Bartlet4America News Archive

'West Wing' Visits Pennsylvania For Season Premiere; Cast Wants Rob Lowe To Come Back

thekcrachannel.com

VOLANT, Pa. -- Fresh off of a best drama series win at the Emmys this past Sunday, it was back to business for the cast of the "West Wing"

The show was filming part of its season premiere in the Philadelphia area.

The script said they were in Indiana, but for the season's opener of the "West Wing," they decided to shoot in Lawrence County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.

The crowd cheered enthusiastically for the fictional president played by Martin Sheen. At times the crowd is too enthusiastic, according to filmmakers.

"Do you hear them? They were complaining about you, but I stood up for you," Sheen joked with the crowd.

What do you expect from the show that has won the Outstanding Drama Emmy award for the third year in the row.

"I think we had 607 nominations," Richard Shiff (Toby Ziegler) said. "Seriously, I suppose it's a good thing and it's a tribute to the reaction to the work that we're doing."

The producers invited WCAU-TV from Philadelphia behind the scenes during the filming of the season premiere episode last month.

Bradley Whitford, who plays Josh on the show, spent most of his childhood in Philadelphia.

"Say hi to my mom in Chestnut Hill," Whitford told the crew.

Whitford credits the show's raging success to the writers, who brilliantly entertain while raising important political issues.

"Twenty million people will watch whatever issue we'll discuss. But, again, that's not why we're here, you know, we're not here to serve America its civic vegetables. It's a TV show," Whitford said.

Sheen happily spent part of his day posing for pictures with fans on location.

"We have a venue and we can talk about some of the more serious issues that our country is faced with in these difficult times. If we offer some service in that regard, I don't think it can get any better than that," Sheen said.

Aside from the politics, there are a few questions fans wanted to know. For example, Allison Janney (C.J. Cregg) talks 100 mph on the show, but what is she like in real life?

"No way ... I cannot talk that fast," Janney said.

And Josh and Donna? Are they ever going to hook up?

"I don't know," Janel Moloney, who plays Donna Moss, admitted. "They constantly bring us together and then apart and back together. Your guess is as good as mine."

Off screen, the biggest question this season is what do they all think about the fact that Rob Lowe is leaving the show?

"We're all hanging on to him. Nobody wants to see this guy leave the 'West Wing.' Are you listening, Rob? We adore him and he's so vital to our show," Sheen said.

Aaron Sorkin wants to put fun back into 'West Wing'

By Rob Owen
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Despite this week's drama series win at the Emmys, NBC's "The West Wing" returns at 9 tonight following its most uneven season to date. It's an assessment series creator Aaron Sorkin probably wouldn't debate.

"For me, the most exciting thing about this season is it's no longer last season," he said in a recent teleconference. "Last season was very difficult for a number of reasons."

Primarily, he said, the notion of fictional heroes, including the characters on "The West Wing," was in bad taste after Sept. 11. Sorkin also had no interest in stories of Democrats fighting with Republicans and the White House fighting with Congress.

"Sept. 11 was one of those rare moments when things are black and white, when there's a moral absolute, and I felt, frankly, like last season was a continual search for what I wasn't doing that makes the show work," he said. "One week I'd feel like, well, I'm back, I can write now. And the next week would be a train wreck, and I just couldn't do it. All year long it felt like we were doing something wrong and we couldn't put our finger on it. It's a year later, and when I came back to begin writing the show, I didn't feel that anymore."

Although the threat of terrorism is now "part of the water supply" in American culture and on "The West Wing," Sorkin said, the show has its sense of fun back. That's expected to be on display in the two-hour fourth-season premiere, tonight's "20 Hours in America," which was filmed in part in Western Pennsylvania (doubling for Indiana).

The episode begins with President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) at a campaign rally on a soybean farm. Communications director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) and his assistant, Donna Moss (Janel Moloney), get left behind on the farm and spend much of the season premiere trying to catch up with the president's motorcade.

A temporary production office was set up in Pittsburgh for the filming, which lasted a week and a day.

"Did we treat your town OK?" Sorkin asked, adding he got positive reports from the show's cast and crew. "The people couldn't have been nicer, and the location couldn't have been more beautiful. The footage looks terrific. It was a very, very successful trip."

Sorkin said the "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"-type story was inspired by an assistant to President Clinton who had the same job as Charlie (Dule Hill) on "The West Wing."

