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January 25, 2004
TV mailbag
By Taylor Michaels
Chicago Tribune
- Is there any chance we will see Rob Lowe back as Sam Seaborn on "The West Wing" now that his series "The Lyon's Den" appears to have gone belly up? --Gary Taylor, Saginaw, Mich.
I haven't spoken to Lowe about this, but I'd say the chances of him rejoining "Wing" as a regular are remote at best, even if NBC officially cancels "The Lyon's Den."
Lowe says he left the NBC White House drama simply because there wasn't enough for his character to do, although there reportedly were some major salary issues as well. While "The West Wing" has taken a hit in the ratings recently, most people chalk that up to the unexpectedly strong competition from ABC's "The Bachelor," not Lowe's departure - which means, in turn, that "Wing" producers are not likely to give the actor more money or screen time to return.
It bears remembering, too, that "The West Wing" originally was conceived with Lowe's character at the center of the action. It can't have been easy for the actor to watch colleague Martin Sheen and his less well-known co-stars such as Allison Janney as they quickly grabbed the lyon's -- oops, sorry, lion's share of the spotlight.
Posted by Jo at 02:16 PM
January 16, 2004
Policy shift on `West Wing'
A new chief executive behind the White House drama steers the series toward more predictable TV territory.
By Hal Boedeker
Orlando Sentinel
Posted January 16, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) is still in the White House, but The West Wing is a different show this season. The stars agree.
The Emmy-winning NBC drama has made a necessary shift in tone since Bartlet's daughter was kidnapped, says Richard Schiff, who plays communications director Toby Ziegler.
Former executive producer Aaron Sorkin "created a very romantic world with The West Wing, and time is running out on that kind of romantic honeymoon," Schiff says. "We're no longer really a romantic entity. It's more a reality-driven drama now. . . . It's only so long that you can have a honeymoon, as we all know."
Bradley Whitford, who portrays deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman, says that Sorkin's departure at last season's end was disorienting.
"I always say being on a one-hour drama is like being in an acting cult, and it's like David Koresh left," he says.
Television critics and NBC executives laugh at the comparison. But Whitford says the cast fretted that the scripts and characters might not hold up. He maintains the writing staff that replaced the hands-on Sorkin has held to the show's high standards.
Many critics and fans have been less generous, faulting the show for bewildering twists and an erratic run of episodes. Yet even executive producer John Wells, who guides the show since Sorkin left, acknowledges the show had to change.
"I don't write the way that Aaron does," he says. "I've tried hard to write some of what he did because I don't want it to seem so jarringly different to people who like the show. At the same time, Aaron's talent is huge and very specific, and what he does better than anyone else is this extraordinary repartee, the dialogue, the wit, the pace. I couldn't replicate that if I wanted to, and believe me, I've tried."
Wells, the executive producer of ER and Third Watch, says he has fallen back on what he does best rather than try to emulate Sorkin. Wells says his strong suit is drama.
NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker says he's pleased with the show's performance. He's not worried that the show's audience in the 18-to-49 demographic has declined 10 percent from a year ago -- an NBC publicist later says it's down 16 percent. Numbers aside, NBC has bigger problems to consider, such as life without Friends.
Wells has done a good job, Zucker says, and Sorkin's wanting out after four hard years was understandable.
"After writing 88 episodes of any show, I think it would be hard for anyone to keep that going," Zucker says. "I think change is good."
Sorkin still has a hand in the show, Wells says. He lunches with Wells once a month, receives all the scripts and makes his views known.
In three upcoming episodes, Jay Mohr will appear as a conservative talk-show host who engages in a debate with press secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) on his cable program.
The portrayal of Mohr's character should be fascinating. Wells says he believes that the discourse on some conservative programs could use a little balance. He dismisses the view that The West Wing is slanted one way politically.
"It's a far more centrist Democratic White House than I think we actually get credit for," he says. "There's sort of a general perception that it's remarkably liberal, and it's not."
The show employs writers and advisers who are Democrats and Republicans. Wells describes the fictional White House as being moderate on such issues as the economy and use of force. Even so, many detractors have complained about a liberal slant all through the five-year run.
"Aaron got a bit of a bum rap," Wells says. "Some of the more conservative talk show hosts picked up on certain issues and used that as an example of what the whole show's position was. As these new DVDs come out and people watch them again, you'll see the positions are very centrist."
