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May 18, 2006
FAREWELL TO THE CHIEF - TAKING WING: Award-winning ‘West Wing’ leaves office Sunday
By LANE LAMBERT
The Patriot Ledger
Momentous things are happening Sunday night. As California recovers from a nuclear power plant accident and the Russians and Chinese threaten to go to war in Kazakhstan, a new president will be inaugurated to succeed a popular, two-term chief executive.
Life and politics in the parallel universe of NBC’s drama ‘‘The West Wing’’ is coming to a close after seven seasons, and devoted fans like Kingston Town Administrator Kevin Donovan aren’t quite sure what they’re going to do without it.
‘‘Once it’s gone, I don’t know,’’ said Donovan, who has followed the fate and fortunes of fictional
Democratic President Josiah Bartlet and his White House staff since the series premiered in 1999.
‘‘I may have to venture out into the world now,’’ joked Boston viewer Anna Porter, who’s 24 and has been a regular on ‘‘West Wing’’ Internet message boards.
Admired by Democrats and Republicans alike - though more by Democrats - ‘‘The West Wing’’ collected dozens of Emmys and other awards with its realistic story line and a star-stocked ensemble that featured Martin Sheen as Bartlet, Jimmy Smits as Texas Congressman and newly-elected President Matt Santos, and Alan Alda as Sen. Arnold Vinick, the California Republican whom Santos defeated in this season’s election.
With behind-the-scenes emulations of Washington policy and campaigning, ‘‘The West Wing’’ attracted a stellar audience, too - among, them, former President Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Sen. Edward Kennedy is a fan, as are spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner and most other Kennedy staffers. (‘‘Everybody needs a weekly break from the Bush administration,’’ Wagoner quipped.)
U.S. Rep. William Delahunt has tuned in from time to time, while his communications director, Steven Broderick, says he and fellow staff members have often gathered to watch episodes.
‘Refreshing vision’
For Oklahoma State English and film studies professor Peter Rollins, there’s no mystery to the source of the show’s passionate following.
‘‘Bartlet was everything many people wanted to see Bill Clinton stand for,’’ said Rollins, who co-edited a volume of essays about ‘‘The West Wing.’’ Consequently, he said, ‘‘viewers embraced the imaginary president to make up for the disappointment.’’
Rollins faults the show for paying scant attention to Congress and the Supreme Court - a dramatic necessity but a political distortion - but he credits the series for depicting a president and staff who worked for the public good. At a time when cynicism about government is deep, ‘‘that vision was refreshing,’’ Rollins said.
For liberal viewers, perhaps, though not for high-level Republicans like Quincy native Ron Kaufman.
As a strategist for former President George H.W. Bush in the late 1980s, Kaufman was an authentic West Winger. He watched a couple of first-season episodes of ‘‘The West Wing’’ in 1999 and hasn’t bothered since.
‘‘It’s great if you like science fiction,’’ said Kaufman, who’s now a GOP consultant. ‘‘It’s so slanted ... and so unlike the White House I worked in.’’ (Or the current President Bush’s West Wing, he added.)
Delahunt’s communications director, Broderick, and Bridgewater-Raynham High School senior Josh Begley beg to differ. Begley - who has watched since the sixth grade - thinks the show consistently portrayed Republicans with respect, while Broderick said the episodes look and sound very much like the Washington in which he’s worked for seven years.
‘‘People would ask me, ‘Is it really like that?’’’ Broderick said. ‘‘And I’d tell them, ‘Yeah, it is.’’’
‘What the world could be’
‘‘The West Wing’’ was anchored in the real world from the start, with themes ranging from Middle East tensions and Darfur killings to illegal immigrants and the religious right. (Not to mention Bartlet’s efforts to keep Russia and China from going to war.)
Hollywood writer Aaron Sorkin created the series in the wake of the success of his 1995 film, ‘‘The American President,’’ which starred Michael Douglas as a widowed president who falls in love. (Sheen had a role in that film.)
Rollins traces the TV show’s origins a little further back, to ‘‘The War Room,’’ a documentary about the 1992 Clinton campaign.
The ‘‘West Wing’’ pilot aired in September 1999, seven months after Clinton was acquitted of impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice in the investigation of the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Perhaps as an escape from a hostile-Republican-controlled Congress, Clinton embraced the show from the start, and hosted cast members at White House press-corps dinners. Out of office, he suggested plot ideas. Sheen and other stars in turn appeared at Democratic events, while Capitol Hill staffers signed up to be extras when the show came to Washington for filming.
At its peak, ‘‘The West Wing’’ had an audience of 17 million. Last year NBC decided to cancel it and switched it from Wednesday to Sunday, where it has drawn an average of 8 million viewers in recent months.
The big controversy in the show was not a presidential affair, but Bartlet’s multiple sclerosis. His disclosure was a scripted re-election issue for the 2002 season.
Last November, in an acclaimed episode that wasn’t scripted, the show aired a live presidential debate between Alda (as Vinick) and Smits (as Santos).
The show’s writers did have to script a real-life tragedy into the final season - the death of actor John Spencer, who played Bartlet adviser and Santos running mate Leo McGarry. In an April episode, McGarry has a fatal heart attack on election night, as the returns give Santos the election.
Fans like Kingston Administrator Kevin Donovan and Bridgewater student Josh Begley won’t be going to farewell parties, though Begley may wear his ‘‘West Wing’’ souvenir shirt to school on Monday.
Instead, they’ll all settle in front of the TV one last time, toast their beloved show and ponder ‘‘what the world could be like,’’ as Delahunt staffer Steven Broderick put it, if it were more like ‘‘West Wing.’’
Bartlet’s highs and lows
1999: Orders Syrian targets bombed after U.S. plane is shot down by terrorists
2000: Verbally attacks a conservative radio host
2001: Tells the country he has multiple sclerosis
2002:Re-elected; orders assassination of Mideast official behind a terror plot
2003: Sends troops to Africa to stop genocide
2004: Names first female Supreme Court chief justice, oversees Palestinian-Israeli peace deal
2005: Aide Toby Zeigler fired, later convicted of leaking classified info
2006: Sends troops to Kazakhstan to avoid Russian-Chinese war
Posted by Jo at May 18, 2006 10:48 PM