So You Want to Start Watching The West Wing
This is what I spent the last three hours doing, instead of working on NaNo. It was fun, though. I fucking love this show, guys. I love it.
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So, You Want To Start Watching The West Wing
For the first time since a television show about a liberal Democrat with a strong grassroots base who was never expected to win aired on NBC, we have a government where life is imitating art. Once President-Elect Obama secured the Democratic nomination, blogs, newspapers, and cable news networks began filling time and space with mentions of how close real-life was mirroring the last seasons of The West Wing. It was a well known fact that Jimmy Smits' Matt Santos was based on a young, up-and-coming Senator from Illinois, and there are more than a few parallels between Alan Alda's moderate, likable Arnold Vinick and Senator John McCain. With the appointment of Washington bulldog Rahm Emanuel as Obama's Chief of Staff, longtime fans are having fits of glee and political junkies who missed the show the first time around are starting to become curious.
So here, for your edification, internet, is my brief guide to watching The West Wing. It's my gift as an obsessive original viewer to all of you newcomers, because I love nothing more than spreading the love of Aaron Sorkin and his intensely human characters to those around me. And if you haven't decided to start watching yet, take a gander anyway! Maybe this will convince you.
What is The West Wing?
The West Wing is a television program that aired on NBC from September 1999 to May 2006. It followed the young, enthusiastic senior staff of fictional United States President Josiah Bartlet from his first term in office to the election of his successor. Each week, audiences watched the cast try to work with the opposing party, pass legislation, handle the media, and eek out a little time for their personal lives as they pushed everything else aside in order to serve at the pleasure of the President.
It was created by Aaron Sorkin on the heels of his critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful series Sports Night, during which he perfected many of his and co-execuative producer Thomas Schlamme's trademark techniques. It was originally conceived as an inside view of the White House that would follow Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn and Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman through the ins and outs of public service. The President was going to be a minor, rarely appearing character, but after Martin Sheen and the rest of the ensemble tested well with audiences, it shifted into an ensemble format.
Over the course of its seven seasons, The West Wing garnered numerous awards and nomination. It holds the record for most Emmys won in a single season and is tied for the record of most awards won by regular cast members. It was hugely critically acclaimed, and although there were fears that it would be another commercial flop, it drew in large audiences, especially those in the highest income brackets. Ratings slipped after creator Aaron Sorkin left the show, leading to a 2006 cancellation at the end of the show's final Presidential election plot line.
Why should I be watching?
The West Wing is, above all else, a love letter to public service. It is a wonderful character show, a very topical current events show, and filled with funny lines, drama, relationships, and real-life issues, but at its heart, it is a portrait of public service. Every week, the audience followed a group of people who loved their jobs and their country and would sacrifice all other elements of their life for its betterment. They were dedicated, hopeful, and energized, and to them, government was not something to be treated with mockery and scorn, but rather the tool to make life better for all citizens.
Many ex-White House staffers were on staff at the show, including Dee Dee Myers and pollster Patrick Caddell and although the depiction of life in the West Wing was not one hundred percent accurate, both former and current White House staff praised the show for how closely it captured real life. They also praised the fact that it made public service seem like a noble, respected profession in an age where the work of government staffers was scorned and relegated to a throw-away comment on cable news shows.
Aside from that, it was one of the best shows on television, period. The writing was superb and the acting was excellent enough to pull off the quick dialogue full of policy and political technobabble. It's a fun, quotable show that fills you with pride as you watch it. You can't help but smile when things are going well for Bartlet's America, even if, for many years, things were not going as well in our own.
The characters are top-notch, and you feel as you're watching them like you live and die right along with them. They're flawed and human and you find yourself wincing as they make bad decisions and cheering when things go according to their plans. Their relationships with each other are comfortable and close in a way that makes you wish you knew people who shared your passion that way. Both romantic and platonic, the actors all have oodles of chemistry with each other and it's easy to see how these people work together in a high stress environment every day without killing each other.
"And just who are these characters?" you might ask. Well, let me introduce you to...
The Characters of (the first season of) The West Wing
(You don't know how hard it was for me to restrict it to the first season and leave out Will. WILL! ♥)
These are the people who you will grow to love and adore, the people who will make you cry and laugh and cheer. This is the government that most of us spent eight long years longing for. Hopefully, most of you won't have the same problem.
President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet (Martin Sheen)
Prior to becoming President, Bartlet was a the Governor of New Hampshire and spent three terms in the House of Representatives. He's a Nobel Laureate in Economics, and an incredibly smart, intellectual man, who often quizzes his staffers on pointless trivia to pass time. He's married to a thoracic surgeon named Abigail (Abbey) and they have three children--Elizabeth (Liz), Eleanor (Ellie), and youngest daughter Zoey, who is starting at Georgetown at the beginning of the series.
Bartlet is fairly liberal, although he allows himself to be pulled to "the middle of the road" in his first term in an attempt to please his opponents, allies, and the citizens of the country. When his Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry, confronts him about this, he admits that he'd like to put aside thoughts of reelection to get things done, and finally allows himself to make the sort of decisions he'd been wanting to make since his inauguration.
He has a very good relationship with his staff, frequently referring to them as part of his family. He's shown playing basketball and poker with them on several occasions and often personally involves himself with their problems. Leo is his best friend, and Bartlet often finds himself leaning on him for advice and support when things become difficult. Leo was the person who convinced him to run for President in the first place, something that he didn't feel he was entirely ready for at the time.
He's described by critics as an "ideal President," a man who is smart and socially conscious, filled with compassion and integrity, but still not afraid to make unpopular decisions if he feels like they'll benefit the country.
Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer)
Leo hails from Chicago, and served as Secretary of Labor prior to running the Bartlet for America campaign. He was married to a woman named Jenny and had one daughter, Mallory, though he divorces Jenny early in the first season. Leo is seen as a father-figure to many members of the staff, particularly Josh Lyman, and any of them would be willing to do anything to help him out.
Although he can sometimes be gruff with the staff, it's very clear that he cares for them very deeply and loves the President like a brother. He's a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, a fact that is known from very early on in the series and brought up several times over the years. He had a close relationship with Josh's father and with Bartlet for many years prior to the Bartlet for America campaign, and Bartlet refers to Leo as his best friend.
It was, in fact, Leo who convinced Bartlet to run for President in the first place. Although Bartlet was unsure as to whether he was up to the task, Leo was sure the country was ready for a "good man" to be President and helmed the race, encouraging Barlet until he finally accepted that he was ready.
Leo handles corralling the staff into getting things done. He has a sharp political mind, and is often found playing the politics game so that Barlet doesn't have to. He is sometimes frustrated with the mistakes and inexperience of his fairly young staff, but trusts them to do their jobs and thinks very highly of all of them.
Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua "Josh" Lyman (Bradley Whitford)
Josh Lyman hails from Connecticut. He's considered Bartlet's political bulldog, and, according to Will Bailey in a later season, is the second sharpest political mind in the party, right after Leo McGarry. Josh is more than willing to step on some toes in order to get things his way, mostly because he honestly believes that his way is the way that will make things better for the country at large. He would do anything for President Bartlet, and even more than the President, he would do anything for Leo McGarry.
Prior to being recruited for Bartlet's campaign by Leo, Josh was working for Senator John Hoynes, the likely Presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. He was tired of Hoynes making concessions to appear more likable to the party, and after listening to a speech given by Bartlet at a VFW Hall, he found himself drawn to the campaign.
Josh is charming, witty, sarcastic, and just a little bit arrogant. He's incredibly smart and passionate, and has something of a fan following, especially with college-age girls who followed the Bartlet campaign. His best friend is Sam Seaborn, although he is also close to CJ Cregg and a kind of mentor to Charlie Young. His relationship with his assistant, Donna Moss, is more personal and complicated than most of the other senior staff and their assistants. He looks at Leo McGarry as a father figure, and in his mind, pleasing Leo is just as important as pleasing the President. He's had a lot of personal tragedy in his life, specifically the death of his father right before Bartlet received the Democratic nomination and the death of his older sister when he was just a boy.
Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff)
Toby grew up in Brooklyn, the son of immigrant parents. He is a devout Jew, and was married to Congresswoman Andrea Wyatt for a number of years. As the Communications Director, Toby is in charge of the message sent by the Bartlet White House, but he is first and foremost a writer. He crafts many of the important speeches given by the President and, like fellow speech writer Sam Seaborn, takes oratory and the written word very seriously.
Before joining the Bartlet campaign, Toby was a "professional political operative" who ran and helped run a number of unsuccessful campaigns both in New York City and for House and Senate races. Of the current senior staff (with the exception of Leo), Toby has been working with Bartlet for the longest and also has the most tenuous relationship with him. Although it is clear that they respect and admire each other, Toby and the President frequently butt heads and clash over politics. Toby has a close sibling relationship with both Josh and Sam Seaborn. Although Josh and Toby don't always agree, they greatly admire each other, and Sam is often portrayed as the younger brother Toby has taken under his wing. He has a close relationship with CJ Cregg as well, and was the person who recruited her to the Bartlet campaign.
Toby is somewhat gruff and seems pessimistic at first look, but he is just as idealistic as the rest of the senior staff. Although he is prone to fits of frustration with the lack of progress the administration is making, he has high hopes overall and seems convinced that Bartlet is the person worthy of achieving them. He has a very dry sense of humor and often seems bemused by the antics of his fellow staffers.
Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe)
Sam was born and raised in Southern California, although he was living and working in New York when Josh recruited him for the Bartlet campaign. He and Josh worked together on the Hill when they were younger, and while Josh went into a life of politics, Sam went to law school and became a lawyer at a large New York firm. It was Josh who convinced him to leave his job, which had him questioning his own morality, to write speeches for Bartlet.
Sam is, perhaps, the most idealistic of the Bartlet staff. He's the youngest and has a perpetually sunny outlook on life. He's fiercely loyal to Josh, Leo, the President, and Toby, and truly believes that he's working to make the world a better place. He's something of a klutz and has terrible luck with women, but is charming and sweet, with the best of intentions. Sam's better with domestic policy than foreign policy, and his focus is on speech writing. He's an almost obscenely talented writer and writer's block hits him hard.
Josh is Sam's best friend and Toby is both his mentor and his favorite writer. He looks up to the President like a father, and Leo as well, to a lesser degree. Over the course of the first four years of the show he also forms a close relationship with Josh's assistant, Donna. He briefly dates Leo's daughter Mallory, although nothing comes of their relationship.
Sam and Josh are often, especially during the first four years of the show, given as parallels to Bartlet and Leo. They are very clearly set up as the next generation of politics, with Bartlet going as far as saying that he believes Sam will one day be President.
Press Secretary Claudia Jean "CJ" Cregg (Allison Janney)
CJ is, perhaps, the person with the least political experience coming into the Bartlet campaign. A former resident of California, CJ was working at an entertainment PR firm before being fired from her job as the request of a high paying client. Toby recruited her for the Bartlet campaign, claiming that she was on Leo McGarry's radar thanks to work she did with EMILY's List.
