Fifteen years ago, Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing aired for the first time on American television.

Arriving
in the wake of the Lewinsky scandal and assembled from the off-cuts of Sorkin's screenplay for The
American President, the show was an idealised view of liberal American politics that invited viewers
inside a White House populated by whip-smart, quixotic and impossibly witty people. It confounded the
belief that political dramas didn't work on television, running for seven years and gaining 26 Emmys along
the way. With writing, acting and production of a quality then only found in cinemas, The West Wing did
for network television what the Sopranos would simultaneously do for cable, elevating the medium to a
different level and paving the way for a new golden era of home entertainment.
AARON SORKIN (WRITER/CREATOR): I had never thought of doing television. But my agent wanted me
to meet John Wells, who had had a lot of success producing ER and China Beach. The night before the
meeting, some friends were over for dinner and Akiva Goldsman and I slipped downstairs to the basement
so we could sneak a cigarette. He said, "You know what would make a good television series? That." And
he was pointing at The American President poster. He said, "There doesn't have to be a romance, just
focus on a senior staffer." I said, "That does sound like a good idea, but I'm not going to be doing a
television series." The next day I walked into the restaurant and immediately saw this wasn't what I
thought it was going to be. This wasn't just a "hello, how are you?" meeting, because John was sitting
with a couple of agents and studio executives from Warner Brothers. Right after I sat down, he said, "So
what do you want to do?" And instead of saying, "I think there's been a misunderstanding, I don't have an
idea for a television series," which would've been honest, I said "I want to do a television series about
senior staffers at the White House". He said, "Okay, you got a deal."

JOHN WELLS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER): We talked about how he had spent a lot of time preparing the
script for The American President with the staffers who worked in the West Wing and how he hadn't been
able to write about them as much as he wanted to in the movie.
SORKIN: I thought I would tell a contemporary story of kings and palaces. I like
workplace shows and this was a very glamorous workplace to set a show in; it
appealed to a sense of romanticism and idealism that I have. But the hardest thing
for me is getting started. If I'm writing a script, really 90 per cent of it would be
just walking around, climbing the walls, just trying to put the idea together. Then
the final 10 per cent would be writing it. Fortunately I had written a very long first
draft of The American President: about 385 pages, when what you want is 130 or
140. So there were these tiny shards of ideas and one of them, about Cuban
refugees, I was able to spin into a pilot.
WELLS: I was in the throes of ER at the time and had a six series deal at NBC, so
I took it to them and told them I wanted to do this as part of the deal. They didn't
want to make it. They felt that people didn't care about politics and it just wouldn't
work. But the way my deal was structured, they had to either make it or give it
back to me to set up someplace else so they finally said "Well okay, we'll make it
but we don't want to make it this year."
SORKIN: The Lewinsky scandal was happening at the very time I was writing the
pilot and it was hard, at least for Americans, to look at the White House and think
of anything but a punch line. Plus a show about politics, a show that took place in
Washington, had just never worked before in American television. So the show
was delayed for a year.
WELLS: Aaron had written another show after he wrote The West Wing and during
that year it got on the air. Tommy Schlamme, a director I'd been doing ER with,
went over and together they made Sports Night.
THOMAS SCHLAMME (DIRECTOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER): My agent sent me Aaron's scripts for both
The West Wing and Sports Night and I read them on the same night. I called him at, like, 12.30 on a
Saturday night and went, "These are the two best scripts I've ever read!" I had done mainly half-hour
comedy-dramas, so my good fortune was that Sports Night was going first as The West Wing was delayed
by the Lewinsky scandal. Thank God for blowjobs, because they got me The West Wing!
WELLS: After Sports Night the network actually understood Aaron's rhythms and the way in which he
writes. We went back to NBC and said, "Look, it'll be Aaron and Tommy and me. Aaron's going to write
them, Tommy's going to direct them and I'll produce it. You told me that if I signed this six series deal
with you, you were going to make this stuff. I want to make it, so let's make it!" And they reluctantly did,
with some very funny notes in between.
BRADLEY WHITFORD (JOSH LYMAN): It should scare the shit out of every development person in
Hollywood that if any of them had any idea that Breaking Bad was going to be as successful as it was
they would've destroyed it. The same is true of The Sopranos. If they thought it was going to be successful,
they never would've met Gandolfini. And if Aaron had allowed his show to have the conventional network
interference it would've been a disaster. They read the pilot and, if you remember, the Cuban refugees
were on boats and Sam and I are trying to figure out whether we let them land in Florida or send them
back. The note from NBC was, "We need to get Sam and Josh in the water." Like Rahm Emanuel in a
fucking Speedo! Saving the Cubans!
WELLS: There was a governor at the time who had just been elected in Minnesota called Jesse Ventura.
He'd been a professional all-star wrestler: a big, bald dude. And the network kept saying, "We don't want
to do something about a liberal Democrat. We need a populist, somebody who's a wrestler or a race car
driver or a football player coming in from the outside and shaking things up." We chose not to do that.

SORKIN: Boy did we luck out with the casting of the show. Not only was it an ensemble of wonderful
actors but wonderful people. To use a basketball metaphor, it was a group that liked to pass as much as
they liked to shoot.
WELLS: We felt strongly that it needed to be a terrific group of talented actors who were not your standard
television leading men and women. We wanted them to look real, we didn't think it was the appropriate
place for a lot of people who could also appear on the cover of Vogue. So we started to piece people
together: John Spencer (Leo McGarry) and I had just finished doing a series together; Aaron had worked
with Bradley Whitford. But it was a battle. The network was concerned about putting some more attractive
people in the cast; quite honestly Rob Lowe agreeing to do it allowed us to make a lot of the other casting
choices that we wanted to make.
ROB LOWE (SAM SEABORN): The script was given to me by one of my agents and they didn't tell me
anything about it. My first reaction was, "The West Wing? Is it about a squadron of fighter jets?" Then I
turned the page and saw, 'by Aaron Sorkin' and I knew it was going to be something good. I had read a
number of his things, but in particular a movie called Malice. Then I started reading it and the very first
scene is Sam Seaborn talking to a guy at a bar in DC. Sam was the first character that I saw and
immediately fell in love with.
WHITFORD: Early on in my career I got a part in Revenge Of The Nerds II: Nerds In Paradise. If I hadn't
done that I wouldn't have met Tim Busfield and if I hadn't met Tim Busfield, I wouldn't have met Aaron.
So Nerds II took me straight to the White House!
SORKIN: I wrote the role of Josh hoping that Brad would play it. But there was a moment when we were
having difficulty making a deal with Rob Lowe to play Sam and we were instructed by the network to see
more actors for the role. We couldn't find another actor to play Sam and we thought, "You know who
could play Sam? Brad Whitford. Maybe it'll be easier finding an actor to play Josh than an actor to play
Sam."
WHITFORD: I got a phone call saying that I was in the show but I was playing Sam. I remember I was in
a gas station in Santa Monica and I had no right not to be thrilled but I called Aaron and I said, "I'm not
Sam! I'm not the guy with the hooker, I'm the guy bashing the Christian right!"

RICHARD SCHIFF (TOBY ZIEGLER): I didn't expect NBC would be at all thrilled
about me, because the year before I had rejected a pilot at the last minute and
got them very upset. I ended up not coming to the casting in fact it happened
four different times because I just wasn't convinced that I wanted to do
television. But I go in to Warner Brothers to test and in the waiting area I saw
Allison Janney sitting there, who I did not know but I was a big fan of. I said to
myself, "Wait a second. These guys might know what they're doing if they're
hiring her."
ALLISON JANNEY (C.J. CREGG): I was filming American Beauty and Nurse
Betty at the same time and I got a call from my agent saying they wanted me to
go in for this political pilot. Aaron first saw me in the movie Primary Colours
the Mike Nichols movie about Bill Clinton. In that movie I had this tremendous
fall down the stairs and I think that's when he went, "Oh, I want her for C.J."
Because he put a scene in the pilot where C.J. trips on the Treadmaster. She's
this incredibly smart, capable woman who's the press secretary, but she's also a
complete klutz.
SORKIN: It was a two-woman race for C.J.: Allison and a wonderful actress
named CCH Pounder. CC would have been fantastic, but we just couldn't not
give the part to Allison. With Toby, it was a two-man race between Richard and
Eugene Levy, who most of us know only as a world-class comedian. He really
gave Richard a run for his money but there was just something undeniable about
Richard where you knew he was going to elevate not just the role but the show
you couldn't look away.
SCHIFF: I read with Brad Whitford, which was weird because I knew Brad from
his college days he was my brother's roommate. I got him his first audition in New York! Afterwards
Tommy Schlamme walks me out of the door and he goes, "Well, tomorrow's the test." I said, "Look, just
so you know, I might not show up." And he said, "I've heard that. But I hope you do."
JANEL MOLONEY (DONNA MOSS): I actually read for C.J. but I knew when I read for it that I wouldn't be
considered for the role. I had done a small part on Sports Night and C.J. was the only regular they had for
me to read for. Afterwards they called me back and had me read for Donna but they told me, "This is a
small recurring role and there's no expanding past the pilot."
SORKIN: Donna had one or two lines in the pilot with Josh. The pilot, believe it or not, was I think 25
seconds short that'd be the last time a West Wing episode would ever be too short! I needed to write
another 25 seconds that didn't seem like it was from Neptune, so I wrote a quick scene where Josh has to
change his shirt and I did the scene with Donna because that first one had worked out so well. Then I
wrote Donna into the second episode and into the third and in all 22 episodes
that first season
DUL HILL (CHARLIE YOUNG): Right before I got The West Wing, I was pretty
much out of money. When I first came in to Warner Brothers, Aaron Sorkin was
there. Of course I was nervous; I'm sitting here in front of the guy who wrote
"You can't handle the truth!".

