Bartlet4America News Archive

`West Wing,' `7th Heaven' Bring News Headlines To Poignant Life

By WALT BELCHER
The Tampa Tribune

By blending fact and fiction, powerful television dramas can call attention to real-life issues and make a bigger impact than newspaper or television news accounts.

Last week on ``The West Wing,'' for example, creator Aaron Sorkin called attention to the recent shocking deaths of Saudi Arabian teenage girls who were killed as the result of a fire that destroyed a school in Mecca.

The press secretary character, C.J. Gregg (Allison Janney), outraged over the deaths, lashed out at ``a country where women aren't allowed to drive a car. They're not allowed to be in the company of a man, other than a close relative. They're required to adhere to a dress code that would make a Maryknoll nun look like Malibu Barbie. ... And the royal family allows the religious police to travel in groups of six carrying nightsticks, and they freely and publicly beat women.''

C.J.'s comments were based on Saudi newspaper and witness reports out about mutaween religious enforcers that reportedly interfered with firefighters and refused to let 14 to 17 girls leave a burning building because the girls weren't wearing the required head scarves and black robes. Some reports said the girls were trampled to death because 800 girls were crammed in a building designed for 250, the main gate was locked and there were no emergency exits.

More viewers may have learned about that ugly incident by watching ``West Wing'' than from the scant coverage it received in the American media.

Tonight at 8, The WB series ``7th Heaven'' will try to put a face on the war against terrorism by incorporating the death of a real Marine into the story line.

Staff Sgt. Dwight J. Morgan, a helicopter mechanic who was killed in a crash in Afghanistan in January, is remembered by the Camdens, the fictional family on this drama series.

Creator Barbara Hampton says she wanted to pay tribute to the more than three dozen people in the armed services who have died in the Enduring Freedom campaign. Their names will scroll on the TV screen at the end of the show.

``Sometimes their deaths don't seem real when you just read a name in a newspaper account,'' Hampton says. ``I randomly chose one to represent them all.''

Morgan was a 24-year-old from Northern California who married his high school sweetheart, Teresa, two weeks after graduation.

On ``The Unknown Soldier'' episode tonight, Ruthie Camden (Mackenzie Rosman) becomes pen pals with a Marine as part of a school project. Fictional letters from Morgan tell of real-life truths, such as his love for Teresa and his 4-year-old son, Alex. The Camden family is drawn into Ruthie's correspondence. They learn that Dwight and Teresa are expecting another child (also true). When Ruthie receives photographs of the Morgans' wedding and family, real photographs from the Morgan family are used.

After Morgan's death, Ruthie's father, the Rev. Eric Camden (Stephen Collins), leads a memorial service. In attendance is the real family of Dwight Morgan. The episode has the official blessing of the Marine Corps.