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February 26, 2003
So long, Sam
Tonight marks Rob Lowe's departure from the West Wing.
By BILL BRIOUX
FYI Winnipeg
Remember Rob Lowe?
The guy has been AWOL on The West Wing for weeks. He surfaces tonight in the episode, Red Haven's On Fire (CTV, 7 p.m., NBC, 8 p.m.).
Lowe's character, White House deputy communications director Sam Seaborn, has been shuffled off to the California congressional campaign. Toby (Richard Schiff) gives him some campaign tips tonight.
In real life, as much as the producers tried to deny it, Lowe wanted out of West Wing almost from the start after Martin Sheen stole the show right out from under him as righteous prez Josiah Bartlet.
He had a much-publicized showdown with the producers over money last summer and when a raise wasn't forthcoming, he negotiated a way off the show. After three-and-a-half seasons, his character will vanish for good next month.
Lowe has already moved on to a new series, Lyon's Den. The pilot, about a family law firm, is being shot this month and could land on the NBC schedule next fall.
I always thought Lowe's best moments on this series came right in the pilot when his character stumbled into an affair with a hooker. When I mentioned this last month in L.A. to executive producer Thomas Schlamme, he let me in on a little secret.
Lowe was the one who shot that down.
"Truthfully, and this is probably talking a little out of school, Rob wasn't that comfortable with that storyline," said Schlamme.
Remember Lowe's notorious home video? Still bruised by that sex-tape scandal, Lowe wanted to distance himself from his own tawdry past and talked the West Wing producers out of pursuing the shady story line.
"By season three, he would have loved to sleep with a hooker," said Schlamme. But Lowe felt the timing was wrong that soon out of the gate.
Too bad. It would have afforded him all kinds of fun as an actor and added some sizzle in a show that could use a little more heat.
Posted by MorganG at 10:50 AM
Joshua Malina on The Late Late Show
The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn
[Clip of Will's disastrous first meeting with Mr. Justice -- Mr. Bartlet -- Mr. President, that is.]
Joshua Malina enters, in a black button down shirt, jeans, and without glasses. He seems a bit nervous, but is relatively relaxed and funny, though he and Craig don't quite seem to get each other's humor the whole time.
[Applause]
Craig Kilborn: They're excited.
Josh Malina: Yeah.
Craig Kilborn: So, The West Wing and -- Now, is it true that you're replacing Rob Lowe? Because in my world, you don't replace a Rob Lowe.
Josh Malina: Well, I think any Rob Lowe or Sam Seaborn fan would tell you that he is irreplacable.
Craig Kilborn: Yeah.
Josh Malina: But--
Craig Kilborn: I think Sebastian [a silly character from Craig's show] would back me up on that.
Josh Malina: Unquestionably yes. But frequently when a -- When a major star leaves a television show, they will, you know, replace him with a person of similar appearance. Kidding!
Craig Kilborn: I got it. I got it. A little self-deprecating there.
Josh Malina: Yes.
Craig Kilborn: No, but how long have you been on that show?
Josh Malina: I've been on the show for, I think, nine episodes.
Craig Kilborn: Okay, is it going well?
Josh Malina: And now I'm a regular regular.
Craig Kilborn: What is the internet chatter saying about you and your character? [Laughter]
Josh Malina: Yes, thank you. I am a little bit of a lurker, technically, which means that I don't really participate in the posting of messages, but I will peruse what's being said.
Craig Kilborn: And what are they saying?
Josh Malina: Although it's largely positive, there are those that will not accept me as Rob Lowe's replacement. I've been referred to as "that horrible little man." [Laughter] Who has replaced Rob Lowe.
Craig Kilborn: Right. See, you don't seem like that horrible right now. You seem decent enough.
Josh Malina: Do I seem little? [Laughter]
Craig Kilborn: No! No.
Josh Malina: Thank you.
Craig Kilborn: You seem fine. Now, Aaron Sorkin is, of course, the creator of that show.