CJ is a powerful, positive, independent woman who handles being the only female member of the senior staff with grace and dignity and much ribbing of her male counterparts. She is not as politically confident as the other staffers, particularly after an incident where information was kept from her right before a briefing, leading her to believe the rest of the staff doesn't trust her. She is able to bounce back from this, however, and is consistently on top of her game. She takes her job very seriously, although she has a good relationship with the press corps that she oversees, particularly with Danny Concannon, who spends seven years courting her. She's sharp-witted, witty, and incredibly smart.
CJ's closest friend in the West Wing is Toby, who brought into the Bartlet fold, although she develops a friendship with Josh and trusts Sam enough to go to him "in her time of need" for help with an embarrassing problem. Over the course of the series, she and Charlie Young also become close friends.
Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff Donnatella "Donna" Moss (Janel Maloney)
Donna was not originally intended to be a recurring character, but the chemistry between Janel Maloney and Brad Whitford blew everyone out of the water and she was signed on for the rest of the season. Donna hails from Wisconsin, and joined the campaign in New Hampshire by finding the messiest office she saw and pretending she belonged there. Josh was impressed by her ability to manage his life and also taken in by her plea that she thought she could be "good at this," and hired her.
Donna holds Josh's entire life together. In the brief period of time that Donna quit working for him to return to Wisconsin, Josh's life became a pile of things that Donna had to sort out upon her return. She makes his appointments, harasses him to keep them, sends correspondence for him, and attends all the meetings that Josh thinks are too unimportant to attend himself.
Donna is close with the other assistants and also Sam Seaborn, in addition to her personal and very complicated relationship with Josh. She's often used within the show as a stand-in for the audience. Josh and Donna will do a "walk and talk," wherein Josh explains to her the details of whatever legislation or policy the senior staff is discussing that week.
Personal Aide to the President Charles "Charlie" Young (Dulé Hill)
Charlie was hired to work at the White House by applying for a job as a bike messenger. His mother, a DC cop, had been killed in the line of duty several months beforehand and Charlie was looking for a job and putting off college so he could look after his younger sister. Debbie Fiderer, upon reading his resumé and seeing his qualifications, suggested him to Josh Lyman to fill the position of the President's bodyman, and although Charlie was initially both stunned and scared by the offer, he eventually accepted after meeting the President and helping him to find his glasses.
Charlie is incredibly smart and savvy and has a good sense of humor. He follows the President around and acts as both assistant and confidante. He's often the brunt of the President's lectures on whatever trivial thing has caught his attention and mostly manages to put up with it with a minimum amount of eyerolling and sighing.
During the first season, Charlie meets Bartlet's youngest daughter, Zoey, and Zoey proceeds to ask him out. He tries to be a good boyfriend, but the long hours of his job make it hard, not to mention the fact that many white supremacist groups take issue with the daughter of the President dating a young black man.
There are dozens and dozens of other characters, both in later seasons and ensemble positions, who have wormed their way into the hearts of fans, but I would be here forever if I started to list all of them. The ensemble and minor characters do remain consistent throughout the show, though, so keep your eyes open for Ed and Larry and Margaret and Carol and Mark and Steve and Katie as the episodes go by. They'll be back.
Some of that Brilliant Writing
I could quote this show at you all day. Here are a handful of examples of why you should be watching:
Sam: Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don’t need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven’t figured out how to do it yet.
--"Six Meetings Before Lunch," Season 1
Bartlet: C.J., look.
C.J.: Don't start with me, Mr. President.
Bartlet: I was helping pass the time, I was being entertaining as well as instructive.
C.J.: I'm back in America now; I have rights. I'm no longer belted down next to the passenger from hell.
Leo: Welcome back, Mr. President.
Bartlet: Leo, what are you doing here?
Leo: I needed a minute, sir. How was the flight.
Bartlet: It was great.
C.J.: It was gruesome. If you'll look out the left side of the cabin you'll see the fjords. Then we got a history of the fjords. Then we got a quiz on the fjords. Do you have any idea how much I'd like to dress you up in lederhosen and drop-kick you into a fjord?
--"Take This Sabbath Day," Season 1
Leo: Because I'm tired of it year after year after year after year having to chose between the lesser of who cares? Of trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low, I can hardly look at it. They say a good man can't get elected President. I don't believe that, do you?
Bartlet: And you think I'm that man.
Leo: Yes.
Bartlet: Does it matter that I'm not as sure?
Leo: Nah. Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to you. Put it another way, fake it till you make it. You did good tonight.
Bartlet: Yeah.
Leo: This is the time of Jed Bartlet, old friend. You're gonna open your mouth and lift houses off the ground. Whole houses, clear off the ground...
--"In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I," Season 2
C.J.: I think you should do the classroom [event on the Mars Galileo V landing] either way.
Bartlet: Yeah?
C.J.: We have, at our disposal, a captive audience of schoolchildren. Some of them don't go to the black board and raise their hand because they think they're gonna be wrong. I think you should say to these kids, "you think you get it wrong sometimes, you should come down here and see how the big boys do it." I think you should tell them you haven't given up hope, and that it may turn up, but in the meantime, you want NASA to put its best people in the room, and you want them to start building Galileo VI. Some of them will laugh, and most of them won't care, but for some, they might honestly see that it's about going to the blackboard and raising your hand. And that's the broader theme.
--"Galileo," Season 2
Toby: If our job teaches us anything, it's that we don't know what the next President's gonna face. And if we choose someone with vision, someone with guts, someone with gravitas, who's connected to other people's lives, and cares about making them better... if we choose someone to inspire us, then we'll be able to face what comes our way and achieve things... we can't imagine yet. Instead of telling people who's the most qualified, instead of telling people who's got the better ideas, let's make it obvious. It's going to be hard.
