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November 01, 2005
Can 'West Wing' Live Debate Recapture Viewers?
By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel
National Ledger
"They claim not to know. They're actually telling their close friends they don't know. Either they don't know, or they're so good at disinformation they should be running a country." That's Alan Alda, talking about John Wells and the other "The West Wing" producers on the matter of whether Alda's Arnold Vinick character or Jimmy Smits' Matthew Santos will win the series' election -- which will be the question at the center of their special, live debate episode Sunday (11/06).
Of course, the bigger issue is whether audiences will elect to return to the Emmy-winning show, which lost millions of viewers with its move to Sunday nights -- a source of frustration to the team, which has been alight with fresh creative fire as the Vinick-Santos showdown draws nearer.
"They're really tackling stories that are fascinating, raising questions you don't even see documentaries about," stresses Alda, whose Republican senator character is, among other things, coping with a crisis of faith in the wake of his wife's death.
As for the debates -- one for the Eastern/Central time audience, a second for the West Coast -- Alda says, "It's scripted, but it's live -- so are the presidential debates scripted. You just don't know when the other guy is going to say what you know he's going to say. There's an element of danger because it's live. It will be improvised in minor ways -- I think. But I don't know."
With his "West Wing" Emmy nomination, his "The Aviator" Oscar nomination, his "Glengarry Glen Ross" Tony nomination and his "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed -- and Other Things I've Learned" memoir in its fourth week on the New York Times Best Seller List, this is already a landmark year in Alda's landmark career. Wouldn't it be something if his recording of the book got a Grammy nomination Dec. 8? And then, there's this running for president on TV thing. "To have a fourth nomination I could lose in one year would be a lot of fun," he says.
Posted by Jo at November 1, 2005 07:32 AM