Josh Malina: Yes, as well as the playwright of "A Few Good Men," and then wrote the tele -- you know, wrote the movie, created Sports Night.
Craig Kilborn: He's a big -- [Applause] I met Aaron. He's a huge Republican.
Josh Malina: But he's able to write on both sides of the issue.
Craig Kilborn: He can write on both sides, but he is Republican. That's key.
Josh Malina: I think not.
Craig Kilborn: So what kind of man is he? Why does he keep hiring you, 'cause he had you on Sports Night?
Josh Malina: I've been in everything, actually, I think he's ever written.
Craig Kilborn: Yeah.
Josh Malina: I am a mighty Sorkin player. [Laughter]
Craig Kilborn: Because he -- he always needs little, horrible lurkers. [Laughter]
Josh Malina: Yes. Yeah.
Craig Kilborn: No. Are you -- are you indebted to him? Are you thankful that he, uh--
Josh Malina: Oh, absolutely. Yes. He's done very, very well by me. If you subtract him from my career, there's not a lot there.
Craig Kilborn: Right, right. And you hang out with him?
Josh Malina: Ah, yes, yes. I got to know him -- Basically, I grew up in New Rochelle, New York, he grew up in Scarsdale, sort of five minutes away. He went to high school with my cousin, so I knew him a little bit. And then when I graduated from college in 1988--
Craig Kilborn: From Carnegie Mellon.
Josh Malina: Ah, from Yale.
Craig Kilborn: Oh! Wow. [Applause] Take that, Rob Lowe.
Josh Malina: That's right. Uh, my mother -- when I graduated, my mother, who is a kapo in the Jewish Mothers' Mafia. [Laughter] She said you really oughta call Aaron Sorkin. That's what Jewish mothers do. He's Jewish. You're Jewish. Call him.
Craig Kilborn: Right. You're supposed to call each other.
Josh Malina: Yeah. It was the single best, you know, piece of advice I was ever given.
Craig Kilborn: Now, we're gonna -- can I switch to another project of yours?
Josh Malina: Certainly.
Craig Kilborn: You're working in a movie called View from the Top.
Josh Malina: In which Rob Lowe appears as well.
Craig Kilborn: Is that right?
Josh Malina: Yes.
Craig Kilborn: Oh. So you guys, you guys get along?
Josh Malina: Yes, actually. He's a delightful man.
Craig Kilborn: I know. I know him. He's a great guy.
Josh Malina: And rather tall.
Craig Kilborn: He's a good guy. He's good people.
Josh Malina: Yes. And actually, he looks like a -- a -- another species. He's such a good-looking man.
Craig Kilborn: He is handsome
Josh Malina: Yes, he is.
Craig Kilborn: And he hasn't aged much. So who else is in the movie View from the Top?
Josh Malina: It's quite a cast. It's Gwyneth Paltrow. [Applause] This could take a long time. Uh, Candace Bergen, Christina Applegate, Kelly Preston, Mike Myers.
Craig Kilborn: Okay.
Josh Malina: Yeah. And Chad Everett.
Craig Kilborn: Is this a comedy, or what is it?
Josh Malina: Yes. One hopes. It is a comedy -- it's sort of a dark comedy about flight attendents.
Craig Kilborn: And Aaron Sorkin did not have anything to do with it.
Josh Malina: This would be that rare project--
Craig Kilborn: Oh, this is -- oh, congratulations! You're in the business now, you've done it! You've branched out.
Josh Malina: Thank you. I've really grown up.
Craig Kilborn: Now they tell me in your personal life that you are one heck of a poker player.
Josh Malina: Do they?
Craig Kilborn: Yes.
Josh Malina: I do play a lot of poker.
Craig Kilborn: To the point where, when you're a struggling actor, you would, uh, you would pay for your rent through your earnings from poker.
Josh Malina: That is true. I certainly have done that, yes.
Craig Kilborn: So you'd go up to Vegas, or--
Josh Malina: No, that's the beauty of California. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week you can go to the Bicycle Club, Hollywood Park, and, uh, gamble, gamble, gamble.
