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fandomhigh_ooc2007-05-20 04:45 pm
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Fandom Spotlight: West Wing
A long time ago on a television network called NBC (remember when you used to watch it?), there was a show about a bunch of brilliant, workaholic idealistic liberals running the White House. Think the Clinton Administration with better speechwriters, way better-looking people and less sex with inappropriate people.
Well…more on Sam later.
It was a show where the Democrats in the White House didn’t get along with the Democrats in the Congress, where the Republicans hated everyone and – initially, at least – where no one was painted as a two-dimensional buffoon for believing what they did. The creator of the show, Aaron Sorkin (hallowed be his name), described the concept as a “love letter to public service” and it was.
The characters were compelling, the actors gave the Gilmore Girls a run for their money on spitting out reams of dialogue, the stories were timely (if a little skewed towards beating you over the head with their Importance), and the writing. Oh, the writing.
The show was the West Wing, and when it was good, it was brilliant. 26 Emmies, 2 Golden Globes, 4 straight years best drama brilliant. And when it was bad I threw things at the television.
Well…more on seasons 5 and 6 later.
Okay, I am intrigued. Tell me about these people! The Cast
The West Wing ran for 7 seasons, so we met approximately a billion people, but I’ll stick to the highlights.
The Bartlets
President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet (Martin Sheen): The head honcho, the main man, the POTUS. The first line he ever uttered on the show began “I am the Lord, your God…” which gave you a bit of a set-up about 1) his interest in religion and 2) his amazing ego. Both became themes. A Nobel Prize winner in economics and former governor of New Hampshire, Jed Bartlet is much, much smarter than you. Yes, even you. An old school liberal with no military experience, Jed stopped being like Bill Clinton by being 1) Catholic and 2) crazy in love with his wife. Oh, he also had relapsing-remitting MS, a disease that he failed to disclose to the voters when he was running. This became a Problem.
Dr. Abigail “Abby” Bartlet (Stockard Channing): The First Lady, and although not a series regular, a definite presence in the West Wing. She’s a brilliant surgeon in her own right and her relationship with the President was a thing of beauty to watch. Who else could get away with calling him a jackass? She also showed up to remind the staff that they should pay more attention to women’s issues and her staff in the East Wing butted heads with our boys over in the West Wing, who tended to view her people and issues as something like the junior varsity.
Liz, Ellie, and Zoey Bartlet: The Bartlets had three lovely girls, but the show spent the most time on Zoey, who attended Georgetown University and dated staffer Charlie Young. Liz was married to a tool who wanted to run for Congress in New Hampshire and Ellie was studying to be a doctor and wanted to stay as far away from the shadow her parents cast as humanly possible. After a few seasons, you couldn’t really blame her.
The Staff
Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer): Leo was Jed’s oldest friend and a major player in the Democratic Party who convinced his friend to run for President. Leo had combat experience as a pilot during Vietnam and was the former Secretary of Labor (the idea that America would elect three Democratic Presidents in a row being a lovely fantasy that I’ll allow), but a problem with alcohol and pills had for all intents and purposes detonated his political career (see also: issues with season 6, but more on that later). Jed might be President, but he didn’t make a decision without Leo’s input and don’t kid yourself into thinking otherwise. Leo had mad power. At the end of the series, Leo was on the ticket to be elected the next Vice President of the United States (see also: more issues with season 6), but the sudden passing of John Spencer led to the death of fictional Leo as well. It was very, very sad.
Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford): Josh was brought into the campaign by Leo, an old friend of Josh’s dad. As Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh’s job was to feel out the political ramifications of any domestic policy the White House takes. He spent a lot of time yelling at Congress and about Congress. He’s about as brilliant as he thinks he was, had terrible taste (and luck) with women, and should never be allowed in front of a camera as he had an almost terminal case of foot-in-mouth disease and no filter whatsoever when he got riled up. Through a series of improbable-even-for-TV moves, he was passed over to become Chief of Staff when Leo resigned and went off tohave crazy chemistry with become the campaign manager for Congressman Santos as he ran for President.
Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff): A professional political operative, Toby had a long string of election losses before ending up on the Bartlet campaign. He was caustic, veering towards curmudgeony, and was responsible for the way the White House was viewed by the outside world through speeches, press releases and people blowing it on Sunday talk shows. No wonder he’s losing his hair. He also had a complicated relationship with his ex-wife, a Congresswoman from Maryland. They eventually end up having twins together, but she wouldn’t remarry him. Sad. There was also this thing at the end of season 7 about Toby maybe kind of releasing classified information and going to prison if the President wouldn’t pardon him but I hated that story line and so I’m going to pretend it didn’t happen. La.
Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe): Sam was the deputy communications director (read: kick-ass speechwriter type) and the most idealistic of the staffers. He gave up his job at a ridonkulously paying law firm to come work for the government based mostly on Josh asking him to (the slash is strong with them). He was absolutely in love with the idea of working for the White House and dreamed of becoming President some day. He went off to run for a doomed California Congressional seat in the middle of season 4because Rob Lowe thought he was too good for television and reappeared at the end of season 7 to become the Deputy Chief of Staff in the Santos Administration that we’ll never see. Again, because Josh asked him to. Oh, Sam also accidentally slept with a call girl. Long story.
Press Secretary Claudia Jean “CJ” Cregg (Allison Janney): In the charming words of Josh: “paranoid Berkeley shiksa feminista.” But that’s because he knew she could break him like a twig. She’s tall, she’s smart and she went toe to toe with the Washington press corps for years and emerged relatively unscathed, which was no small task. After Leo stepped down as Chief of Staff, CJ took his place, which made no kind of Earth logic to anyone who follows RL politics but I’ll just remind myself that these are happy people who live in a box and move on.
Charlie Young (Dule Hill): After realizing that the cast that was supposed to be representing the staff of a very liberal Democrat was basically a bunch of white guys in suits, we were introduced to Charlie Young, the President’s special assistant or “bag man.” His job was to follow the President around, pick up letters people tried to hand to him in line and be subjected to the President’s rants on things ranging from national parks to music to how any history more recent than the Roman Empire sucked. He also dated Zoey Bartlet for a while. Being a good-looking, talented black man, this naturally offended redneck idiots who tried to assassinate him and hit the President instead. Brilliant.
Donatella “Donna” Moss (Janel Maloney): Josh’s special assistant, her job was to beat her boss repeatedly over the head with a clue bat when he needed it (weekly, as it worked out), and to have crazy UST with him between her dates with inappropriate Republicans. She was generally the voice of reason on the show when the rest of the staff would start to lose touch with how normal, non-West Wing Americans react to things.
Will Bailey (Joshua Malina): A campaign manager out in the California 42nd who managed to successfully elect a dead man to Congress, he and Sam switched places when Sam went out to run for the now open special-election. Will was abrasive and arrogant but in a non-fun way. They eventually shifted him off to the VP's office as chief of staff.
Other people that were awesome but the teal deer are coming so I’ll keep it short…:
Mrs. Landingham, the President’s secretary, gave cookies to the staff, kept the President in line, lost three sons in Vietnam and was killed off in a traffic accident at the end of season 2 just to make us all cry. She was replaced by the aggressively quirky Debbie Fiderer, a pot-smoking former alpaca farmer with a deeply stupid last name who I couldn’t stand. Ahem. In case that wasn’t clear.
We went through a couple of Vice Presidents, a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who was awesome but not as awesome as Nancy McNally, the National Security Advisor (who was then replaced by Kate Halper who wasn't nearly as cool), a CJ replacement named Annabeth Schott who was so aggressively perky I wanted to beat her to death, Arnold Vinick, a Republican Senator from California, and Matt Santos, a Democratic Congressman from Texas. Those last two were running to replace Bartlet for president as the series came to a close.
And Margaret, Leo's secretary, and Stanley Keyworth, the shrink, Bruno, the campaign manager, and Joey Lucas, the pollster, and Lord John Marbury because there needs to be an obnoxious British guy and Danny, the reporter for the Post and oh, I miss my show.
So it's about politics? Why would I watch that? Summaries of the seasons
(many thanks to wikipedia for reminding me of the high points)
Season One:
We began in the middle of Bartlet's first year in office, and the season was full of images of a West Wing stuck in neutral and powerless to govern (*cough* early Clinton administration *cough*). It was the standard introduction to characters and how things worked. The general passiveness of the White House ended when Leo and the President finally agree to fight any battle they believe to be important, even if they are not sure they can win (giving us the wonderful quote from Josh: "take your legislative agenda and shove it up your ass.". The season ended with a cliffhanger assassination attempt.
