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December 16, 2004
Campaign stop: One-time Emmy juggernaut The West Wing takes a detour to Stouffville, Ont.
National Post
Small-town Ontario got a sniff of the big time yesterday when The West Wing popped into Stouffville, Ont., for a day's shooting. The Post's Rob McKenzie, who lives in Stouffville, files this chronology:
FRIDAY, NOV. 26
Wife steps in the door with news of a "Guess what? You'll never believe it" nature. Says she just heard The West Wing will be filming at a local restaurant, The Fickle Pickle.
Fickle Pickle? West Wing? As if.
Moments later on Friday, Nov. 26
Um, it's true.
TUESDAY, DEC. 7
Breakfast meeting with Nick Paraskevakos, owner of Fickle Pickle, a cozy spot with booths and a waitress who calls people "hon."
This is the first time fame has touched the Pickle, which will be subbing for the Merrimack Restaurant, a real-life diner and occasional political hotspot in Manchester, N.H.
"First they called me," Nick recounts. "Then about 10 people showed up to see if they liked it. They liked it." After that, "They brought about 20 people looking the place over, checking the lighting, inside the kitchen."
The pastorals of Greece hung on the Pickle walls will have to come down, perhaps replaced by portraits of the show's President Bartlet. And the location people took a copy of his menu, presumably to Americanize its prices. But they'll keep the Pickle name.
Is Nick a West Wing fan? "Tomorrow I'm going to make a point to watch it."
I'm no better -- when the Stouffville shoot was confirmed, my first thought was someone might want to give the local school board a heads-up that Rob Lowe is coming to town.
Lowe left the show a year-and-a-half ago.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 8
Sit in on a noonhour planning session between Ruth LeBlanc, manager of the Stouffville Country Village Business Improvement Area, and Drazen Baric, assistant location manager for the shoot. Drazen has just come from the town offices, where he was working with roads guys to figure out how to divert traffic during the shoot -- whether to entirely close off Main Street, or to instead let vehicles through except during filming.
This is all about details. The wreaths and Christmas lights on the block of the shoot will have to come down. Ruth has to get stores whose signs might appear on camera to sign a Warner Bros. waiver. The production trucks can park in the municipal lot to the east of the shoot and in a smaller lot by the old town hall. In all, some 100 people are working on this project.
Drazen says he and location manager Neil Lum Lock spent days driving around Southern Ontario, looking for places that met The West Wing's needs. Besides Stouffville, they also struck gold in Dundas, Port Perry and Uxbridge, among others.
Stouffville's moment in the sun will occupy three or four minutes of airtime, Drazen says. Jimmy Smits (as a Democratic congressman and potential president) and Bradley Whitford (as Josh Lyman, White House strategist) will walk the half-block from Guardian Drugs to the Pickle. Then they'll go inside the restaurant and talk.
Drazen has been a location scout for eight years. What he really wants to be is a writer. A few years back he sat down with the great Canadian jockey Sandy Hawley and wrote a screenplay based on his life -- his many successes and his fight with cancer. But when Drazen pitched it, everyone told him nobody wants to watch a story about horse racing.
Then Seabiscuit made US$150-million.
Drazen is pitching his screenplay again.
THURSDAY, DEC. 9
Top-rated show on television, CSI, airs tonight. It has the buzz West Wing enjoyed from its debut in 1999 until around 2001. Now West Wing sits a middling 23rd in Nielsen Media Research rankings.
CTV stopped showing The West Wing after this season's premiere to make room for CSI: New York. Its return is indefinite.
As ratings go down, shows become zanier in their plotting. On last night's episode, President Bartlet was paralyzed by his multiple sclerosis during a summit in China and Josh had to deal with an asteroid headed not just for Earth but specifically for the United States.
MONDAY, DEC. 13
Marcia Snively is executive director of the Manchester Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. Extremely gracious is she, saying she begrudges Stouffville not one little bit for scoring a well-paying gig as her city's stunt double.
Marcia tried hard to convince The West Wing to let Manchester be Manchester, spending two weeks building her case and scouting possible locations. She figures that in the end, Canada's lower dollar was the difference-maker.
West Wing producers did ask Marcia to collect some props for use in Ontario shoot. They wanted 100 business cards (some will show up on a bulletin board in The Fickle Pickle) and a Manchester flag. Marcia describes these -- this is so poignant -- as "New Hampshire artifacts."
Nobody's shooting any big-name TV shows in Manchester today. About all that's being shot around Manchester lately are white-tailed deer. When I ask Marcia what productions the state bagged recently, she mentions On Golden Pond (1981).
Is Marcia a West Wing fan? "I have seen it," she replies diplomatically. "I don't watch it every single week."
Wednesday, Dec. 15
Smits, who grew up in Brooklyn and Puerto Rico and knows to dress for the weather, seems entirely content in the early-morning cold. Whitford, who grew up in Wisconsin and should know better, is lightly dressed and appears approximately as warm as Captain Scott during the final moments of his doomed 1912 Antarctic expedition.
The instant makeover of Stouffville's Main Street is most impressive. CIBC is now Revolution Credit Union. U.S.-style blue postboxes are all around, as are American flags, and newsboxes not only for USA Today but for The Hippo, a Manchester alternative weekly. A statue of Jefferson stands outside the old town hall (though the lofty quotation on its plaque misspells "altar" as "alter"). New Hampshire licence plates are screwed onto all vehicles in camera range.
The hours of shooting consist of much standing around, interrupted by spasms of activity.
Producer Mike Hissrich says in an interview on the set that the Ontario trip was about two months in the making. He says these towns were chosen not because of lower labour costs but because they can look like both New Hampshire (rolling hills; cold) and Iowa (cornstalks; flat; cold), dual sites of The West Wing's upcoming presidential primaries. Further, the scenes take place in winter, and Ontario has "guaranteed weather" that its American rivals do not. "We knew," he says, "we would get some snow and cold."
The episodes shot in Southern Ontario will air in three episodes in January.
Posted by Jo at 05:20 PM
'West Wing' shoots in Canada
By BILL BRIOUX
Toronto Sun
TORONTO -- Jimmy Smits is sucking on a Stouffville lollipop. The popular TV star, new to NBC's Emmy-winning drama The West Wing, has just ducked out of the cold and into Stouffville, Ont.'s Emerald Isle pub. "It is a bit of a shock to be in Canada," said Smits. "I knew the storylines were going to take us north. I just didn't realize this far north."
Executive producer John Wells (ER, Third Watch) invited the L.A. Law and NYPD Blue star to join the drama as The West Wing prepares for life after two-term president Josiah Bartlett (Martin Sheen, who did not make the trip north). Smits plays Matt Santos, a Houston congressman with his eye on the White House.