Craig Kilborn: Yeah. So, you've been doing this for years?
Josh Malina: Yes, yes. Avid, avid poker player.
Craig Kilborn: Does your mom make a call and say you should play--
Josh Malina: She's hooked me up with Jewish poker players around the world. [Laughter]
Craig Kilborn: Well, how good are you? I mean--
Josh Malina: Well, you know, everything is relative. Certainly, relative to the people I play with on a regular basis, I'm very good.
Craig Kilborn: Yeah.
Josh Malina: That's the thing, you have to find that core group of people that aren't as good as you.
Craig Kilborn: Oh, so you take their money.
Josh Malina: I certainly attempt to, yeah.
Craig Kilborn: And this is just straight poker where you get the royal flush and the whole thing, right?
Josh Malina: Yeah, that's correct. I like playing Hold 'Em. Hold 'Em is my specialty.
Craig Kilborn: Tell me--
Josh Malina: A variation on seven-card stud, you have two hold cards, round of betting, three in the middle, round of betting, fourth in the middle, round of betting, fifth in the middle, you wind up with two of your own, five community cards from which to make your best hand.
Craig Kilborn: Right. I got that. Now, would you do -- if you went up to Vegas and played poker there in a casino, would you do as well?
Josh Malina: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I play in the casinos here--
Craig Kilborn: Or is it just with your stiff friends, who really don't know what they're doing?
Josh Malina: No, no. There's a lot of money to be made in these poker casinos as well. A lot of very loose players who want to gamble, gamble. If you play tight, you win money.
Craig Kilborn: This is not for me, this is for the viewers out there, 'cause I don't really care, but what's the most, what's the most you've made?
Josh Malina: Uh, during very tight times, when the acting work wasn't happening, I won twelve-grand in two weeks. And that was my big, uh-- [Applause] My gambling winning's being applauded.
Craig Kilborn: Do you walk away, or how does it work with poker? Can you walk away from the table, or do you have to stick--?
Josh Malina: You can walk away at any time. You may, you know -- they may not appreciate it.
Craig Kilborn: Have you lost a lot?
Josh Malina: Twelve-thousand in two weeks also. [Laughter]
Craig Kilborn: Really? Seriously?
Josh Malina: No. But I've certainly lost. You gotta lose sometimes. But overall, I'm a long-term winner.
Craig Kilborn: And it, and you're--
Josh Malina: It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Craig Kilborn: Yeah. You're proud of this, right? The poker?
Josh Malina: I guess. I, you know, proud enough to talk about it on national TV.
Craig Kilborn: Talk about it on our show, yeah. All right, we are out of time, buddy. This is good. The West Wing Wednesday on NBC, and A View from the Top, that's opening March 22. Pleasure meeting you.
Josh Malina: Nice to meet you, too.
Posted by Ryo at 01:22 AM
February 25, 2003
Lowe exit ends 'West Wing' mini-drama
By BRIAN LOWRY
Los Angeles Times
Hollywood - Rob Lowe's "The West Wing" character became so scarce this season that the actor finally distributed a milk carton with his picture on it, instructing anyone who sees Sam Seaborn to contact his manager.
Wednesday night, Seaborn leaves Washington for good, with a plot line that apparently makes the White House aide an even more rarely sighted species: an office-holding Orange County Democrat.
The mini-drama behind Lowe's exit, cobbled together through conversations with those who know the history, is the story of a wild ride on the prime-time roller coaster.
Four years in the making, the tale involves a show with dubious commercial prospects becoming a major hit, a cameo role becoming its centerpiece and a recognizable star soon to become a memory.
The departure of Lowe's character, and with him much of the show's small measure of sex appeal, might partly account for why "The West Wing" has become vulnerable to the crude charms of "The Bachelor" and its progeny.
At a time when viewers find themselves buffeted by "terror alerts," such trifles - as opposed to weighty issues of morality and governance - can seem a more palatable means of escape.
