The West Wing


The West Wing is an American political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where the Oval Office and offices of presidential senior personnel are located, during the fictional two-term Democratic administration of President Josiah Bartlet.
The West Wing was produced by Warner Bros. Television and features an ensemble cast, including Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, Bradley Whitford, Martin Sheen, Janel Moloney, and Stockard Channing. For the first four seasons, there were three executive producers: Sorkin, Thomas Schlamme, and John Wells. After Sorkin left the series at the end of the fourth season, Wells assumed the role of head writer, with later executive producers being directors Alex Graves and Christopher Misiano, and writers Lawrence O'Donnell and Peter Noah.
The West Wing has been regarded by many publications as one of the greatest television shows of all time. It has received praise from critics, political science professors, and former White House staffers and has been the subject of critical analysis. The West Wing received a multitude of accolades, including two Peabody Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and 26 Primetime Emmy Awards, including the award for Outstanding Drama Series, which it won four consecutive times from 2000 to 2003. The show's ratings waned in later years following the departure of series creator Sorkin after the fourth season, yet it remained popular among high-income viewers, a key demographic for the show and its advertisers, with around 16 million viewers.

Cast and characters

The West Wing employed a broad ensemble cast to portray the many positions involved in the daily work of the Executive Branch of the federal government. The president, the first lady, and the president's senior staff and advisers form the core cast. Numerous secondary characters, appearing intermittently, complement storylines that generally revolve around this core group.

Main cast

  • Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn : the deputy communications director to Toby Ziegler. In his time at the White House, Sam is responsible for writing many of Bartlet's speeches. Following the reelection of President Bartlet, he departs the White House to run for Congress. He is recruited to become Santos's deputy chief of staff at the series end.
  • Moira Kelly as Mandy Hampton : a media consultant contracted by the Bartlet administration and is Josh Lyman's ex-girlfriend. She departs without explanation following the first season.
  • Dulé Hill as Charlie Young: originally the personal aide to the president and later a deputy special assistant to the chief of staff. He is in a relationship with Zoey Bartlet. At the series end he begins to study law at Georgetown.
  • Allison Janney as C. J. Cregg: the press secretary. She succeeds Leo McGarry as chief of staff and departs the White House at the end of the Bartlet administration. Post-series, she marries Danny Concannon and has a child.
  • Richard Schiff as Toby Ziegler: the communications director who writes many of Bartlet's speeches, including both inaugural addresses and many State of the Union addresses. He is fired from the Bartlet administration after confessing to illegally leaking highly classified information about a secret space shuttle, though he is pardoned for his crimes at the series' end. He has twin children with his ex-wife, Andrea Wyatt, who is a congresswoman from Maryland.
  • John Spencer as Leo McGarry: Bartlet's close personal friend and chief of staff. Following a heart attack, he becomes counselor to the president, and later the Democratic candidate for vice president. He wins but dies before assuming office.
  • Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman: the deputy chief of staff to Leo McGarry. Josh later leaves the White House to become the "Santos for President" campaign manager. When Santos is elected, Josh becomes White House Chief of Staff.
  • Martin Sheen as Jed Bartlet: the president of the United States. An economist by training, he is a former congressman and governor from New Hampshire who unexpectedly won the Democratic Party nomination. He suffers from multiple sclerosis, a fact he initially hides from the electorate. Sheen described him as a conglomeration of John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. He is succeeded by Matt Santos.
  • Janel Moloney as Donna Moss : the senior assistant to Josh Lyman. She later departs to be a spokesperson for the Russell campaign and then the Santos campaign. Upon Santos's election, she becomes chief of staff to the first lady.
  • Stockard Channing as Abbey Bartlet : the First Lady, Jed's wife, and a physician.
  • Kathryn Joosten as Mrs. Landingham, the President's personal secretary : Bartlett's mentor since high school, is his indispensable, trusted, personal gatekeeper and maternalistic caretaker. Tragedy takes her from the series, triggering an existential crisis for President Bartlett.
  • Joshua Malina as Will Bailey : initially hired as a speechwriter and moves into the role of deputy communications director. He later becomes chief of staff to the vice president, Russell's campaign manager, and communications director. After the series end he becomes a congressman for Oregon.
  • Mary McCormack as Kate Harper : the Deputy National Security Advisor. Before the West Wing she was in the Navy, and CIA.
  • Jimmy Smits as Matt Santos : a congressman from Texas and the former mayor of Houston who is convinced by Josh Lyman to run for president. He eventually wins the nomination and later the election.
  • Alan Alda as Arnold Vinick : a senator from California who becomes the Republican nominee for president. After his loss in the general election, he is nominated Secretary of State by President-elect Santos.
  • Kristin Chenoweth as Annabeth Schott : the deputy press secretary and later works on the Santos campaign. At the series end, she is appointed press secretary to the incoming First Lady.

