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January 25, 2005
Primary shift on The West Wing
by Tom Jicha
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Published January 26, 2005
Editor's note: For two weeks in January, the networks promote their midseason offerings to TV writers in Hollywood.
Presidential primary season keeps getting longer, but The West Wing is pushing it to absurd lengths. With America barely out of the real election season, the NBC drama is cranking up its own fictional race for the White House.
The emphasis has shifted sharply away from the Oval Office and onto the campaign trail. Tonight's episode takes place almost entirely on the stump in Iowa. There's also a significant shift in tone. The idealism of the Jed Bartlet White House is giving way to cynicism over how candidates for the nation's highest office abandon their principles to remain viable as candidates.
The field is crowded for the fictional race for the White House but it will ultimately come down to Jimmy Smits, as former Democratic Houston mayor Matthew Santos, vs. Alan Alda, as former Republican California senator Arnold Vinick.
This is a common sense deduction, not something the producers have revealed. Smits and Alda were hired specifically to play presidential candidates for the balance of this season, with options to go on should their character win.
The outcome has not been decided, executive producer John Wells insists. "We write this show as a series of unfolding events. We didn't exactly know where it was going to go until we were fortunate enough to get Jimmy and Alan. Now we're discovering things about the characters as we go forward. We're working right now on the final episodes of this season leading up to the conventions. The Republican convention will be in episode 21 and the Democratic convention in episode 22, the end of the season."
The outcome of the election will be the cliffhanger.
The prevailing school of thought is that Smits has to win in order to keep the other regulars, all partisan Democrats, involved in the series.
Not so, says Wells. "There is a long tradition in politics of many people leaving and moving on to other parts of their life [even after an election their party wins]. We're excited watching the characters make those decisions."
This is also a device to keep down cast salaries. Ask for more money and your character could be leaving the White House to pursue other opportunities. Several regulars are invisible tonight while potential replacements get center stage. Patricia Richardson and Stephen Root have been hired for the Vinick campaign and Teri Polo is playing Santos' wife.
Martin Sheen, whose contract to play President Bartlet is up, expects to stay on beyond this season but in a limited capacity. "We're planning on returning next year, primarily being present up until the inauguration of the new president, whoever that might be," Sheen said. "Then afterwards, we'll get a glimpse of what sort of post-White House life Bartlet might get involved in. My presence will be strong only in the first half of the year. We'll see where it goes from there. A Jimmy Carter type of ex-presidency would be ideal."
There was a time when it appeared The West Wing would end with the Bartlet presidency but NBC's slide in the ratings has made any series with a pulse a keeper.
The future occupant of the White House might be in doubt but not the future of the series, according to Wells. There will be a seventh season, he said. "There's no doubt in my mind."
Posted by Jo at January 25, 2005 10:17 AM