"A couple years ago, he told Dule that motorcades leave when the president gets in the car. It doesn't wait for anybody. The Secret Service can't have the president sitting there, so it's not uncommon to have people left behind. He talked about running in to buy a postcard and coming out and there was nothing there. That was too good to be true, so I wrote an episode about it."

Bartlet's campaign will culminate in an election episode in early November, and though it's a safe bet he'll win, Schiff said, it won't be a cakewalk.

"I've always said, the real brilliant way to go out would be to lose," Schiff said last month during filming on a Lawrence County farm. "We would go out on top of the ratings, we'd shock the TV world. Then they could pick up sequels. Josh and Donna could do a sitcom. Leo would be the next Lou Grant, and I'd go back to off-off-off-off-off-Broadway. Artistically, you've got to admit...."

Schiff hinted at an upcoming episode about a debate between presidential candidates, but he was less sure what will follow Bartlet's re-election.

"I think the normal re-election cycle is, we win the election and then the scandals start happening one by one," he said. "I don't know if we'll repeat that, but in real life, you win the election and that's when all the dirt gets uncovered, right?"

This season, Sorkin will have to lay the groundwork for the March departure of Sam Seaborn, unless actor Rob Lowe opts to stay with the series, which seems unlikely.

"In terms of how I'm proceeding with the writing, there is a plan in place. Sam Seaborn isn't going to die. The door is always going to be open."

Sorkin said he hopes Lowe will stay, but that if he leaves, it will add to the realism of the show. As it is, real top presidential staffers rarely stay in the job as long as the characters on "West Wing" have.

"I don't know any core White House staff that has lasted this long," he said. "Ordinarily, that kind of realism is something I'd obviously sacrifice to hang onto an extraordinary group of actors and take heart in the fact that 'M*A*S*H' ran three times as long as the war it portrayed."

Sorkin returns to old 'Wing'

By Mark McGuire
timesunion.com

Sunday's Emmy Awards handed three wins to members of the ensemble cast of "The West Wing."

The statues -- for best actress in a drama Allison Janney, best supporting actress Stockard Channing and best supporting actor John Spencer, and six other nominations were more evidence that the NBC drama carries a crushing load of acting talent.

But while that surplus contributes mightily to one of the best dramas on television, an actor or two can get lost.

Ask Moira Kelly. The actress, who played brassy political consultant Mandy Hampton, disappeared after the first season.

Ask Emily Procter. Her character, GOP lawyer Ainsley Hayes, had little to do over the course of two seasons -- except maybe the time she hid in the President's closet. Procter recently decamped for CBS' "CSI: Miami."

After this season, you can ask Rob Lowe.

But don't ask Aaron Sorkin. The talented executive producer admits his last-second writing habits leave some characters temporarily shortchanged. "(The writing) is done very much by the seat of my pants. ... It's possible that a character can fall victim to my poor writing habits," he said.

But he insists that's not the case with Lowe, who plays deputy communications director Sam Seaborn.

"Sam's always been one of my favorite characters," Sorkin said. "They are all favorites, (but) Rob is singularly terrific at it.

"There are eight characters, plus Stockard (Channing, who plays First Lady Abby Bartlet), 22 episodes in a season," he continued. "This is a cast, by and large, who could all carry their own show. You would love to be able to showcase all of them more."

This summer, Lowe announced that the 2002-'03 season will be his last on the NBC drama. Lowe was upset he did not get the same proportional raise other cast members received, although Sorkin and others noted the actor was paid more at the start of the series' run.

But there has been speculation that Lowe -- one of the few cast members not to be nominated for an Emmy -- was upset at the marginalizing of Seaborn. "It's not an unreasonable observation to make," Sorkin said. "It's just an unfortunate one, because it's wrong.

"There is nobody at NBC, nobody at Warner Brothers and nobody on the show that wants Rob to leave," Sorkin continued. "My fingers are crossed that he's going to stay."

Lowe was by far the most recognizable name in the cast when "The West Wing" debuted three years ago. (Martin Sheen's President Josiah Bartlet was originally slated to appear in only a few episodes.) But as time went by, Lowe saw his screen time eaten up by his equally talented castmates.