The Bartlet administration will inevitably be compared to the real White House. The show presented a hopeful view as scandal overshadowed the Clinton administration. Detractors have complained that it's irrelevant with George W. Bush as the nation's leader.
"We have a very conservative White House right now," Wells says. "When put in contrast with our existing White House, it feels like these are much more liberal positions. But the positions have been seen to be centrist Democratic positions for generations."
The show strives to present both points of view on most issues, Wells says. "The only thing that I think we haven't always been fair on is gun control," he adds. The producers don't believe the opponents of gun control have a strong enough argument.
Otherwise, giving both political viewpoints has its advantages in the writing.
"Our first consideration is what's dramatic," Wells says. "Both sides make for an argument, and good scenes make for people disagreeing. You don't want the other side to simply be a straw man that's just there to get knocked down by your remarkably intelligent argument. But that said, our people need to win on the show. That's the entertainment decision that you make. They lose too, but you want them to win more than they lose."
Posted by Jo at 04:00 PM
'West Wing' cast is upbeat
By Matthew Gilbert
Boston Globe
HOLLYWOOD -- While many viewers have been disappointed with "The West Wing" since writer-producer Aaron Sorkin left the series at the end of last season, the cast was upbeat about the show's new feel as they greeted TV critics on Wednesday evening. About the departure of Sorkin and director Tommy Schlamme, Bradley Whitford said, "It was bewildering and disorienting. I always say being on a one-hour drama is like being in an acting cult, and it's like David Koresh left." But he also said that the cast has felt a "tremendous sense of relief" with "interesting stories to act out" in this season's scripts.
Richard Schiff was even more effusive about the show's direction. The absence of Sorkin's "romantic lyricism," he said, has paralleled the post-honeymoon phase of "the real White House." He called the series a "reality-driven drama now," explaining that "this is why Leo isn't as attractive a character as he might have been last year and why Josh and Toby get into fights."
Goodbye romantic lyricism, hello chaos.
Posted by Jo at 03:54 PM
SAG Nominations Announced
Television Week
HBO's "Angels In America" and CBS's "Everybody Loves Raymond" were the most nominated shows in the television categories announced Thursday for the 10th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which honor outstanding performances in 2003.
"Angels In America" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" each received six nominations. They were followed by "The West Wing" and "Will and Grace" with four nominations each. "Six Feet Under" received three nominations.
Among networks, NBC had the most nominations with 13. CBS and HBO tied for second with 10 nominations each. The only other network with more than one nomination was Showtime, which received four.
The nominations were announced in Los Angeles by Screen Actors Guild President Melissa Gilbert and actors Andie MacDowell ("The Last Sign") and Mark Harmon ("Navy NCIS"). The winners will be revealed during a live telecast from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center on Sunday, February 22. It will air on TNT at 8 p.m. (ET).
Two randomly selected panels, totaling 4,200 SAG members from across the United States, chose this year's acting nominees. A list of nominees for prime time television follows:
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Justin Kirk, "Angels in America," HBO; Paul Newman, "Our Town," Showtime; Al Pacino, "Angels in America," HBO; Forest Whitaker, "Deacons for Defense," Showtime; Jeffrey Wright, "Angels in America," HBO.
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Anne Bancroft, "Tennessee William's the Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," Showtime; Helen Mirren, "Tennessee William's the Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," Showtime; Mary-Louise Parker, "Angels in America," HBO; Meryl Streep, "Angels in America," HBO; Emma Thompson, "Angels in America," HBO.
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series: Peter Krause, "Six Feet Under," HBO; Anthony LaPaglia, "Without a Trace," CBS; Martin Sheen, "The West Wing," NBC; Kiefer Sutherland, "24," Fox; Treat Williams, "Everwood," WB.
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Stockard Channing, "The West Wing," NBC; Frances Conroy, "SIx Feet Under," HBO; Tyne Daly, "Judging Amy," CBS; Jennifer Garner, "Alias," ABC; Mariska Hargitay, "Law & Order: SVU," NBC; Allison Janney, "The West Wing," NBC.
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Peter Boyle, "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS; Brad Garrett, Brad Garrett, "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS; Sean Hayes, "Will & Grace," NBC; Ray Romano, "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS; Tony Shalhoub, "Monk," USA.