The story calls for Santos to test his political mettle in the wintery New Hampshire primaries. Presidential administrator Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) seems to be backing his campaign. West Wing regulars Janel Moloney (Donna Moss) and Josh Malina (Will Bailey), as well as recurring players Tim Matheson, Gary Cole and Annabeth Gish, were in on the Ontario shoot. The episodes will air in February.
Smits has worked Toronto before. "Your film festival is rocking now," he said. "It's become a barometer for the industry, as well as one giant party."
Smits says there was no partying on this shoot. Yesterday was the end of a marathon 12-day Southern Ontario swing. The town names fall from his lips like he grew up around here. "Dundas, Ancaster, Kleinberg -- little hamlets, as you guys like to call them."
Yesterday's operation was based at The Fickle Pickle, a local eatery on Stouffville's main street. It is standing in for the Merrimack, the famed New England eatery where the real Yankee pols gladhand every four years.
Producer Michael Hissrich was all set to change the sign but decided to leave the Pickle in place. "You can't invent that," he said.
Few other signs of Canada remain. Above the green and white Fickle Pickle sign waved a lone Maple Leaf flag. It's not in the shot, so it stays.
Across the street, past the Stouffville clock tower, three Old Faithfuls wave. Cardboard New Hampshire licence plates were placed on cars parked on both sides of main street. Two phony U.S. News trucks sit nearby.
Even Sun photographer Veronica Henri was fooled. She went to mail a letter in a blue U.S. mailbox before realizing it was a prop.
All the merchants had to remove their Christmas decorations during the shoot. It didn't seem to bother Sara Marsala, owner of the Tempest In A Teapot gift shop. "We're highly excited," she said. "This doesn't happen every day in our quaint little town."
Also pumped is the mayor, Susan Sherban, who snuck into the street scene (along with 59 other extras). Even though she found her back-and-forth sidewalk duty "tedious, repetitive and non-creative," she wasn't going away. "You wanna be a mayor or you wanna be an actor?" she asked, rhetorically. "You wanna be an actor."
Especially when you get to hang with Jimmy Smits. "I told Jimmy he was buying the beer," she said.
Beer would have been handy. The task yesterday afternoon was to get through four-and-a-quarter pages of tricky West Wing dialogue. (Each episode runs around 65 pages.) That's a sprint back on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, Calif., where a seasoned Hollywood crew usually works this show. This mostly local crew has to rip through it, then head to Port Perry for a final night setup.
Besides the cast, producer Hissrich and director/executive producer Chris Missiano worked the Ontario shoot. Renowned director of photography Dean Cundey (Jurassic Park, Apollo 13) was behind the lens. Virtually everybody else working the shoot was Canadian, a big shot in the arm for our local TV industry -- even if it raised a red flag or two south of the border.
As Whitford, who has been with the series since Day One, said, the Ontario airlift has caused a little tension. After all, this is a series about the U.S. president. What's it doing on foreign soil?
Producers were taken by our New England-style architecture -- as well as our still lower dollar.
"As actors, we go where the work is," said Whitford, who notes that California crews are just as upset about other states luring shows away with tax incentives.
Ontario Manager Of Films Donna Zuchlinski, on site yesterday, lobbied hard for the gig. Cozy Toronto hotel rooms were comped for the stars. Other incentives were hustled. Local unions cut deals.
Whitford said the Canadian crews have been "fantastic," an assessment echoed by both Smits and Hissrich.
That goes double for the townspeople. High winds at the Hamilton airport threatened to sabotage an earlier setup. Prop planes were literally being blown off the runway.
A quarter-hour later, local airport workers moved two 727s in place -- 15 real planes in all. "People have been standing on their heads left and right," said location manager Neil Lum Lock.
The scene finally wrapped, Smits stops to autograph a copy of the Stouffville Sun-Tribune before heading to a late lunch. "Donna -- Best wishes to you," he writes. It is one of hundreds he's penned over the shoot.
That doesn't happen much anymore in California, he says. "People there are intrusive, they always see it.
"Here, they're jazzed."
'Josh Lyman' blasts Bush
Think Josh Lyman is a Washington rebel? He's nothing compared to the actor who plays him.
Bradley Whitford, who campaigned for Democratic candidates Al Gore and John Kerry in the last two presidential elections, has no time for George W. Bush.
"He's endangering my children's future -- your children's future," Whitford told the Sun yesterday in a surprisingly spirited political vent.
Whitford found the outcome of the recent U.S. election "Orwellian." No fan of Bush strategist Karl Rove ("a dangerous coward -- please quote me"), he said he was "sick of the Republican end-zone victory dance."
As for people who just want Hollywood people to "shut up" about politics, he has this answer: "The problem isn't celebrities acting like politicians -- it's politicians acting like celebrities."
Whitford, who is married to Malcolm In The Middle's Jane Kaczmarek, isn't afraid to put his money where his mouth is. During the last election, the Wisconsin-native took out a full page ad disclosing that, "in this age of terror," while education and children's programs are being cut, he got a $100,000 tax cut.
His pointed message: "Support the Hollywood elite, support George Bush."
Posted by Jo at 05:10 PM
Mayor gets role as extra in local West Wing episode
by Hannelore Volpe
yorkregion.com
Filming of an episode of TV's The West Wing yesterday raised the excitement level along Stouffville's Main Street, particularly at The Fickle Pickle.
The restaurant was transformed into a New Hampshire eatery where Matt Santos, portrayed by actor Jimmy Smits, stops to campaign during primaries leading up to the United States Democratic Party leadership convention. The restaurant has been owned by Nick Paraskevakos for almost seven years.
Trucks and crews rolled into town Tuesday morning as Main Street was de-Christmased from Market Street to Church Street, since these episodes are set in January. That meant removing all the Christmas wreaths in the area and having merchants take Christmas-related items out of their front windows.
The whole adventure started about a month ago, Mr. Paraskevakos recalled, when someone walked into his restaurant and asked if he could take some pictures. He left without any explanation. Two weeks later, however, a call came to the Fickle Pickle to ask if the restaurant could be used as a site for the show.
Location manager Neil Lum Lock said the company had looked at about seven restaurants from Hamilton to Port Perry over a three-week period before settling on Stouffville.
Once the word got out in Stouffville, people came by to ask about the show.
"The customers are excited," Mr. Paraskevakos said. "People are curious."
When a hand-written sign first went up on the restaurant's front door telling customers the restaurant was to be closed Wednesday, "some people thought it was a joke," Mr. Paraskevakos said.
Nearby merchants, such as Sara Marsala of the Tempest in a Teapot, didn't mind changing the decor in her windows and was looking forward to being an extra. She was one of about 10 Main Street merchants who were affected by the filming.