"The West Wing" premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday (WNYT Ch. 13) with a two-hour episode, "20 Hours in America." It follows Josh (Bradley Whitford), Toby (Richard Schiff) and Donna (Janel Moloney) after they get left behind by the Presidential motorcade.

Sorkin said the show, which has won the best drama Emmy for each of its three seasons, will be rejuvenated this year. An early focus will be on Bartlet's re-election campaign; "The West Wing" operates on a political cycle two years removed from reality.

Sorkin, meanwhile, is just pleased to be one year removed from last season.

"For me, one of the most exciting things about this season is that it's no longer last season," Sorkin said. It was harder, he suggests, for viewers to empathize with his fictional heroes during a year when real ones -- firefighters, soldiers and others -- were at the center of public attention.

"We had no stomach for stories about Democrats fighting with Republicans, and repealing the estate tax, and the White House fighting with Congress," Sorkin said. "We just all felt, all year long, like we were doing something wrong and we just couldn't put our finger on it.

"It's a year later. When I came back to writing the show ... I suddenly felt comfortable in my chair again."

Sorkin said he continues to write as if Lowe/Seaborn will remain, and insists the character isn't headed for an untimely end.

"Sam Seaborn isn't going to die," he said. "The door is going to remain open."

Entertainment

By Michael Fleming
Variety

Much of the media focus on "The West Wing" has concerned castmember contract negotiations. Emmy-nominated "Wing" star John Spencer feels that the focus will quickly go back to the episodes, which he said have taken the show to a new quality level.

"We are dealing with something that hasn't been dealt with openly in the world, the idea that the administration might have assassinated somebody, and we have to go to a world court over it," Spencer said. "It is fiction which has to adhere to the parameters of the American government, and given all that has happened in the country over the past year, I have to say that (series creator) Aaron Sorkin has responded with the best season of writing he has ever done."

Spencer said he has grown script spoiled, because David E. Kelley wrote his lines on "L.A. Law" and then he moved right along to Sorkin's scripts.

He feels there has been too much attention given to the negotiations he and his castmates had last year, and the salary dispute that led Rob Lowe to exit this season. He thinks that it gives the mistaken impression there is discord on the set.

"We all get along incredibly well, and I'm still hoping that Rob is going to stay. I can remember during 'L.A. Law' when I attended the goodbye party for Jimmy Smits, Harry Hamlin and Susan Dey. Jimmy and Harry said their farewells, and then Susan got up, she said that a deal had just been made in the back room and that she'd be staying.

"All I know is we've signed through seven seasons, and because the president can only go two terms, eight would be the max unless they brought in a whole new cast and made a transition to a new White House administration. Whether it's seven or eight, this will be my swan song to one-hour dramas, and that I will go back to the stage, do a few movies, and take a big dose of downtime."

While Spencer is now one of several "Wing" members to express hope that Lowe might change his mind and stay, the fact is there has been no movement toward a negotiation that would give Lowe a pay hike. He'll be out of there before the season's over.

'West Wing' watching campaign on expenses

By Scott Collins
The Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES --- Is NBC willing to fork over a 525% raise to keep President Bartlet's administration in office?

As the fall TV season gets under way, a battle is brewing over "The West Wing ( news - web sites)," Aaron Sorkin's Emmy-winning drama about behind-the-scenes doings in a liberal White House. Beyond its status as a Top 15 hit, the John Wells Prods./Warner Bros. TV series draws far and away the most upscale audience in primetime, which in turn helps NBC pitch itself to advertisers as a haven for the affluent.

But there's tension in the Oval Office. NBC's contract for "West Wing," now entering its fourth season, is up for renewal at the end of this season, and one knowledgeable source says that the studio will push the network for a license fee of more than $10 million per episode -- a more than sixfold increase over the current license fee of about $1.6 million an episode.

Representatives for NBC and Warner Bros. declined to comment for this story.

With its large ensemble cast and elaborate settings, industry sources peg the production cost on "West Wing" at about $3 million-$3.5 million per episode, making it one of the most expensive on television. Warner Bros. sold the rerun rights to "West Wing" last year to the Bravo cable network for about $1.1 million per episode -- a healthy price in a depressed syndication market but shy of the $1.5 million-$1.6 million fees commanded around the same time by CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ( news - Y! TV)" and NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

While Warners may not get its $10 million asking price from NBC, expected rival bids from ABC (which could sorely use a ready-made hit) and CBS likely will drive the price far above its current level.