SCHLAMME: About three or four days into the pilot John Spencer and I started working with Brad and
Janel and a couple of other people in that big, very long opening sequence. Afterwards, I remember
running into Aaron's office and going "The show's going to work! I know it's going to work!" And it was
literally that moment: the energy, the place, the feel. I didn't know the show would be successful but I
thought it was going to be good and I don't have that feeling very often. And we were rehearsing all of
that not knowing who the President of the United States was!
SORKIN: We offered it to Sidney Poitier but we couldn't get that deal started, it was just too rich for our
blood. There were a number of other actors but I don't want to make it seem like with Martin we settled
for our second choice it was just a very happy accident that we wound up with our first choice without
knowing he was.
MARTIN SHEEN (PRESIDENT JOSIAH BARTLET): I was the last one to join the
cast and when I started it was just a peripheral character the focus was to be
on the staff, not the First Family. When I did the pilot, my contract was for
just three years and it was confined to maybe three or four episodes every
season. The only restraint I had was that I could not play another President
while the show was on the air. So, I kind of backed into one of the great events
of my life and certainly my career. I only had one sequence in the pilot: I came
in at the end and confronted the conservative right wing religious element and
brought them low. But the lead-up to the character was so strong, it was so
clear what kind of person occupied this office. It was a set-up like no other
entrance I'd ever played in my life.
SORKIN: I'd been concerned all along that the character of the president would
throw the ensemble out of whack, that that character would simply take up all
the oxygen in a room. I wanted to hold off bringing this character in until the
last possible moment.
SCHIFF: That was one of the last scenes we shot and it was the first time I had
met Martin. When I first saw him coming to rehearsal for his entrance, both
of his cheeks were like a chipmunk: full of food and greasy. He had a piece of
chicken in his hand and he was chewing. He just cracked me up laughing.
Then he does his big entrance, "I am the Lord your God!" and I could still see
the grease the make-up people didn't get off his face! I was just gone. We're
all new to each other and I don't want to fuck up their show but every time he
would make his entrance I would start laughing. If you remember, he gets a
cup of coffee then he makes this big circle around the table and comes back to
that original position. So the camera would start over our shoulders, he'd start
to move and the camera would follow him. That was my out to run two rooms
down to the Oval Office. There I could exhale and laugh for a minute or two,
try to step on a tack or something and run back in just before the camera came back round. I had to do
that on every single take! That was my first day of working with Martin and I don't think there was a day
in the next seven years that I didn't enjoy as much as that with him.
SCHLAMME: Aaron's whole thing was that he didn't want the pomposity of the presidency. He didn't want
everybody to do exactly what, in the final scene, everyone does, which is stand still and be respectful and
just listen to what the President has to say. But once we cast Martin and we realised Martin's incredible
accessibility, nothing felt pompous or aloof. If the show is about all the planets, let's end it with the sun.
WHITFORD: That scene made them realise that they had to have Martin in the show the entire time.
SHEEN: I had to renegotiate a long-term contract after the pilot and I asked two things: that they make
Bartlet a Catholic because I wanted him to form all of his opinions from a moral frame of reference and
as a Catholic myself, that's the way I framed all of my actions. And I also asked that he be a graduate of
the University of Notre Dame. Aaron agreed to both of them and they became a staple of the character.

SORKIN: Pretty much up until The West Wing, our leaders had always been portrayed in popular culture
as either Machiavellian or dolts. But I thought, "What if we show a group of people who are highly
competent, they're going to lose as much as they win, but we're going to understand that they wake up
every morning wanting to do good?" That was really the spirit behind The West Wing.
WHITFORD: I used to defend the show from the charge of sentimentality or wish-fulfilment, because I
think if you do go into the Obama White House you will find six or seven people around him who are true
believers. We make these people climb this filthy rope and then we stand at the bottom and say, "Hey,
your hands are dirty!" To show heroic, progressive, democratic politics at work was more than I ever
expected.
SHEEN: As we started, all of us knew what a powerful project it was. But we
weren't sure that it would be a success on commercial television. We weren't
sure we could sell cars and pharmaceuticals and who knows what with this kind
of show.
LOWE: The thing at the beginning, before anybody saw us do it, was, "How
funny is it or isn't it?" One of the first publicity shoots was in the Oval Office
and I was the last person to walk into the room. When I got there they had
Martin standing on top of the Resolute Desk with his hands up in the air making
a Nixon face with the victory sign. The rest of the cast were on their hands and
knees below him looking up. I said, "What the fuck is going on here? Why is
fucking Martin on the desk, acting like Nixon?" And they go, "Well, we want
to really highlight the comedy of the show." I was like, "You know what? If
you're going to take this shot, you're taking it without me," and I left. People
truly did not get what this show could be.
SCHLAMME: Those were very difficult days. The shooting was longer and we
were going over-budget. It's a new show and every new show does this, but it was a new show about
politics and we're doing everything that people said wouldn't work with political shows. The worst thing
you could do with a political show is take a side, because now you've alienated half your audience.
SORKIN: Television from its inception had the number one goal to alienate as few people as possible.
That's why if you look at 1950s, 1960s American sitcoms, the characters don't live any place in particular,
religion is never discussed, politics is never discussed, you never really know what anyone's job is; nothing
that could make these people seem different from you is ever discussed. All of a sudden on The West
Wing, we're hearing the same words that we hear when we're watching the news or reading the newspaper.
It needed to sound real and the characters because more often than not the conflict was going to be a
conflict of ideas had to have opinions.
LOWE: The show is unapologetically liberal. That said, I think the best argument I've ever heard for cutting
tax rates in the highest brackets, Sam Seaborn says in an episode of The West Wing. And I know

Republicans have used that clip of me talking for years. Ainsley Hayes had amazingly articulate
conservative speeches. So I think, regardless of your political point of view, there was something for
everybody.
WHITFORD: People always say, "Could it have been a show about a conservative Republican
administration?" No! Nobody wants to watch that! Watching Republicans flirt makes people queasy!
What are you going to have? The music swells and I'm high-fiving C.J. in the Oval Office saying, "We're
building on protected land! We got a tax cut for the gazillionaires!" It would not work.
WELLS: We did have Republican fans and some of my favourite letters are actually from very well known
Republican figures who would regularly write to complain about a position but would say, "Hey, loved
the scene with C.J.." Or, "The cheese thing made me laugh, but you're dead wrong about the highway to
nowhere in Alaska, that's a very useful economic use of two and a half billion dollars." They complained
bitterly but they never missed an episode.
SHEEN: I did not always agree, personally, on the positions that Bartlet took and I argued against them on
many occasions. One in particular was the death penalty. A guy in one episode was on death row and
Bartlet had a chance to stay the execution and he did not. He let him be executed. I argued against it. But
Aaron Sorkin said, "Martin, that's you, that's not Barlet. It's a very political decision he has to make." I
found from the very beginning that when I infused my own personal feelings about an issue it went against
the grain of the character.
SORKIN: I do enjoy the fact that we don't have a king or queen; we have a person with a very unusual
temp job for a few years. My favourite moments on the show were always showing the intersection of the
person and the job. Any time Bartlet could be something other than the president a father, or a husband,
or a son, or a friend.
HILL: A lot of the father and son dynamic that happened on the show was already
happening with Martin and I off-camera. I still remember when I first came to
the set and Martin introduced himself. He taught me this handshake that Laurence
Fishburne taught him during Apocalypse Now.
STOCKARD CHANNING (ABBEY BARTLET): I was making a movie in Calgary and
they'd juggled the schedules so that I could go hiking way up in these mountains.
I got a message from my agent saying, "Change your plans, you're going to Los
Angeles." I literally had hiking boots on and a big woolly coat. I got to Los
Angeles and of course it was 95 degrees. They stuffed me into an evening gown
and dumped me on set and there was Martin in white tie and tails, sneaking a
cigarette. I said, "Well, I guess we've been married about 25 years. Nice to meet
you!"
SHEEN: The relationship between Bartlet and Mrs Bartlet was very genuine, very loving. Stockard
Channing is a great, great lady and we had a lot of fun together.
CHANNING: A lot of it had to do with this odd chemistry that he and I had people bought our relationship
immediately. It's very unusual to see the relationship of two people of that age in an intimate way.
SHEEN: The thing that, oddly enough, I loved her the most in was Grease. But it was the one thing she
would not talk about! She was not at all interested in Rizzo, the head of the Pink Ladies.
CHANNING: There's really nothing to be said for that whole phenomenon. It was just a summer job as far
as I was concerned.

WELLS: Early on there were a lot of network notes. "Could it be more of a soap opera?" "Could it have
more sex?" And we always said, "Well, you know, people who work in the White House have sex, but it's
not about the President having an affair with the Deputy Prime Minister of Germany!"
HILL: I'll never forget the first time Elisabeth Moss kissed me on screen. It was season one and she had
to pin me up against a wall in the lobby of the White House. We didn't rehearse it at all and when we did
it, she sure enough laid one on me, boy. [Laughs] I was like, "Well, ok, this is going to work out just fine."

