troops to an escalating, fictional conflict on the border shared by Russia, Kazakhstan and China.

In deciding to put flesh on a Republican like Mr. Alda's Arnold Vinick and committing, at least initially, to having him win, Mr. O'Donnell said he and the other writers had delighted in playing against type. And then Mr. Spencer died.

Other than a coming episode that will linger at the funeral for Mr. Spencer's character — and include, as mourners, a parade of former cast members, including Rob Lowe — the show's final episodes will be devoted to the transition from the Bartlet administration to that of President-elect Santos.

The actors and producers are embarking on a similar transition.

Mr. Whitford has signed on to star in "Studio 60," a one-hour drama expected to be on the NBC schedule next fall, about life backstage at a live variety show. It was created by Aaron Sorkin, who created "The West Wing."

Mr. O'Donnell has deliberately put off finding his next project, to savor the last days of editing "The West Wing," though he can currently be seen in a rare acting role, as a lawyer for the polygamist main character on the HBO drama "Big Love."

And Mr. Sheen?

At 65, he has decided to make good on a promise he made to himself long ago: to enroll, for the first time, in college. A graduate, though just barely, of Chaminade High School in Dayton, Ohio, nearly five decades ago, he will began taking classes next fall — in English literature, philosophy and, he hopes, oceanography — at National University of Ireland in Galway, in the country where his mother was born.

In describing how much he relished retreating to an ivory tower, Mr. Sheen sounded a lot like a former president after two terms in office, even if he was a former president whose biggest challenge was commuting to a fictional White House.

"I'd be up at 4 in the morning, and out of the house by 5 to get on the freeway, all so we could start at 7 o'clock," he said. "That's a lot of wear and tear on your body."

Interesting article from the ny times... had not john spencer died, an entirely different episode would have aired...

Sam as vice president... interesting choice... CJ I never totally bought as chief of staff, I can't imagine her as a vice president... Looking forward to the final episode...

01-23-2006, 03:23 AM	#1 (permalink)
MahlerIsGod At The Globe Showing Will How Its Done Location: London/Elysium	West Wing: So Long, Farewell.... Greetings Kids, This sounds really odd but The West Wing was one of the best shows on TV I would say in the past 10-15 years and I am glad its over. The first four seaons of this show are absolutely classic. Superb writing, acting, directing, etc. After Sorkin left it deteriorated quickly and its painful to watch a thing of beauty fall on such hard times. Thats why I was kindve relieved when I read it had been canceled. It will be a long time before a show of this quality and calibre is on the air again. I will truly miss the "Its Good To Be An American" moments. http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynam...01-22-13-56-51 __________________ "But a work of art is a conscious human effort that has to do with communication. It is that or its nothing. When an accident is applauded as a work of art, when a cult grows up around the deliciousness of inadvertent beauty, we are in the presence of the greatest decadence the West has known in its history."

01-23-2006, 05:24 AM	#3 (permalink)
Bill O'Rights will always be an Alyson Hanniganite Location: In the dust of the archives	I loved the West Wing. I, too, will miss it. (syndication will be my friend) But, like Mal, I think that it's been kept on life support for far to long. edit Deal or No Deal will be a regular Monday show?! Oh...just shoot me now. __________________ "I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony "Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt. Last edited by Bill O'Rights; 01-23-2006 at 05:29 AM..

01-23-2006, 05:49 AM	#4 (permalink)
Kadath Muffled Location: Camazotz	First, BoR: Executive Beta: rolls dice "Game shows are back." Second: I am also happy/sad it is over. I was enjoying the change of pace the election brought from the formula, but it's time for the show to end. Also, it'll be nice to take the number of shows I watch every week down to 2 -- 3 is just too many. __________________ it's quiet in here

01-25-2006, 02:21 PM	#5 (permalink)
Lucifer Husband of Seamaiden Location: Nova Scotia	for a Canadian weighing in, I too am sad that it's over. It was a great show, but I felt that it had lost it's way in the last season. The first and second seasons were just spectacular, the acting was top-notch, and the drama just didn't let up for a minute. __________________ I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. - Job 30:29 1123, 6536, 5321

04-10-2006, 08:08 AM	#6 (permalink)
maleficent Junkie Moderator Emeritus Location: Chicago	It seems that The west wing is trying to go out with a bit of a bang... last nights episode was one of the better episodes this season... Good writing, i'm sure most of the acting was heartfelt... I'm not a cryer at television shows.. but it had be bawling a bit last night on Josh's final like of the episode... so - -who's gonna be the vice president? __________________ Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.

04-10-2006, 09:02 AM	#7 (permalink)
RickB Tired Location: Beverly Hills	I'm thinking it's going to be C.J. They were having Charlie make too big a deal about pushing her into thinking about what job she wanted after leaving the White House. Also, she didn't seem to want to go. This would also allow them to examine the whole Hillary question and how the country would perceive a woman in one of the two top spots.

04-10-2006, 05:00 PM	#8 (permalink)
Kadath Muffled Location: Camazotz	RickB: Brilliant! I didn't even think about that. I just hope it isn't Josh, he's the worst fit. As the President once said, "I want to be 'the guy.' You want to be the guy 'the guy' counts on." So I enjoyed the most recent episode; it seems like the writers are having fun with the last episodes, doing this last one all about casual sex (including Donna and Josh at last for the people who wanted it) and calling Al Gore out for ruining his political career, etc. __________________ it's quiet in here