Josh: Then we'll do what's hard.
--"Twenty Hours in America, Part II," Season 4
The Part Where I Get All Opinionated
I honestly, truly believe this is one of the greatest television shows of all time. I feel very proud and grateful that I was there to watch it from it's amazing first four years to... well, you know. The rest of it. I watch a lot of crappy teevee. A LOT. I mean, for the past 72 hours, I've barely changed the channel from MonstersHD, which I get to see such classics as The Dentist 2, The Horror at Party Beach, Friday the 13th: Part VII: New Blood, and Bride of Reanimator. But this? God, this was good. This was better than good.
Part of the reason behind it, I think, is that the show was smart. It didn't talk down to viewers (at least, in those first four years). It didn't pull crazy stunts to get viewers to tune in, it just offered a very intelligent level of discourse and trusted that the audience was smart enough to follow it. Concepts were explained by the characters, but not in a way that felt patronizing, and not everything. The plot lines weren't rehashed and picked apart, rather, the viewers were expected to follow them on their own. Events that were mentioned in passing in one episode will become important four episodes down the line. You had to pay attention, which I think isn't something that should be met with outrage. The show proved that television wasn't just the boob tube, that you could watch fictional programs and learn things while doing it, that you could be entertained and moved and feel like you're taking something away from it other than "Man, that chick is hot!" or "that fight scene was hilarious!"
(Although, if that's your thing, there is not shortage of hot ladies or hilarious things in the show, either XD)
Those first four years were just all around great television, guys, and I really, really encourage you to pick them up if you haven't already.
Reasons Why I Love The Show
My last ditch effort, guys. If the love of public service and the characters and the parallels to real life haven't already gotten you hooked, here are some reasons why I love this show.
Okay, Where Do I Start?
The West Wing was a relative latecomer to LJ, or at least it feels that way because when I first started, there was almost no fan presence to speak of. It's one of those shows that everyone watches but not many people write/icon/vid for. I'd say a pretty sizeable portion of liberal, smart western fandom (which, in fannish terms, is a lot) has seen some or most of TWW, but it's few people's main fandom.
(This is all, by the way, based on my experiences over the years. The past few years, starting when I got really into Rent in 2002/2003, I stepped away from being really actively involved and became an observer, but this is, you know, what I observed.)
Still, there was a bit of a revival in the seventh season when a slew of new people inexplicably started watching all at once. Around that time, many more communities and tools started to pop up, so there's a lot more now then there was when I first joined LJ. I don't actively participate in a lot of the communities anymore (mostly because my main focus is a teeny tiny pairing and I'm pretty sure most of its fans are already on my flist! XD), but I can definitely show you some of what's available.
tww_full_lid is the fandom newsletter. It runs once weekly on Fridays. Because the TWW fannish community isn't as centralized as some, it's a good idea to leave a link in the comments of the most recent post if you have something you really want to get on there. It's a great tool, and basically the only TWW LJ community I still have on my f-list. It has news, fic, icons, information about the characters and actors and all sorts of other things. Despite the fact that the show has been off the air for more than two years now, it's still going strong.
west_wing_fans was the only TWW LJ community I could find when I first joined LJ. There may have been more, but that one was all I knew. It's been around for a long time and offers general discussion.
tww_fanfiction does what it says on the tin.
The National Library is an off-LJ archive for all types of TWW fanficion. A nice place for first-timers to browse.
The Jeds is the home of the now-defunct TWW fanfiction awards. Some of the links are broken, but a lot of them are still active and it's good stuff. A lot of these are the stories that I remember as being the best, because that was back when I read every scrap of TWW fanfiction written XD
tww_meta hasn't been updated in like, two years, but it also supposedly does what it says on the tin.
tww_icons et cetera, et cetera...
inthetallgrass is a Sorkin fic group. It accepts fic from all three of Aaron Sorkin's teevee shows, and has a slightly different readership than the other fic communities on LJ, so it's a good place to crosspost.
seabornforprez isn't a "standard" TWW community, but the lovely and talented scrollgirl moderates it and it's something I feel strongly about. It's for people who believe that Sam is destined for greater things than the show leads up to believe, that he really will be President some day. It's kind of dead now, but I still love it too much to leave it off.
There are a ton of other communities out there, things for ships and characters and actors, but these are the basics, and a good jumping off point.
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Anyway, I hope that's a nice introduction to you newbies, and I hope it's convinced at least a few of you to give the show a try. The entire show is available on DVD but really, just stick to the first four years and through NetFlix, so just give it a chance. I promise you won't be disappointed.
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So, You Want To Start Watching The West Wing
For the first time since a television show about a liberal Democrat with a strong grassroots base who was never expected to win aired on NBC, we have a government where life is imitating art. Once President-Elect Obama secured the Democratic nomination, blogs, newspapers, and cable news networks began filling time and space with mentions of how close real-life was mirroring the last seasons of The West Wing. It was a well known fact that Jimmy Smits' Matt Santos was based on a young, up-and-coming Senator from Illinois, and there are more than a few parallels between Alan Alda's moderate, likable Arnold Vinick and Senator John McCain. With the appointment of Washington bulldog Rahm Emanuel as Obama's Chief of Staff, longtime fans are having fits of glee and political junkies who missed the show the first time around are starting to become curious.
So here, for your edification, internet, is my brief guide to watching The West Wing. It's my gift as an obsessive original viewer to all of you newcomers, because I love nothing more than spreading the love of Aaron Sorkin and his intensely human characters to those around me. And if you haven't decided to start watching yet, take a gander anyway! Maybe this will convince you.