JANNEY: We were rock stars in Washington! Everyone was just so thrilled to be represented in such a
positive light. It was thrilling to go there and be invited to the Correspondents' Dinner and be invited into
the White House. It was a very heady, exciting time.
HILL: We were filming on the set one day in DC and Madeleine Albright comes by the set. I mean, when
does that happen? You turn around and there's the former Secretary of State just sitting there. After the
Clinton administration finished we were filming right outside the White House and John Podesta comes
walking up while we're out there filming. Just strolling by the set the former Chief of Staff! Things like
that would happen all the time. John Spencer would always say, with a big smile on his face, "You
wouldn't be experiencing this if we were on a cop show."
LOWE: I remember my first time going into the Oval Office was with Clinton. He had a Big Bertha golf
club leaned up against the wall and eBay up on the computer.
HILL: The first White House Correspondents' Dinner that we went to as a cast, the President wanted to
meet us beforehand. We were all in this room at the hotel and when the President came in, Martin bowed.
Like, a royal bow to the President. And the President did the same thing back to him! It was one of the
coolest moments ever to see the President, the leader of the free world, come in and bow right back to
Martin Sheen with a big smile.
SCHLAMME: I had been lucky enough to have spent two nights in the White House during the Clinton
administration before West Wing even came about. I slept in the Lincoln bedroom; it was an extraordinary
experience. Being there the next day and going to meet the President in the Oval Office and waiting in
what was our Mrs Landingham's office for him, I saw people coming and going and the excitement of
that. When we were doing the show I wanted the audience to feel what I felt when I was sitting there,
which was that they might have been just ordering lunch but it sure felt important to me.
SORKIN: The walk-and-talks were all Tommy. He recognised that I was not really writing anything of
visual interest at all, and that he was going to have to provide that. So suddenly an eight page scene that
took place in someone's office, he would come to me and say, "Can I here, on page two, move them out
to grab a cup of coffee someplace? And I'll have them walk around here, then they've got to pick up this
file of papers here, and make their way back to the office".

SCHLAMME: I thought his language had motion, so why not get people up and have them say that language
while they're also moving? It was driven by the idea that there is no wasted time. If you went from one
place to another, that had to be a meeting!
SHEEN: Everybody had to be precisely in frame, in focus and together and remembering your lines and
hitting your marks. The cameraman is walking backwards and there's always the danger he could trip and
fall. Which happened many times.
JANNEY: I fucking loved it! I loved walk-and-talks. There was a fluidity and
a continuity to the scenes. You were in a relay race and if you had to come in
on the third hallway pass and you fucked up, it was like, "Oh my God!" It was
this really exhilarating game and the perfect way to keep a show about politics
active, exciting and fast-paced.
SCHIFF: Plus you had actors that came from live theatre and it felt like you're
doing a play. Every time we did a three or four minute walk-and-talk, the
exhilaration of going on stage would be a part of it.
LOWE: Trying to execute that kind of intricate staging at the same time you're
doing intricate dialogue it's like patting your head and rubbing your
stomach!
SCHIFF: If you go to the real West Wing it looks like a boring law office;
there's really not a whole lot going on. The moulding is frayed, the carpet is
a little dirty; it's not exciting. But the set design, by putting windows in the
Roosevelt Room for instance, they created this maze of rooms that you can
see through. The bullpen has glass, where the writer's bullpen in the real West
Wing is on the bottom floor and it looks like a series of closets.
SORKIN: We put more glass onto our set than is actually in the White House
so the camera would have a longer throw and, again, there was more visual interest. Our set was a fairly
good replica of the White House; the Oval Office an exact replica.
LOWE: There wasn't a day that went by in four years were I didn't walk on that set and feel a sense of
awe. I had my favourite times: like when it was decorated for Christmas was amazing; when the Oval
Office was lit for sundown or early morning, it was amazing. I've never been on a set where I was happier
to be than that West Wing set.

SORKIN: I got into [dialogue] because my parents began taking me to see plays
from when I was very young. Too young, often, to understand the play I was
watching: Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf when I was nine years old; That
Championship Season when I was ten years old. But I loved the sound of
dialogue; it sounded like music to me and I wanted to imitate that sound.
SHEEN: Aaron's very sticky about using precise language. It's in his contract:
you have to use what he writes! It was poetry couched in politics, but it was
poetry for the common man. It made us feel that our thoughts and our emotions
and our hopes and fears could be expressed in a more lofty way and be no less
human. He has that extraordinary gift of making ordinary people speak in an
extraordinary way.
JANNEY: Usually there's a script supervisor who will let you know if you
screw up. On this show, in addition to the script supervisor, there was someone
who was on the book and if you missed one letter, they would come up to you.
I don't do my best work if I'm worried about missing a syllable, so I made sure
that when I came to set I knew my lines cold!
SCHIFF: I had been used to improvising and even in the audition I was feeling
free to rearrange Aaron's words a little bit, as lovely as they were. I didn't find
out until after I got the part how furious Aaron was at me for doing that. They
said, "He was livid. He did everything in his power not to jump down your throat!" But I came to realise
that Aaron was writing in metre and the rhythm of the language is very important.
SORKIN: They learn that very quickly. And they do contribute a part of themselves to the script just not
new language. Sometimes they'll come and say, "This series of words just sounds strange coming out of
my mouth." And I'll make some kind of adjustment the way you would if someone was buying a new suit.
But they know themselves. They'll go between takes and say, "I can tell I'm dropping a word or something
is out of order." They know, and they want to do it right.
SCHLAMME: Just besides how smart Aaron's stuff is, really, is how visceral it is, how sensual it is. Not
sexual, sensual. Always tactile. When you read his scripts, the scripts read fast and the words almost jump
off the page.
WHITFORD: There were times in that second year when it was just unbelievable, the scripts that were
coming out of him. You know, they were plays coming out every week! As an actor you always feel like
you're swimming upstream, and then it was like, "Oh God, I'm surfing now!"

SORKIN: We had five or six consultants who had worked in Washington. Oftentimes the idea for an
episode would start with someone saying something like, "You know there's more to the census than we
think." "Really? Tell me." They would say, "The president's motorcade starts moving as soon as the
president gets in his car; Secret Service doesn't want him sitting there. So from time to time, when the
president's on the road, a staffer will run into the store to buy a postcard, come out and find that the
motorcade has gone." That's the beginning of an episode.
SHEEN: Our political adviser, Dee Dee Myers, had all the inside information on how the West Wing
operated under Mr Clinton and it was pretty extraordinary. As the show went on, we got more and more
people involved, some from as far back as Eisenhower. The letter that arrived at the White House written
by a young boy from Brooklyn asking President Roosevelt to help his father find a job? That really
happened and I believe the President who finally received that letter was Jimmy Carter. There was one
where we threw a guy out for drunkenness, a foreign diplomat who had no credentials. That was actually
Boris Yeltsin. He locked himself in the limousine and was causing a great disturbance. They were afraid
that the tourists would see him and so President Bush, the first President Bush, said, "Alright, get him out
of there and we'll meet him in an undisclosed hallway near the Oval Office. We'll take pictures but there'll
be no audio." Six months later, he was the Premier of Russia.
DEE DEE MYERS (POLITICAL CONSULTANT/FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY): Aaron loved
to get behind the curtain a little bit. He loves Twelve Angry Men and he'd say, "Okay, I want to do a bottle
episode. I want everybody in one room. I want them in the situation room at midnight. How do they get
there?" And he loved Allison Janney. He said "She's such a great physical comedian. I want to do an
episode where she has a root canal. I think it'd be really funny for her to be talking like, 'Pwesident
Bawtlet'. What would happen if the press secretary had a root canal and couldn't talk?"
SCHIFF: I pitched to Aaron that Toby had a father that he was embarrassed by and that he came to visit
him at the White House. I had imagined a Roy Cohn type character but he came back and said, "You
know, you once told me that your grandfather was a member of Murder Incorporated? Can I use that?"
And I said, "Yes, you can use that." And so that's how our first teaser came to be done in Yiddish: the day
that Tobias was born and my father was on a hit.
HILL: We got serious letters, that Aaron would sometimes read out, about the fact that the President's
daughter, who was like the American royal family, was dating a black guy. We got a lot of hate mail. I
guess I was more shocked not that it was still embedded in people, but the fact that it was because of
something on TV! I was like, "Wow. In this day and age? I guess we've still got a long way to go." But
I'm sure that it gave Aaron some ideas of how to wrap up the first season.

SHEEN: One of my favourite episodes was the homeless man that died and they
found, in the overcoat he was wearing, a card of the speechwriter, Toby. He
had given that coat to the Goodwill and this guy had ended up wearing it, died
in it and Toby went to his funeral. He turned out to be a Korean war veteran.
It was our first Christmas episode and that was a true story a member of the
staff had done exactly that. So many of these stories were far better than any
fiction.
LOWE: What was also extraordinary was that there was never an executive at
a table reading. Aaron didn't take network notes. And in terms of the budget,
if Aaron wrote, "75 limousines pull out of the driveway," you showed up on
the set and there were 75 limousines. Not 74, not 73 and not pink pages that
say, "Everybody's on bicycles." It was an amazing moment in time.

