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August 05, 2005
Days in White House numbered
The Cincinnati Post
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The Bartlets are packing their White House bags. "I think they'll be gone by Christmas," said Stockard Channing who plays first lady Abbey Bartlet in "The West Wing."
Channing said she is signed up for only three episodes as the first lady and expects President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) to be written out of the show by then.
Channing plays a very different character - a wisecracking divorced doctor - in the new CBS sitcom, "Out of Practice."
There will be a "West Wing" election campaign in fall episodes between candidates played by Jimmy Smits and Allan Alda. Channing, who won an Emmy for her "West Wing" role and is nominated again this year, doesn't know who the next "president" will be.
It's a unique gamble by producers in which the show's ensemble cast could be replaced by the end of the season with a new president.
"I don't think I've ever seen that kind of forum on television," Channing said. "So, how they're going to play it, I think they don't know yet."
Channing's co-star in her new sitcom is Henry Winkler.
They play a divorced couple with three grown, single semi-dysfunctional children.
Winkler will abandon his great role in "Arrested Development" as an inept attorney for the new sitcom. One thing he can never get away from is "jumping the shark."
The phrase has been coined to describe a TV show that loses its creative edge, a reference to Winkler's Fonzie on water ski's jumping over a shark in a late '70s "Happy Days" episode.
Winkler said he's not put off by the reference, noting the show remained a hit for the next six years after the shark stunt. And besides, it made his parents happy.
"My parents were from Germany," he said, "and I was a water ski instructor as a counselor in camp. They would say to me, "Tell zem you water ski. Zis vill be good for the Fonz."
Posted by Jo at August 5, 2005 07:59 PM