Season Two:
The second season is my favorite season and still has what I believe to be some of the greatest hours of television ever written and acted in it (watch "18th and Potomac" and "Two Cathedrals". If you don't get chills, I don't want to know you).
Taking place in the second and third years of the first term, the season covered a wider legislative array than the first season did, and presented issues including the rights of hate groups and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Due to the polling bump following the assassination attempt (and almost killed Josh, who dealt with a fun case of PTSD for much of the season), the folks in the West Wing now had some political capital to spend and get their goals accomplished. Season two also brought up the President's Multiple sclerosis, since now would be the time to start deciding if he'll be running for re-election. The staff were introduced one-by-one to the disease, with varying degrees of freaking out, and then the writers killed off Mrs. Landingham because they hate us and want us to cry.
Season Three:
The third season, which covered the administration's third and fourth years in office, began with Bartlet announcing his intention to run for reelection (not that we were really surprised). We spent most of the season watching the pull between the campaign staffers and the West Wing and the rise of their Republican opponent Definitely Not George W. Bush, a clearly incompetent Southern governor. Other prominent plotlines included Congressional investigations into whether Bartlet committed electoral fraud by concealing his MS, a death threat against CJ and the relationship that developed with the Secret Service agent (yay, Mark Harmon!) assigned to her, and the Qumari (read "not Saudi Arabia, oh no") defense minister Abdul Shareef plotting terrorist attacks against the US. The season finale ended with the president finally deciding to order Shareef's assassination (a kind of legally hinky thing), confronting his Republican opponent and calling him out ("that's the moment I decided to kick your ass") and CJ's agent getting killed just after the man threatening CJ was caught. Woe.
Season Four:
(Or "Sorkin's back on drugs and we can kind of tell")
The fourth season covered the end of Bartlet's fourth year and first term in office through the beginning of the first year of his second term. The season began with the continuation of the election storyline with the president touring the nation and his staff trying to firm up presidential debates. That plotline ended during November sweeps with Bartlet winning in a landslide (millions of Democratic viewers: ZOMG WHY DIDN'T IT WORK LIKE THIS?) and Sam leaving the White House to run in a special election in California. Will Bailey (the campaign manager in California) took Sam's position and Vice President Hoynes resigned after a sex scandal is uncovered. The fourth season ended with Zoey Bartlet being taken hostage. Her father invoked the 25th Amendment (temporarily resigning from office) because he didn't feel that he could negotiate to get Zoey back. Since Hoynes had recently resigned, the presidency passes to the Republican Speaker of the House, Glen Allen Walken (played by John Goodman. Seriously.).
West Wing viewers went: "…"
Season Five:
(Or: Come back, Aaron, we don't mind the drugs!)
The fifth season opened the military successfully rescuing Zoey from her abductors. Seriously, this huge plot was wrapped up in two episodes. Bartlet took the presidency back from Walken, but is forced back into a season 1 level of powerlessness for no apparent reason. He had to come to terms with the assassination he approved at the end of Season 3 that led to his daughter's kidnapping and deal with a powerful new Republican Speaker of the House (Walken had to resign in order to assume the presidency) who forced Bartlet into several decisions he didn't want including the nomination of a total dumbass of a Democrat, "Bingo Bob" Russell, for Vice President. The new Speaker was an asshole. This conflict with the new Speaker came to a head in "Shutdown," when the Speaker tried to force Bartlet into cutting federal spending more than had been agreed to and Bartlet refused to sign the budget (forcing the federal government into a shutdown, just like the Clinton Administration did against Newt Gingrich). Bartlet regained some minor power, cutting a deal to get a liberal Chief Justice of the United States, and season five ended with a bombing in Gaza leading Bartlet to push for Israeli peace talks, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs dead, Donna in the hospital and most of the West Wing fanbase watching something else.