SORKIN: I wrote the show for the two years before and the two years after 9/11. Suddenly everyone in the
world had been through something that our characters had not been through; the whole trajectory of the
world had chSorkin: I wrote the show for the two years before and the two years after 9/11. Suddenly
everyone in the world had been through something that our characters had not been through; the whole
trajectory of the world had changed. Yet our show took place in a parallel universe. I wasn't really sure
what to do about this. In no one's wildest dreams did it occur that an event like this could possibly happen.
WELLS: It was a bit of a balancing act to try and figure out what to do next. There was a lot of conversation,
a lot of soul-searching about it.anged. Yet our show took place in a parallel universe. I wasn't really sure
what to do about this. In no one's wildest dreams did it occur that an event like this could possibly happen.
LOWE: We had shot six episodes of the season when 9/11 happened. An
extraordinary thing that would never happen today is Aaron going to the network
and saying, "I think we need to go back and reshoot, I have something I want to
do", and the network just kind of let him do it.
SORKIN: In retrospect I'd have done something different but even now I can't
think of what. I had to do something; we couldn't just gallop back on the air with
the world having changed for everyone but our characters. My preference would have been to not go back
on the air at all until the time felt right but that wasn't an option. So I decided to do an episode that wasn't
really an episode some way for the show to bow its head and recognise what had happened. I thought if
I could replicate the same conversations we were all having with our friends and co-workers and at our
kitchen tables that that might be appropriate, if not particularly good television.

LOWE: It's one of those things where there's no way to win. We had to cure what was going to potentially
kill the show and the good news is that the cure worked; the bad news is that it wasn't any fun to take the
medicine.
SORKIN: No one thought it was a good idea not Tommy or John Wells, not the studio or the network
and I'm sure not the cast and crew although they were much too polite to have ever raised an objection
but everyone followed me off the cliff with complete commitment. From the time I start writing to the
time the show's on the air is usually eight weeks. This would have to be done in 12 days. John said, "We're
gonna get killed for this but we'll do our best." He was right on both counts.

HILL: When Rob Lowe left, it was the end of an era. That's when Camelot started to fade away. It was
like a family breaking up.
MOLONEY: I don't think that it was a shock. But you know, everybody was sad when he left. We all really
liked Rob; he was part of an ensemble but I think he wanted to have his own show.
LOWE: It was a while in coming, so when I finally made the decision it had gotten to the point where it
was actually very easy to do.
SORKIN: It was hard saying goodbye to the character and harder saying goodbye to the actor. When
rumours started going around that Rob might be leaving I got an email from Josh Malina asking if I'd be
interested in an actor who was cheaper and not as good looking. I wrote back, "Always", and that was
that.
JOSHUA MALINA (WILL BAILEY): I think if you stand me up next to Rob Lowe, it's like we represent two
different species. It was quite clear from the get-go that I would be no sort of replacement for Rob Lowe
or for Sam Seaborn. In fact, I had lobbied very hard and ultimately unsuccessfully to play Rob Lowe's
role in the first place. I visited the set prior to my first day and hung out with Rob in his trailer, whereabouts
he smoked a big cigar and taught me the ways of West Wing.
LOWE: I had no regrets when I did it, I have even less regret now because I can't imagine staying on the
show and then, six weeks later, Aaron leaving. The universe works in mysterious ways and for me it
worked out perfectly. With all respect to everybody else, Aaron is and was The West Wing, full stop.
There's no West Wing without him.
SHEEN: That was even more of a low point than when the show actually ended after seven seasons. There
was some very good writing in the remaining years of the series, but frankly it just was not Aaron Sorkin.
He was The West Wing. When that was lost to us we all felt... frankly, we felt the series would be
cancelled.

JANNEY: It was terrifying when Aaron announced that he was leaving, he and Tommy Schlamme. We felt
like our parents were abandoning us. It was a tremendously sad day and I'm sure I will never understand
exactly all the reasons why that happened.
HILL: Aaron called all of the cast into the Roosevelt Room and made the announcement. I remember
being really stunned and just like, "Wait? What? How are we going to do The West Wing without Aaron
Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme? That's the backbone of the show."
MALINA: There were a lot of tears and a lot of protestations that
perhaps the show should end if they were going to leave. I remember
it came to me and I basically said, "Yes, this is deeply disappointing
and I'm really really sorry to hear it. I'm new but at the risk of
offending anyone, I'm all for continuing the show!"
SCHIFF: It was a little shocking. But on the other hand, it made total
sense to me that they were leaving. Aaron was getting pressure to
work faster. We had shutdown days because he didn't have material
ready to shoot. It was getting to the point where the studio wanted Joshua Malina as Will Bailey
to make the show cheaper to do so they would start making some
money as they re-upped their contract with NBC. I wouldn't want to change the way I worked if I was
Aaron.
WHITFORD: Somebody who's under-appreciated in all this is John Wells, because Aaron has to work in
a specific way. For Aaron, giving up writing an episode would be like coming to me and saying, "Brad,
you're doing great with Josh but we're just going to let this other guy do it next week." It would be
inconceivable! My joke about Aaron is that The West Wing was a great show about democracy, run by
Kim Jong-Il! That way of working is not the way John did ER, but John protected Tommy and Aaron
from the normal barrage of notes and financial limitations. He was really important that way.
LOWE: Somebody once told me and I could be wrong about this that The West Wing was, on any
given episode, $300,000 over, on average. Now today, if you were $10,000 over budget, they would
cancel you. For sure.
WELLS: The network was very unhappy that Rob was leaving and wanted Aaron to craft larger stories for
him to convince him to stay. Then we were going over budget and not finishing on time and I knew that
the tension was building. It was in the third year that Aaron had said to me, "I'm not sure if I can do this
anymore, I'm exhausted." But I was kind of hoping he was going to take it back like he had before. The
part that surprised me was that Tommy had also chosen to go.
SCHLAMME: It's a story that, honestly, will remain a little unclear, simply because there's stuff that Aaron
and I would rather keep to ourselves. But it was an absolutely bilateral decision. We would do this
together, a very clean break and let the next group of people run the show.
SORKIN: It was a very difficult decision. Both Tommy and I had built a home there; we loved the show
and we loved the people. We knew at some point we would have to move on and there were a number of
factors that contributed to the end of the fourth season being the right time. But it certainly wasn't a
decision we arrived at easily and I missed the show terribly once I had left it.

SCHLAMME: There was this weird sort of synergy with the episode we were shooting. John Goodman
was taking Martin Sheen's place and sending him out of the room. I remember when Chris Misiano shot
that sequence and as that camera pulled back I got enormously emotional. I felt a great deal of pain for
Aaron and for the process that he had to go through to separate himself from something that he'd put as
much of himself into as he did that show.
SORKIN: Larry David had left Seinfeld a few seasons before the show ended
and he called me and said, "You can never watch The West Wing again.
Either the show is going to be great without you and you're going to be
miserable, or the show is going to be less than great without you and you're
going to be miserable." I thought, "Well, this is Larry David; he's kind of
professionally miserable." So I had them send a tape of the first episode that I
didn't do. I put it in the VCR and I don't think I got 15 seconds in before I
leapt up and slammed it off! It felt like I was watching somebody make out
with my girlfriend. Except for that 15 seconds, I've followed Larry's advice.
I've never seen a West Wing episode in seasons five, six or seven.

WELLS: I've done a lot of things that were challenging in my career but that next six months was as hard
work and as difficult as anything I've ever attempted. I gave Aaron a hard time because he left with the
President's daughter being kidnapped and somebody else in the Oval Office! I said, "So you're quitting,
but you aren't going to tell me what you planned to have happen next?" And he goes, "Oh, I have no idea
what was going to happen next. That's one of the reasons I'm quitting, actually." Well thanks a lot!
WHITFORD: John came in at the table read for the first episode he very
bravely wrote the first two and I remember we sat down to read and he said,
"I feel like Ethel Merman's understudy."
JANNEY: In that first year it was a little bumpy because there were so many
writers trying to fill Aaron's shoes. It was all a hodge-podge of different kinds
of episodes and finding a way to write for the characters, some more
successfully than others.
LOWE: I stumbled upon it once and I saw what looked like a nineteen-year-old John Spencer wading
around in a rice paddy in 'Nam. I never watched it again.
SCHLAMME: I had once said to John, not knowing if this day would ever happen, "Maybe what they
should do with West Wing is every year, just give it to somebody else. Let this be Norman Lear's West

Wing, let this be Stephen Bochco's West Wing". Give great titans of television the franchise for a year so
that they could just reinvent it each time. That first year would've been a real difficult transition for
anybody. Slowly, by the sixth and the seventh year, it was their show. And the final year, everybody
should be as proud of that as any other year of that show.

