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January 25, 2005
`West Wing' presidential campaign heats up
By Charlie McCollum
San Jose Mercury News
UNIVERSAL CITY - As White House aide Josh Lyman is given to saying on ``The West Wing'': Game on!
With this week's episode of the show (9 p.m. Wednesday, Chs. 8, 11), the campaign to replace President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) begins in earnest on ``West Wing'' as the leading contenders crisscross Iowa for its presidential caucuses. For those who haven't been following along, the candidates include Sen. Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda), a moderate Republican from California, and two Democrats: Vice President ``Bingo'' Bob Russell (Gary Cole) and Rep. Matt Santos from Texas (Jimmy Smits).
The series' producers always had planned for the campaign to begin this season, the show's sixth. What wasn't clear was whether the Bartlet administration -- and the series -- would come to an end this spring or would extend into a seventh season. Now, it's all but certain that ``The West Wing'' will be back and the race for president won't be decided until next fall.
Creatively, the show is enjoying a renaissance after the less-than-stellar year that followed the departure of creator Aaron Sorkin. Viewership is back up after tanking last season, and the show still draws the most affluent audience on network TV.
While the deal isn't final, executive producer John Wells says ``there's no doubt in my mind'' that the series will return -- a sentiment expressed openly by top NBC executives who say ``The West Wing'' still is a valuable part of their schedule.
Wells says he and his writers have laid out a timeline that will find the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions taking place in this season's last two episodes, scheduled for mid-April. The general election will take place in the fall with the inaugural of the new president taking place around this time next year.
Despite rumors to the contrary, Wells insists -- without great elaboration -- that no decision has made on which of the candidates will replace Bartlet in the Oval Office. ``I'm not trying to be coy,'' he says. ``What happens is that we will actually watch what's happening between the cast members, what issues are being presented, what's happening in the country and try and follow what makes the most story sense.''
One ``candidate'' who thinks he doesn't have much of a chance is Cole. ``Bingo'' Bob Russell, says Cole, ``knows how to run a race, but if he gets it, who knows? But I don't think he'll have to worry about that. Look, they'll enter next season with two guys running in the presidential campaign. I'll let you figure out who those two guys might be, and I don't think you'll need to be Dick Tracy to do that.''
Meanwhile, Alda and Smits -- both of whom have contracts with the show that would allow them to take over the presidency in future seasons -- sound almost like politicians talking about future developments.
Alda, a well-known liberal Democrat, says people ask him constantly, ```How can you possibly play a Republican?' I was never asked that when I played a murderer.
``But, look, there are good ideas on both sides of the aisle, and this program has an amazing ability to deal not only with the daily events in the national debate and the events that threaten us, but also to deal with the core issues that throw light on those events.''
For his part, Smits says the looming presidential campaign affords the show ``an opportunity to show two fundamentally different political points of view and give full voice to both sides.''
One side effect of ``The West Wing's'' changing story line is that you may need a scorecard to keep track of new cast members and what the old cast members are up to. For example, Bartlet aides Will Bailey (Joshua Malina) and Donna Moss (Janel Moloney) are working for Russell's campaign. Lyman -- Moss' unrequited love -- has left the White House to run Santos' bid.
In upcoming weeks, Patricia Richardson (``Home Improvement'') and veteran character actor Stephen Root -- who bears more than a passing resemblance to real-life GOP political strategist Michael Murphy -- will turn up as Vinick aides. Mary Louise Parker will return for several episodes to reprise her role as Democratic political operative Amy Gardner.
And where does all this shuffling leave Bartlet -- who is, after all, still president of the United States?
Sheen -- who has all but completed a deal to return next season -- says he ``would like another term but that can't happen. So, I'm going to have to live vicariously through one of those guys,'' referring to Alda and Smits.
But, he adds, Bartlet is ``not going to go out quietly. He's going to rage against the darkness of the light.''
Reflecting on the end of his ``presidency,'' Sheen says he sometimes watches reruns of ``The West Wing'' on Bravo and thinks, ``Oh, my God, look how young and energetic we look. And now look at us: We're old and beat-up.''
But then -- in a perfect Bartlet moment -- Sheen tells the story of a very good man who gets to the gates of heaven where St. Peter asks to see his scars. The man replies that he has no scars, to which St. Peter says, ``What? Was there nothing worth fighting for?''
``I think,'' Sheen says, ``we're going to leave with a lot of scars.''
Posted by Jo at January 25, 2005 10:06 AM