Season Six:
The sixth season started with the president negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, Leo having a heart attack and leaving the staff, and the president trying to fund peacekeepers for the accord. Josh tried to decide whether he would stay with Bartlet through the end of the term or go off to manage a new presidential candidate, who would not be Bingo Bob, despite Donna jumping ship to go work on that campaign (and ruining the Josh/Donna relationship for most of the season). The later part of the season centered heavily around the 2006 presidential election, with Josh leaving the West Wing to work for Santos, a Congressman from Texas whom Josh convinced to run for President. Leo returned near the end of the season to refocus the Bartlet administration, which was flailing due to most of their brightest moving on to campaigns and CJ being not great at being a Chief of Staff. Russell was the leader for the Democratic nomination with former Vice President Hoynes a close second and Santos a distant third. After another sex scandal (of plot convenience because seriously? Two sex scandals that no one found out about when he'd been running for president against Bartlet? Not. Going. To. Happen.), Hoynes was forced into the third position, and Santos ended up winning a closely contested convention (and announced Leo as his running mate. The guy who quit because of health problems. The guy with a history of drug and alcohol abuse. I love Leo, but Jesus). The final episode also featured a leak from the White House about a classified military space shuttle to the press which was heavily investigated in the next season so we'd have a reason to be in the White House at all.
Season Seven:
The seventh and final season mainly followed Santos and Vinick on the campaign trail, while bouncing back to the shuttle leak investigation to give the actors in the White House something to do. Toby admitted to leaking the story about a military spacecraft (flames on the side of my face, zomg. I hated this plotline) and President Bartlet fired him. Later, he refused to name his brother as the source of the classified information. Also, CJ's tenure as Chief of Staff became more stressful as she dealt with the war between Russia and China over Kazakhstan, a nice little explosion just waiting for the next presidential administration to come in. The presidential race tightened up when Vinick made a number of mistakes on the campaign trail because the plot compelled him to. Leo died on the night of the election, which Santos eventually won, and we get a truly painful funeral scene, Josh and Donna finally, finally getting their act together and Santos being sworn in as President.
You're in you're own little Euripedes play over there, huh? Clips that are awesome
Okay, NBC hates youtube with a fiery passion, so many of the great lines aren't available, but here's a smattering of some of the good stuff.
The President and DoctorSchlesinger Jacobs
"…and we reach for the stars…"
The President calls the Butterball hotline
We changed timezones?!
Why it's okay to be liberal
Babies come with hats!
And if you'll indulge me, the transcript from Two Cathedrals of Bartlet's speech to God, which I can't find as a clip anywhere:
"You're a son-of-a-bitch, you know that? She bought her first new car and you hit her with a drunk driver. What, was that supposed to be funny? "You can't conceive, nor can I, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God," says Graham Greene. I don't know who's ass he was kissing there 'cause I think you're just vindictive. What was Josh Lyman? A warning shot? That was my son.
What did I ever do to yours except praise his glory and praise his name? There's a tropical storm that gaining speed and power. They say we haven't had a storm this bad since you took out the tender ship of mine last year in the north Atlantic last year... 68 crew. Do you know what a tender ship does? Fixes the other ships. Doesn't even carry guns. Floats around and fixes the other ships and delivers that mail. That's all it can do. Gratias tibi ago, domine. (Thank you, Lord). Yes, I lied. It was a sin. I've committed many sins. Have I displeased you, you feckless thug? 3.8 million new jobs, that wasn't good? Bailed out Mexico, increased foreign trade, 30 million new acres for conservation, put Mendoza on the bench, we're not fighting a war, I've raised three children...
That's not enough to buy me out of the doghouse? Haec credam a deo pio? A deo iusto? A deo scito? (Am I to believe these things from a righteous God, a just God, a wise God?) Cruciatus in crucem! Tuus in terra servus nuntius fui officium perfeci. (I was your servant, your messenger on the earth, I did my duty.) Cruciatus in crucem. Eas in crucem! (The Hell with your punishments! And to Hell with you!)
You get Hoynes!"
The Latin wasn't translated in the show--they expected the viewers to be smart enough to figure it out.
ETA: I found it!
Okay, I'm hooked. Where can I get more?
The entire series is available on DVD at Amazon, and is in reruns constantly on Bravo in the US and CLT in Canada.
It's good. You should watch. Yes.
Well…more on Sam later.
