Bartlet4America News Archive

West Wing bosses defend writer cutbacks

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER
Variety

HOLLYWOOD — The producers of "The West Wing," have defended their decision not to hand out pay rises and promotions to the writers on the hit White House drama.

Creator Aaron Sorkin and executive producer John Wells responded Thursday to a published report that said the show's writers were "shocked and angry" that their contracted pay raises and title bumps would not be honored. One rival producer called it "arrogance justifying bad behavior." (Wells is also president of the Writers Guild of America West.)

But the duo said it's unfair to compare "The West Wing" with other shows. That's because, unlike most series which depend on a number of writers who take turns fashioning scripts, Sorkin pumps out all 22 episodes per season of "The West Wing" -- albeit with the assistance of his team.

"There are different kinds of shows," Wells said. "'The West Wing' is a show where the teleplays are wholly written by Aaron Sorkin. So the writing staff doesn't really function as a writing staff. They function as a research staff and in pitching out stories. On this show, they don't participate in the casting process or the editing process or the budget process."

But the producers said a budget crunch should have forced them to cut some writers' positions. Instead, they opted to let scribes stick around if they wanted, but held the line on promotions.

"It wasn't a matter of cheating people out of money," Sorkin said. "There is no one who loves writers more than John Wells. John was not trying to rip anyone off. John was trying to save people's jobs. They were either going to be let go entirely or could stay around at last year's salary. People in departments across the board had to be let go because of budget crunches: grips, gaffers, hair and makeup, set dressing, construction."

Because of its high production values (an army of extras, special effects to create a realistic Washington, recurring stars like Stockard Channing), "The West Wing" is much more expensive than most dramas that are just a few years old.

"I know it seems like there should be nothing but money around here, but it's not the case," Sorkin said. "This is an expensive show to do and it's not our money -- it's (producer) Warner Bros.' money."

Sorkin and Wells said they also decided to rethink the show's hierarchy after it became apparent that the show's writers don't have as many duties. The producers originally staffed "The West Wing" with the intention of running it like a regular series -- in other words, writers move up the ranks to eventually become executive producers, and carry more and more of the writing burden along the way.

But with Sorkin writing the bulk of the scripts, Wells said "The West Wing" has turned into a strong training ground for writers -- but not a place for traditional advancement.

"There's an excellent opportunity to learn on 'The West Wing' because you get to sit on the writing staff and work with Aaron and see how his mind works," Wells said. "But that's different from being a producer or co-producer, because you're not gaining the experience that goes with that. These things have to be taken in the context of what the individual show provides."

West Wing Producer, a Union Leader, Rules Out Writers’ Raises

By BERNARD WEINRAUB
The New York Times

John Wells, seeking to change the way writers are treated and paid in Hollywood, shocked writers as he informed them that the provisions in their contracts would not be honored.

HOLLYWOOD — Two years ago John Wells, the powerful writer-producer of shows like "E.R." and "The West Wing," successfully ran for president of the Writers Guild of America's West Coast branch after describing the status of Hollywood writers as "intolerable," "a disgrace," "unconscionable" and "unpardonable." Last month Mr. Wells, seeking to change the way writers are treated and paid in Hollywood, led the Writers Guild team in tense contract negotiations with the television networks and film studios, talks that narrowly averted a strike.

But shortly after the contract was resolved Mr. Wells, who is executive producer of NBC's successful and lucrative hourlong drama "West Wing," quietly informed writers on that show that the provisions in their contracts for increased pay and promotions would not be honored in the series's forthcoming third season. The writers were described as shocked and angry.

What stunned some of the show's six writers, several people connected to "The West Wing" said, was not only that they were not getting what they had been contractually promised more money and higher job titles like story editor but also that the timing of the move made it almost impossible for them to find new jobs. Mr. Wells told the writers and their agents in late May, weeks after most new television shows had already hired writing staffs. The writers said the timing was a deliberate attempt to keep them on the show.

Dee Dee Myers, who was President Bill Clinton's press secretary and is now a "West Wing" consultant, said she was "flabbergasted" to be told that her contractual increase of $250 for each episode there are 22 each season would not be honored. "It was absurd, a ridiculously small amount of money for them," Ms. Myers said. "It was all very strange."

