On a recent episode of “The West Wing,” lame-duck President Bartlet and his loyal right-hand man, Leo McGarry, are quietly discussing how they want to spend their final year in office.
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“For both of us, this is our last game,” Leo said. “Let’s leave it all out on the field.”
The embattled producers of “The West Wing” have adopted a similar go-for-broke strategy. Although it’s now a foregone conclusion that NBC’s White House drama will return for a seventh season, that notion was unthinkable just four months ago.
It’s no secret that “The West Wing” has been in a miserable rut since creator Aaron Sorkin and executive producer/principal director Thomas Schlamme left nearly two years ago. The show slipped to 28th place last year from 10th two years ago.
Even so, there’s a new buzz surrounding “The West Wing.”
Thanks to major plot twists, surprising cast shake-ups, new characters engaged in vicious backbiting and a deliciously stimulating election plotline, “The West Wing” is enjoying a surprising creative renaissance.
At the start of the season, Leo (John Spencer) suffered a heart attack in the woods. His old job was handed off to C.J. (Allison Janney), which created a welcomed domino effect on the show, including the addition of Annabeth Schott (Kristin Chenoweth) as a chirpy media consultant and Donna (Janel Moloney) quitting as Josh’s (Bradley Whitford) underappreciated assistant to work on the vice president’s campaign.
“What we hadn’t done before is let these people on the show move on the way they would in real life. It didn’t take long to realize that we were shooting scenes that were fun again,” executive producer Alex Graves says of all the changes.
At the heart of all the upheaval is the compelling race for the White House between the show’s two new star characters–Alan Alda as Arnold Vinick, a long-term Republican senator, and Jimmy Smits as Matt Santos, an idealistic Democratic congressman.
Will there be a Republican in the show’s White House? “Given the last presidential election, you would certainly be crazy not to find that interesting,” Graves says.
For viewers watching “The West Wing” next season, they’ll certainly notice a different show. According to the producers’ detailed story line, this season will culminate in the Republican and Democratic conventions. There will be an election early next season and an inauguration around January 2006.
Graves says all cast regulars are coming back. But it’s still not clear for how many episodes.
Stay tuned
Despite all of the hype surrounding “The West Wing’s” revival, NBC has yet to officially announce the show’s return. Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal Television Group’s president, did call the series “incredibly strong” and said he was optimistic it would be renewed.–COX NEWS SERVICE.
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale ([email protected]) and Kris Karnopp ([email protected])