Other extras include Mayor Sue Sherban, Eric Button, Ruth LeBlanc, Pam Mandich and her husband Rob McKenzie. They had to be ready well before 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning to have hair and makeup done. Fickle Pickle cook Natasha Tsapoitis was to be part of the filming as well.
Anna Papageorgiou, who has been a waitress at the restaurant since it opened almost seven years ago, said, "I am so excited. A nice thing happened to my restaurant."
Much of the crew for this film shoot is Canadian, said set designer, Cal Loucks, who was busy nailing up pictures of U.S. scenes and President John F. Kennedy Tuesday afternoon.
This is the first time a film has been shot at the Fickle Pickle, but it's certainly not the first time a movie crew has come into town. A DeGrassi: The Second Generation episode set partly in Stouffville was shot at the train station and other locations about two years ago.
A young Kirsten Dunst played a school girl in the movie Strike. That time the setting was the Towne Restaurant, which is now Dinarte's.
The late Richard Harris was also spotted here in the early 1980s. And Christopher Walken was at Summitview Public School for the filming of The Dead Zone.
The Stouffville episode will result in about four minutes of film, Stouffville Business Improvement Area manager Ruth LeBlanc said.
Filming for The West Wing episode was also done in Kleinburg, Uxbridge, Port Perry and Pickering.
Information on the episode's broadcast date is not available. Three episodes were filmed during show's trip to Ontario.
Posted by Jo at 04:56 PM
December 15, 2004
The West Wing
By Debi Enker
The Age
December 16, 2004
And so order has been restored. In a fashion. As much as it can be amid the hurly-burly of the White House. President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) is back where he belongs, in the Oval Office, consulting with his faithful chief of staff, Leo McGarry (John Spencer), holding court with his sharp-witted and devoted staff: communications director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) and his deputy, Will Bailey (Joshua Malina); press secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney); and deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford).
Gone is his temporary replacement, blunt Republican heavyweight Glenallen Walken (John Goodman), a leader whose bomb-first, ask-questions-later approach showed the shell-shocked Bartlet team just how swiftly things could move in the seat of power. Now the hunt is on for a new Vice-President and all sorts of politicking is under way. It's back to business for the fast-talking types who zoom through the corridors of power.
It's also time for fans of The West Wing, those of us who have patiently persisted despite Nine's best efforts to dissuade us, to assess the post-Sorkin era. The network has delayed screening this fifth season, and, since Aaron Sorkin left the show, it's the first one not to have his fingerprints all over it. Tales of the writer-producer's working methods have become something of an industry legend. He wrote most of the first four seasons himself: about 88 hours of television over four years.
He apparently wrote most of them in a terrific spurts of creative activity inspired by pressing - and even expired - deadlines. Reports suggest he wrote in frenzied gusts, sometimes in 24-hour non-stop jags as his scripts were due. There were stories of the frustrated cast members standing around idly for days, when they could have been rehearsing their dialogue-heavy parts, and then having to digest the huge hunks of words in a quick gulp, as the cameras started rolling.
It sounded like a production nightmare, but the results were brilliant. Sorkin wrote literate, fiercely intelligent, densely worded scripts that delighted in teasing out the complexities of loaded situations. His words and ideas tumbled out fast and he refused to condescend to his audience. You had to keep up, or you had to sit there and be patient, hoping it would become clear. This is not the normal way for television, which so often treats its audience like kindergarten kids, talking to us slowly and loudly, and repeating itself to ensure we never feel lost or challenged. People who love West Wing relish its uncompromising style.
But clearly someone in a suit somewhere decided that this was no way to run a multimillion-dollar, Emmy Award-winning drama, that tolerance of brilliance and artistic temperament could only stretch so far, and that the angst that Sorkin was generating wasn't worth it. So writer-producer John Wells (China Beach, ER, Third Watch), who's no slouch, was brought in to steer the troubled West Wing ship into its next, hopefully calmer, phase.
Sorkin helpfully left a lot of juicy loose threads dangling when he exited. The Bartlet administration's role in the assassination of a government minister from the troublesome Middle Eastern state of Qumar was about to be exposed; the President's youngest daughter, Zoey (Elisabeth Moss), had been kidnapped; our team in the White House, having weathered a Vice-Presidential sex scandal, was starting a new term and hoping that their leader would stay healthy despite his multiple sclerosis. In addition, beyond the walls of this fictional administration, the world had changed. The Clinton era that had witnessed the birth of the show was long gone.
This week sees the third episode of the post-Sorkin era, and the signs are promising. Notable is the shift that has Republicans taking a more prominent role, and not all of them are depicted as rednecks or nakedly power-craving Machiavellian monsters. We are also seeing some dubious Democrats.
Skilled directors who are series regulars, such as Alex Graves and Christopher Misiano, have helmed typically impressive episodes, and accomplished writers, such as Wells and Carol Flint (ER, China Beach), have seized Sorkin's baton and run with it. There's been no sudden slump in the quality of the dialogue or weird changes to the core characters.
The test will be what's done with these characters: in the knotty situations they face at work and the compromises that must be made. It will also come in the nature of their developing relationships as Sorkin wasn't too hot on romance. A number of relationships that started with zing were left to peter out over the years. So it looks like there might be some renewed energy in the Josh and Amy (Mary-Louise Parker) thing, while the President must sort out some seemingly insoluble problems with his wife.
But at this early stage, it can be said with some relief, so far, so good.
The West Wing screens on Tuesdays at 10.30pm on Channel Nine
Posted by Jo at 07:58 PM
WGA noms: 'West Wing,' 'Sex' double-hitters
By Cynthia Littleton
Hollywood Reporter
NBC's "The West Wing" and HBO's "Sex and the City" bagged two nominations apiece in the television competition for the 57th annual Writers Guild Awards.
The WGA's East and West coast branches announced TV and radio nominees Wednesday. Nominees for feature film categories -- which are usually a harbinger of screenwriting nominees in the annual Academy Awards derby -- will be unveiled Jan. 13.
"West Wing" earned mentions in the WGA's episodic drama category for the episodes "Memorial Day," penned by John Sacret Young and Josh Singer, and "The Supremes," written by Debora Cahn. HBO's "Six Feet Under" was nominated for the episode "Falling Into Place," written by Craig Wright, while HBO's "The Sopranos" rounded out the category with a nom for episode "Long Term Parking," penned by Terence Winter.
In the episodic comedy field, "Sex and the City" earned mentions for episodes "Splat!" written by Jenny Bicks and Cindy Chupack, and "The Ick Factor," written by Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky.