The opening credits tell much of the story: Lowe receives first billing, with others following alphabetically before the "and Martin Sheen" tag. That's because Lowe was the biggest name going in, the handsome onetime movie star who would help NBC promote a concept that made network executives antsy.
The president steps up
Sheen's President Josiah Bartlet, by contrast, was to appear in six, at most, of the first 13 episodes.
The producers, who, along with Lowe's representatives, declined to publicly discuss the situation, have acknowledged before that the idea was to build a series around the president's staff.
Even the show's title underscored the focus on underlings who ran the White House, with the president primarily an off-screen figure, someone whose shoe you saw through a crack in the door.
Sheen had been signed only for the pilot, in which he turned up briefly at the end. Still, when research on that prototype came back, focus groups said they wanted to see a principled commander in chief as part of the show.
As a result, NBC made production contingent on the president being a central character. Sheen's contract had to be revised to accommodate his expanded presence and relocation from background to foreground.
Although series creator Aaron Sorkin envisioned the president's staff as an ensemble, Lowe was easily the best known, and best paid, among them.
Perhaps for that reason, Lowe kept waiting for the character to be fleshed out.
Ratings were respectable the first year. The show garnered critical acclaim and an armful of Emmys.
The supporting cast began to break out, making Lowe something less than first among equals, though that was hardly obvious from the way NBC promoted the series. Allison Janney and Madison, Wis., native Bradley Whitford are terrific actors, after all, but who living east of Beverly Hills knew of them in 1999?
With "West Wing" ratings taking off beyond all expectations, four key cast members - Janney, Whitford, Richard Schiff and John Spencer - banded together in July 2001 to negotiate sizable raises, bringing them up to Lowe's level.
Lowe reportedly became frustrated, and when he sought a sizable pay increase a year later, the producers balked. So Lowe opted to leave, with Sorkin agreeing over the summer to write him out by March.
Paying the price
At the time, many ridiculed the actor for walking away from such a high-quality project. The producers, however, might have paid their own price for not using him more.
Although the program's wonkish devotion to serious issues has won it well-deserved admiration, even NBC has lobbied for more in the way of character development and personal lives, including a bit more romance to augment all the noble talk of public service and patriotic zeal.
For the most part, it's an impulse Sorkin resisted.
That choice has seemingly narrowed the show's appeal, creating the soft underbelly - particularly among younger viewers - that other networks have exploited.
Not that anyone needs to tune up the violins.
NBC has picked up "West Wing" for future seasons under a lucrative deal. True, the ratings have receded to first-year levels, but the show still makes advertisers salivate by attracting TV's most upscale audience in terms of income and education.
In hindsight, with seven prime-time hours devoted to Michael Jackson last week as well as something called "Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People," the real surprise might be that such an uncompromising series found a vast audience, even for a while.
As for Lowe, NBC snapped him up for his own series pilot, "Lyon's Den," which casts him as an attorney who is the son of a U.S. senator.
That means if all goes well, he'll be walking and talking on TV again this fall. And even if the writing doesn't equal Sorkin's at-times operatic heights, at least you won't need a milk carton to find him.
Posted by MorganG at 08:09 PM
February 20, 2003
Martin Sheen Tops Anti-War TV Spot
By Pamela McClintock
Variety
20 February 2003
WASHINGTON (Variety) - Wielding his presidential-like appeal, actor Martin Sheen (news) headlines a TV ad debuting in Los Angeles and the nation's capital on Thursday urging Americans to join a Feb. 26 "virtual march" on Washington to oppose a war with Iraq.
Sheen -- who plays fictional U.S. President Jed Bartlet on NBC's "The West Wing" -- was one of several celebrities joining a long list of church leaders and other activists in announcing the campaign at a Wednesday press conference in Los Angeles.
The umbrella coalition Artists United to Win Without War wants citizens to deluge the nation's capital with e-mails, faxes and phone calls.
Groups emerging in recent weeks to advocate a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis have had a difficult time buying national air time for anti-war spots. CNN and other networks say they are reluctant to air any advocacy ads, regardless of the issue.