Mr. Wells was in Hawaii and did not respond to phone messages left with his press agent. But another executive producer with the show, Thomas Schlamme, said that the high cost of the show spurred him and Mr. Wells to look for ways to save.

Ms. Myers was fortunate. After several phone calls from her agent, the money was finally given. But the writers on the series who were pledged more substantial yearly increases of $20,000 and much higher were brushed aside. One staff writer, who earns about $100,000 a year, the lowest wage on the television series, has told associates that private-school bills will necessitate taking a part-time job now that the wage increase has been scuttled.

But another writer on the show said that although there are bruised feelings and some friction between Mr. Sorkin and the staff, working on "The West Wing" was "a golden credit" that could be parlayed into future work.

Even though the salary and title increases had been in the writers' contracts, people connected to the show said that writers and their agents were placed in an awkward situation. The main avenue to protest the decision is the Writers Guild, which is run by Mr. Wells.

Mr. Schlamme said that "The West Wing" had the option of picking up writers' contracts for the new season, but that would have meant more money and promotions in many cases. Instead of telling the writers that their options would not be picked up, Mr. Schlamme said, he and Mr. Wells offered them the chance to remain but without the increases.

Television writers and agents are reluctant to confront Mr. Wells, a dominant television figure who ranks with top producers like Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley. In addition to his work on "E.R." and "The West Wing," Mr. Wells is executive producer and a creator, with Edward Allen Bernero, of NBC's "Third Watch." In the forthcoming season Mr. Wells is producing a fourth series, "Citizen Baines," on CBS. By every account, writers and their agents do not want to upset Mr. Wells, who could employ the writers on future shows.

Because of this, writers, agents and others connected to "The West Wing" generally declined to speak publicly. Mr. Wells decided recently not to seek another two-year term as president of the Writers Guild west.

One of show's more seasoned writers, Peter Parnell, left the show because of the rollback, said several people connected to "The West Wing." Mr. Parnell is a successful playwright whose drama, "QED," about the physicist Richard Feynman, was staged recently at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Reached at his home, Mr. Parnell, who is now a writer on a new CBS series, "The Guardian," said he did not want to discuss his reasons for leaving "The West Wing," which is produced at Warner Brothers.

Another writer, Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., once a top aide to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the former senator, has also left the show, but he said the only reason was that he was offered the chance to create his own Washington-based series at Studios USA, which is owned by Barry Diller.

Mr. Schlamme, an Emmy-award- winning director, said the decision to hold down writer costs was his and Mr. Wells's. He said that Aaron Sorkin, the show's creator and an executive producer, had no role in it.

"We were looking at the budget last year, and we were way over budget," Mr. Schlamme said. "We tried to analyze every department and what we were getting for the money." Mr. Schlamme said that Mr. Sorkin, although getting "tremendous support" from the writing staff, does most of the writing work on the scripts and that there was no reason to keep such a large stable of higher-priced writers on the staff.

"It was a great group of people feeding the energy of Aaron Sorkin," Mr. Schlamme said.

Mr. Schlamme, in response to a question, said the writers should have been told earlier. "In that case, we made a mistake," he said.

Similarly, Mr. Sorkin said that he was sorry that Mr. Parnell and Mr. O'Donnell had left the show. "It's a very expensive show, and very difficult decisions had to be made," he said. "They'll be missed."

The show costs at least $2 million an episode. Its stars, who include Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe, are very well paid. Mr. Sheen's salary for each episode may run as high as $150,000. Recently Mr. Wells and Warner Brothers tripled the salaries of some of the lesser-known actors like Allison Janney and others, who may shortly be earning as much as $90,000 an episode.

Mr. Wells and Mr. Sorkin have earned hefty sums from "The West Wing," as well as other shows. Mr. Wells, who is estimated by people connected with the show to earn about $100,000 an episode from "The West Wing," has a $35 million deal with Warner Brothers and has made at least $50 million in profits so far from "E.R.," said talent agents and people connected to "The West Wing." Mr. Sorkin, who also created "Sports Night," has a four-year, $16 million deal with Warner Brothers.

"The West Wing," which is set to enter its third season, has proved a solid success for NBC and Warner Brothers. Among drama series, it ranks fifth in viewers, with 17 million a week, behind "E.R.," "The Practice," "C.S.I" and "Law and Order."