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Patricia Heaton, "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS; Lisa Kudrow, "Friends," NBC; Debra Messing, "Will & Grace," NBC; Megan Mullally, "Will & Grace," NBC; Doris Roberts, "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS.
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series: Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Jorja Fox, Paul Guilfoyle, Robert David Hall, Marg Helgenberger, William Petersen, Eric Szmanda, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS; Jesse L. Martin, S. Epatha Merkerson, Jerry Orbach, Elisabeth Rohm, Fred Dalton Thompson, Sam Waterston, "Law & Order," NBC; Lauren Ambrose, Frances Conroy, Ben Foster, Rachel Griffiths, Michael C. Hall, Peter Krause, Peter Macdissi, Justina Machado, Freddy Rodriguez, Mathew St. Patrick, Lili Taylor, Rainn Wilson, "Six Feet Under," HBO; Stockard Channing, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Joshua Malina, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff, Martin Sheen, John Spencer, Bradley Whitford, "The West Wing," NBC; Eric Close, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Anthony LaPaglia, Poppy Montgomery, Enrique Murciano, "Without a Trace," CBS.
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, Ray Romano, Madylin Sweetin, "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS; Peri Gilpin, Kelsey Grammer, Jane Leeves, John Mahoney, David Hyde Pierce, "Frasier," NBC; Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox-Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt Le Blanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, "Friends," NBC; Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, "Sex and the City," HBO; Sean Hayes, Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Shelley Morrison, Megan Mullally, "Will & Grace," NBC.
For more information regarding all SAG Award Nominees, please visit the SAG Web site at www.sagawards.com.#
Posted by Jo at 08:10 AM
January 15, 2004
A New 'Wing' Takes Flight
By Noel Holston
Newsday
January 15, 2004
Hollywood - Although Jed Bartlett remains president of "The West Wing's" alternative United States, there was a regime change last year, and not all the show's fans think it has been for the better. Since "ER" executive producer John Wells took the helm, replacing series creator and primary writer Aaron Sorkin, the Emmy-winning political series strikes some longtime constituents as more conflict-oriented, atypically quarrelsome and decidedly less glib.
Cast members at a Q&A with reporters yesterday agreed that "The West Wing" isn't the show it was but they insisted it's only different, not degraded.
"It was a hugely emotional and difficult thing to see Aaron and Tommy (Schlamme, a co-executive producer and key director) go away," said costar Bradley Whitford. "It was bewildering and disorienting. I would say being on a one-hour drama is like being in an acting cult, you know, and it's like David Koresh left. And I think all of us really wondered, 'Does the idea hold?' And I think I do speak for the cast that there was a tremendous sense of relief early on that the idea does hold, the characters hold and the quality of the scripts was going to be high."
Costar Richard Schiff feels Wells' has done more than hold the line. "I think Aaron Sorkin is a wonderful writer in a certain style of kind of a romantic lyricism," he said. "And he created a very romantic world with 'The West Wing.' But time was running out on that kind of romantic honeymoon."
Schiff suggested that the plotline that bridged last season's end and the current season's start - the kidnapping of President Bartlett's daughter - changed the characters' way of seeing the world and thus necessitated a style change.
"We're no longer really a romantic entity," he said. "It's more naturalism and reality-driven drama now."
Wells said he believes the show, thanks to plot developments Sorkin set in motion, is "more in line emotionally with where the country is" post 9/11. "There are different stakes in government than there were when we started the show."
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc. |
Posted by Jo at 08:08 AM
January 13, 2004
DGA Nominees Announced
Television Week
A trio of directors of episodes from HBO's "Six Feet Under" and directors of Fox's "24" and NBC's "The West Wing" were among nominees announced by the Directors Guild of America for outstanding directorial achievement for 2003 in the television categories of Dramatic Series Night. The announcement was made by DGA President Michael Apted and Awards Committee Chair Howard Storm.
Nominees were also named in the categories of Comedy Series, Musical Variety, Daytime Serials and Children's Programs. Winners will be revealed during the 56th Annual DGA Awards Dinner Feb. 7 in Los Angeles.
"The DGA television nominees represent an extraordinarily talented and diverse group," Mr. Apted said. "Through the vast reach of television, these 25 directors have touched the lives of people all over the globe, and I'd like to commend them on their superb work and congratulate each of them on their nominations."