To get around the skittish networks, groups are buying up time from local cable companies. Sheen's ad will appear on both CNN and Fox News Channel in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The spot will continue running throughout the next week.
Win Without War, headed up by former Capitol Hill lawmaker Tom Andrews, is hoping to buy time in other local markets.
"This virtual march on Washington will allow every American opposed to the war to stand up and be counted, by calling, faxing and e-mailing the U.S. Senate and the White House," Sheen says in the ad.
For years, there were strict federal regulations governing advocacy ads, with networks required to give equal time to the other side. Although those rules have been all but erased from the books, networks are still wary about airing such spots nationally.
Other celebrities flanking Sheen at Wednesday's press briefing included Janeane Garofalo and Mike Farrell. Organizations on hand included the National Council of Churches, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, Greenpeace, NAACP and Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Posted by MorganG at 08:52 AM
February 19, 2003
The tale of Rob Lowe's wild ride
By Brian Lowry
Los Angeles Times
19 February 2003
Rob Lowe's "The West Wing" character became so scarce this season the actor finally distributed a milk carton with his picture on it, instructing anyone who sees Sam Seaborn to contact his manager. Next week, Seaborn leaves Washington for good, with a plot line that apparently makes the White House aide an even more rarely sighted species: an office-holding Orange County Democrat.
The mini-drama behind Lowe's exit, cobbled together through conversations with those who know the history, is the story of a wild ride on the prime-time roller coaster. Four years in the making, the tale involves a show with dubious commercial prospects becoming a major hit, a cameo role becoming its centerpiece, and a recognizable star soon to become a memory.
Lowe's departure might partly account for why "West Wing's" ratings have lost altitude, to the extent that the show's vulnerability to the crude charms of "The Bachelor" and its progeny owes something to a lack of sex appeal. At a time when viewers find themselves buffeted by "terror alerts," such trifles -- as opposed to weighty issues of morality and governance -- can seem a more palatable means of escape.
The opening credits, actually, tell much of the story: Lowe receives first billing, with others following alphabetically before the "and Martin Sheen" tag. That's because Lowe was the biggest name going in, the handsome onetime movie star who would help NBC promote a concept that made network executives antsy.
Sheen's president, by contrast, was to appear at most in six of the first 13 episodes. The producers, who, along with Lowe's representatives, declined to publicly discuss the situation, have acknowledged before that the idea was to build a series around the president. Even the show's title underscored the focus on underlings who ran the White House, with the president primarily an off-screen figure -- someone whose shoe you saw through a crack in the door.
Indeed, Sheen (Sidney Poitier and Hal Holbrook were among those also considered) had been signed only for the pilot, in which he turned up briefly at the end. Still, when research on that prototype came back, focus groups -- likely weary of Clinton administration scandals -- said they wanted to see a principled commander in chief as part of the show.
As a result, NBC made a production go-ahead contingent on the president being a central character, and Sheen's contract had to be revised to accommodate his expanded presence and relocation from background to foreground.
Although series creator Aaron Sorkin envisioned the president's staff as an ensemble, Lowe was easily the best known -- and best paid -- among them. Perhaps for that reason, Lowe kept waiting for the character to be fleshed out, including a love interest beyond a brief fling with a call girl.
Ratings were respectable the first year, as the show garnered critical acclaim and an armful of Emmys. The supporting cast began to break out, making Lowe something less than first among equals, though that was hardly obvious from the way NBC promoted the series. Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford are terrific actors, after all, but who living east of Beverly Hills knew of them in 1999?
With "West Wing" taking off beyond all rating expectations, four key cast members -- Janney, Whitford, Richard Schiff and John Spencer -- banded together in July 2001 to negotiate sizable raises, bringing them up to Lowe's level.
Lowe reportedly became increasingly frustrated, and when the actor sought a sizable pay increase himself a year later, the producers balked.