It was a show where the Democrats in the White House didn’t get along with the Democrats in the Congress, where the Republicans hated everyone and – initially, at least – where no one was painted as a two-dimensional buffoon for believing what they did. The creator of the show, Aaron Sorkin (hallowed be his name), described the concept as a “love letter to public service” and it was.
The characters were compelling, the actors gave the Gilmore Girls a run for their money on spitting out reams of dialogue, the stories were timely (if a little skewed towards beating you over the head with their Importance), and the writing. Oh, the writing.
The show was the West Wing, and when it was good, it was brilliant. 26 Emmies, 2 Golden Globes, 4 straight years best drama brilliant. And when it was bad I threw things at the television.
Well…more on seasons 5 and 6 later.
Okay, I am intrigued. Tell me about these people! The Cast
The West Wing ran for 7 seasons, so we met approximately a billion people, but I’ll stick to the highlights.
The Bartlets
President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet (Martin Sheen): The head honcho, the main man, the POTUS. The first line he ever uttered on the show began “I am the Lord, your God…” which gave you a bit of a set-up about 1) his interest in religion and 2) his amazing ego. Both became themes. A Nobel Prize winner in economics and former governor of New Hampshire, Jed Bartlet is much, much smarter than you. Yes, even you. An old school liberal with no military experience, Jed stopped being like Bill Clinton by being 1) Catholic and 2) crazy in love with his wife. Oh, he also had relapsing-remitting MS, a disease that he failed to disclose to the voters when he was running. This became a Problem.
Dr. Abigail “Abby” Bartlet (Stockard Channing): The First Lady, and although not a series regular, a definite presence in the West Wing. She’s a brilliant surgeon in her own right and her relationship with the President was a thing of beauty to watch. Who else could get away with calling him a jackass? She also showed up to remind the staff that they should pay more attention to women’s issues and her staff in the East Wing butted heads with our boys over in the West Wing, who tended to view her people and issues as something like the junior varsity.
Liz, Ellie, and Zoey Bartlet: The Bartlets had three lovely girls, but the show spent the most time on Zoey, who attended Georgetown University and dated staffer Charlie Young. Liz was married to a tool who wanted to run for Congress in New Hampshire and Ellie was studying to be a doctor and wanted to stay as far away from the shadow her parents cast as humanly possible. After a few seasons, you couldn’t really blame her.
The Staff
Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer): Leo was Jed’s oldest friend and a major player in the Democratic Party who convinced his friend to run for President. Leo had combat experience as a pilot during Vietnam and was the former Secretary of Labor (the idea that America would elect three Democratic Presidents in a row being a lovely fantasy that I’ll allow), but a problem with alcohol and pills had for all intents and purposes detonated his political career (see also: issues with season 6, but more on that later). Jed might be President, but he didn’t make a decision without Leo’s input and don’t kid yourself into thinking otherwise. Leo had mad power. At the end of the series, Leo was on the ticket to be elected the next Vice President of the United States (see also: more issues with season 6), but the sudden passing of John Spencer led to the death of fictional Leo as well. It was very, very sad.
Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford): Josh was brought into the campaign by Leo, an old friend of Josh’s dad. As Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh’s job was to feel out the political ramifications of any domestic policy the White House takes. He spent a lot of time yelling at Congress and about Congress. He’s about as brilliant as he thinks he was, had terrible taste (and luck) with women, and should never be allowed in front of a camera as he had an almost terminal case of foot-in-mouth disease and no filter whatsoever when he got riled up. Through a series of improbable-even-for-TV moves, he was passed over to become Chief of Staff when Leo resigned and went off to
Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff): A professional political operative, Toby had a long string of election losses before ending up on the Bartlet campaign. He was caustic, veering towards curmudgeony, and was responsible for the way the White House was viewed by the outside world through speeches, press releases and people blowing it on Sunday talk shows. No wonder he’s losing his hair. He also had a complicated relationship with his ex-wife, a Congresswoman from Maryland. They eventually end up having twins together, but she wouldn’t remarry him. Sad. There was also this thing at the end of season 7 about Toby maybe kind of releasing classified information and going to prison if the President wouldn’t pardon him but I hated that story line and so I’m going to pretend it didn’t happen. La.
Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe): Sam was the deputy communications director (read: kick-ass speechwriter type) and the most idealistic of the staffers. He gave up his job at a ridonkulously paying law firm to come work for the government based mostly on Josh asking him to (the slash is strong with them). He was absolutely in love with the idea of working for the White House and dreamed of becoming President some day. He went off to run for a doomed California Congressional seat in the middle of season 4
Press Secretary Claudia Jean “CJ” Cregg (Allison Janney): In the charming words of Josh: “paranoid Berkeley shiksa feminista.” But that’s because he knew she could break him like a twig. She’s tall, she’s smart and she went toe to toe with the Washington press corps for years and emerged relatively unscathed, which was no small task. After Leo stepped down as Chief of Staff, CJ took his place, which made no kind of Earth logic to anyone who follows RL politics but I’ll just remind myself that these are happy people who live in a box and move on.
Charlie Young (Dule Hill): After realizing that the cast that was supposed to be representing the staff of a very liberal Democrat was basically a bunch of white guys in suits, we were introduced to Charlie Young, the President’s special assistant or “bag man.” His job was to follow the President around, pick up letters people tried to hand to him in line and be subjected to the President’s rants on things ranging from national parks to music to how any history more recent than the Roman Empire sucked. He also dated Zoey Bartlet for a while. Being a good-looking, talented black man, this naturally offended redneck idiots who tried to assassinate him and hit the President instead. Brilliant.
Donatella “Donna” Moss (Janel Maloney): Josh’s special assistant, her job was to beat her boss repeatedly over the head with a clue bat when he needed it (weekly, as it worked out), and to have crazy UST with him between her dates with inappropriate Republicans. She was generally the voice of reason on the show when the rest of the staff would start to lose touch with how normal, non-West Wing Americans react to things.
Will Bailey (Joshua Malina): A campaign manager out in the California 42nd who managed to successfully elect a dead man to Congress, he and Sam switched places when Sam went out to run for the now open special-election. Will was abrasive and arrogant but in a non-fun way. They eventually shifted him off to the VP's office as chief of staff.
Other people that were awesome but the teal deer are coming so I’ll keep it short…:
Mrs. Landingham, the President’s secretary, gave cookies to the staff, kept the President in line, lost three sons in Vietnam and was killed off in a traffic accident at the end of season 2 just to make us all cry. She was replaced by the aggressively quirky Debbie Fiderer, a pot-smoking former alpaca farmer with a deeply stupid last name who I couldn’t stand. Ahem. In case that wasn’t clear.
We went through a couple of Vice Presidents, a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who was awesome but not as awesome as Nancy McNally, the National Security Advisor (who was then replaced by Kate Halper who wasn't nearly as cool), a CJ replacement named Annabeth Schott who was so aggressively perky I wanted to beat her to death, Arnold Vinick, a Republican Senator from California, and Matt Santos, a Democratic Congressman from Texas. Those last two were running to replace Bartlet for president as the series came to a close.
And Margaret, Leo's secretary, and Stanley Keyworth, the shrink, Bruno, the campaign manager, and Joey Lucas, the pollster, and Lord John Marbury because there needs to be an obnoxious British guy and Danny, the reporter for the Post and oh, I miss my show.
So it's about politics? Why would I watch that? Summaries of the seasons
(many thanks to wikipedia for reminding me of the high points)
Season One:
We began in the middle of Bartlet's first year in office, and the season was full of images of a West Wing stuck in neutral and powerless to govern (*cough* early Clinton administration *cough*). It was the standard introduction to characters and how things worked. The general passiveness of the White House ended when Leo and the President finally agree to fight any battle they believe to be important, even if they are not sure they can win (giving us the wonderful quote from Josh: "take your legislative agenda and shove it up your ass.". The season ended with a cliffhanger assassination attempt.
Season Two:
The second season is my favorite season and still has what I believe to be some of the greatest hours of television ever written and acted in it (watch "18th and Potomac" and "Two Cathedrals". If you don't get chills, I don't want to know you).