The list of nominees announced on Tuesday:
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series Night:
--Alan Ball for the "I'm Sorry I'm Lost" episode of "Six Feet Under" (HBO). Unit production manager: Robert Del Valle; first assistant director: Alan Connell; second assistant director: Mark Hansson; second second assistant director: Cara McCastlain; additional second assistant director: Edward Kalpa.
--Kathy Bates for the "Twilight" episode of "Six Feet Under" (HBO). Unit production manager: Robert Del Valle; first assistant director: Scottie Gissel; second assistant director: Mark Hansson; second second assistant director: Cara McCastlain; additional second assistant director: Edward Kalpa.
--Jon Cassar for the "7:00 AM - 8:00 AM" episode of "24" (Fox). Unit production manager: Robin Chamberlin; first assistant director: Michael Klick; second assistant director: Nicole Burke; second second assistant directors: Mark Rabinowitz; Rebecca Levinson.
--Christopher Misiano for the "25" episode of "The West Wing" (NBC). Unit production manager: Dylan Massin; first assistant director: Douglas S. Ornstein; second assistant director: Catherine Bond; second second assistant director: Cary Jones.
--Alan Poul for the "Nobody Sleeps" episode of "Six Feet Under" (HBO). Unit production manager: Robert Del Valle; first assistant director: Scottie Gissel; second assistant director: Mark Hansson; second second assistant director: Cara McCastlain; additional second assistant director: Edward Kalpa.
Posted by Jo at 10:26 PM
January 11, 2004
With Sorkin's departure, 'West Wing' has lost its spark
By Terri Hahn
The Grand Island Independent
Where is Aaron Sorkin when you need him?
I don't know where he is, but it's becoming more evident every week that "The West Wing" needs him now more than ever.
The show's creator/writer/executive producer was shown the door last spring after four seasons, reportedly because studio heads were frustrated with Sorkin's inability to meet deadlines. After Sorkin's dismissal, fans feared the show would lose the elements that made it special.
They were right.
I've been a fan of "West Wing" (8 p.m. Wednesday, NBC) since it first debuted in September 1999. I don't think I've missed more than a couple of episodes in four and a half seasons. I liked the characters, the plot lines and the dialogue. The show had a good mix of comedy and drama and knew when to use each. Serious subjects were treated with respect, but there was a lot of room for humor (the Thanksgiving episode in Season 2 where C.J. Craig, the press secretary, had to choose which of two turkeys would get the President's annual Thanksgiving pardon, is memorable). Each character had his/her good and bad traits. They weren't perfect, but they seemed like real people in real jobs with real problems.
Of course, not every episode was perfect. There were miscues and missteps. President Bartlet's speeches got a little preachy sometimes. But those moments were so infrequent and there was so much good stuff in each episode, that fans could forgive those transgressions.
Then comes Season 5.
Now Sorkin (along with Thomas Schlamme) is gone and John Wells (a co-producer over at "ER") is sitting in the executive producer/ writer chair. The changes were evident right from the start:
The witty banter is gone. Dialogue seems forced and wooden.
The characters seem to have forgotten who they are and how they got there.
The plot lines seem contrived.
The First Lady, fabulously played by Stockard Channing, has been banished to the family farm in New Hampshire.
And Wells seems to forget from time to time whether he is on the set of "West Wing" or "ER."
Did a recent scene of Josh Lyman bursting through a set of double doors in the West Wing remind anyone else of the scene in the opening credits of "ER" where Dr. Romano bursts through a set of double doors in the Emergency Room? In the scene with Josh, I half expected to see a gurney flying through the hallways right behind him. The fact that Laura Inness, who plays Dr. Kerry Weaver on "ER," is also directing episodes of "West Wing," makes it even more confusing.
But I've stuck with the show all season, wanting to give the new staff a chance to get settled in. I didn't want to give up on the show just yet.
But Wednesday night may have been the last straw. The episode dealing with the death of a former president left me wondering just how far this show can sink before someone puts it out of its misery. I've thought about where the show would go when Bartlet's second term is up. Now I'm wondering if it will even get that far.
The show focused on Bartlet and former presidents traveling aboard Air Force One to the funeral, an uprising in Saudi Arabia, a rift between North Carolina and Connecticut over a stolen copy of the Bill of Rights after the Civil War, tension between Leo and his daughter, C.J. asking questions about mind control experiments at the Pentagon, and something about Abraham Lincoln. Whatever the message was, it went right over my head.