Fox's Emmy-winning "Arrested Development" earned a nom for the episode "Pier Pressure," from writers Jim Vallely and series creator/executive producer Mitch Hurwitz. The pilot of the now-canceled Fox dramedy "Wonderfalls," penned by Bryan Fuller from a story by Fuller and series co-creator Todd Holland, was recognized, along with the "Ida's Boyfriend" episode of Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle" written by Neil Thompson.
In the longform category for original screenplays, the noms were spread among three telefilms that aired on basic and pay cable: FX's "Redemption," by J.T. Allen, HBO's "Something the Lord Made," by Peter Silverman and Robert Caswell, and Showtime's "Spinning Boris," by Yuri Zeltser and Cary Bickley.
Cable productions also dominated the longform adapted screenplay field. The three noms in that category went to Showtime's "Cavedweller," adapted by Anne Meredith from the novel by Dorothy Allison; TNT's "The Wool Cap," adapted by William H. Macy and Steven Schachter from the original story "Gigot" by Jackie Gleason; and HBO's Emmy-winning "Angels in America," which Tony Kushner adapted from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.
Fox's "The Simpsons" nearly swept the animation category, bagging four out of five nominations. "Simpsons" episodes vying for WGA Awards glory are "Today I Am a Clown," by Joel Cohen, "Fraudcast News," by Don Payne, "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore," by Julie Chambers and David Chambers, and "Catch 'Em If You Can," by Ian Maxtone-Graham. Cartoon Network's "Justice League" rounded out the category with a mention for episode "Starcrossed, written by Rich Fogel, John Ridley and Dwayne McDuffie from a story by Fogel.
In the comedy/variety series category, NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" was the only late-night program on the Big Three networks to earn a mention. Fox's "Mad TV" bagged a nomination, as did Showtime's "Penn & Teller Bullshit!" and HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."
In the catch-all category encompassing comedy/variety: music, awards, tributes and specials, the contenders are two awards shows that aired on CBS: the 58th annual Tony Awards, written by Dave Boone and Bruce Vilanch, and the Kennedy Center Honors, written by George Stevens Jr. and Sara Lukinson.
The writing team on CBS' soap stalwart "The Guiding Light" has no competition, literally, as the sole nominee in the daytime serial category.
In the children's programming category, Showtime's "A Separate Peace" earned a nom for Wendy Kesselman's adaptation of John Knowles' classic coming-of-age novel. The ABC telefilm "A Wrinkle in Time" was nominated for Susan Shilliday's adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's timeless fantasy novel.
Two PBS programs earned noms in the documentary -- current events category: "P.O.V.," for the episode "Last Man Standing: Politics Texas Style," written by Paul Stekler, and the "Frontline" installment "From China With Love," written by Michael J. Kirk.
PBS programs also swept the category of documentary -- other than current events. Four installments of the "American Experience" series earned mentions: "Emma Goldman," written by Mel Bucklin, "Reconstruction, Part 1," written by Llewellyn M. Smith from a story by Elizabeth Deane and Patricia Garcia Rios, "RFK," by David Grubin, and "The Fight," written by Barak Goodman.
The remaining contenders in the category were the fourth episode of the "Broadway: The American Musical" series, "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," written by Jo Ann Young, and the episode "Revolutionaries," from the "They Made America" series, written by Carl Charlson from a story by Harold Evans.
CBS productions dominated the news categories. The two nominees in the news -- regularly scheduled, bulletin or breaking report category were the report "Remembering Ray Charles," written by Jonathan Kaplan for CBS' Chicago O&O, WBBM-TV, and "The Reagan Funeral" report from "ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings," penned by Steve Alperin.
In the news -- analysis, feature or commentary category, the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes" earned two mentions: for the segment "Change of Heart" by Rebecca Peterson and Scott Pelley, and segment "Martha Stewart," by Barbara Dury and Morley Safer. The third nomination in the category went to the WWOR-TV New York segment "Homes for the Homeless" by Jacqueline Calayag.
In the radio field, CBS Radio and ABC News Radio each earned two noms in the top category of news -- regularly scheduled. CBS' mentions went to writer Robert Mank for the "CBS News Hourly" report and to Gail Lee for "Remembrances." ABC's noms went to two writers for the "World News This Week" report, Marianne Pryor and Stuart Chamberlain Jr. Rounding out the category was Infinity Radio Network scribe Bill Spadaro for the "1010 WINS Afternoon Drive" report.
The WGA Awards, administered by the West and East coast branches of the guild, cover programs broadcast between Dec. 1, 2003, and Nov. 30. Winners will be revealed Feb. 19 during ceremonies held simultaneously in Los Angeles and New York.
Posted by Jo at 07:55 PM
'West Wing' showing 'how MS really is'
By Peggy O'Farrell
Cincinnati Enquirer
For a while, Pat Gove thought Josiah Bartlet was getting off easy.
That changed when Bartlet - the fictional president on the NBC drama "The West Wing" - started having symptoms she recognized.
Gove and Bartlet have something in common: Both have multiple sclerosis (MS).
The disease - a chronic degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system - only had caused political fallout for Bartlet until a few weeks ago. Now the character, played by Martin Sheen, is shown suffering the disease's many physical effects, including numbness, paralysis and loss of vision.
"Now it's getting more into how MS really is," the 54-year-old Mason woman says.
Multiple sclerosis patients and their doctors say the series is offering a realistic portrayal of the disease's unpredictable progression.
In the Dec. 1 episode, Bartlet reports losing vision in one eye. Last Wednesday, the character slowly lost feeling in his limbs, and was paralyzed from the neck down for some hours.
A trailer for tonight's episode (9 p.m., Channels 5, 2) shows Bartlet still partially paralyzed as he begins a crucial summit with China.
Dr. Michael Schmerler, a neurologist with Riverhills Healthcare, says the symptoms shown so far track with textbook examples of how MS affects patients.
"We see these symptoms, unfortunately, all too often," Schmerler says.
Nancy Corbett, 41, a Newport artist, has suffered the same vision problems and paralysis as Bartlet.
The series "is pretty accurate for most MS patients," Corbett says.
"The West Wing" is raising awareness about multiple sclerosis at a time when doctors and patients are at their most hopeful about being able to control - but not yet cure - the devastating disease, says Linda Stetson, president of the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Since 1994, Stetson says, six treatments have become available to slow the progress of the disease, she points out.
The newest drug, Tysabri, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in November. Before 1994, there was no treatment.
"Dollars for research really are making a difference," she says.
Dr. Susan Pierson, clinical director of the Waddell Comprehensive Center for Multiple Sclerosis Care at the Drake Center and the University of Cincinnati and the Neuroscience Institute, likes that "The West Wing" shows an MS patient leading a normal, productive life.
