The West Wing revisited: When fiction Trumped reality TV
Feeling nostalgic for a U.S. president — even a fictional one — that cared about his constituents, Kheiro is recapping The West Wing each week
By Bethy Squires
What was it like to have hope? Did it have a taste, a smell? It certainly had a sound. To me the sound of hope, the sound of faith that people in government actually care about their constituents, was the earnest strings and drums of W.G. “Snuffy” Walden, composer for The West Wing. It was the sound of earnest, schmaltzy patriotism. It told you that these people loved their country and loved you very much.
Welcome to Kheiro Magazine’s rewatch/recap of The West Wing. Every week we will be going chronologically through President Bartlet’s administration, drawing parallels to today’s political landscape and fervently wishing some magic remote existed that could put us inside TV shows. It’s pretty telling that I’d rather live in the coke-fueled world of Aaron Sorkin — a world where maybe 1 in 6 women get to ever finish a sentence — than in this world, where everyone thought it would be a good idea to bring back Will & Grace and also Nazism. The West Wing served as escapist political fantasy for Dems during the Bush administration. When it aired, The West Wing was criticised as liberal propaganda. People were pretty sure the nitty-gritty of White House policy wasn’t created by earnest bon mot-spewing do-gooders. Today that seems even more remote and implausible than Game of Thrones.
The pilot of The West Wing does a lot of heavy lifting for one hour of television. We have to set up an entire cast of characters, give stakes for the season, and set up the “issue of the week” framework that will become the format of most episodes. I was also multitasking, watching the ep while texting a robot that will fax my senators fervent pleas not to dismantle healthcare. Pilots are tricky beasts. Most aren’t good episodes of television in their own right. Rather, they set the scene for good eps to come. A pilot needs to put the pieces on the board before anyone can play. Each scene has to establish how the characters will act in the scenes that follow. That means the best it can give us are rough caricatures of people who will get fleshed out with time. Here’s how we are introduced to each member of the WH Senior Staff, the earnest boys and girl we will be swooning over for the next seven seasons:
Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe): Dodging questions from a reporter while also semi-clumsily hitting on a woman at a bar.
Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer): Complaining to his maid that an answer in the New York Times crossword is spelled incorrectly.
Press Secretary CJ Cregg (Allison Janney): Falling off a treadmill while trying to flirt.
Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford): Asleep at his desk, having not gone home the night before.
Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff): Arguing with a flight attendant about whether he can use his cellphone or not.
Each character is paged and given the message, “POTUS in a bicycle accident. Come to the office.” We the audience are not supposed to know that POTUS stands for President of the United States. Imagine not having to know that. Imagine not cringing at every @POTUS tweet. It’s a big wham line when Sam explains the acronym to his one-night stand. She’s left dumbfounded and horny by the revelation. But Sam’s got important things to do.
POTUS’ vacation mishaps aren’t the only big issue at the White House today. An indeterminate number of Cubans are trying to reach America in rafts. The president is at a 48 percent unfavorable rating, and Josh Lyman has run his mouth off. Again. This time he sassed Christian Right leader Mary Marsh, saying that their conception of God is “on trial for tax evasion.” Everyone thinks he’s going to be fired.
The West Wing is something of a roman a clef in which real people appear thinly fictionalized. Sam Seaborn is Clinton communications director George Stephanopoulos. Josh Lyman was loosely based on then-Clinton advisor Rahm Emanuel. Almost as strange as hearing a White House official denounce anti-Semitism (more on that later) is having warm feelings towards anything Emanuel-related. When asked how much Emanuel figured into Josh’s character, Bradley Whitford told New York Magazine “Pretty much all of the loose-cannon episodes, where my desire to win outweighed my ethics, are sometimes based on Rahm. Not that he would ever do that.”
Everyone at the White House love-hates Josh, and they don’t want to see him go for speaking truth to jerks. As a mea culpa, Toby sets up a meeting where Josh can apologize to Marsh and the Bartlet administration can pander.
Meanwhile, Josh’s ex and former Bartlet campaigner Mandy Onlyinthefirstseason has returned to Washington to begin work on her new boyfriend’s campaign. Senator Lloyd Russell is planning on taking advantage of Bartlet’s new 48 percent unfavorable rating and snatching the nomination next term. We meet Mandy Onlyinthefirstseason speeding down the National Mall listening to the 10 Things I Hate About You soundtrack and yelling at someone on her cellphone that she’s gonna make him “a little girl.” This is peak Sorkin characterization. We need to show a woman is ball-busting? Have her emasculate someone over the phone. But then have her pulled over by the police so we don’t hold her in too high of esteem. Only men on The West Wing can pull off a walk-and-talk without consequences.
Speaking of not being able to walk and talk, CJ falling off the treadmill? Seriously? Is she a generic romcom klutz, or is she supposed to be the schlemiel of the White House?
Which brings me back to the anti-Semitism. At the “sorry I called your faith a tax dodge” meeting, Mary Marsh shrugs off Josh’s genuinely good apology and asks what she’s going to get from the White House. “School prayer, pornography, condoms,” she offers. “What’s it gonna be?” She is relishing her position of power, saying Lyman’s “New York” sense of humor was always going to get him into trouble eventually. And that’s when Toby loses his shit. Dear, sweet Toby! My problematic fave. Toby has the face of an old basset hound and the disposition of an even older basset hound. Toby recognizes “New York” sense of humor for the dog whistling it is, and as a New York Jew, he takes umbrage. Things are really about to kick off when President Dad finally makes his big debut.
The original conception of The West Wing was going to treat the president as a rarely/never seen character, like Rayanne’s friend Tino on My So Called Life or teachers that don’t fuck students on Pretty Little Liars. But Martin Sheen got in there and made his presence felt. It’s impossible to imagine a version of The West Wing without President Dad. His comparatively slow speech pattern and even temper is a desperately needed counterpoint to all the screwball energy of his staff. Fresh off his bicycle accident, Bartlet limps into the office where Josh’s verbal flogging is taking place and puts an end to the bowing to the religious right. Apparently his granddaughter has received a death threat from a group calling themselves the Lambs of God, and no discussion of condoms, school prayer or pornography will take place until the LOGs are officially denounced.
This is the moment I started crying. Toby standing up for himself got me a little verklempt but liberals with backbone got me feeling a type of way. It’s my opinion that lefties trying to appease people who see compromise as a weakness have been the death of the Democratic party. Jed Bartlet, the President Who Is All Of Our Dads, telling the pro-abstinence wing of the GOP to get their “fat asses” out of his White House — then immediately praising undocumented immigrants! — is the moment in which The West Wing becomes The West Wing.
What’s Next?
We talk about military action against Syria. Boy things sure have changed in 17 years.
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