The show opened with Former President Lassiter writing a letter to Bartlet that was delivered to the President after Lassiter died. What did he write? Who knows? We only saw and heard bits and pieces of it.
Speechwriter Toby Ziegler was assigned to write the eulogy for Lassiter, a man he had never met. He spent the entire trip on Air Force Once agonizing over what to write and even helped himself to a drink from the president's liquor cabinet to help him along. What he finally came up with, we'll never know, because we never heard it.
The show's references to Lincoln were vague and obscure and I never did get the point. The letter from Lassiter made some reference along the lines of "Visit Lincoln and listen." The show ended with Bartlet at the Lincoln Memorial, just standing there, listening, I guess. To what, I don't know.
This is what is frustrating about the show this year. I used to come to the end of an episode sorry that it was over, feeling that I had been on a 60-minute wild wide. Usually I had learned something about politics, history or government.
At the end of Wednesday's episode, I felt nothing. Watching Bartlet at the Memorial, I kept waiting for something, anything. Even a "To be continued ..." line to keep me interested in next week's show would have been welcome. It was not to be.
Posted by Jo at 09:58 AM
January 09, 2004
First year of 'West Wing' hooks the family
By Lisa Pierot
Palm Beach Post
By the time this column comes out, the New Year will already be under way and so I am not feeling any pressure to write the usual stuff about resolutions (I have none) or reflections on the previous year (You know what that's been like). Having exhausted these trendy topics, there is really only one thing left to write about which I'm sure you have already guessed but just in case, it's The West Wing.
I wasn't tuned in to The West Wing for the first season. I came in late starting with season two. So when I discovered that the entire first season is now out on DVD, I ordered it pronto. It never occurred to me that anyone would be watching it other than me and I had somehow managed to see reruns of the first season anyway but if you are a fan of "Winging It" as we call it in my house, you know that it doesn't matter how many times you watch any particular episode. It will always be thoroughly entertaining.
When my sister Carrie arrived with her three kids a few days before Christmas, I was already in a Zen state of mind having watched the entire DVD set in the solitude of my own living room before school let out for the holidays and company descended. It seemed only natural to try to win over my sister but I was totally unprepared to find every kid in the house racing to find their spots on the couches whenever I announced we were "boarding Air Force One".
But that is exactly what happened. This show is so brilliant in its first season that 13-year-olds like it as much as 9-year-olds and 16-year-olds. To my delight, we were having conversations about how laws are passed, and what the deputy chief of staff does. Nick, my 16-year-old nephew especially loved to repeat the phrase "There are two things you never want people to see how they're made: laws and sausages." It got to the point in my house where if one person was behind an episode or two, the rest of us would re-watch them because we didn't want anyone to miss what had happened.
Then yesterday I had to show the house and my good friend and Realtor, Vivienne, came by early and we had some time to talk. She said, "Lisa, you won't believe what Bob and I have been doing with the little down time that we've had over the holidays." Now I should mention that when her car pulled into the driveway I was watching, (yes, of course) The West Wing. I turned it off reluctantly before she got to the door and I made a note of how perhaps I was neglecting my social life in favor of President Bartlet but I'm just being honest. I really didn't want to turn it off.
So Viv tells me Bob called the other day from some store to tell her that he was holding in his hands the entire first season of The West Wing on DVD. She didn't hesitate when she told him to buy it and bring it home. It would be their Christmas present to each other. And so when all their company left on Christmas night, the two of them curled up with hot cocoa or maybe it was a drink and they put in the DVD and basically did the same thing at their house that we've been doing at mine.
I know it's not my job to tell any of you what to read or watch but you all know that I do it anyway. The West Wing, that first golden season, it's not just good TV, it's mesmerizing TV. It's full of witty banter and humor and information that makes you want to delve into what our government does, or at least, should be doing. It leaves you always with a smile on your face and a hope that perhaps someday, somehow we can have a government run by such people with such virtues and ideals.
I've pretty much given up on Sunday morning politics because I find them utterly depressing and I get mad at so many things. This has been a tough adjustment for me because I love all things political. I like to think that my saving grace has been The West Wing. It hasn't hurt Emily either, who is studying civics this year and now actually understands how a bill is passed, how a Supreme Court justice is nominated and confirmed and just how incredibly slow the wheels of government turn even in a make-believe White House.