ABC faced a similar situation two years ago when it renegotiated its deal for the Emmy-winning David E. Kelley drama "The Practice," from 20th Century Fox Television. The price tag for ABC more than doubled to an estimated $5 million-$7 million per episode.

Negotiations on "The West Wing" deal won't begin in earnest until early next year, and one exec at a rival network predicted that NBC, fearing protracted talks that could run up the price, may move to settle the matter quickly. With the peacock poised to part with "Friends" after this season, the conventional wisdom in TV circles is that the network can't afford to lose "West Wing" as well.

But NBC is already mapping its battle plan. Sources say peacock execs are vowing to avoid a repeat of the scenario that unfolded in 1998, when the clock was ticking on its "ER" contract. NBC wound up shelling out a record-setting $13 million per episode to hang on to its Thursday night anchor.

"The days of networks giving back all the profits they made in years one through four (of a series' run) are over," a network insider said. "It just doesn't make sense."

Indeed, "West Wing" may offer the last big renewal drama between a network and outside studio for some time to come. Over the past few seasons -- partly because of the "ER" deal -- networks and studios have hammered out extended license fee agreements designed to shield networks from triple-digit cost increases on successful shows. Moreover, the wave of vertical integration that seized the media business in the mid- to late-1990s has made it the rule that the major broadcast networks own or co-own most of the primetime entertainment series they carry, which theoretically reduces the chance of a blistering renewal fight between sibling divisions.

In the case of "The West Wing," industry veterans note that history between NBC and Warner Bros. TV is repeating itself. One source said the studio approached the previous regime at NBC Entertainment about an early renegotiation after the show's first season, but NBC passed, just as a different regime a few years earlier passed on an early renegotiation of "ER" after it became an instant smash in its 1994 debut.

"The thinking among the business types (on the 'West Wing' offer) was, if we renegotiate now, we're renegotiating at the worst possible time," the source said.

For the 2001-02 season, the series ranked 15th among all primetime series in the key adults 18-49 demographic, averaging a 6.3 rating/16 share, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. Among dramas, only "ER," CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and NBC's "Law & Order" drew higher ratings.

Rival network executives and agents not involved with the series characterized Warners' $10 million target price as quite high but not outside the realm of possibility. "West Wing's" upscale audience and critical acclaim add prestige and, presumably, value -- points that studio negotiators will almost certainly drive home.

Warners is likely to push for a lengthy renewal term -- three or four more seasons, sources say. But the network may resist, on the grounds that the show's ratings will probably erode over that period.

A bigger question mark is Sorkin himself, who writes virtually all of the "West Wing" scripts. NBC would probably consider his continued involvement highly desirable but not necessarily essential, two well-placed sources said. That way, if Sorkin decided to leave, NBC could press Warners to back off from its highest demands, while entrusting executive producer John Wells to keep the show humming along.

A spokeswoman for Sorkin said he has no plans to leave the show but declined to comment further.

West Winger Recalls 9-11 Controversy

By Daniel R. Coleridge
TV Guide

After Sept. 11, Aaron Sorkin felt moved to postpone The West Wing's third season premiere in favor of "Isaac and Ishmael," a stand-alone episode about a similar terrorist crisis. The show's creator still is taking heat for what critics bashed as a "preachy, pedantic" tribute. Nearly one year later, he responds with a sort of mea culpa.

"I didn't think it right," Sorkin says, "that [the premiere] just be a regular episode of The West Wing — that people be tearing around the [White House] corridors, flirting with each other and being glib. It just didn't seem right. Some sort of respect had to be paid to what just happened. You had to bow your head to it.

"I wasn't going for the cover of TV Guide," he adds, "or an Emmy nomination, or a bigger deal here at Warner Bros."

In the episode, WW's characters lectured students at the White House about terrorism. "I'm not even sure it was good television," Sorkin admits. "But what I do know for sure is that it was well intended. It was never meant to teach anything or be preachy. It was meant to imitate the sounds of the conversations that I'd been hearing since Sept. 11. Its heart was in the right place.

"I was not surprised that people didn't like it," the writer says. "I was hoping to do something that people would like, but it was clear to me that that wasn't going to happen — I wasn't able to do that.