What is The West Wing?
The West Wing is a television program that aired on NBC from September 1999 to May 2006. It followed the young, enthusiastic senior staff of fictional United States President Josiah Bartlet from his first term in office to the election of his successor. Each week, audiences watched the cast try to work with the opposing party, pass legislation, handle the media, and eek out a little time for their personal lives as they pushed everything else aside in order to serve at the pleasure of the President.
It was created by Aaron Sorkin on the heels of his critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful series Sports Night, during which he perfected many of his and co-execuative producer Thomas Schlamme's trademark techniques. It was originally conceived as an inside view of the White House that would follow Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn and Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman through the ins and outs of public service. The President was going to be a minor, rarely appearing character, but after Martin Sheen and the rest of the ensemble tested well with audiences, it shifted into an ensemble format.
Over the course of its seven seasons, The West Wing garnered numerous awards and nomination. It holds the record for most Emmys won in a single season and is tied for the record of most awards won by regular cast members. It was hugely critically acclaimed, and although there were fears that it would be another commercial flop, it drew in large audiences, especially those in the highest income brackets. Ratings slipped after creator Aaron Sorkin left the show, leading to a 2006 cancellation at the end of the show's final Presidential election plot line.
Why should I be watching?
The West Wing is, above all else, a love letter to public service. It is a wonderful character show, a very topical current events show, and filled with funny lines, drama, relationships, and real-life issues, but at its heart, it is a portrait of public service. Every week, the audience followed a group of people who loved their jobs and their country and would sacrifice all other elements of their life for its betterment. They were dedicated, hopeful, and energized, and to them, government was not something to be treated with mockery and scorn, but rather the tool to make life better for all citizens.
Many ex-White House staffers were on staff at the show, including Dee Dee Myers and pollster Patrick Caddell and although the depiction of life in the West Wing was not one hundred percent accurate, both former and current White House staff praised the show for how closely it captured real life. They also praised the fact that it made public service seem like a noble, respected profession in an age where the work of government staffers was scorned and relegated to a throw-away comment on cable news shows.
Aside from that, it was one of the best shows on television, period. The writing was superb and the acting was excellent enough to pull off the quick dialogue full of policy and political technobabble. It's a fun, quotable show that fills you with pride as you watch it. You can't help but smile when things are going well for Bartlet's America, even if, for many years, things were not going as well in our own.
The characters are top-notch, and you feel as you're watching them like you live and die right along with them. They're flawed and human and you find yourself wincing as they make bad decisions and cheering when things go according to their plans. Their relationships with each other are comfortable and close in a way that makes you wish you knew people who shared your passion that way. Both romantic and platonic, the actors all have oodles of chemistry with each other and it's easy to see how these people work together in a high stress environment every day without killing each other.
"And just who are these characters?" you might ask. Well, let me introduce you to...
The Characters of (the first season of) The West Wing
(You don't know how hard it was for me to restrict it to the first season and leave out Will. WILL! ♥)
These are the people who you will grow to love and adore, the people who will make you cry and laugh and cheer. This is the government that most of us spent eight long years longing for. Hopefully, most of you won't have the same problem.
President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet (Martin Sheen)
Prior to becoming President, Bartlet was a the Governor of New Hampshire and spent three terms in the House of Representatives. He's a Nobel Laureate in Economics, and an incredibly smart, intellectual man, who often quizzes his staffers on pointless trivia to pass time. He's married to a thoracic surgeon named Abigail (Abbey) and they have three children--Elizabeth (Liz), Eleanor (Ellie), and youngest daughter Zoey, who is starting at Georgetown at the beginning of the series.
Bartlet is fairly liberal, although he allows himself to be pulled to "the middle of the road" in his first term in an attempt to please his opponents, allies, and the citizens of the country. When his Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry, confronts him about this, he admits that he'd like to put aside thoughts of reelection to get things done, and finally allows himself to make the sort of decisions he'd been wanting to make since his inauguration.
He has a very good relationship with his staff, frequently referring to them as part of his family. He's shown playing basketball and poker with them on several occasions and often personally involves himself with their problems. Leo is his best friend, and Bartlet often finds himself leaning on him for advice and support when things become difficult. Leo was the person who convinced him to run for President in the first place, something that he didn't feel he was entirely ready for at the time.
He's described by critics as an "ideal President," a man who is smart and socially conscious, filled with compassion and integrity, but still not afraid to make unpopular decisions if he feels like they'll benefit the country.
Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer)
Leo hails from Chicago, and served as Secretary of Labor prior to running the Bartlet for America campaign. He was married to a woman named Jenny and had one daughter, Mallory, though he divorces Jenny early in the first season. Leo is seen as a father-figure to many members of the staff, particularly Josh Lyman, and any of them would be willing to do anything to help him out.
Although he can sometimes be gruff with the staff, it's very clear that he cares for them very deeply and loves the President like a brother. He's a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, a fact that is known from very early on in the series and brought up several times over the years. He had a close relationship with Josh's father and with Bartlet for many years prior to the Bartlet for America campaign, and Bartlet refers to Leo as his best friend.
It was, in fact, Leo who convinced Bartlet to run for President in the first place. Although Bartlet was unsure as to whether he was up to the task, Leo was sure the country was ready for a "good man" to be President and helmed the race, encouraging Barlet until he finally accepted that he was ready.
Leo handles corralling the staff into getting things done. He has a sharp political mind, and is often found playing the politics game so that Barlet doesn't have to. He is sometimes frustrated with the mistakes and inexperience of his fairly young staff, but trusts them to do their jobs and thinks very highly of all of them.
Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua "Josh" Lyman (Bradley Whitford)
Josh Lyman hails from Connecticut. He's considered Bartlet's political bulldog, and, according to Will Bailey in a later season, is the second sharpest political mind in the party, right after Leo McGarry. Josh is more than willing to step on some toes in order to get things his way, mostly because he honestly believes that his way is the way that will make things better for the country at large. He would do anything for President Bartlet, and even more than the President, he would do anything for Leo McGarry.
Prior to being recruited for Bartlet's campaign by Leo, Josh was working for Senator John Hoynes, the likely Presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. He was tired of Hoynes making concessions to appear more likable to the party, and after listening to a speech given by Bartlet at a VFW Hall, he found himself drawn to the campaign.
Josh is charming, witty, sarcastic, and just a little bit arrogant. He's incredibly smart and passionate, and has something of a fan following, especially with college-age girls who followed the Bartlet campaign. His best friend is Sam Seaborn, although he is also close to CJ Cregg and a kind of mentor to Charlie Young. His relationship with his assistant, Donna Moss, is more personal and complicated than most of the other senior staff and their assistants. He looks at Leo McGarry as a father figure, and in his mind, pleasing Leo is just as important as pleasing the President. He's had a lot of personal tragedy in his life, specifically the death of his father right before Bartlet received the Democratic nomination and the death of his older sister when he was just a boy.
Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff)
Toby grew up in Brooklyn, the son of immigrant parents. He is a devout Jew, and was married to Congresswoman Andrea Wyatt for a number of years. As the Communications Director, Toby is in charge of the message sent by the Bartlet White House, but he is first and foremost a writer. He crafts many of the important speeches given by the President and, like fellow speech writer Sam Seaborn, takes oratory and the written word very seriously.
Before joining the Bartlet campaign, Toby was a "professional political operative" who ran and helped run a number of unsuccessful campaigns both in New York City and for House and Senate races. Of the current senior staff (with the exception of Leo), Toby has been working with Bartlet for the longest and also has the most tenuous relationship with him. Although it is clear that they respect and admire each other, Toby and the President frequently butt heads and clash over politics. Toby has a close sibling relationship with both Josh and Sam Seaborn. Although Josh and Toby don't always agree, they greatly admire each other, and Sam is often portrayed as the younger brother Toby has taken under his wing. He has a close relationship with CJ Cregg as well, and was the person who recruited her to the Bartlet campaign.
Toby is somewhat gruff and seems pessimistic at first look, but he is just as idealistic as the rest of the senior staff. Although he is prone to fits of frustration with the lack of progress the administration is making, he has high hopes overall and seems convinced that Bartlet is the person worthy of achieving them. He has a very dry sense of humor and often seems bemused by the antics of his fellow staffers.
Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe)
Sam was born and raised in Southern California, although he was living and working in New York when Josh recruited him for the Bartlet campaign. He and Josh worked together on the Hill when they were younger, and while Josh went into a life of politics, Sam went to law school and became a lawyer at a large New York firm. It was Josh who convinced him to leave his job, which had him questioning his own morality, to write speeches for Bartlet.
Sam is, perhaps, the most idealistic of the Bartlet staff. He's the youngest and has a perpetually sunny outlook on life. He's fiercely loyal to Josh, Leo, the President, and Toby, and truly believes that he's working to make the world a better place. He's something of a klutz and has terrible luck with women, but is charming and sweet, with the best of intentions. Sam's better with domestic policy than foreign policy, and his focus is on speech writing. He's an almost obscenely talented writer and writer's block hits him hard.
Josh is Sam's best friend and Toby is both his mentor and his favorite writer. He looks up to the President like a father, and Leo as well, to a lesser degree. Over the course of the first four years of the show he also forms a close relationship with Josh's assistant, Donna. He briefly dates Leo's daughter Mallory, although nothing comes of their relationship.
Sam and Josh are often, especially during the first four years of the show, given as parallels to Bartlet and Leo. They are very clearly set up as the next generation of politics, with Bartlet going as far as saying that he believes Sam will one day be President.
Press Secretary Claudia Jean "CJ" Cregg (Allison Janney)
CJ is, perhaps, the person with the least political experience coming into the Bartlet campaign. A former resident of California, CJ was working at an entertainment PR firm before being fired from her job as the request of a high paying client. Toby recruited her for the Bartlet campaign, claiming that she was on Leo McGarry's radar thanks to work she did with EMILY's List.
CJ is a powerful, positive, independent woman who handles being the only female member of the senior staff with grace and dignity and much ribbing of her male counterparts. She is not as politically confident as the other staffers, particularly after an incident where information was kept from her right before a briefing, leading her to believe the rest of the staff doesn't trust her. She is able to bounce back from this, however, and is consistently on top of her game. She takes her job very seriously, although she has a good relationship with the press corps that she oversees, particularly with Danny Concannon, who spends seven years courting her. She's sharp-witted, witty, and incredibly smart.
CJ's closest friend in the West Wing is Toby, who brought into the Bartlet fold, although she develops a friendship with Josh and trusts Sam enough to go to him "in her time of need" for help with an embarrassing problem. Over the course of the series, she and Charlie Young also become close friends.
Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff Donnatella "Donna" Moss (Janel Maloney)
Donna was not originally intended to be a recurring character, but the chemistry between Janel Maloney and Brad Whitford blew everyone out of the water and she was signed on for the rest of the season. Donna hails from Wisconsin, and joined the campaign in New Hampshire by finding the messiest office she saw and pretending she belonged there. Josh was impressed by her ability to manage his life and also taken in by her plea that she thought she could be "good at this," and hired her.