Over all, "West Wing" is the 13th most popular show on television.

Writers on television series less successful than "The West Wing" are traditionally bumped up in the listing of the show's credit, and therefore salary, each year. Staff writers are the lowest on the totem pole and are generally younger people whose yearly income might be $100,000 to $120,000. Next up the line are story editor, executive story editor, co-producer, producer, supervising producer, co-executive producer and executive producer. The executive producers on "The West Wing" are Mr. Wells, Mr. Sorkin and Mr. Schlamme, the director of numerous episodes.

Story editors earn about $200,000 a year. Producers may earn $350,000 to $450,000. Supervising producers are paid an estimated $25,000 an episode, or $550,000. In addition, a writer who gets a credit on an episode for the story and teleplay receives about $26,000.

Mr. Sorkin, the dominant figure on "The West Wing," has stirred some enmity among writers, partly because he takes credit for every episode and partly for an incident during his Emmy triumph last September, when the series won multiple Emmy awards. One of the awards, for writer on a dramatic series, went to Mr. Sorkin and Rick Cleveland, a writer on the show, for an episode about the death of a homeless Korean War veteran.

Days before the Emmy ceremony, people connected to the show said, Mr. Cleveland sent Mr. Sorkin an e- mail message saying that, if they won, he would like to say a brief word in honor of his father because the episode was autobiographical. Mr. Cleveland's father, a Korean War veteran, had spent the last years of his life as an alcoholic living in flophouses. Mr. Cleveland had lost touch with his father when he was 13. After his father's death, Mr. Cleveland had found that his father had numerous war decorations and sought to bury him in Arlington National Cemetery.

At the Emmy Awards, Mr. Cleveland was not given the opportunity to say a word by Mr. Sorkin. In fact, Mr. Sorkin conspicuously ignored him onstage. Mr. Sorkin said today that he forgot to thank Mr. Cleveland, just as he forgot to thank his wife.

But in an article for the Writers Guild magazine after the Emmy awards, Mr. Cleveland discussed the Emmys and chided Mr. Sorkin. "You might not remember me from that night," Mr. Cleveland wrote. "I was the guy wearing the little wire- framed glasses, standing directly behind Aaron Sorkin. I had a dumbfounded smirk on my face, and I imagine I must have looked like a member of Sorkin's security detail. When he was done speaking, he kind of ushered me offstage with him, and, dumbly, I followed."

Mr. Cleveland termed the Emmy episode "somewhat humiliating." Mr. Cleveland is now a writer on the HBO series "Six Feet Under."

Map Makes History On WEST WING

Diversophy.com

TV's favorite press secretary, West Wing's CJ Craig "freaked out" at the sight of a new view of the world. The show is fictional, but the map is fact! CJ was stunned by the real Peters Projection world map.

What CJ Craig saw on June 20th's episode of NBC's WEST WING is a map commonly seen in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America although almost unheard of in North America. Until West Wing's script writers discovered the map! A fictional group, the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality, pitched President Bartlet's staff to "aggressively support" legislation mandating every public school in America teach geography using the Peters Projection map.

Developed by Arno Peters and introduced in Europe in 1974, more than 83 million maps are now in circulation world-wide. Distributed by ODT, Inc. in Amherst, Massachusetts, this new view of the world is a shock to many first time viewers like CJ. The countries look different from what we are used to seeing. In fact, the Peters Projection map shows all countries in their true size and proportion. One square inch on the map represents an equal number of square miles anywhere in the world. Peters Projection World maps are available from local book or map stores or directly from ODT, Inc. at 1-800-736-1293. (E-mail: petersmaps@aol.com)

The Peters Projection map has generated a firestorm of controversy. It has passionate fans and staunch detractors. Conservative Thomas Sowell criticized advocates of "political correctness" for supporting the Peters Projection in "Vision of the Anointed." Many faith-based, social justice organizations, including Oxfam, the National Council of Churches, and the Mennonite Central Committee, support the Peters as being more accurate and more-importantly…fair to all peoples.

