Cast photo of The West Wing’s starring cast for Season 1 (Credit: NBC)
The West Wing recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary, and remains a seminal part of American popular culture about the political world.
The White House is no stranger to fictional portrayals. From plays to movies to television shows, as the site where terrorist plots are stopped, historic events unfold, or wacky hijinks take place, the center of the Executive Branch is a frequent setting for fictional works.
The title of most enduring and optimistic, however, still belongs to The West Wing. The 25th anniversary of the show’s first airing passed two days ago, on September 22nd.
The show follows the senior staff of President Josiah Edward “Jed” Bartlet (Martin Sheen), a Democratic president, former governor of New Hampshire, and descendant of signatory to the Declaration of Independence Josiah Bartlett. It deals with domestic policy and social issues, international relationships, and the difficulties of balancing such a life with the demands of public service.
The remainder of the senior staff are White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) and his deputy Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) and his deputy Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney). Also included in the starring roles are Josh’s assistant Donna Moss (Janel Moloney) and Personal Aide to the President Charlie Young (Dulé Hill). Later seasons would see First Lady Abigail Bartlet (Stockard Channing) elevated to the main credit. The Deputy Communications Director after Sam left, Will Bailey (Joshua Malina) joined the cast in the fourth season, followed by Deputy National Security Advisor Kate Harper (Mary McCormack), and presidential candidates Congressman Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Senator Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) for the show’s final two seasons.
The West Wing portrays many of the people who seek a life in politics as dedicated public servants engaged in conflict with both the political opposition of similarly dedicated public servants, and with self-serving individuals focused on advancing their own careers. The show is extremely liberal at its heart, and the level of altruism and selflessness showed by many of the characters is often a bit fantastical when compared to the real world. However, it’s a good optimistic view of what government should be. Not only that, but it’s inspired plenty of people to go into public service in the quarter of a century since its premiere for that reason.
The series balances optimism and lightheartedness with the seriousness of the matters at hand. Stylistically, the show was known by its rapid-pace dialogue which often put eloquence next to the exact opposite, and frequently delivered through its signature ‘walk and talks’ when the characters would converse while walking from place to place within the offices of the West Wing.
The important part is that while the series focuses on optimistic people with lofty goals, it also shows the reality of politics in that they may not be able to get things done. Many episodes hinge on lofty goals that fall short. The series does well to demonstrate the compromise necessary for politics, both morally and politically, and emphasizes the difficulty of leading a country as large and varied as America.
Originally the show was meant to focus on Sam Seaborn, the Deputy Communications Director, with the President playing a recurring role, only showing up a few times each season. With Martin Sheen’s gravitas behind the character, President Bartlet went from an occasional guest star to the Commander-in-Chief of an electrifying ensemble cast which would be in contention for Emmys every year the show was on the air.
Rob Lowe, who portrayed Seaborn, left in Season 4, followed shortly thereafter by head writer Aaron Sorkin, and lead director Thomas Schlamme. With a rough start in Season 5, the remaining crew got their legs underneath of them with Seasons 6 and 7, which followed both new and old characters through a Presidential election cycle, with Democratic Representative Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) coming in as a dark horse candidate as urged by President Bartlet’s Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford). Santos would beat respected moderate Republican Senator Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda).
In an ironic twist of fate, the fictional election in 20061 between Santos and Vinick would mirror the election of Barack Obama in 2008 when he defeated Senator John McCain. McCain was more conservative than Vinick and didn’t serve in the military but was respected by people on both sides of the aisle, and well-liked in Washington, with a long career in politics. Barack Obama and Matt Santos were both young, up-and-coming stars within the Democratic party who had not held national office for very long before attempting a run at the presidency and winning on a platform of change. The biggest difference was that Barack Obama became president on the heels of George W. Bush’s administration, which was very unpopular, while Matt Santos was coming up after the fairly popular Jed Bartlet.
The verisimilitude of the show is also something to be stated. Former Bill Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers was brought onto the show from the very beginning as a consultant and script advisor. Many other former political staffers would become advisors to the show and to various actors over its run. Some of the most unrealistic parts, aside from the politics, were how few characters were involved in actions which would require more of the real staff. Additionally, most White House staffers do not stay in the jobs as long as the main characters of the show, as these are incredibly demanding and stressful jobs. Despite that, the frantic pace, constant fires needing to be put out, and occasional great victory were all very true to life.
When the show as on the air during the Clinton administration, the cast and crew were invited to the White House and given access to help make the show more real. The love was shown both ways as time went on. C.J. Cregg held a press briefing in 2016 while Barack Obama was in office. For the 25th anniversary of the show, much of the cast was invited to the White House to commemorate the legacy of the show and the effect it’s had on political life. Real life politicians would reference or homage the show, since it was the reason many of them went into politics in the first place.