WELLS: With Bartlet, we caught up to him in the second year of his presidency and then we did the reelection. Now we wanted to do stories about the waning years of a presidency, a campaign and the
beginning of a new one.
JIMMY SMITS (MATT SANTOS): I was working in New York City, doing Shakespeare In The Park, when
I got a call from my agents that John Wells was interested in talking to me. John wanted to explore the
whole dynamic of what is involved in the campaign process.
WELLS: We spoke to political consultants about what a minority campaign would look like. They said,
"Well there's this young senator out of Illinois that people are talking about a little bit," which turned out
to be Barack Obama. They basically laid out for us what they thought the campaign strategy would have
to be for him to ever run for president, although they kept telling us the whole time, "It'll never happen,
of course."
SMITS: What struck me more than anything is how the
people that are involved in government start out from a
place of really wanting to do well, no matter what kind of
political spectrum they're on, how they have to hold onto
that warm fuzzy place in their heart while they're stuck in
the machine. In the case of West Wing, that involved the
campaign process and Santos' feelings with Josh. What's
the best way to preserve your dignity and learn how to
compromise?
Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda filming the
WHITFORD: Jimmy is this very powerful guy with a West Wing live debate episode
humanity and sweetness in him that made that work
amazingly.
WELLS: Vinick was based on John McCain and a number of possible centrist Republican candidates. The
rise of the Tea Party, that very militant side of the Republican Party, hadn't really forced people into the
positions that Republican presidential candidates have to take now. So we were looking for someone far
more moderate, what would now be considered an establishment Republican. The 2008 election was very

odd. We called the political consultants we'd worked with and said, "You guys kind of knew what you
were talking about!"
ALAN ALDA (ARNOLD VINICK): John called me and asked if I would like to
run for President as the Republican nominee. That's all he said and that was
enough for me because he's such a good writer and the show was such a good
show. I liked Arnie very much, because the character wasn't written as a straw
man to be knocked down by the other party. The arguments were rational
arguments. He was drawn as a humane person, he just had different solutions
to the problems before the country than the other party had.
JANNEY: It was great to have a Republican character as likeable as Alan was.
He was one Republican I would probably vote for; he was old school.
WELLS: Alan had actually been in original talks for President Bartlet. He and
I had worked together so Alan was a name that I brought up very early on.
ALDA: Yeah, at one point they talked to me about that but I was busy with
other things and I didn't want to do a regular series. But you couldn't play that
role better than the way Martin played it.
WELLS: Alternating between the White House and the campaign was
challenging, but it was the way we were writing the show once Aaron had left
that made it possible to do. I say that with all due love for Aaron, but we were able to write episodes a
long time in advance and then plan them logistically, which was complicated.
ALDA: [Working on The West Wing] was similar in many ways to my experience on M*A*S*H, because
you had people willing to work late at night to get it just right. The one hour live debate that we did was
one of the most exciting times for me on stage or on camera, because anything could go wrong.
SMITS: I've got to tell you, we rehearsed that as if it were a play. It was written concurrent to a subsequent
episode that was being filmed so we didn't have the luxury of really pounding it out.
ALDA: They kept pulling Jimmy out of rehearsals to shoot the episode prior to that, so we went in underrehearsed. But that gave it a certain electricity, I think. And the presence of the audience really shook
things up.
SMITS: We did it twice, one for the East Coast and one for the West Coast. It
was nerve-wracking, but it was exciting. You know, just like jumping off a
cliff.
ALDA: They brought in another audience for the second one and they thought
they were at a Democratic rally and they kept cheering Jimmy Smits and
ignoring me! I finally quieted them down, I changed the dialogue and I told
them to "Be quiet, this is going to be good." That was one of the happiest times
for me acting, ever.
WELLS: We went back and forth on whether the Republican should actually
win the election. We thought that that could be a very interesting thing to do
and then watch that transition and see what happened to our characters as they left government.
ALDA: At one point they did decide that Vinick would win and they started to write stories that would
make him more attractive to the public. There was a story in which he comes into possession of Santos'
briefcase and decides not to use any information in it and gives it back; he behaves very nobly. That was

intended to swing the public his way. You know, you always have to side with your character, no matter
what the character is like, and I wanted him to win! I had this really funny experience watching the election
episode where I thought the votes could still swing my way. I'd already watched the scenes where I'd lost!

MALINA: I'm a realist and I haven't spent too much time dwelling on what Will Bailey's trajectory would
have been had it continued in Aaron's hands, Although I think it would have been different. Would he
have gone on to run Bingo Bob's bid for the Presidential candidacy? I don't think so. But I harboured no
ill will and I think actually there was a time where maybe John Wells thought Will Bailey's story had been
told and I think he wanted to find a way to keep me on the show. I was actually very grateful and I relished
the time with Gary Cole. A lot of fans turned on me, though, or turned on Will Bailey. For a lot of people,
there is no real separation between the character and the actor. There was actual hatred from people!
SCHIFF: What was done to Toby [in the final season] was wrong. I was deeply, deeply hurt by that. They
gave me this scene where I reveal myself as the White House leak and I thought, "Oh, maybe I'm taking
the fall for somebody." So I played that out kind of heroically, like maybe I'm falling on my sword. I did
not know that they wanted to shorten the number of my episodes! I hope it was just a bad idea that they
thought was great and that there was nothing beyond that but it was a really
bad idea and very insulting to me. Aaron heard what they were doing to Toby
and he wrote me one of the most beautiful emails I've ever gotten about my
work. He said, "Toby is my favourite character I've ever written and I've loved
working with you on the character." He went on to describe how much he
loved Toby and why, and it made me cry because it was just really beautiful.
WELLS: I love Richard, but Richard was never happy. Sometimes in the midst
of trying to do a complicated show, you're like, "Oh Richard, give me a break."
JANNEY: Richard had a hard time with his character's changes and I did as
well, for different reasons. I liked the dynamics the way they were. Me having
to be the boss of everyone wasn't as fun for me in the room and the comedy
wasn't there. When C.J. became Chief of Staff it was a strange shift for me on
the show and I wasn't comfortable in that shift.
WELLS: Usually what happens is that the President wants to keep people he
already trusts around him, so those kind of moves happen. Sometimes
successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully. But these shows have to grow and
change. It can be very difficult for people who've gotten comfortable with

what they're doing, but that's what happens in life and certainly what happens in political life. You want
to reflect that if you're going to have the show feel as if it's a realistic presentation of what's really going
on.
HILL: I loved that Charlie came in looking for a job as a messenger and at the end he was working with
the Chief of Staff. He'd been through a journey and a relationship with Zoe Bartlet, who obviously was
his first love. He came in as an employee and he left as a member of the family. I couldn't be mad at that
journey, I loved it.
MOLONEY: I thought they did a really terrific job with Josh and Donna. My biggest fear was that it was
going to be like, "a very special episode of The West Wing we've seen them laugh, we've seen them
cry! Donna and Josh finally..." But no, I thought it was so smart and unexpected.
WHITFORD: It's so funny, because of course at the end of the first year I take a couple of bullets. But I'm
in bed with her six years later and there are no scars! There's nothing! Nobody's ever brought that up.

WELLS: We probably would've done one more year, which would've been the whole transition, but for
John Spencer's sudden death at Christmas time. I don't know if the network would've picked us up for
year eight or not, but after that we all looked at each other and said, "Maybe it's time to stop."
WHITFORD: I got a phone call that John was in trouble and I went to hospital and the doctor told me John
had died. I was there at his funeral and then a few weeks later I was acting those same scenes. It was very
bizarre. We had a big meeting: we didn't want to exploit it at all but we thought that John would've wanted
it incorporated.
CHANNING: That was horrible. He was a very close personal friend of mine and it was extremely hard to
go through that in life and then dramatically. I really can't even speak about it because he became one of
my closest friends and I found it extremely difficult. I knew he'd been ill. It was something he kept
extremely secret because he had an operation. We thought he was fine he really made a full recovery
which was why it was so shocking.

SHEEN: Oh God, I lost a brother. I absolutely adored him. He and I were the
oldest; we were also AA people and we had so much in common. The nuances
between us and the affection we had for each other... We were serious guys
but he had a wonderful sense of humour and we would joke all the time. One
time, Allison Janney was doing an interview with a reporter and the reporter
said, "Well, you know, it's surprising that The West Wing is such a success
and there's no love story." And Allison said, "Well of course there is. Between
Martin and John!" And she was absolutely right.
MOLONEY: Aaron said at his memorial that he was such a professional that he
died on hiatus. He was so, so, so good and so committed and just never missed
a beat.
SHEEN: Up until his death, the Republican was going to win the election.
Jimmy Smits would be defeated and that wonderful actor Alan Alda would
win. But with John's death they said no and, against history, the Democrats
would continue.
WELLS: There was a long period from Christmas to the wrapping of the show
that was very emotional because of John's death. The scripts were already
written on the assumption that John was still going to be very much alive. So
a number of things were rewritten and the actors, who had lost a close personal
friend, then had to play the loss of the character.
HILL: Doing the episode with Leo's funeral was extremely difficult. Because
when John had passed, even though it was an empty coffin, it wasn't an empty
coffin. At that time, we knew that The West Wing had to be done. Because
doing The West Wing without John Spencer just didn't seem right at all.

LOWE: I wanted to be with everybody during the goodbyes; I wanted Sam to be present and I was really
glad I did. It was emotional and lovely and sad and the perfect way to end it.
HILL: The last dialogue scene that we did was the President
giving me the Constitution that red book, which I may or may
not still have. I'm going to leave it at that. The final scene we
actually shot, though, was Martin walking into the
communications bullpen and everyone applauding. It was just
so emotional. A lot of folks who had been involved in the show
had come and were there on the set. You just took it in.
MALINA: I think it was exponentially more shattering to the originals who had been there from first
episode to last. I felt a little bit like a guest again in that last episode. Even though it was a very sad day
for me and a painful goodbye, there was something very special in the closure for the people who had
been there the whole way. I didn't feel like I had earned the full range of emotions that they were going
through.
SMITS: The last couple of episodes were bittersweet and strange. Every day I would stop in even if I wasn't
working just to watch people's last scenes a lot of people did that. The last day, people stayed the whole
day. They were tearing down the Oval Office in one area of the soundstage
while they were shooting C.J.'s last scene. It was very surreal.
WELLS: The set was torn down. Torn down and put into a bunch of dumpsters
outside stage 29 at the Warner Bros. lot. All of the furnishings and everything
were saved and I've seen those presidential rugs, which we had designed
specifically for the show, in other shows and other movies. But within four
weeks the Ocean's 13 casino was on the stage. We all went back a couple of
weeks after the set had been cleared and put a plaque on the stage for John
Spencer. We stood around and talked about John and had a little reminiscence,
and as we were doing it they were backing trucks in to bring in slot machines.
So you know, it's temporal, this kind of work.
WHITFORD: I remember saying to Aaron, "This is the kind of thing where you
don't want your banana to turn brown. If anything, you want to make the
mistake of getting out early." Although it drives me crazy, because all I think
about are... you know, there are infinite plots, West Wing episodes that I think
up all the time that would be amazing.

