Bartlet4America News Archive

At ‘The West Wing,’ White House revolving door keeps spinning

By ELLEN GRAY
San Jose Mercury News

President Bush, still fighting to get his controversial nominee for attorney general confirmed by the Senate, would probably like a job like Aaron Sorkin's.

When the creator of NBC's “The West Wing” wants to give someone a job in his White House, he just calls casting.

And when he's finished with his appointees, they're off the payroll until he wants them again.

In fact, aside from President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his immediate staff, no one's full-time in Sorkin's White House, where even the the vice president (Tim Matheson) and the first lady (Stockard Channing) are day players.

But before our new Republican president seizes on the usual liberal “West Wing” as a model for cutting federal spending, he might want to consider the downside of downsizing:

You can't always get who you want.

Wednesday night, for instance, as chief of staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) tries to sell the president on the merits of a particular missile defense system, he'll have to do it without the backing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

John Amos, who's played Adm. Percy Fitzwallace in a recurring role, is busy these days on CBS' “The District,” where he's playing the mayor of Washington, D.C.

“I would love to get him back,” Sorkin confessed in a recent interview. “He was so valuable to the show last year. And we've been in touch with him.”

He's also hoping to be able to maintain some contact with Bartlet's feisty vice president.

“Tim Matheson's a very busy guy,” he said. And bound to get busier: He's set to star in “Breaking News,” a show about a 24-hour cable news network that will premiere in June on TNT.

“We don't know” if he'll be able to squeeze in the vice presidency, Sorkin said. “The way it works is, I'll be thinking about an episode and as soon as I get into my head that I might need one of our returning regulars. ... I'll call casting and I'll find out about availability. If they're not available, if they're up to something else,” he'll go in a different direction that week.

No one ever seems to be completely forgotten, though.

Even Moira Kelly, who left the cast at the end of last season largely because her character, a political strategist, hadn't been given much to do, might reappear at some point, Sorkin hinted.

Ed Begley Jr. will be guest-starring in an upcoming episode as a junior senator from North Dakota, he said.

“In some ways, he's going to remind you of Ralph Nader and that's going to be coming at them from the left,” he said. “He's the darling of the environmental lobby, and the darling of any number of liberal causes, and now he's planning on causing trouble for Bartlet, in terms of re-election,” he said.

“I want to hold out the possibility that Mandy re-emerges as this guy's campaign” manager, Sorkin said.

Would Kelly be up for that?

“I hope that if we asked her, she would, that she had a good enough time doing the show that she'd come back,” he said.

Already scheduled to return is Emily Procter, who had a four-episode arc this season as a conservative named Ainsley Hayes who was hired to spice things up in the White House counsel's office.

“She'll be back in a two-parter that we're doing right now,” Sorkin said. “She's going to serve any number of purposes -- she's there as an extremely bright and very, very passionate Republican. She's also someone who works for the White House counsel's office and it's fun to tell those stories. She's also, you know, a very charming and attractive woman who has a comedic relationship with Rob Lowe,” he said.

Another Sorkin favorite, Roger Rees, returns this week as Lord John Marbury, and Channing and Marlee Matlin, who plays pollster Joey Lucas, will both be back in the Feb. 7 episode, as Bartlet delivers his State of the Union.

But even as he takes a temp-agency approach to casting, Sorkin himself is strictly full-time these days.

After spending last season writing both “The West Wing” and ABC's “Sports Night,” he's now reveling in the writer's equivalent of monogamy.

“I no longer feel that I have a secret family someplace,” he said. “You never want to write two things at once. Two shows, two plays, two movies -- you just don't want to be writing two things at once.”