Taking place in the second and third years of the first term, the season covered a wider legislative array than the first season did, and presented issues including the rights of hate groups and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Due to the polling bump following the assassination attempt (and almost killed Josh, who dealt with a fun case of PTSD for much of the season), the folks in the West Wing now had some political capital to spend and get their goals accomplished. Season two also brought up the President's Multiple sclerosis, since now would be the time to start deciding if he'll be running for re-election. The staff were introduced one-by-one to the disease, with varying degrees of freaking out, and then the writers killed off Mrs. Landingham because they hate us and want us to cry.
Season Three:
The third season, which covered the administration's third and fourth years in office, began with Bartlet announcing his intention to run for reelection (not that we were really surprised). We spent most of the season watching the pull between the campaign staffers and the West Wing and the rise of their Republican opponent Definitely Not George W. Bush, a clearly incompetent Southern governor. Other prominent plotlines included Congressional investigations into whether Bartlet committed electoral fraud by concealing his MS, a death threat against CJ and the relationship that developed with the Secret Service agent (yay, Mark Harmon!) assigned to her, and the Qumari (read "not Saudi Arabia, oh no") defense minister Abdul Shareef plotting terrorist attacks against the US. The season finale ended with the president finally deciding to order Shareef's assassination (a kind of legally hinky thing), confronting his Republican opponent and calling him out ("that's the moment I decided to kick your ass") and CJ's agent getting killed just after the man threatening CJ was caught. Woe.
Season Four:
(Or "Sorkin's back on drugs and we can kind of tell")
The fourth season covered the end of Bartlet's fourth year and first term in office through the beginning of the first year of his second term. The season began with the continuation of the election storyline with the president touring the nation and his staff trying to firm up presidential debates. That plotline ended during November sweeps with Bartlet winning in a landslide (millions of Democratic viewers: ZOMG WHY DIDN'T IT WORK LIKE THIS?) and Sam leaving the White House to run in a special election in California. Will Bailey (the campaign manager in California) took Sam's position and Vice President Hoynes resigned after a sex scandal is uncovered. The fourth season ended with Zoey Bartlet being taken hostage. Her father invoked the 25th Amendment (temporarily resigning from office) because he didn't feel that he could negotiate to get Zoey back. Since Hoynes had recently resigned, the presidency passes to the Republican Speaker of the House, Glen Allen Walken (played by John Goodman. Seriously.).
West Wing viewers went: "…"
Season Five:
(Or: Come back, Aaron, we don't mind the drugs!)
The fifth season opened the military successfully rescuing Zoey from her abductors. Seriously, this huge plot was wrapped up in two episodes. Bartlet took the presidency back from Walken, but is forced back into a season 1 level of powerlessness for no apparent reason. He had to come to terms with the assassination he approved at the end of Season 3 that led to his daughter's kidnapping and deal with a powerful new Republican Speaker of the House (Walken had to resign in order to assume the presidency) who forced Bartlet into several decisions he didn't want including the nomination of a total dumbass of a Democrat, "Bingo Bob" Russell, for Vice President. The new Speaker was an asshole. This conflict with the new Speaker came to a head in "Shutdown," when the Speaker tried to force Bartlet into cutting federal spending more than had been agreed to and Bartlet refused to sign the budget (forcing the federal government into a shutdown, just like the Clinton Administration did against Newt Gingrich). Bartlet regained some minor power, cutting a deal to get a liberal Chief Justice of the United States, and season five ended with a bombing in Gaza leading Bartlet to push for Israeli peace talks, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs dead, Donna in the hospital and most of the West Wing fanbase watching something else.
Season Six:
The sixth season started with the president negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, Leo having a heart attack and leaving the staff, and the president trying to fund peacekeepers for the accord. Josh tried to decide whether he would stay with Bartlet through the end of the term or go off to manage a new presidential candidate, who would not be Bingo Bob, despite Donna jumping ship to go work on that campaign (and ruining the Josh/Donna relationship for most of the season). The later part of the season centered heavily around the 2006 presidential election, with Josh leaving the West Wing to work for Santos, a Congressman from Texas whom Josh convinced to run for President. Leo returned near the end of the season to refocus the Bartlet administration, which was flailing due to most of their brightest moving on to campaigns and CJ being not great at being a Chief of Staff. Russell was the leader for the Democratic nomination with former Vice President Hoynes a close second and Santos a distant third. After another sex scandal (of plot convenience because seriously? Two sex scandals that no one found out about when he'd been running for president against Bartlet? Not. Going. To. Happen.), Hoynes was forced into the third position, and Santos ended up winning a closely contested convention (and announced Leo as his running mate. The guy who quit because of health problems. The guy with a history of drug and alcohol abuse. I love Leo, but Jesus). The final episode also featured a leak from the White House about a classified military space shuttle to the press which was heavily investigated in the next season so we'd have a reason to be in the White House at all.