The series raises the question of whether Bartlet will be able to handle the demands of the presidency while battling the disease's symptoms - which can include memory loss and cognitive decline.
Gove doubts an MS patient could do it in real life.
"Stress is the worst offender for MS, and stress and being president of the United States go hand in hand," she says.
Schmerler and Corbett disagree. Schmerler points out that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a polio survivor, fought a war and the Great Depression from a wheelchair.
Both say they think an MS patient could run the country if only his or her physical abilities were affected.
"As long as he's mentally sharp and he has periodic testing of his thinking and memory function, he could do it," Schmerler says.
Posted by Jo at 08:29 AM
December 10, 2004
West Wing actors, crew members descend on town
By Craig Campbell
Dundas Star News
Christopher Misiano, director of the West Wing episodes filmed in Dundas this week, knows how lucky his crew was to film in the historic DeLuxe Restaurant.
"Being able to film here, after it hasn't been open for 26 years, is amazing," Mr. Misiano said Monday afternoon as the crew prepared to film a scene with West Wing stars Jimmy Smits and Bradley Whitford.
Dundas filled in as a New Hampshire town for the show, which is following Mr. Smits' character during the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Despite similar filming requests, former owner Susie Wong had refused to open the space since 1977. Her grandson, John-Paul Yuen, was pleased to see it open again. He hung around to watch the filming.
Norman and Sharon Duckworth were keeping an eye on the former restaurant during filming. They are helping find someone to lease the restaurant, which hasn't changed since it first opened more than 50 years ago.
"Some of the crew members were asking about the history of the place. They were fascinated," Mrs. Duckworth said. "It has a lot of history. If these walls could talk..."
Over 150 actors and crew members descended on Dundas last weekend for three solid days of filming in the Valley Town. Locations included the former Dundas Town Hall, a Sydenham Street home, Hatt Street and Today's Family Daycare at Victoria Street.
On Monday, the focus was downtown Dundas. In the morning, scenes were filmed on King Street West and in the DeLuxe Restaurant. In the afternoon, filming continued inside the DeLuxe, then moved to Cabin Fever.
The experience was a great one for Cabin Fever owner Catherine Boyle. Shooting moved to her clothing store mid-afternoon Monday and lasted until nearly 8 p.m. Scenes were filmed outside and throughout the store, as the characters shopped. The store's real name was used.
"They were great people to work with. It went smoothly," Ms. Boyle said.
She met the two male stars, got autographs and had her picture taken with them despite not really being a fan of the show ñ yet.
"After yesterday I'll probably watch it," she said.
Ms. Boyle said the actors and crew did some real-life shopping as well. Bradley Whitford bought a denim coat at Cabin Fever. She figures the poor weather affected business more than the filming interruption did. She noticed people leaving nearby stores with bags, so she guessed business downtown wasn't hurt.
Sandwiched between the two downtown locations was Cruikshank's clothing store. And while owner Gord Cruikshank believes business was hurt by the filming, he was prepared and the whole day provided a very positive and interesting experience. Mr. Cruikshank ran into Jimmy Smits Monday morning at Piccone's Market, when he was picking up a danish for his coffee. Mr. Smits was waiting at the cash register, so Mr. Cruikshank approached him, introduced himself and offered his studio tailoring area in the store as a refuge for the actor during breaks in filming.
"He dropped in later and apologized, he couldn't take me up on the offer because he was busy filming," Mr. Cruikshank said.
But later, the location manager dropped into the men's and women's clothing store to ask if Mr. Smits and Mr. Whitford could use the studio changerooms to dress for the next scene.
"While they were changing, they were rehearsing," Mr. Cruikshank said, recalling the two men calling out their lines from changerooms at opposite ends of the building.
"They are very focussed men, particularly Mr. Smits," he said. "Once they're out of your line of sight, they're somewhere else."
But both actors were "gracious" and "polite" to Mr. Cruikshank and his wife, Evelyn. The actors even did some business there, but Mr. Cruikshank didn't want to say what was purchased. With a laugh, he cited "Tailor-Client confidentiality."
Mr. Cruikshank expected less business with the filming scheduled for Monday, so he gave his staff the day off in advance. He said it was a slow day, because people's attention was directed elsewhere. But he pointed out that the production company did compensate his business.
"They really seem to have engratiated themselves with the community," Mr. Cruikshank said.
Small groups of onlookers watched Jimmy Smits and Bradley Whitford walk a few steps along King Street, then into the Deluxe Restaurant, where a scene was being filmed.
"My wife says she saw Josh walking around today," said Dundas resident Ken Redish, as he stopped for a moment across the street from the DeLuxe. He was referring to Josh Lyman, the president's deputy chief of staff, played by Bradley Whitford.
Moments later, both Mr. Smits and Mr. Whitford walked out of the old restaurant and stood on the sidewalk for a couple of minutes.
"Ah...and there's Josh," Mr. Redish said.
Christopher Misiano has directed more than 17 episodes of The West Wing since 1999. His television directing credits also include Third Watch, Now and Again, Trinity, Nash Bridges, ER and Law & Order. He is also a co-executive producer of The West Wing.
Mr. Misiano said Monday morning's snow was a huge benefit for the film shoot, as they were hoping for some snow.
"The only challenge is having to film in the lack of daylight. We're going back and forth filming the scenes where we need light coming through the windows," Mr. Misiano said. "The location has just been great."
The cast and crew were commuting from Toronto each day, and with many scenes to complete they fell behind early in the filming. With little down time, Mr. Misiano said there wasn't much chance to see much of the town.
"It's been a pretty full plate," he said.
Posted by Jo at 04:11 PM
December 08, 2004
Saunders: 'West Wing' déjà vu for Alda
by Dusty Saunders
Rocky Mountain News
Call him Sen. Alan Alda.
Twenty-five years ago Alda played an idealistic, liberal U.S. senator in the feature film, The Seduction of Joe Tynan.
Tonight, on The West Wing, Alda begins his role as Sen. Arnold Vinick, a moderate U.S. Republican senator.
Idealistic? Alda feels it's too soon to know since he's on The West Wing, where scripts are often written and changed right up to rehearsal time.
Want more of Sen. Alda?
You can see him on the big screen this month in The Aviator, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes.
Alda portrays the late Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster, whom Alda describes as "a creepy, skuzzy guy."
"I know that Arnold Vinick is a moderate Republican on social issues and a fiscal conservative," Alda told critics during a phone interview.
"So I guess he might be considered an ideal presidential candidate - at least for The West Wing.
"You'll learn more about him as the series rolls along."