Donna holds Josh's entire life together. In the brief period of time that Donna quit working for him to return to Wisconsin, Josh's life became a pile of things that Donna had to sort out upon her return. She makes his appointments, harasses him to keep them, sends correspondence for him, and attends all the meetings that Josh thinks are too unimportant to attend himself.
Donna is close with the other assistants and also Sam Seaborn, in addition to her personal and very complicated relationship with Josh. She's often used within the show as a stand-in for the audience. Josh and Donna will do a "walk and talk," wherein Josh explains to her the details of whatever legislation or policy the senior staff is discussing that week.
Personal Aide to the President Charles "Charlie" Young (Dulé Hill)
Charlie was hired to work at the White House by applying for a job as a bike messenger. His mother, a DC cop, had been killed in the line of duty several months beforehand and Charlie was looking for a job and putting off college so he could look after his younger sister. Debbie Fiderer, upon reading his resumé and seeing his qualifications, suggested him to Josh Lyman to fill the position of the President's bodyman, and although Charlie was initially both stunned and scared by the offer, he eventually accepted after meeting the President and helping him to find his glasses.
Charlie is incredibly smart and savvy and has a good sense of humor. He follows the President around and acts as both assistant and confidante. He's often the brunt of the President's lectures on whatever trivial thing has caught his attention and mostly manages to put up with it with a minimum amount of eyerolling and sighing.
During the first season, Charlie meets Bartlet's youngest daughter, Zoey, and Zoey proceeds to ask him out. He tries to be a good boyfriend, but the long hours of his job make it hard, not to mention the fact that many white supremacist groups take issue with the daughter of the President dating a young black man.
There are dozens and dozens of other characters, both in later seasons and ensemble positions, who have wormed their way into the hearts of fans, but I would be here forever if I started to list all of them. The ensemble and minor characters do remain consistent throughout the show, though, so keep your eyes open for Ed and Larry and Margaret and Carol and Mark and Steve and Katie as the episodes go by. They'll be back.
Some of that Brilliant Writing
I could quote this show at you all day. Here are a handful of examples of why you should be watching:
Sam: Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don’t need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven’t figured out how to do it yet.
--"Six Meetings Before Lunch," Season 1
Bartlet: C.J., look.
C.J.: Don't start with me, Mr. President.
Bartlet: I was helping pass the time, I was being entertaining as well as instructive.
C.J.: I'm back in America now; I have rights. I'm no longer belted down next to the passenger from hell.
Leo: Welcome back, Mr. President.
Bartlet: Leo, what are you doing here?
Leo: I needed a minute, sir. How was the flight.
Bartlet: It was great.
C.J.: It was gruesome. If you'll look out the left side of the cabin you'll see the fjords. Then we got a history of the fjords. Then we got a quiz on the fjords. Do you have any idea how much I'd like to dress you up in lederhosen and drop-kick you into a fjord?
--"Take This Sabbath Day," Season 1
Leo: Because I'm tired of it year after year after year after year having to chose between the lesser of who cares? Of trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low, I can hardly look at it. They say a good man can't get elected President. I don't believe that, do you?
Bartlet: And you think I'm that man.
Leo: Yes.
Bartlet: Does it matter that I'm not as sure?
Leo: Nah. Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to you. Put it another way, fake it till you make it. You did good tonight.
Bartlet: Yeah.
Leo: This is the time of Jed Bartlet, old friend. You're gonna open your mouth and lift houses off the ground. Whole houses, clear off the ground...
--"In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I," Season 2
C.J.: I think you should do the classroom [event on the Mars Galileo V landing] either way.
Bartlet: Yeah?
C.J.: We have, at our disposal, a captive audience of schoolchildren. Some of them don't go to the black board and raise their hand because they think they're gonna be wrong. I think you should say to these kids, "you think you get it wrong sometimes, you should come down here and see how the big boys do it." I think you should tell them you haven't given up hope, and that it may turn up, but in the meantime, you want NASA to put its best people in the room, and you want them to start building Galileo VI. Some of them will laugh, and most of them won't care, but for some, they might honestly see that it's about going to the blackboard and raising your hand. And that's the broader theme.
--"Galileo," Season 2
Toby: If our job teaches us anything, it's that we don't know what the next President's gonna face. And if we choose someone with vision, someone with guts, someone with gravitas, who's connected to other people's lives, and cares about making them better... if we choose someone to inspire us, then we'll be able to face what comes our way and achieve things... we can't imagine yet. Instead of telling people who's the most qualified, instead of telling people who's got the better ideas, let's make it obvious. It's going to be hard.
Josh: Then we'll do what's hard.
--"Twenty Hours in America, Part II," Season 4
The Part Where I Get All Opinionated
I honestly, truly believe this is one of the greatest television shows of all time. I feel very proud and grateful that I was there to watch it from it's amazing first four years to... well, you know. The rest of it. I watch a lot of crappy teevee. A LOT. I mean, for the past 72 hours, I've barely changed the channel from MonstersHD, which I get to see such classics as The Dentist 2, The Horror at Party Beach, Friday the 13th: Part VII: New Blood, and Bride of Reanimator. But this? God, this was good. This was better than good.