    Background

NBC originally ordered the pilot episode in March 1998 for a midseason premiere the following year, and the casting of Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney and Richard Schiff was officially reported in March 1999. NBC officially picked up the series in May 1999 for its fall schedule.
In an interview on the first season DVD, Bradley Whitford said that he was originally cast as Sam, even though Aaron Sorkin had created the Josh character specifically for him. In the same interview, Janel Moloney stated she had originally auditioned for the role of C.J. and that Donna, the role for which she was eventually cast, was not meant to be a recurring character. Other actors were seriously considered for other roles, including Alan Alda and Sidney Poitier for the President, Judd Hirsch for Leo, Eugene Levy for Toby, and CCH Pounder for C.J.
Moloney became a recurring character in Season 1 and then a regular in Season 2 due to her chemistry with Whitford's character beginning in the pilot episode, and their possible romantic relationship became an ongoing plot thread throughout the series.
Each of the principal actors made approximately $75,000 per episode, with the established Sheen receiving a confirmed salary of $300,000. Disparities in cast salaries led to very public contract disputes, particularly by Janney, Schiff, Spencer, and Whitford. During contract negotiations in 2001, the four were threatened with breach of contract suits by Warner Bros. However, by banding together, they were able to persuade the studio to more than double their salaries. Two years later, the four again demanded a doubling of their salaries, a few months after Warner Bros had signed new licensing deals with NBC and Bravo.
Sorkin's hectic writing schedule often led to cost overruns and schedule slips,, and he made headlines in April 2001 with an arrest for possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
The New York Times reported in June 2001 that the show cost at least $2 million an episode, and that some writers would not receive planned raises in the third season.
In July 2002, it became public that Rob Lowe, who had a separate salary deal from the other main cast members, intended to leave the series during the toward the end of the fourth season, saying in a statement "it has been increasingly clear, for quite a while, that there was no longer a place for Sam Seaborn on 'The West Wing. Variety attributed his exit to salary dissatisfaction and the evolution of Martin Sheen's character to have a more primary regular role. In August 2002, Lowe suggested he could still stay if a deal could be worked out. Sorkin said in September 2002 that the exit would be written in a way that the door would always be open for Lowe's return. Lowe would later return for guest appearance roles at the end of the final season in 2006 and A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote in 2020.
Joshua Malina's role as a series regular following Lowe's exit was first reported in December 2002. The teaser of the season 4 Christmas episode "Holy Night" is almost entirely in Yiddish, in part inspired by Richard Schiff's own family history.
The show was renewed for seasons 5 and 6 in January 2003 despite falling ratings.
The news of Aaron Sorkin's and Tommy Schlamme's departures at the end of season 4 was first reported at the beginning of May 2003 ahead of that year's season finale. Many sources referred to growing tensions over budgets, delayed scripts and ratings, given the fact that Sorkin wrote nearly every episode himself. Production company Warner Brothers and NBC executive Jeff Zucker stated that executive producer John Wells was set to take a "more active" role in the coming season, essentially taking over as showrunner. At the time Wells suggested that Sorkin had been convinced to stay on for previous seasons, that ratings were not a factor, and that he planned to bring in additional writing staff. Wells also stated later that conflict involving the network and the role of an actor on the series were a factor, that the timing of the exit and his takeover was the unplanned result of an end of season meeting involving the production company and the network and that he and the writing staff had to do the best they could to come up with a way to continue from the Season 4 cliffhanger finale Sorkin had written.
Jimmy Smits was cast in the show's sixth season as the congressman and future presidential candidate Matt Santos after John Wells saw his performance in the summer 2004 Central Park Shakespeare in the Park production.
The show was renewed for a seventh season in March 2005.
In the seventh and final season, many of the actors appeared in fewer episodes as the show faced budget constraints, but were still paid the same amount for the episodes they were in, according to Richard Schiff. Schiff, who has been very vocal about his unhappiness with his character's final storyline, was contracted for 11 episodes after initially being offered four episodes.
John Spencer died of a heart attack on December 16, 2005, about a year after his character experienced a nearly fatal heart attack on the show. Martin Sheen gave a brief memorial message before "Running Mates", the first new episode that aired after Spencer's death. The loss of Spencer's character was addressed beginning with the episode "Election Day", which aired on April 2, 2006.
The ending of the series was announced in January 2006, with NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly saying the decision had been made before John Spencer's death, citing lower ratings. The entire cast appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show ahead of the finale in May 2006.
High profile real life guest appearances over the course of the show included Yo-Yo Ma, Jon Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, The Whiffenpoofs, Penn & Teller, and characters from Sesame Street''.
Interior scenes were filmed on soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios Burbank in California. The production also filmed exterior scenes on trips to the Washington, D.C. area, including at what was then the Newseum building in Rosslyn, Maryland, New York City, Pennsylvania, and in Ontario, Canada.