HILL: It was a long run that we had on the show but it was something that we all knew we would never
repeat; there would never be something else like this on our journey. With this show, with these actors,
with these words, with this subject matter, at this moment in time: it was the end of an era.

SHEEN: It's the most satisfying thing I've ever done. Every now and then I'll see an episode somewhere
and I'm just intrigued by it. We actually did that and I was actually a part of it! I think it came at a time
and it occupied a space that it might not have been possible to do before or since.
WHITFORD: It's hilarious to me that the knock on this show early on was "Washington shows don't work."
We went, "No, bad Washington shows don't work." Now it's House Of Cards, Alpha House there are
political shows all over the place. It's like the new Western!
MALINA: If you look now at the shows that are set in the political world, Veep and House Of Cards and
my show, Scandal it's all the cynical, dark side of DC. Aaron was able to crack the code and create a
positive, idealistic view of American government. I still meet young people who are going into politics
and they say, "If you ever see Aaron Sorkin, you tell him that it was The West Wing that set me on this
path."
SMITS: That quick-talk fast pace was really anchored, fomented in large part on The West Wing. Even in
feature films you see it and it's because of what was created on the show.
LOWE: The legacy was the attraction of movie actors to television. Whether it's Kiefer Sutherland, who
was debating whether he was going to do television, watched The West Wing and then decided to do 24;
or Billy Peterson who was debating whether to do television, watched The West Wing and decided to do
CSI. Now there's a flood. I'm surprised there's anybody left to populate the movie business! Any op-ed
piece you read about writing or great acting is always about television, it's rarely about movies, and that
all started with The West Wing.
SCHIFF: One of the things that was so amazing was that, here we are, character actors who were able to
be a lead four or five times a year. When you get to play a character like that, that's when it feels good.
That you're not just somebody that's carrying the bags for Tommy Lee Jones!
WELLS: I'm just proud of the fact that the show worked, period. In American network television there's
an assumption that the audience isn't very sophisticated and isn't prepared to watch more complicated
storytelling and complicated characters. I was proud of the fact that people became engaged and that we
proved the audience is prepared to talk about issues other than forensics!

JANNEY: It changed my life forever. To win four Emmys for doing that show
and to have it be such a huge hit I was an actress that was mostly known for
Broadway plays and a few little parts in movies here and there. It really
changed the game for me.
MOLONEY: We had the time of our lives. People say to me when they meet
me, "Was it as fun as it looked?" And I just say, "It was way more fun than you
could ever imagine." It put this high-water mark on my life forever.
WHITFORD: Every job I've had ever since, I call them 'labours of like'.
SCHIFF: I hadn't watched any of the show, really. Then last year, I decided,
"I'm going to watch these fucking shows!" Now I kind of get what everyone's
talking about it was really good stuff!
LOWE: We can argue if The West Wing is the best series ever: I think it is.
There's Breaking Bad, there's The Sopranos particularly today, on cable,
there are shows that give The West Wing a run for its money. There are none
on network television. None. That's a conversation that you can't even have.
HILL: Whenever they talk about the history of television, they will talk about
The West Wing. We were thankful to be a part of that band of brothers and
sisters.
SORKIN: When we were doing the show our goal was nothing grander than to entertain you for however
long we'd asked for your attention. It's understatement to say that it's gratifying to all of us that the show
has a life in DVD box sets and Netflix. That people who were in grade school when the show was on the
air are coming to it now like it's new. And that there are young people who say they got into public service
because of the show. I'm proud that we were on at the same time as shows like The Sopranos and E.R.
and Six Feet Under and The Practice and N.Y.P.D. Blue. During one of our monthly cast lunches in the
first season, Brad Whitford said, "No matter what we do from here on out, this show is the first line of our
obits." Martin, who was in Apocalypse Now, said, "I'm good with that". Me too.

JOSIAH BARTLET (MARTIN SHEEN) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

A Nobel-Prize winning economist and former New Hampshire Governor, Jed Bartlet was a dark horse
during the primaries, edging out frontrunner John Hoynes (later appointed Vice President) to get the
Democratic nomination. The show begins during the middle of President Bartlet's first year in office.
Sheen: He was so courageous; a very solidly drawn character of moral value who had such depth of
feeling. Bartlet was a conglomeration of John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton all Democrats.
We wanted to represent the very best that we had in that office in recent history and those three men
covered all of the territory that Bartlet would inhabit.

LEO MCGARRY (JOHN SPENCER) CHIEF OF STAFF

A former Secretary of Labour who flew fighters during the Vietnam war, Leo McGarry was an old friend
of Jed Bartlet's, who turns up at the New Hampshire governor's mansion one day to persuade him to run
for President. After successfully running the Presidential campaign he was appointed White House ChiefOf-Staff, running the West Wing staff as the President's right hand.

JOSH LYMAN (BRADLEY WHITFORD) DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF

Originally part of Senator John Hoynes' presidential campaign, Josh quit to work for the Bartlet camp
after hearing the Governor speak in New Hampshire. As Deputy Chief-Of-Staff his main role is that of
'Bartlet's rottweiler', a 'one-man congressional majority' who wrangles votes and manhandles congressmen
and senators in pursuit of the Bartlet agenda.
Whitford: Josh has precisely my view of politics. With Toby, Aaron wrote towards this kind of idealistic,
depressive aspect of Richard and I think he did the same thing with me and Josh. I didn't feel like I had to
act at all.

TOBY ZIEGLER (RICHARD SCHIFF) COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

Toby had worked on various (losing) congressional, senatorial and gubernatorial races before joining
Bartlet's presidential campaign. As White House Communications Director he is in charge of shaping the
administration's message, as well as being the President's chief speechwriter and a senior policy advisor.
Schiff: I loved to dig into Aaron's material and find a deeper darkness that I believe is in all his work.
That's why Toby became as burdened and as dark as he became sometimes. Aaron wrote two characters
that really represent one person: I think Sam Seaborn represented the kind of idiot savant, socially
bumbling innocent side that Aaron does have, and then Toby was the deeper, darker person who struggles
with personal issues privately.

SAM SEABORN (ROB LOWE) DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

Idealistic and fiercely loyal, Sam is a former lawyer enlisted to the Bartlet campaign by long-time friend
Josh Lyman. In office, Sam works for Toby Ziegler as the other half of the main speechwriting team.
Lowe: I just identified what was funny about Sam. What Aaron and I found together as the show went on
was Sam's nerdiness, and we embraced his inner geek. That, and no one ever tired of seeing Sam getting
disillusioned.

C.J. CREGG (ALLISON JANNEY) PRESS SECRETARY

A Hollywood publicist, Claudia Jean Cregg was fired from her job for being a little too honest with one
of her clients. Snapped up by Toby Ziegler for the Bartlet campaign, she becomes the face and voice of
the Bartlet administration, briefing the press and controlling the story.
Janney: Not only was she a great role model for women but she was a great female character, period. The
only drag to playing someone like C.J. is that then when people want to meet you, they think you're like
her. I can only disappoint. That's the worst thing about playing a character like her: I am nowhere near as
cool as C.J. is!

CHARLIE YOUNG (DUL HILL) PERSONAL AIDE TO THE PRESIDENT

Turning up at the White House for a messenger job, Charlie is instead earmarked for a role as the
President's 'body man', which has him doing everything from placing the President's morning wake-up
calls to managing his schedule and, occasionally, finding his glasses.
Hill:: I loved the idea that Charlie was one of the smartest people in the room. Even though he was young,
he was brilliant. It was nice to see a character, especially a young African American character, coming on
TV that was really smart.

DONNA MOSS (JANEL MOLONEY) ASSISSTANT TO THE DEPUTY CHIEF-OF-STAFF

Donnatella Moss turned up at the Bartlet For America HQ looking for a job after being dumped by her
boyfriend. Landing a job as Josh Lyman's assistant, she maintains that role in the administration, also
providing a nave vox populi to help other characters (most notably Josh) explain the more byzantine
political elements of the show.
Moloney: Aaron used Donna to explain things and I think that this show really needed her. I played the
character knowing that she was knocked down, 100 percent, dead-in-front-of-a-bus in love with her boss.
Every scene, I did not care if it was about taxes or about, you know, getting rid of the penny, it was all
about me being in love with him.