So Happy New Year! I have no resolutions but I do have some great advice. Get the first season of The West Wing. We all need to "Wing It" a little more.
Posted by Jo at 09:43 AM
L.A. makeup artist remembers her roots
By Betsy Hansen
The Fremont Tribune
After Kim Meyer graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in art, she went to Los Angeles to get her master's.
One night, when Billy Crystal was a guest on Saturday Night Live, Meyer heard Crystal talking about his makeup artist; and she changed her mind.
"I wasn't really even interested in business, and I saw that being a makeup artist could be a marketable artist skill. I wanted to be creative and to be paid for my work," she said.
It was a career move that has kept Meyer interested for 16 years.
"I am actually being creative on a daily basis," she said. "I have a paintbrush in my hand and I get to meet different people and go different places."
It sounds glamorous to Midwestern ears when Meyer speaks of working with Walter Matthau, James Garner, Ethan Hawke, Isabella Rosallini, Katey Segal and Martin Sheen. But the work has demands unique to the business.
"The worst location I was ever at was in Vernon, Calif.," she said. "We were shooting at night. The shots were inside and outside railroad cars next to a hog rendering plant. It was very cold (I had to pull out all my old Nebraska clothes) and it stunk really bad. Think railroad cars next to Hormel."
A co-worker of Meyer's summed up the life of a makeup artist on the set.
Her observations: "You live in a trailer because you work in a trailer and you work incredibly long hours. You pee in a can because you use porta-potties. You carry around your own chair (everybody carries their chair. It's always a topic of discussion — where did you get your chair?) You spend a lot of time doing stuff like mopping sweat off people and digging out eye boogers."
Maybe it's not as glamorous as it would seem.
Meyer is currently working as a makeup artist on "West Wing," "Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Daughters" and doing sports makeup for Eric Dickerson. One day, soon after John Ritter died, Meyer was doing some touchups to the makeup of cast members Katey Segal and the actresses who play the daughters. They were gathered on the set of the girls' bedroom when one of the props, a music box, began to play.
"I don't believe in that supernatural stuff, but when the music box stopped playing, Segal said, ‘That was odd. That must be John.' Everybody said, ‘Hi, John,' and the music box started to pay again. It was spooky," recalled Meyer. "Everybody in the building still misses him."
John Spencer of the "West Wing" cast calls Meyer "Nebraska."
She said of Spencer that he is "a good man. He's very professional — as they all are on that show."
James Garner is "a sweetheart and a very funny man."
Martin Sheen has a really hard time remembering people's names — a trait for which he is well known.
"He tries, but he just can't. I was there one day when his son, Emilio Estavez, was playing a younger version of the President (Sheen's character). Everyone in the cast was teasing Martin because he remembered Estavez's name all day."
Meyer admires Martin Sheen for his generosity to everyone on the set. Each year, Sheen charters a bus and takes the group to Las Vegas.
People in Los Angeles come from all over, yet on the "West Wing" set there are four people from Nebraska. The prop-master, Blanche, is from Howells; the wardrobe guy is from Lincoln and one of the new characters, an actress, lived in Omaha.
"We spent hours discussing the firing of Coach Solich," Meyers remembered.
Getting started in the business was tough.
"I worked for free at the beginning. I remember my first paying job was on a ‘B' film and I got paid $100 for the week. At first, I worked 70 hours a week, but you meet people. It's whom you know in this business, so you have to start making contacts. You have to be out there where the work is, and the work is in L.A. You have to have a good work ethic and coming from Nebraska helps. It's all those years of detasseling," Meyer said with a smile in her voice.
Meyer is rock-solid Nebraskan. The daughter of Terry and Beth Meyer of Fremont and the late Iliene Johnson of Valley wonders about whether her work has substance, wanting to do something good for the world. She worries whether the beauty she is artificially creating will screw up some girl who thinks she has to be perfect. She does not want to add to that image of perfection. And her professional ambitions are realistic and somewhat humble.
"Personally, I just want to be challenged artistically, creatively. I want to have enough work to pay my expenses and have fun, to meet people and enjoy myself at work. It's really nice to be involved in a process where you are working with a lot of creative people who have all come together to create something new."