"But what I was surprised about, to be honest, was the volume and the weight that [this episode] was given. [A major New York paper] carried their review on the front page... It felt like people thought I'd hit them over the head and taken their money, which wasn't my intention."

In the wake of the terrorist attacks, he muses: "There were a number of things in TV, movies and music that we were eager to get back to. Fictional heroes weren't one of them. [They] were in bad taste because our hearts were so completely with the real ones."

West Wing Creator on Rob Lowe's Exit

By Daniel R. Coleridge
TV Guide

Why is Rob Lowe really leaving his role as The West Wing's Sam Seaborn in March? "It's entirely a money situation, I assure you," says creator Aaron Sorkin. "It has nothing to do with anything else."

As Sorkin explains it, WW's pilot was "expensive to make" and the producers didn't know it'd be a hit from the outset. So Lowe and co-stars Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer and Bradley Whitford were asked to "significantly reduce their [salary] quote" to be in the series. "[They] did, Rob did not," he says. "Nobody's the villain. It's a business situation."

Last season, Lowe's castmates reportedly were raised from $30,000 per episode to his $70,000 level, while he was refused a payhike. Says Sorkin: "While it's possible to say, 'Everybody else on the show got a raise except for Rob and that's not fair'... the fact of the matter is Rob had his raise two years longer than everybody else."

That said, Sorkin praises Lowe's performances as President Bartlet's speechwriter, adding: "I just want to be clear. There's nobody at NBC, nobody at Warner Bros. and nobody on the show that wants Rob to leave. Sam Seaborn isn't going to die, so the door is always gonna be open. The chances of Rob staying? I talk to Rob every day and everybody wants him to keep doing the show. He's really very good and comes to work enthusiastically.

"It's a negotiation and it's a tough one," Sorkin sums up. "My fingers are crossed that he's going to stay, but [that's] all that can be done at this point."

Sorkin: 'Door Is Always Open' for Lowe on 'West Wing'

by Rick Porter
Zap2it, TV News

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - The staff of "The West Wing" will be saying goodbye to Sam Seaborn next spring, but at least they won't be attending his funeral.

Series creator Aaron Sorkin will not be killing off Lowe's character on the NBC drama. Lowe announced his exit from the Emmy award-winning series in August.

"I love Rob, and everybody wants him to keep doing the show," Sorkin says. "Sam Seaborn is not going to die, so the door is always open."

Lowe's character was less involved in primary plotlines last season. A rumored salary dispute and the fact that Lowe was overlooked for an Emmy nomination this year may also have factored into his decision to leave.

"It's a difficult situation," Sorkin says. "There's no villain in this case and it will be regrettable if it is portrayed that way. It's a negotiation and it's a tough one."

Sorkin says he's "out of the loop" when it comes to contract negotiations, but he doesn't agree with the idea that Lowe's role has been reduced. And if it has, he blames himself.

"This wouldn't happen if [like some other writers] at the beginning of the season I sat down and made a plan for the season," he says. "That way I could look at it from a distance and say 'Sam doesn't have the ball as much.' "

Since Sorkin writes as he goes, however, he often doesn't look deep into the future. For instance, he's about to start writing this season's fifth episode -- which was due a week ago.

"If a story pops into my head and I can use it in episode five, then I have to write it," he says. "It's possible that a character can fall victim to my poor writing habits."

Sorkin and other cast members, most recently Martin Sheen, who plays President Bartlet, have expressed their desire to keep Lowe from leaving the series.

Rob Lowe May Return to 'West Wing'

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) -- Take heart, Rob Lowe. Your character's life -- if not his job -- is safe.

Lowe, who plays White House deputy communications director Sam Seaborn in NBC's drama "The West Wing,'' has said he's leaving later this season following a contract dispute.

"Sam Seaborn is not going to die,'' series creator Aaron Sorkin said Thursday. "So the door is always open.''

Lowe, 38, announced he was leaving after producers declined to give him more money. The cast's biggest star when the series premiered in 1999, he's since been eclipsed by Martin Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlet, and is part of a large ensemble.

Sorkin, as well as other cast members, have said they wished Lowe didn't have to leave.

"It's a difficult situation,'' Sorkin said. "There's no villain in this case and it will be regrettable if it is portrayed that way. It's a negotiation and it's a tough one.''

Sorkin said he has a plan for writing Seaborn out of the series but wouldn't reveal it.