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January 31, 2006
Credit NBC's 'West Wing' for soaring ideal
OK, the show featured an embattled Democratic president, but its realism and focus on issues made it worthwhile. It had a great run.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinion/articles/2257341.html
The right's persistent gripes over Hollywood's political agenda hit a new peak in 1999 with NBC's debut of "The West Wing." The White House drama was created by Aaron Sorkin, whose 1995 film "The American President" amounted to a two-hour attack on evil Republicans.
Sure enough, Sorkin's TV show, like his movie, starred a brilliant, courageous Democratic president. Like the Democratic president then actually in office, Jed Bartlett (played by Martin Sheen) was both a policy wonk and deeply empathetic with regular folks. But when Bartlett lied, it was to cover up his multiple sclerosis, not a tawdry dalliance with an intern.
Yet a funny thing happened that made the show palatable to a lot more than just left-wing partisans. "The West Wing" came across not as a celebration of Democrats' purported moral superiority but a rebuke of both Clintonian ethical lapses and triangulation and politics in general. For all their flaws, Bartlett and his staff were deeply idealistic. In a time of cynicism, this had no small appeal -- the idea that the people we trust to run the country actually had their hearts in the right places.
Yes, over the past seven years, there has been occasional gratuitous Republican-bashing -- the casting of James Brolin as a thick-witted, callous GOP presidential nominee quickly comes to mind. But by and large that original, endearing idealism remains intact. For this reason alone, we lament the recent announcement that "West Wing" had been canceled.
As for Republicans' griping about unflattering portrayals by Hollywood, well, they have fresh fodder. The president on Fox's smash hit "24" is a spineless, soulless Richard Nixon lookalike who keeps his spunky wife drugged. This isn't what one might expect from the network that brought us Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.
Posted by Jo at January 31, 2006 06:55 PM