Posted by Jo at 09:34 AM
January 08, 2004
'West Wing' 100th episode
Despite staff changes behind the scenes, the show remains the yardstick by which primetime dramas are measured
By Ray Richmond
Hollywood Reporter
It isn't an exaggeration to say that as it achieves the 100th-episode milestone tonight at 9, NBC's "The West Wing" has done much to change the primetime TV landscape. With its elaborate production, abundant location work and detailed permanent Oval Office on the Warner Bros. lot, the show has ushered in a new era of big-budget drama during its highly decorated 4 1/2 years of life.
Not that many shows enjoy as hefty a budget as "West Wing." The ensemble political hour is made for an estimated $6 million an episode, and NBC has renewed it through the 2004-05 season, with an option for 2005-06. There is little doubt that when all is said and done, the show will be viewed as one of television's true classics, replete with top-notch production values and an impeccable cast.
Say what you want about "West Wing's" ratings dip and purported slip in quality in 2003, not to mention the much-publicized exit last year of creator/executive producer/chief writer/all-around guru Aaron Sorkin and primary director Thomas Schlamme: The turmoil has done little to slow the steam the show has built during its first 99 episodes. And the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has taken notice: "West Wing" has received 72 Primetime Emmy nominations during its four years of eligibility and won 23 statuettes, including four outstanding drama series wins in a row. (The consecutive top-drama trophies tie a record set by NBC's "Hill Street Blues" during the 1980s.) As cable programs continue to make qualitative inroads on what was the exclusive domain of broadcast, "West Wing" has proved one of the precious few exceptions: Its critical acclaim -- at least in sheer statuette terms -- is unmatched.
For its part, the "West Wing" brain trust finds discussion of so-called backlash from TV critics to be greatly overblown.
"When we look at the critical response, we still find much more positive than negative," says co-executive producer Lew Wells, a five-time Emmy winner and brother of executive producer John Wells. "In any event, as creative artists, we simply have to look past those things and not stop and stare at the reviews too much, or you get yourself into trouble."
Adds director/co-executive producer Alex Graves: "The goal of the show remains the same: We're trying first and foremost to entertain people; we're working to be a relevant hour to watch. I don't mean that to sound at all pretentious: We just want to be interesting and intelligent. That's the goal when Aaron was here, and it's the goal now with the new writers. But the show has always been difficult to pull off on a scene-by-scene basis given traditional TV budget and schedule constraints. Not that I'm complaining about our budget, which is very healthy."
Tonight's 100th episode features John Goodman and James Cromwell as former presidents who attend the funeral of another ex-president with current president Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen). The three will share sobering thoughts on what the weight of being chief executive has meant in their lives.
The past two seasons also have found Matthew Perry lending the show a boost in a recurring role as a savvy White House associate counsel. The "Friends" star initially appeared on "West Wing" in the spring and was featured again in a sweeps episode in November. Such appearances are part of an ongoing effort to keep "West Wing" -- which offers viewers a realistic behind-the-scenes peek into the Oval Office through the eyes of an eclectic group of frenzied White House staffers and the first family -- as fresh and lively as when charged onto the air in 1999.
During this fifth season, Annabeth Gish has joined the cast in a recurring role as the president's eldest daughter, with Steven Eckholdt portraying her husband. Gary Cole also has begun a recurring role as vice president during a season that has found the prez invoking the 25th Amendment to step down from office while dealing with his daughter Zoey's (Elisabeth Moss) abduction.
An entirely new team of writers also has come aboard this season, forging new directions and a fresh perspective. But the show isn't too different from what it was at the start: "West Wing" set the bar exceedingly high with a groundbreaking craft-oriented approach that continues to be the standard against which most other TV dramas are
measured. A large part of the show's success surely can be ascribed to its lush, sophisticated look, which Graves emphasizes was established by Schlamme and director of photography Thomas Del Ruth from the get-go.
"They were married to a feature film look that romanticized the White House being depicted," Graves says. "They established a feel that's served us throughout our run. But one of the secrets is that there's no real single style for the show; it's the script that dictates the style. We kind of work backwards once we know what the end of the show is, and that may affect the lighting, the costumes and the amount of camera movement we do and don't use."