Some of the enduring moments of the show live amongst the greatest moments of television ever. The season two finale, “Two Cathedrals”, saw devout Catholic Jed Bartlet deliver a rant directed toward God in the well of the National Cathedral in Washington DC, in Latin while deciding whether or not to run for reelection after he reveals that he previously hid his multiple sclerosis from the American public. The season 2 episode “Noël” dealt with Josh’s PTSD from being shot in the season opener, and there were subplots in countless other episodes which dealt with significant issues, both political and personal, such as the several episodes dealing with Leo’s alcoholism or the President’s MS. The President surviving an assassination attempt, revealing his MS diagnosis, ordering the assassination of a foreign leader who had ties to a terrorist plot, the kidnapping of his daughter, and major peacekeeping operations in Gaza were all major plots which affected the show’s trajectory, in addition to the less-intensely covered but still prevalent issues such as India-Pakistan border squabbles, nuclear incidents, and the anxiety and struggles preparing for major events such as the State of the Union address.
A staged production of the Season 3 episode “Hartsfield’s Landing” was produced in 2020 as a special to benefit When We All Vote and encourage voter participation. The entirety of the surviving original cast2 returned to take part in the episode, about a small town in New Hampshire which votes just after midnight on the day of the New Hampshire primary. The idea for the special began as a staged reading of an episode, and grew from there. The special cast the episode as a play, produced amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, was a way to help connect with the audience since the world was still closed. The end result links past and present, taking viewers back to a wonderful episode of the original series while showing how time does march on with the cast all looking twenty years older than they had when the episode first aired, and the additional material done during the act breaks talking about the importance of voter turnout. The additional material even got beloved recurring characters who didn’t show up in the episode itself to have the chance to participate in such a historic and heartwarming moment for fans of the show.
The episode “Isaac and Ishmael” also deserves special mention as an episode written, shot, edited, and aired in the three weeks following the attacks on September 11th 2001. It was an attempt to explain what was going on in the world in a simple, easy-to-understand format. Today, it comes across as preachy and a bit patronizing, not to mention simplistic. However, in the context of its original airing, the episode tired to handle a difficult and emotionally charged conversation with a bit of nuance and logic that were lacking in the American political sphere.
Big Block of Cheese Day was an endearing part of the show’s legacy. It was first introduced in an early Season 1 episode entitled “The Crackpots and These Women.” On the day in question, White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry decided that White House Senior Staff would take meetings with people and organizations which would not ordinarily rate meetings at that level. The concept was named after a story, retold by Leo, about Andrew Jackson and the large block of cheese he once had in the White House. The Obama administration held a couple of virtual Big Block of Cheese Days in honor of the concept. The second Big Block of Cheese Day in the show happened in late Season 2, in a Sam-centric episode entitled “Somebody’s Going to Emergency, Somebody’s Going to Jail.”
The optimism seen throughout the West Wing is something which should be aspired to. To act, not for purely partisan reasons but to try and best serve the American people is something to which politics should aim for. The reality of hard decisions and difficult compromises, and the challenge of balancing the needs of the American people with the often less-than-ideal circumstances of the American political system is something the show excels at demonstrating. This optimism is exactly why the show drew so many people to politics.
The most enduring part of the show’s legacy is showing how politics ought to be. It does not bear a tremendous resemblance to the politics of today, but the spirit at the heart of the show still makes it enjoyable to watch. In all the modern divisiveness, the idea of a political world where genuine debate and good hearts win out over craven polarity is attractive to many people. In some ways, it’s nice to have an escape from the depressing parts of reality. Yet in others, it’s still a persistent challenge to do better, to try and build a political reality filled with hope and earnestness in the hopes of being a nation where everyone can come together and be part of the great civic experiment that is the United States of America.
Will reality change to build a world like the West Wing? Probably not. But it’s still a nice way to dream, to remind ourselves to keep pushing to do better for everyone, and ask ourselves the immortal question.
“What’s Next?”
- fans have rectified the disparity in election years as being because Nixon refused to step down in the West Wing universe, which triggered a special election and set the show’s election cycle on reality’s midterm years. Nixon was the last real President mentioned in the show’s timeline. Pragmatically, it’s so the first season which started airing in 1999 could show the Bartlet administration as being in the middle of its first year. ↩︎
- John Spencer died in 2005, during production of the Seventh Season. In the special, Leo was played by Sterling K. Brown ↩︎
Ark of the Lost Angels 
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