While NBC hasn't made an official announcement about The West Wing's future, Alda is scheduled to return for five episodes during next year's seventh season after appearing in five hours in the current run.
In the political world of The West Wing, President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) is completing his second term, so a new president will occupy the White House come September.
Putting on my best Tim Russert imitation, I'm predicting Arnold Vinick won't be elected.
Actually, the votes - or the vote - already has been tabulated.
"I'm really not interested in doing a regular weekly series again," the 68-year-old actor said.
"And besides, they'd have to fire a bunch of Democrats who have contracts on the show. I don't think they'll do that," the congenial Alda added, referring to the series' numerous co-stars who are part of the Bartlet administration.
Alda, a fan of The West Wing, took the role after getting a call from Executive Producer John Wells, who outlined the character.
"I have a lot of respect for John, whom I worked with a couple of seasons ago on ER," Alda said.
"The West Wing is one of the best acted, directed and produced series on television."
Alda indicated he didn't take the role of a Republican senator from California simply to modify his reputation as being a Hollywood liberal.
"I simply like the idea of working on a good TV show in a role that's fun to play. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything."
Responding to a comment by a critic that The West Wing was full of "giddy optimism," Alda said. "One reason I enjoy The West Wing is because it attempts to show what is possible in the democratic process."
Alda gets a feeling of déjà vu when watching today's political scene unfold on television.
"A lot of the stuff that's real today was in the Joe Tynan fictional script. That's really weird."
Alda's main claim to TV fame, is, of course, as Hawkeye Pierce, a role that won him five Emmy awards during M*A*S*H's 11-season CBS run.
The series finale, aired Feb. 28, 1983, is being saluted this week by TV Guide and TV Land as the eighth most memorable "moment" in TV history. The 2 1/2 hour episode drew the largest audience ever to watch a single entertainment program in prime time.
Alda claims that one of the joys of working on The West Wing is the on-set camaraderie and humor among the cast and crew.
"From that perspective, The West Wing is an extension of M*A*S*H."
Posted by Jo at 08:07 AM
West Wing veers north
by Bill Brioux
Calgary Sun
TORONTO — When Hollywood needs snow, they get snow. The promise of plenty of white stuff (the legal kind, please) drew Jimmy Smits, Tim Matheson and several other stars and crew members from NBC’s The West Wing north to Ontario this week and next.
Normally shot in L.A., the White House drama needed to approximate a snowy New Hampshire setting. The storyline finds Smits’ character, Texas congressman Matt Santos, working the winter-months presidential primaries.
West Wing location scout Drazen Baric found what he was looking for in the (now slightly) lower dollar the likelihood of snow in four nearby towns — Dundas, Carlisle and Ancaster in the Hamilton area, and Port Perry in the Kawarthas — which landed the two-week, three-episode shoot.
As it turned out, snow actually had to be trucked in (from a local hockey rink) for scenes shot this past weekend in Dundas.
The Ontario West Wing episodes will air in late January and early February. (An episode featuring bad-boy magicians Penn & Teller airs Dec. 8 at 10 p.m. on channel 16).
On Dec. 5, about 200 onlookers saw Smits and Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman) work the Dundas Town Hall and a nearby restaurant. The main street got an instant Yankee makeover. American flags and U.S. election signs were hung in windows. Newspaper boxes for USA Today and The Manchester Leader were placed in the street.
Series regulars Janel Moloney (Donna Moss) and Joshua Malina (Will Bailey) are being joined this week by Gary Cole (vice president “Bingo Bob” Russell). Martin Sheen (president Josia Bartlet) did not make the trip.
The West Wing is enjoying a ratings lift this season. Since Smits arrived, the numbers are up 18% over last season.
Production on the show continues in Ontario through Dec. 19 — bad weather permitting.
2004-12-08
Posted by Jo at 08:05 AM
December 07, 2004
Alda Throws His Hat in the 'Wing'
By Rick Porter
Zap2it.com
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) When "The West Wing" was starting up back in 1999, Alan Alda was reportedly one of the actors considered to play President Jed Bartlet, the role that eventually went to Martin Sheen.
The story may be apocryphal. If it is true, the show's creator, Aaron Sorkin, and NBC must not have pursued Alda very doggedly, because he doesn't really recall it.
"People have told me that, and it may be true," Alda says. "I actually can't remember."
Five-plus years later, though, Alda will take a run at the fictional Oval Office. He joins "The West Wing" Wednesday (Dec. 8) as Arnold Vinick, a Republican senator from California who announces his candidacy to replace the outgoing Bartlet.
"He's one of those ideal candidates in a way, because he's moderate on social issues and conservative fiscally, and is willing to debate the issues," Alda says of the character. "So in many ways, he's an idealist."
Alda, who won multiple Emmys for writing, directing and acting on "M*A*S*H," says he took the part "as an act of faith" in executive producer John Wells, whom he knows from a stint on "ER" five years ago. Alda earned an Emmy nomination for a guest-starring arc in which he played a respected doctor who was starting to show signs of Alzheimer's disease.
"What made me want to do it mostly was the chance to work with John Wells, and all the people that work on 'The West Wing,'" he says. "I think they're really exceptionally good actors."
Thus far, Alda has shot only the first episode of 10, spanning this season and next, that he's signed to do. In that time, though, he's discovered a few parallels between "The West Wing" and his best-known work.
"It's a lot like we were after we'd had a long run on 'M*A*S*H,'" he says. "We had a shorthand with one another, and we could just jump into a scene because we knew the characters so well. And in between scenes we'd kid around and have fun. These people are very funny between scenes. It almost feels like an extension to me of what we went through on 'M*A*S*H.'"
Alda sounds eager to dig deeper into Vinick, but he's appropriately diplomatic about the character's chances of actually becoming president: "I have no plans at this time," he says with a chuckle. "I do not plan to take office.
"I look at this kind of realistically," he adds. "I have no idea what [the show's writers] have in mind, and I kind of doubt I would want to do a weekly show. But before I even get to a decision like that, what would they do with all these Democrats [on the White House staff] they have under contract if I won the election? I think we should all get serious here."
Posted by Jo at 08:28 AM
Alan Alda for Senator
by Daniel R. Coleridge
TV Guide Online
Back in 1979, Alan Alda played a Ted Kennedy-esque senator in The Seduction of Joe Tynan. He returns to fictional political office in tomorrow's West Wing (9 pm/ET on NBC). Although he's well-known to be a member of Hollywood's liberal set, Alda joins the cast as Republican senator — and presidential hopeful — Arnold Vinick. The M*A*S*H star denies having any political qualms about taking the role.