ABBEY BARTLET (STOCKARD CHANNING) THE FIRST LADY

Dr Abigail Bartlet was Jed's college sweetheart and the couple have been married 32 years when the series
begins. Aside from being First Lady, Dr Bartlet is a thoracic surgeon and an Adjunct Professor at Harvard
Medical School.
Channing: I had lunch with Aaron one day and he said, "I'm thinking of making you a doctor. Before
lunch I wrote the teaser for the episode that you're going to be in and I've given Martin a bad cold. But
I'm thinking he has MS and you're his doctor and you couldn't tell anybody." And that was it. I think if I
had had lunch with him another day, history could've been quite different.

Composer W.G. Snuffy Walden on putting The White House to music.

WHAT ITERATIONS DID THE THEME GO THROUGH BEFORE YOU SETTLED ON THE FINAL VERSION?
Originally they talked about it being an Americana guitar score, which is totally different than where we
ended up. They were talking about a Phil Collins kind of thing, something more rock. But what happened
was they shot the first episode and were playing around with music and started putting John Williams up
against it big orchestral music. Then they came to me and said, "Can you do this?"
We didn't have the theme yet when I was scoring the third episode. It was the scene where Bartlet televises
his first Oval Office address and I wrote this piece of music at the end of the show and Tommy came over
and had a listen to it. We finished the piece and he said, "That's our theme!" I said, "Really?" He said,
"Absolutely, that's our theme." So I put it together for an orchestra. As a matter of fact, the first couple of
episodes don't have the orchestra version, they have a synth version as we had to get on the air and couldn't
get the main title done in time.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE ELEMENTS OF THE MAIN THEME?
If you boil it down to its essence, it's just a little gospel piece. It's very simple; a spiritual kind of gospel
piece, just on piano. But as soon as you add french horns and the strings and everything, it becomes very
[Aaron] Copland-esque.
IT'S VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE END TITLE MUSIC, WHICH IS MORE PLAYFUL.
That end titles piece is actually from a piece in the pilot where we're walking through the White House
for the first time. When we started the show, we had a lot more music than we ended up with. We started
the show with 25 minutes of music. We ended up with less than half that by the time we got deeper into
the show because the characters became so developed and were so crisp and clear in their definition that
you had to be very careful with music not to push it one way or the other. We found that less was absolutely
more in that situation.
WERE THERE OTHER PARTICULAR THEMES YOU USED, FOR INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERS FOR EXAMPLE?
No, not really. I had themes off and on, like when Leo had his heart attack I used a piano theme; I used a
nylon guitar theme a couple of times, but predominantly it was orchestral and I pulled threads from the
fabric of the main title to create the score. I had full-on strings and woodwind and percussion and all that
on the main title, so I would just use strings and percussion, maybe, on one cue. And I didn't use the theme
very often. I was very careful not to play that every time someone did something good. I probably only
used it within the episodes maybe four or five times in the entire series.

THE SHOW'S SCHEDULE WAS PRETTY TIGHT, YOU MUST HAVE BEEN RIGHT DOWN TO THE WIRE WHEN
IT CAME TO SCORING THE EPISODES.
Oh, I had sometimes one or two days to do the whole score. You get good at it. You get good at trusting
your first instinct. We were originally going to score them all orchestrally and I managed to get about six
done that way and then we just ran out of time. There wasn't time enough for me to write the score and
get to an orchestra and everything. So all the score after the middle of the first year just became me playing
on my black boxes.
HOW BIG A DEAL WAS GETTING THE WEST WING FOR YOU?
Well, it was such an iconic show. And up until that point, I was kind of known as the Thirtysomething
guy. Then all of a sudden I became The West Wing guy. It's funny, it's one of the high points of my entire
career, being on that show but I've never watched it. I scored it, but I've never gone back and watched it.
I'm too critical of my work to watch anything within five or six years of when I do it. I just see the moments
that I squandered, you know? But at some point I'm going to sit down and watch all seven years.

She appeared in just 12 episodes but Republican Associate White House Counsel Ainsley Hayes remains
among The West Wing's most memorable and best-loved characters. Played with smart-mouthed sass and
Southern charm by actress Emily Procter, Ainsley made her debut trouncing Sam Seaborn on live
television before joining the administration and providing a counter-argument on issues from across the
aisle while providing a number of unforgettable food-related quotes along the way.
HOW DID YOU COME TO BE CAST AS THE BARTLET ADMINISTRATION'S FIRST REPUBLICAN?
Well, I was in my little apartment in Beverley Hills and things were really not working out for me as all
Hollywood tales begin. I really had gotten to a place where I thought, "I need to figure out what I'm doing
here, or I need to move back home." My car was falling apart and I didn't have any air conditioning; it
was August and it was so hot I had to duct tape cooler packs to my air vents. When I pulled up for the
audition I was like, "Hi, Emily Procter, here for The West Wing," and I think they sort of looked at my
car and were like, "Oh honey, not for you. You're not getting it." But it worked out.
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE AUDITION?
I'm from North Carolina, so when I get dressed up, I tend to get really dressed up! I did my best to put on
what I thought someone would wear in the White House and I went and read for the part. I was wearing
such a strange, pulled-together outfit that the casting director called back and said, "We think that she's
good, but we don't know if she's attractive." My agent said, "what do you mean?" They said, "She was
wearing very strange purple pants!" So I had to go back again in a more attractive outfit.
WAS SHE WRITTEN AS A SOUTHERNER?
No, actually. At one point during the process, Aaron said, "You do realise that she's from Montana," and
I said, "Yes sir, I do," and he said, "But you're reading her with a Southern accent," and I said, "Well,
yes." And he just sort of looked at me and I looked at him and no one went on after that. So I left it. I was
lucky that he let her be Southern because I don't have another accent!
WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF AINSLEY?
It was the first time I had ever read anyone write a Southerner properly. Because Southern women, in my
opinion, are complicated and are equally feminine and driven. That's kind of an unusual combination and
people usually tend to get it wrong. And he just nailed it and I thought, "Oh my gosh, it's going to be so
nice to see this person on television," because she represented something to me that I felt very strongly
about.

WERE YOU
SHOW?

SURPRISED THEY WANTED A

REPUBLICAN

CHARACTER ON SUCH A LIBERAL-LEANING

Yes. But you know, I really truly believe that in order to create the full environment, it was necessary to
have both sides of the argument. I thought it was so smart that that's what he decided to do with the show.
I remember Aaron saying, "I don't want you to make her so likeable," and I was like, "But it's better!"
So many of the things she was saying were difficult for me; they were so opposite to what I felt. You
know, having to argue against the Equal Rights Amendment was a really interesting one for me. I had to
really try and figure out a way why I would want to support that. And that was part of what made it so
fun.
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT YOUR FIRST EPISODE?
The very first scene I had on the show was with John Spencer. They call me to come on the set and he's
already in there. I hear him in a very loud voice say, "The new girl if she's bad, we don't have to keep
her, right?" Then after the scene, he was like, "You're alright!" I loved working with John. He invited me
to come over to his house to rehearse and he had this swimming pool and all of these beautiful roses. He
took these pots of roses and created this obstacle course around the pool. There was an uncurled hose and
pots full of thorny bushes and we would go around and around his pool as quickly as we could with the
dialogue. It was really quite dangerous and he was like, "Emily, I'm a gentleman so I'll stay on the inside
of the pool." He was wonderful.
THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN AISNLEY AND SAM WAS A SERIES HIGH POINT, HOW DID YOU FIND THOSE
SCENES?
Rob Lowe is a sportsman and a ladykiller and it's impossible to be in a scene with him and not immediately
begin to play tennis. [Laughs] Whether you want to or not, that is what happens.
DO YOU HAVE LINES QUOTED BACK TO YOU ON THE STREET?
There's a difference between the CSI: Miami fan and The West Wing fan. The West Wing fan is far more
dialogue driven. "Can I take this muffin?" is definitely the most repeated.
AARON SAID HIS BIGGEST REGRET WAS NOT MAKING YOU A REGULAR CAST MEMBER AND LETTING CSI
SNAP YOU UP.
Well, he and I have had this conversation and it's one of those things where I think we misunderstood
each other. If I had in any way known that this was a possibility, I would have stayed there forever! They
would've had to kick me out! As it was, when on my last episode, they said, "Do you need a box for your
things?" I had to shut the door and cry because I didn't want to go.
HOW WAS CSI: MIAMI BY COMPARISON?
After the pilot episode I was doing something and I was like, "Well on The West Wing... but wait, on The
West Wing we would rehearse this... but wait, okay, on The West Wing." And Marg Helgenberger turned
around and went, "Oh my God, she is not going to make it." [Laughs] It was at that moment that I was
like, "Oh, this is apples and oranges. This is a very different thing."

INFOGRAPHIC: ANATOMY OF A WEST WING WALK-AND-TALK

A ballroom, a kitchen, two stairwells, a parking lot, 500 extras, five script pages and 29 takes. At 02:58
the Steadicam shot in season one episode Five Votes Down is the most elaborate in the show's seven
year history. Illustration: Olly Gibbs

THOMAS SCHLAMME (DIRECTOR/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER): During the pilot, we were shooting at the
Biltmore Hotel and I noticed there was this beautiful ballroom. You could come out, go down these stairs
and go into this kitchen, then there was another hallway down to where you could park a car. I walked it
with Aaron and said, 'God, wouldn't it be amazing if you wrote a scene where all of that happened?'
ROB LOWE: People had to fight their way up to be on camera and then fade into the background so other
people could talk, then fight their way up again. We finished at three thirty in the morning and went
through two Steadicam operators on that shot!
RICHARD SCHIFF: We lost our lavalier microphones but our sound guy goes, "Don't worry guys, I've done
documentaries: I can boom it!" When we got to the staircase he literally went airborne; luckily two guys
behind him anticipated it and caught him, otherwise he'd be dead. He would've gone rolling down two
flights of stairs for the sake of booming this scene.
SCHLAMME: We didn't have enough extras so the people in the ballroom had to run around the block and
head to where the car was and be screaming for the President as he gets into the limo. We lost a few of
them by take nine.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Director and Executive Producer Thomas Schlamme walks (and talks) us through the secrets of a
successful walk-and-talk. Illustrations: Ceri Thomas

1 Schlamme: I think there are two secrets to a walk and talk: design a set with a production designer named Jon Hutman and shoot it with a cinematographer
named Tom Del Ruth. When we first started, we said 'This is the conceptual idea of the show,' and just went from there.