Part of the reason behind it, I think, is that the show was smart. It didn't talk down to viewers (at least, in those first four years). It didn't pull crazy stunts to get viewers to tune in, it just offered a very intelligent level of discourse and trusted that the audience was smart enough to follow it. Concepts were explained by the characters, but not in a way that felt patronizing, and not everything. The plot lines weren't rehashed and picked apart, rather, the viewers were expected to follow them on their own. Events that were mentioned in passing in one episode will become important four episodes down the line. You had to pay attention, which I think isn't something that should be met with outrage. The show proved that television wasn't just the boob tube, that you could watch fictional programs and learn things while doing it, that you could be entertained and moved and feel like you're taking something away from it other than "Man, that chick is hot!" or "that fight scene was hilarious!"
(Although, if that's your thing, there is not shortage of hot ladies or hilarious things in the show, either XD)
Those first four years were just all around great television, guys, and I really, really encourage you to pick them up if you haven't already.
Reasons Why I Love The Show
My last ditch effort, guys. If the love of public service and the characters and the parallels to real life haven't already gotten you hooked, here are some reasons why I love this show.
- The characters. Again. Seasons 1-4 paint these people as driven and adorable and obnoxious and funny and smart, often all at the same time. They love each other, and you can't help but love them as you're watching it. You want more glimpses into their personal lives. You want to cheer with them and cry with them. You laugh with them and at them all of the time, and after four years together, they start to feel like your family.
- The writing. Again. Sorkin is a master at dialogue and a master at workplace friendships. He's a smart, smart guy, and it all shines through. There are speeches and conversations in this series that are just so inspiring that it hurts that they're not real. But he brings the funny just as well as he brings the inspiration, adding ridiculous subplots and throwaway lines that stick with you and make you chuckle weeks later. If I could have an ounce of this man's talent, I would die happy.
- The journey. We meet these people when they're green and new and naive and ready to change the world. Over four years, we see them leave behind their silly, trivial mistakes, make bigger ones, grow, and change, but never lose sight of their goals and their passions. It's brilliant.
- The fantasy. The West Wing is what got me interested in politics in the first place. It was probably inevitable, given who my parents are and how I was raised, but at fourteen years old, it was my first exposure to that world. I wanted to be a part of it. Of course, a year later George W. Bush was elected to the Presidency, at which time The West Wing was a weekly escape. Terrible things were happening in the world, but we had this wonderful world where a smart, caring man was President and his staff was filled with young, hopeful, and dedicated public servants. It was a nice place to visit every once in a while, when the world was just too much.
- The weird part. You know what one of my favorite parts of early TWW is? This is going to sound crazy, but I love how much they lose. Almost everything they try to do in that first year is shot down. They're always making sacrifices and ending up right where they started. As soon as they get into office, it's one set back after another, but they never stop trying. They get down sometimes, but they believe in what they're doing, so they go back and try again and again and again until they can do what they need to do. Even when they do get what they want, it's never easy. It's always something they have to work for. At times, the desperation is thick and you don't know how they go on, but they do! They keep going. And at the end of the day, when all is said and done, you can't help but smile at them, because they're going to get it eventually, and it's going to be that much sweeter.
Okay, Where Do I Start?
The West Wing was a relative latecomer to LJ, or at least it feels that way because when I first started, there was almost no fan presence to speak of. It's one of those shows that everyone watches but not many people write/icon/vid for. I'd say a pretty sizeable portion of liberal, smart western fandom (which, in fannish terms, is a lot) has seen some or most of TWW, but it's few people's main fandom.
(This is all, by the way, based on my experiences over the years. The past few years, starting when I got really into Rent in 2002/2003, I stepped away from being really actively involved and became an observer, but this is, you know, what I observed.)
Still, there was a bit of a revival in the seventh season when a slew of new people inexplicably started watching all at once. Around that time, many more communities and tools started to pop up, so there's a lot more now then there was when I first joined LJ. I don't actively participate in a lot of the communities anymore (mostly because my main focus is a teeny tiny pairing and I'm pretty sure most of its fans are already on my flist! XD), but I can definitely show you some of what's available.
tww_full_lid is the fandom newsletter. It runs once weekly on Fridays. Because the TWW fannish community isn't as centralized as some, it's a good idea to leave a link in the comments of the most recent post if you have something you really want to get on there. It's a great tool, and basically the only TWW LJ community I still have on my f-list. It has news, fic, icons, information about the characters and actors and all sorts of other things. Despite the fact that the show has been off the air for more than two years now, it's still going strong.
west_wing_fans was the only TWW LJ community I could find when I first joined LJ. There may have been more, but that one was all I knew. It's been around for a long time and offers general discussion.
tww_fanfiction does what it says on the tin.
The National Library is an off-LJ archive for all types of TWW fanficion. A nice place for first-timers to browse.
The Jeds is the home of the now-defunct TWW fanfiction awards. Some of the links are broken, but a lot of them are still active and it's good stuff. A lot of these are the stories that I remember as being the best, because that was back when I read every scrap of TWW fanfiction written XD
tww_meta hasn't been updated in like, two years, but it also supposedly does what it says on the tin.
tww_icons et cetera, et cetera...
inthetallgrass is a Sorkin fic group. It accepts fic from all three of Aaron Sorkin's teevee shows, and has a slightly different readership than the other fic communities on LJ, so it's a good place to crosspost.
seabornforprez isn't a "standard" TWW community, but the lovely and talented scrollgirl moderates it and it's something I feel strongly about. It's for people who believe that Sam is destined for greater things than the show leads up to believe, that he really will be President some day. It's kind of dead now, but I still love it too much to leave it off.
There are a ton of other communities out there, things for ships and characters and actors, but these are the basics, and a good jumping off point.
***
Anyway, I hope that's a nice introduction to you newbies, and I hope it's convinced at least a few of you to give the show a try. The entire show is available on DVD but really, just stick to the first four years and through NetFlix, so just give it a chance. I promise you won't be disappointed.