Bartlet4America News Archive

Sunday Q & A: West Wing Fact and Fiction

The New York Times

Q. Is the television series "The West Wing" at all realistic? Does the real White House run like that and look like that, and does the chief of staff wield so much power?

A. Katharine Q. Seelye, a former White House correspondent and a "West Wing" watcher, responds:

The set of the show is much glossier than the reality. The real West Wing, particularly the press room, is worn and scruffy and home to the occasional rat (the feral kind). The show's open and airy work space, with glass partitions and all- window corridors, is also manufactured, mainly for visual and sound purposes. One former White House official said the open set design, while not realistic, made it easier to depict the decision making and relationships that create the show's drama.

While the Oval Office of the show is a faithful replica, there is no "Mural Room." Some of the logistics are also a stretch. For example, the fictional characters, including the president, sometimes gather to talk in the press briefing room. There is no way that would occur in real life without reporters crawling all over them. Also unrealistic is the easy access the show's reporters have to the press secretary's office. Barging in is not an option.

But totally true to life, say those who have toiled in the real West Wing, is that everyone is really busy all the time. People really do carry on intense conversations -- if not while barreling from office to office, at least as they lurch from crisis to crisis, although few speak in such well-considered sentences as the show's gifted characters. "People are incredibly busy and stressed and focused on the day's events," said another former White House official. And real life is much quieter than on the show. "There are not a lot of people in the halls of the West Wing walking around kibitzing," he said.

The substance is also fairly accurate, especially the horse-trading with Congress and the accommodation with various constituency groups. What is jarring these days is the overall political zeitgeist. The fictional White House, with its liberal Democratic tilt, seemed more real when Bill Clinton was in office. Now that a Republican with a different agenda is president, the underlying sensibility of the show seems dated and, yes, less realistic.