Season Seven:
The seventh and final season mainly followed Santos and Vinick on the campaign trail, while bouncing back to the shuttle leak investigation to give the actors in the White House something to do. Toby admitted to leaking the story about a military spacecraft (flames on the side of my face, zomg. I hated this plotline) and President Bartlet fired him. Later, he refused to name his brother as the source of the classified information. Also, CJ's tenure as Chief of Staff became more stressful as she dealt with the war between Russia and China over Kazakhstan, a nice little explosion just waiting for the next presidential administration to come in. The presidential race tightened up when Vinick made a number of mistakes on the campaign trail because the plot compelled him to. Leo died on the night of the election, which Santos eventually won, and we get a truly painful funeral scene, Josh and Donna finally, finally getting their act together and Santos being sworn in as President.
You're in you're own little Euripedes play over there, huh? Clips that are awesome
Okay, NBC hates youtube with a fiery passion, so many of the great lines aren't available, but here's a smattering of some of the good stuff.
The President and Doctor
"…and we reach for the stars…"
The President calls the Butterball hotline
We changed timezones?!
Why it's okay to be liberal
Babies come with hats!
And if you'll indulge me, the transcript from Two Cathedrals of Bartlet's speech to God, which I can't find as a clip anywhere:
"You're a son-of-a-bitch, you know that? She bought her first new car and you hit her with a drunk driver. What, was that supposed to be funny? "You can't conceive, nor can I, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God," says Graham Greene. I don't know who's ass he was kissing there 'cause I think you're just vindictive. What was Josh Lyman? A warning shot? That was my son.
What did I ever do to yours except praise his glory and praise his name? There's a tropical storm that gaining speed and power. They say we haven't had a storm this bad since you took out the tender ship of mine last year in the north Atlantic last year... 68 crew. Do you know what a tender ship does? Fixes the other ships. Doesn't even carry guns. Floats around and fixes the other ships and delivers that mail. That's all it can do. Gratias tibi ago, domine. (Thank you, Lord). Yes, I lied. It was a sin. I've committed many sins. Have I displeased you, you feckless thug? 3.8 million new jobs, that wasn't good? Bailed out Mexico, increased foreign trade, 30 million new acres for conservation, put Mendoza on the bench, we're not fighting a war, I've raised three children...
That's not enough to buy me out of the doghouse? Haec credam a deo pio? A deo iusto? A deo scito? (Am I to believe these things from a righteous God, a just God, a wise God?) Cruciatus in crucem! Tuus in terra servus nuntius fui officium perfeci. (I was your servant, your messenger on the earth, I did my duty.) Cruciatus in crucem. Eas in crucem! (The Hell with your punishments! And to Hell with you!)
You get Hoynes!"
The Latin wasn't translated in the show--they expected the viewers to be smart enough to figure it out.
ETA: I found it!
Okay, I'm hooked. Where can I get more?
The entire series is available on DVD at Amazon, and is in reruns constantly on Bravo in the US and CLT in Canada.
It's good. You should watch. Yes.
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And then we take some of Aaron's drugs to forget the later seasons and the mockery that
someall of the characters turned into.Woe.
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So. much. love. for that show.
I ignore everything after the re-election, yes.
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And I love Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail because I want to hug Sam and give him cookies.
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Another great (but filler-type) ep is Season 3's Dead Irish Writers. Couldn't not pimp it.
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I love Dead Irish Writers! And the Poet Laureate which is just after I think.
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(paraphrased from just before Jed hands over the Presidency while Zoey's in danger)
"Tell me to release all my political prisoners and it's done, tell me to bomb Israel into the stone age it's nothin' and I've known my kids for 45 minutes."
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(Obviously, by "this show" I mean the earlier seasons. Not the later ones, wtf.)
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