The Peters is in a class of map projections called equal-area maps. On the familiar Mercator projection, Greenland appears to be the same size as Africa. However Africa, at 11.6 million square miles, is really more than 14 times larger than Greenland at 0.8 million square miles. Please feel free to link your web site to the "Explanation of the Peters Projection Map" at http://www.diversophy.com/petersmap.htm

To get the full story on this controversial world map, go to www.diversophy.com/maps.htm . There you can download Chapter One of the groundbreaking new book "SEEING THROUGH MAPS: THE POWER OF IMAGES TO SHAPE OUR WORLD VIEW" by Ward L. Kaiser and Denis Wood. The book reveals the biases inherent in all map projections along with tips for map users to overcome being misled by various maps. The authors are available for interviews. Galley proofs will be available July 1st.

A death riles The West Wing family

By DAVID BAUDER
Associated Press

The plot twist shocked most viewers of "The West Wing," but not Kathryn Joosten.

The actress, who has portrayed presidential secretary Dolores Landingham for the two seasons "The West Wing" has been on the air, knew exactly what was coming earlier this spring when she was told the show's producer wanted to see her.

"There's only one reason you get called into the producer's office," she said, "and that's because they're going to kill you off."

And so they did, though mercifully offscreen. Her blunt-spoken character died in a collision with a drunken driver, adding to the president's anguish with his job in jeopardy over revelations that he hid a serious illness.

For a bit player in a television drama, the fictional death nonetheless resounded to the point that a California Democrat called for a moment of silence in the state Assembly chamber to honor her.

And even now on "The West Wing" (airing this Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT on NBC), with Mrs. Landingham popping up in summer repeats, viewers are still mourning her demise.

"It wasn't done cavalierly, believe me," said Thomas Schlamme, the executive producer who gave Joosten the fateful phone call.

Schlamme said he and Aaron Sorkin, the series' creator, saw a chance to explore in flashback style the relationship between Martin Sheen's President Bartlet and his father through the woman who worked for both of them.

"It was a terrible thing that we would lose this wonderful actress, who was so good and so loyal to the show, but it really did add a tremendous amount of understanding to the president of the United States, at a time it was really necessary," he said.

He and Sorkin were both surprised, though, at the anger and disappointment expressed by the show's fans.

Maybe they shouldn't have been.

Many viewers could see themselves, or their mothers, while watching Mrs. Landingham. "The West Wing" is appealing for its idealized vision of how the nation's government should work. In a White House of people filled with self-importance, Joosten's character took them down to size, and reminded them who they should be working for.

"I think she represented for a lot of people the voice of the little people," Joosten said.

Sworn to secrecy about the character's fate and not trusting herself, Joosten took off on vacation the week her "death" aired. She returned to find about 15 phone messages and 80 e-mails.

"Even the fellow who sold me a car two years ago called," she said.

He inquired about Joosten's health -- and about whether she was interested in a trade-in. Since television characters are often written out of shows for health concerns, she's been assuring people that she's fine. It wasn't a contractual tiff, either. Joosten wasn't demanding more money or more screen time.

She may even get to play Mrs. Landingham again. In the May 16 season finale a week after her "death," the character appeared onscreen again, bringing to life President Bartlet's internal dialogue.

Schlamme and Sorkin have held out the possibility of other, ghostly appearances. Nothing's definite, and Joosten is a little suspicious.

"You can't have Mrs. Landingham popping into the Oval Office every other episode," she said.

Joosten, 61, is a divorcee who followed a dream to Hollywood six years ago after a lifetime spent working as a nurse or a saleswoman for Welcome Wagon in the Chicago area. She's worked regularly as an actress, mostly in comedies like "Frasier," "Murphy Brown" and "Dharma & Greg."

Mrs. Landingham was a breakthrough, though. If she's upset to lose a job on an Emmy-winning drama, a much-praised show that is also becoming one of television's most popular, she isn't letting on.

Joosten said she had come to terms with Mrs. Landingham's death even before entering Schlamme's office, correctly figuring his reasons for meeting with her.

"I don't get to vote on these things," she said. "But it's been tremendous for me. The role itself has been a delight and being on `West Wing' has been a delight on every level. The publicity resulting from Mrs. Landingham's untimely demise has been good for me personally."

Schlamme doesn't feel any guilt for throwing her on an unemployment line. "This is a substantial actress who will continue to work," he said.

Joosten thinks so, too. In a youth- and beauty-obsessed business, she figures she has an ace in the hole.

"Almost every sitcom needs, at some point, a smart-mouthed grandma," she said.