The irony is that Lowe and Sheen have enjoyed a long relationship. The younger actor co-starred with Sheen's son Emilio Estevez in the 1980s films "The Outsiders" and "St. Elmo's Fire," and hung out at the Sheen household growing up.
Yet Sheen's popularity, and that of the other co-stars, ultimately marginalized Lowe, making him expendable enough for the producers to take a hard line. So Lowe opted to leave, with Sorkin agreeing over the summer to write him out by March.
At the time, many ridiculed the actor (including, come to think of it, yours truly) for walking away from the highest-quality project with which he'll likely ever be associated. The producers, however, might have paid their own price for not using him more.
Although the program's wonk-ish devotion to serious issues has won it well-deserved admiration, even NBC has lobbied for more in the way of character development and personal lives -- including a bit more romance to augment all the noble talk of public service and patriotic zeal.
For the most part, it's an impulse Sorkin resisted. A few relationships have emerged -- including separate liaisons for Whitford's character and Janel Moloney, who plays his assistant, Donna -- but they seemed to fizzle or simply disappear, as if the writer couldn't get back fast enough to analyzing how much to spend on foreign aid.
Such choices have seemingly narrowed the show's appeal, creating the soft underbelly -- particularly among younger viewers -- that other networks have exploited. It's impossible to know for sure, but some of that audience might have been more engaged had Whitford broken down and planted one on Moloney, or Lowe removed his shirt and tie occasionally. He's certainly done it before.
Not that anyone needs to tune up the violins. NBC has picked up "The West Wing" for future seasons under a lucrative deal. True, the ratings have receded to first-year levels, but the show still makes advertisers salivate by attracting TV's most upscale audience in terms of income and education.
In hindsight, with seven prime-time hours devoted to Michael Jackson this week as well as something called "Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People," the real surprise might be that such an uncompromising series found a vast audience, even for a while.
As for Lowe, NBC snapped him up for his own series pilot, "Lyon's Den," which casts him as an attorney who is the son of a U.S. senator.
That means if all goes well, he'll be walking and talking on TV again this fall, and even if the writing doesn't equal Sorkin's at-times operatic heights, at least you won't need a milk carton to find him.
Posted by MorganG at 06:45 PM
Joshua Malina Joins 'The West Wing' Cast
Associated Press
19 February 2003
NEW YORK - Joshua Malina, who has joined NBC's "The West Wing," describes the cast as "a benevolent madhouse."
"As soon as the director yells `Cut,' Martin Sheen and John Spencer are trading old New York theater war stories, Allison Janney is pretending to talk to someone on a prop phone, Dule Hill is tap dancing with jaw-dropping skill, Richard Schiff is tossing Hershey's Kisses into a coffee mug from across the room, Bradley Whitford, that avid yoga showoff, has his foot atop a bookcase, and I'm usually pressuring people to play poker with me," Malina tells People magazine in its Feb. 24 issue, now on newsstands.
Malina, 37, plays speechwriter Will Bailey on the Emmy-winning NBC White House drama.
"Someone on the Internet referred to me as `that horrible little man who's replacing Rob Lowe, which is hurtful, because I think of myself as a delightful little man," Malina tells the magazine.
Posted by MorganG at 08:13 AM
February 05, 2003
Why does The West Wing stray from the West Wing?
By John Doyle
globeandmail.com
I can't tell you everything that happens on The West Wing (NBC, CTV, 9 p.m.) tonight, but I can give you the official summary from NBC: "A situation in a thoroughly unimportant country on the other side of the world has the president and his staff rewriting his inauguration address on the eve of his swearing-in as tensions between the White House and the Pentagon mount."
Now there's a plot summary to make you feverishly excited. Not.
I'm sure it will be engaging. I'm certain that President Bartlet will make the right decision. In fact, I'd say that the fictional president's triumph over adversity is as certain as you and me finding out that a real Canadian provincial premier who advocates discipline and belt-tightening is actually a self-indulgent piss artist.