Del Ruth, who has won a pair of Emmys (in 2000 and 2001) and has been nominated five times, recalls that the idea for "West Wing's" look came out of a desire to "push the boundaries of what you can do on TV and eliminate convention from the imagery." That included plenty of experimentation.
"What you don't want to do as a cinematographer is overlight the actors to the point where the story is lost, and there's no emotional impact for the audience," Del Ruth says. "So what we did in the photography is provide extreme areas of darkness and high contrast to accentuate the occasional shady nature of what government is. There is a certain amount of 'should not know'; the shadowy areas are designed as a metaphor for hiding the truth."
In addition, the actors' lighting has been designed to "give a sense of kinetic motion to scenes, even when the players are in relatively static positions," Del Ruth says. "So there's always something to catch your eye that's underlined by intensely bright light and accompanied by deep shadow. These are the concepts that have driven us from the beginning; they aren't scene-to-scene textures so much as an overall theme."
Such artistic nuance doesn't come without a steep price tag attached, Del Ruth acknowledges. More than 600 lighting instruments were built into the initial set, he notes. "Normally, you have only about 25% of that, but there was desire from the outset to evoke a kinetic sense of government in motion," Del Ruth says. "This show is all about movement, and by and large, it's been money well-spent."
"West Wing" production designer Ken Hardy, a three-time Emmy nominee for the show, describes his task as working to make government look and feel more exciting than it actually is.
"You're basically taking a boring government institution and turning their space into something rich and powerful," Hardy says. "The mandate was to take what's going on in those drab offices and reflect the power with something that's visually arresting. I mean, the way government typically operates is much less interesting than you want it to be visually; making it exciting has been the great design challenge of the show, and I feel like we've met it."
And how: There are few who would dispute the impeccable detail and functionality of the show's Oval Office set. But it has been about far more than a mere spare-no-expense ethic, Lew Wells believes.
"It's just a sincere desire to re-create the world of the West Wing of the White House in as great detail as we possibly could," Wells says. "We took a lot of artistic leaps of faith: We created something that was more visually interesting than the real thing for filming purposes. For instance, the real West Wing has a lot of hallways and white walls, so we created flow-through spaces and window offices, rather than the more secure and private layout that's the reality."
Graves believes that the key to "West Wing's" success is the talent the show has been able to attract. "It's a combination of a love affair with the subject matter and the fact that just an unbelievable group of people came together to do the show," he says. "One of the secrets is clearly the incredible amount of talent behind the scenes as well as onscreen." Aside from Sheen, the much-honored "West Wing" cast includes Stockard Channing, Allison Janney, Dule Hill, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, Janel Moloney, Joshua Malina and John Spencer, an Emmy-winning (in 2002) veteran actor who plays President Bartlet's loyal chief of staff, Leo McGarry.
But even with all of the budget and effort expended on how "West Wing" looks, Spencer believes, the show would be nothing without the writing.
"It always starts with the words," Spencer says. "A wonderful actor can make mediocre words sound good, but he can't achieve greatness unless the words are there, too. Very early on, we were all blessed by the incredible writing of Aaron Sorkin. That's why the transition period from Aaron to John Wells has been so effortless: Aaron set the table impeccably."
Not that Spencer is minimizing the show's look. The photography turns the show into "22 little features every season," he says. "We're shot on the same film stock that's used for features, and, I mean, we're on an extraordinary set -- it's the first one I've ever worked on that has four actual walls and a ceiling. That's one reason the acting has been able to flourish: We all feel like we're really in the White House." Spencer raves about how the performers regularly walk into a perfectly formed room with perfect props and actual memorabilia on the walls.
"It's the rarest of rarities in TV," Spencer says. "I mean, people just have no idea how hard it is to have a hit on television -- all of the stars have to align just right, and there's more than a little bit of luck involved."
That luck is proving itself again in "West Wing's" syndication life. The show runs four times daily Monday-Thursday and twice on Friday on the NBC-owned Bravo cable network.
"'The West Wing' has been a ratings hit since it premiered last summer," Bravo vp strategic programming Dan Harrison says. "It's proved to be a perfect fit for our upscale audience."
The show's continued success remains a source of pride for cast and crew. "To survive that long in this day and age is a great accomplishment," Graves says. "It's something none of us ever takes for granted."
Published Jan. 07, 2004
Posted by Jo at 10:53 AM