"Although this guy on The West Wing is a Republican, he's one of those [idyllic] candidates because he's moderate on social issues and conservative fiscally," Alda says. "He is willing to debate issues, looks to do good for his country and is not trying to use public service as a way to increase his holdings in the bank.
"What I'm trying to do with my character is to show what's possible in the democratic process, not look at how awful they are," he adds. "We see how awful it is every night on the news."
Alda certainly sums up the White House drama's spirit very neatly. Sounds like he's angling for Martin Sheen's job once President Bartlet's term expires. "It seems like everybody's falling apart!" he jokes. "I think I'm coming in at the right moment."
But seriously, Hawkeye. "I'm gonna do five episodes this season and five next season," says Alda, who adds he's unaware of any plans for Vinick to actually win the Oval Office. "I don't know what [producer John Wells and his writers] have in mind, but I seriously, strongly doubt that I'd want to do a weekly show. Before I even get to that, what would they do with all these Democrat [characters] that they have under contract if I took office? Let's get serious here."
Meanwhile, Alda can currently be seen on the big screen in yet another senatorial gig. "I'm coming out as a senator twice in the same month!" he laughs. "This other senator I play in The Aviator [costarring Jude Law] is totally scuzzy. What a creepy guy."
Posted by Jo at 08:26 AM
December 06, 2004
‘The West Wing’ filming draws gawkers
Fort Frances Times
December 06, 2004
(CP)
Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Smits were seen on the streets of Dundas, Ont. as filming of the popular political drama “The West Wing” got underway over the weekend.
The famous president made like a statue outside the town hall building, which was made over to be a U.S. post office for the show.
But Smits shook hands and signed autographs, at least in his role as Texas congressman Matt Santos.
The actor spent little time talking to the crowd of about 200 people who gathered around to watch the filming. He quickly retreated to a warm van parked nearby in between takes.
Other actors, such as Brad Whitford and Tim Matheson, spent time posing for fan photos and signing autographs.
“Everybody has been so great and nice to us,” said Matheson, who plays disgraced vice-president John Hoynes. He chatted with a number of fans during a break for lunch.
It took remarkably little to transform this city just northeast of Hamilton into small town New England town. A few American flags and election signs were added to homes along the street.
There even was some snow imported for the scenes, which will air in late January or early February across three episodes.
Posted by Jo at 07:45 PM
Dundas welcomes The West Wing; Popular NBC TV series will convert DeLuxe Restaurant into an ice-cream parlour for film shoot
by Doug Foley
The Hamilton Spectator
The DeLuxe Restaurant in downtown Dundas is about to enjoy a new life as an ice-cream parlour.
And one of its first customers will likely be Hollywood star Jimmy Smits.
But don't start loading the kids into the car and heading to the old King Street West eatery for a cone or sundae.
The DeLuxe's new lease on life will only be for a few days as a location for the NBC TV program The West Wing.
The popular series will be in and around Dundas from Dec. 4 to 9 shooting scenes for an episode featuring Smits, the former NYPD and L.A. Law star who joined The West Wing this season as Matt Santos, a Congressman with presidential aspirations.
City of Hamilton film liaison officer Jacqueline McNeilly says the episode is supposed to be taking place in New Hampshire, an important primary state in presidential races.
No one was available at The West Wing production office in the Los Angeles area yesterday to explain why Dundas was chosen.
McNeilly said series star Martin Sheen will not be part of the scenes shot in Dundas, but co-star Bradley Whitford is scheduled to be in town.
The film crew will also be shooting at The Plainsman Restaurant on Highway 5, John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport, a residence on Sydenham Road, an arena and in Flamborough. The DeLuxe Restaurant has been closed to customers since 1979 when owner Du Wong died. His widow, Sue, who died in March at age 103, left the restaurant intact.
It is currently up for lease and the TV shoot will be the first time the doors have opened for business since 1979.
And while the DeLuxe will be converted to an ice-cream parlour for the shoot, the neighbouring Cabin Fever clothing store will be typecast as a clothing store.
Owner Catherine Boyle said the store will also keep its own name.
"They liked the name," she said. "They liked the look of the store and that's why they chose us."
She said Smits will be part of the shoot in her business on Dec. 6.
Boyle said location scouts checked out her store and others in the downtown area a couple of weeks ago and came back twice before agreeing to use her business.
The Plainsman Restaurant will be standing in for a retirement home in Idaho when the film crew moves there on Dec. 7.
Owner Mike Good said crews will be making some changes to the front of the business to convert it to its new identity.
"We are supposed to be in the corn belt," he said. "I think they are doing a few episodes."
Film officer McNeilly said Dundas seems pretty excited about the shoot. Her office has been flooded with calls about it since word began to spread that The West Wing was coming.
McNeilly also reported that Hamilton will be home base for a Canadian made-for-TV movie about last year's SARS epidemic.
Plague City will be filming today and for the next week and a half around the city, including City Hall.
The film stars Kari Matchett, who spent a fair amount of time in Hamilton as one of the stars of Power Play, the CTV series about the Hamilton-based hockey team, The Steelheads.
And Mark Wahlberg is slated to shoot his next movie, The Four Brothers, in Hamilton in late January and early February.
The movie is being directed by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, 2 Fast 2 Furious and Shaft).
"They will be doing a lot of filming in the North End," said McNeilly.
She is also keeping her fingers crossed that the CTV series The 11th Hour will find a big audience when it starts airing its third season Saturday at 10 p.m.
The series starring Sonja Smits (no relation to The West Wing's Jimmy) was filmed extensively in Hamilton.
"If the ratings are up, they will do another series and will be back in town to do it," McNeilly said.
Posted by Jo at 05:39 PM
'The West Wing' comes to small-town Ontario
CBC News Online
Last Updated Mon, 06 Dec 2004 14:37:44 EST
DUNDAS, ONT. - The West Wing, the NBC drama about White House intrigue, is shooting in Ontario this week – specifically the small community of Dundas.
Located close to Hamilton, Dundas was chosen by the show's producers to stand in for Manchester, N.H., in a storyline about the race to replace Josiah Bartlet, the fictional Democratic president played by Martin Sheen.
The three-episode arc – which will air in late January and early February – will focus on Matt Santos, the Texas congressman played by Jimmy Smits.
Stars Bradley Whitford and Tim Matheson made the trip to Dundas, along with Smits.
Whitford plays White House aide Josh Lyman. Matheson, known for his turn in the movie Animal House, plays disgraced vice president John Hoynes.
The stars took time out on Sunday to talk with a crowd of about 200 people who had gathered to watch the filming.
"Everybody has been so great and nice to us," Matheson told the Canadian Press after posing for photos and signing autographs for fans.
Among the onlookers was teenager Courtney Reilly-Larke, who has never seen The West Wing.