Mind you, I'm not sure that rewriting a speech is a grab-me dramatic device. Rewriting is less than stellar entertainment, containing little in the way of romance, humour or confrontation with the forces of evil. I'm obliged to rewrite almost daily and, I'm telling you, if you were to watch, you'd be less than galvanized by it. It often involves a lot of staring off into space and rereading my horoscope for advice and encouragement.
Anyway, The West Wing has been annoying viewers for a while. Recent episodes set far from the White House have made many constant viewers irritable in the extreme. A few weeks ago, C. J. moseyed off to Dayton, Ohio, to speak at her high-school reunion. She had an encounter with a shifty fella played by Matthew Modine, and came to the realization that her father is deteriorating from Alzheimer's disease.
That just iced it for some fans. According to one on-line comment, "It made her look terrible, weak, stupid and unworthy of the position she holds in the White House." The consensus to be found in the many on-line forums is that the show suffers when it strays from the White House.
However, it's clear that creator and main writer Aaron Sorkin is trying to give the show more dramatic oomph. Ratings for The West Wing have been down, thanks to competition from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. As we know, those shows tend to be free of passionate arguments about American foreign policy. Dabbling in the personal lives of his characters is an attempt to expand the show's reach.
Fanatics may complain that they want more policy debates from the backrooms of the White House, but those fanatics are never going to give up on the show and watch The Bachelorette instead. Far from suffering from too much information about the home and family lives of the main characters, The West Wing has become tediously insular for the general audience.
What Sorkin is trying to do is humanize the characters. In this endeavour, I suspect he's also hoping to hang on to the major West Wing audience of media types. The flaunting of the personal is something that fascinates that audience. People who are well paid to make big decisions, ruin lives or further careers always think their home life is terrifically dramatic and a sort of template for society. If a big-shot writer, editor, news anchor or media exec has a parent with a disease or a child with a learning problem, suddenly that issue is the most important thing on the media agenda. Aaron Sorkin is just doing the same darn thing, adding the personal to the political.
When I was in L.A. recently, Sorkin turned up at the NBC party and talked to a few of us for a while. He was playing the humility card. The West Wing is now in its fourth season, and NBC had just announced that it had guaranteed to keep the show on the air thorough the 2004-5 TV season. Still, the show has been losing viewers, and Sorkin wasn't going to act cocky.
"In spite of my best efforts, this show is still on the air," he said, getting all self-deprecating. "Right now I can't think about keeping this show on the air for, like, an eighth season. My priority is to keep the show on the air through February. If it comes to it, I'll turn this show into 24 to keep it on the air."
Sorkin also said that he has no intention of bringing echoes of the looming war with Iraq onto The West Wing. "We don't want to take the risk of turning the show into a movie-of-the-week. Newspaper headlines and newspaper writers can cover today's news much better than we can."
That's a shrewdly flattering comment to a bunch of newspaper writers. I'd say that Sorkin believes he knows what he's doing.
I don't think tonight's episode will focus entirely on the inauguration speech and some crisis in a "thoroughly unimportant country." I think there will be some drama in the personal lives of the main characters. No bed hopping and no competition for the hand of some giggling floozy, but less policy and more private-life dilemmas and doubts.
Posted by MorganG at 07:26 PM
February 03, 2003
Sheen endorses candidate
CNN.com
MONTPELIER, Vermont (AP) -- The man who plays the president on television is backing an ex-governor who wants to be president.
Actor Martin Sheen, who portrays President Josiah Bartlet on NBC's "The West Wing," endorsed Democrat Howard Dean last week when Vermont's former chief executive dropped by the set -- on location, by the way, in Washington.
Sheen thinks Dean is "the best possible hope for the Democrats because he's not afraid to lose," said Glennis Liberty, the actor's publicist.
Dean's staff happily pointed out that the fictional Bartlet, like Dean, is a former governor of a New England state and a Democrat. Both also are married to physicians.
"People are familiar with the show: a New England governor whose wife is a doctor. That is our story line," said Susan Allen, Dean's campaign press secretary.
Posted by Ryo at 11:56 PM