"There's nothing better to do on a Sunday in Dundas," she said of her reasons for checking out the shoot.
The West Wing's producers imported items from the real Manchester, including newspaper boxes and hockey jerseys, to give Dundas an authentic New England feel. Shooting continues in the town for the rest of the week.
Once a critical darling and a ratings smash, The West Wing has not been able to generate as much buzz since the departure of creator Aaron Sorkin.
On the show, Bartlet is serving the final months of his second term as president. It's not known if the show will continue with a new actor playing a new president.
Posted by Jo at 05:31 PM
Bleak house
Politics aside, The West Wing is struggling to find a new direction. Michael Idato reports.
by Michael Idato
Sidney Morning Herald
The biggest challenge facing The West Wing - other than stopping its declining American ratings, answering criticism of its melodramatic writing and left-wing bias, and recovering from the difficult departure of creator and producer Aaron Sorkin - is remaining relevant in a world where the real White House has become more interesting.
"I think it's probably one of the biggest pressures on the show," executive producer Alex Graves says. "It's been hard since 9/11 to be relevant, to try to contribute without sensationalising, and it's tricky for us because there has been an enormous shift, both in 9/11 and the [first] election of Bush."
The West Wing, once the darling of TV critics for the provocative meat on its bones, was widely booed for its shift into shallow melodrama and the emphasis on the private lives of its characters. Its audience shrank in the US, American network NBC complained about rising costs, and in May last year Sorkin and producer/director Thomas Schlamme left the show.
Their departure was not unlike writing the "Who Shot J.R.?" cliffhanger for Dallas and saying, "Here are the keys to the office," as you walk out the door. When viewers last tuned in - and Australian fans have been waiting the best part of a year to see new episodes - President Bartlet's daughter, Zoey, had been abducted by terrorists, and the President, not wanting to compromise his position as commander-in-chief, stepped down.
As we return, Glenallen Walken (John Goodman), the Republican Speaker of the House, has come barrelling into the Oval Office to take charge (the vice-presidency was vacated after a sex scandal), though his arrival isn't likely to deal with the criticism of bias. As characters go, Walken is cartoonishly Republican.
"People don't always agree with everything we portray or the way we portray it," Graves says. "Some of our biggest fans are in Washington and some of our biggest fans are Republicans."
One American TV critic wrote that the series "struggles in its attempt to reconcile its small-L liberal values and the reality of contemporary America". It is a fine line that Graves admits he recognises.
"That is one of the difficulties of doing the show," he says. "We're not trying to be a liberal show, we're trying to be entertainment. First and foremost, something Aaron always used to say was, 'I'm trying be entertaining and tell really good stories, before coming from any political angle.'
"The thing we can hold onto is that we are, at our core, a Democratic administration and a fictional one, but we've had to move more into dealing with terrorism and imperialism and a lot of new ideas. There has been a lot of need to grow and adjust."
As the series refocuses on strong, issue-based storytelling (though, with respect, it takes the best part of the coming series to do that), Graves says there has not been a post-Sorkin catharsis.
"In a way, I don't think the direction is new, as much as just doing what we've been trying to do since the show started," he says.
"That is, keeping it going, keeping it relevant and keeping a dialogue open. We don't sit around saying, 'What's the new direction of the show?' I think one of the reasons the first episodes of the season were successful is that we continued from last year. We didn't start again."
Posted by Jo at 08:26 AM
December 03, 2004
Stars coming out in Dundas
By Craig Campbell
Dundas Star News
Four stars of the Emmy award winning television series The West Wing will make the trip to Ontario when the show begins filming in Dundas this weekend.
Jimmy Smits, Josh Malina, Bradley Whitford and Janel Moloney are the only West Wing cast members making the trip. All four play main roles in the NBC television series, and the head of Ryerson University's film program figures they could help thank Dundas residents for their patience during a valuable week of production.
Jimmy Smits joined the cast this season, playing a Houston Congressman who aspires to the White House. Dundas will fill in as a New Hampshire town during the Democratic Party's leadership primaries. The shows filmed here will highlight Mr. Smits' character, Will Santos, a "hopeful candidate untainted by the cronyism of Washington's elite."
Warner Brothers Television spokesperson Leslie Hibbins said exactly when and where the actors will be during the planned week-long filming here is still undecided.
"They do change things," Ms. Hibbins said. "That's the nature of the beast. They're still mapping out what they are doing."
Also making the trip are Josh Malina, who plays Will Bailey, Bradley Whitford, who plays Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, and Janel Moloney who plays Donna Moss, assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff. Last week, the West Wing's Toronto production company delivered a notice to residents and businesses in Dundas, informing them of filming plans between Dec. 4 and 10.
Since then, another notice has been delivered, offering much more specific information.
Filming begins on Saturday, Dec. 4 at a private home on Sydenham Street. On Sunday, the shoot kicks into high gear with four different locations operating between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Today's Family Daycare at Victoria Street will be used during the morning, while scenes will be filmed at Dundas Town Hall and two nearby Hatt Street buildings from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Monday, the crew will move to the downtown core, filming at the DeLuxe Restaurant, 57 King St. W., and Cabin Fever, 65 King St. W., from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. No further location details were included.
The notice states production vehicles and film equipment will be located in six different areas at different times during the week-long shoot. The south side of Hatt between Ogilvie and McMurray, as well as a private lot on McMurray south of Hatt will both be used Dec. 2 to 6.
The north side of Victoria between Sydenham and Cross will be used Dec. 4 and 5. Both the north and south side of Hatt between Town Hall and Main, and the west side of Main between Hatt and Town Hall will be used only on Dec. 5. Finally, the north and south sides of King between Sydenham and Miller's Lane will be used for equipment and shuttle vehicles only on Dec. 6, the single day of downtown filming.
This is not Dundas' first brush with film and television production, but it could be the most professional so far.
According to Alexandra Anderson, director of the film program at Ryerson University in Toronto and a fan of The West Wing, there's a simple reason why the production crew is careful to keep residents and business owners notified.
"The production managers of The West Wing are obviously very aware that they are getting more out of this encounter with Dundas, than the town and its people will," Ms. Anderson said.
Beyond any specific renumeration the production may have agreed to pay the City of Hamilton or individual business owners, Ms. Anderson said Dundas can "insist on some interchange between film unit and community ñ a town meeting or supper perhaps?"
Ms. Anderson explained that encounters between civilians and film crews can often leave the civilians feeling used and discarded, and anything that can be done to lessen this would be good for Dundas.
"As a filmmaker and fan of the West Wing, I would hope the town's people (are) patient and understanding, through what might be a bit of an ordeal," Ms. Anderson said.
Posted by Jo at 07:29 PM