2 Schlamme: The way that the show was designed, you could move into various atmospheres and you wouldn't be moving into the exact same visual palette.
You would go from the Oval Office, which was lit one way, to the communications bullpen, which was lit a completely different way, with lots of fluorescents.
There were all different lighting forms on a massive dimmer board so that everybody was in sync.

3 Schlamme: The essence of blocking a theatre piece is that when people are moving and they stop then it has more emphasis. Alternatively, if they're still and
then they move it has more emphasis. So a lot of the time if you actually analyse the walk-and-talks, there will be a moment when they get to the coffee pot
to pour a cup of coffee or something in the middle and that's the dialogue that needs to be digested a little bit more. There was always method to the madness
of that movement.

Press Secretary for President Clinton, Dee Dee Myers was the first woman ever to hold the position and
part-inspiration for the character of C.J. Cregg. Joining The West Wing as the show's main Political
Consultant, Myers acted as Sorkin's sounding board, providing the inside scoop on every level of White
House politics.
HOW MUCH OF YOU IS THERE IN C.J.?
You'd have to ask Aaron that question [Laughs]. I was at that point the only woman who had ever served
as White House press secretary. She went to Berkeley and so did I although it turns out she's from Ohio
and I'm from California. Of course when I started working with the writers, I certainly spent more time
on storylines for that character because I knew it and stuff that happened to me ended up happening to
C.J..
HOW MUCH OF CLINTON WOULD YOU SAY IS IN PRESIDENT BARTLET?
What made Clinton so interesting to work for was not only is he highly intelligent, he's interested in
everything. He's endlessly curious. Sometimes that led him to go off on a disquisition about cold fusion
when you wanted him to talk about healthcare, but it made him very engaged and deeply interested in the
interconnectivity of all these issues. He was just an interesting person to be around because he could talk
about NCAA basketball, the latest movies, the latest spy novel, oh and by the way, relations with Russia
and what was happening with Israel's internal domestic politics and, you know, the latest thinking on what
were the best sources of new ideas around climate change. Whatever it was, he knew something about it
and was interested in it and was up for a conversation. That was his idea of a good time, "Let's play cards
and talk policy!" That's Bartlet! Martin would go off on some tangent all the time. The tone is a little
different but the inclination to know and to share is very much Clintonian.
THE VICE PRESIDENT

IS QUITE A DEMONISED CHARACTER ON THE SHOW, WAS THAT A DRAMATIC

CHOICE OR AN ACCURATE REPRESENTATION?

The role of the VP has evolved a lot through the course of history, but it was more of a storytelling device.
There were certainly conflicts between Clinton and Gore and obviously that administration shaped the
culture of the show more than anything else. There's a little bit of Gore, who's ambitious, trapped behind
a President who's maybe more skilled at the arts of politics.

HOW DID THE SET MEASURE UP TO THE REAL THING?

It was surreal because you'd walk out of one room and you'd be in completely the wrong place. The Oval
Office was very accurate and the briefing room was pretty accurate but the internal offices weren't at all
like what they are in the real White House. The Oval Office set was built for The American President.
Rob Reiner and Aaron came in and measured and photographed, which I guess hadn't really been done in
that way before, and then recreated it. It was a very Clinton Oval Office the Obama Oval Office looks
a lot different.
HOW REALISTIC IS THE SHOW COMPARED TO THE REAL DAY-TO-DAY OF THE WHITE HOUSE?
I think the big thing the show gets right and this is really important, because no one else has ever done
it is that people who work in politics are motivated by big ideas and hopeful aspiration, regardless of
what side of the aisle you come from. The other thing Aaron gets right, and insisted on, is that if you're
talking about healthcare or climate change or whatever, then the argument on the other side has to be real.
These issues are complex and it's okay to show that. Presidents never make 80/20 decisions, they make
51/49 decisions; that's why the decision gets to them, because they're hard. The easy ones get made by
everybody else! Aaron created a show where the characters wrestled with complex issues in thoughtful
ways and he did that with the overlay of hopefulness. It's a very optimistic show, unlike anything else
about politics that has ever been on TV.
WHAT DOES HE GET WRONG?
In the real world there are way more people involved in the process of making policy, making decisions
and playing the political game. But you have to narrow it down to have a group of recurring characters
that you care about and who are, you know, running the world. On the show it's the same five people that
make every decision!
IT'S MORE TRUE TO LIFE THAN, SAY, HOUSE OF CARDS THOUGH.
Yes, and you know what? I can assure you... maybe I didn't see everything, but there was no murder while
I was at the White House! There were a few times when there were people we probably wanted to kill,
but nobody got offed in my experience or that of anyone else I know.

MALINA: I do enjoy a good practical joke. My first season, I really felt like I was a guest in someone else's
house and I was raised by my parents to be a good guest. But by my second season I felt like I owned the
place and so I really started firing salvos at everybody; doing anything I could to create chaos and tension.
WHITFORD: The problem with Josh is he has no sense of proportion. It's like you shake hands with a hand
buzzer, then he will pick your daughter up from school and not tell you. The sickest things were the small
shit he used to do. I was always reading books on the set and he would tear the last few pages out of them!
Also, at one point I was going through a really difficult time and I had this very sweet assistant who would
write little supportive aphorisms on post-its and leave them in my dressing room, like: "I have the time
and space to do everything that I need to do." Little things like that. And Josh, who would apparently
always go into my dressing room, would take those down and put things like, "There is no happiness. The
reward is death." "Will I ever work again?"
MALINA: There is a fine line between being the life of the party and being unemployable. I felt safe
enough with my fellow actors that I knew if I left a small fish hidden somewhere in Allison Janney's
trailer, that she wouldn't get me fired for it. Although there was one time Allison was wearing a wig and
we had a scene on Air Force One where in every take she had to answer the phone. I coated the earpiece
with a thick, viscous combination of, I think, sunscreen and vaseline. I didn't realise she was wearing a
wig at the time and when she answered the phone she got an earful of this stuff but it also got all over the
wig! That was the one time where I thought, "Oh, I've gone too far. I'm actually about to get fired."
Because we had to shut down production while they figured out what the hell to do with her hair on the
next take.
WHITFORD: This show would eat directors. I mean eat them. You'd find them crying behind the set. One
Friday we were going to shoot until four in the morning, so Josh gets the director's keys from the teamster
and fills the director's car with computers and stuff taken from the set. Then we wrap at four and this poor,
exhausted guy heads out and as we're leaving the studio, we see the Burbank police are there and they've
arrested the director! And that's just funny for Josh, that's Josh having fun.
MALINA: Occasionally I'll hear a story and I'll think, "Wait, did I do that? Did I go that far...?" I may have.
WHITFORD: A couple of years ago, I got calls from agents, managers, lawyers everybody's calling me
like, "Are you alright? Are you alright?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm fine." Josh had started a Twitter account
in my name and had me on this drunken binge, you know, wondering if I really am attracted to women.
It was really intense!
MALINA: There was the infamous Valentine's Day bouquet but I actually have to give Janel Moloney
credit for that one.

MOLONEY: Brad Whitford's one of those really touchy guys: huggy, touchy, always massaging someone.
Jimmy Smits is not that guy at all but he's really nice so one day I watched him standing there being cool
and just tolerating Brad rubbing his back. It was near Valentine's Day and I just thought, "wouldn't it be
funny if we sent some flowers to him from Brad." We even put a note with it as Josh Malina had been
in Brad's trailer and stolen some of his personalised mail cards. The only thing was Jimmy didn't realise
that it was a joke. He was touched! Which is, like, the worst outcome ever! He walked in and he was like,
"That's so nice, Brad, that's so nice. Thank you so much." And he gave him a big hug. I thought someone
would tell him it was a joke, but I guess nobody did. Then like a year later he found out and he was really
mad.
SMITS: Yeah, Josh was the head of the prankster brigade. I never really got him
back for that, unfortunately. I almost got him back on the Ellen show, though.
They were doing a retrospective and they brought this big cake out. I almost
got Richard Schiff to grab the cake and whack Malina in the face with it on
camera I was going to give him five grand! He was almost going to go for it,
but Josh got wind of it and he started running. I still owe him! He avoids me
every chance he gets.
WHITFORD: I got him back for the roses. I attempted to have him edited into the Screen Actors Guild 'In
Memoriam' reel. I had a check written for $3000 but the editor chickened out. That would have been great:
just fucking kill him! But when I was doing the script for the second episode I wrote for the show, all I
thought about going into it was, "I'm going to have Josh Malina say over and over again on national
television that he's a terrible actor." And it's in there! C.J. brings him over and says, "Listen, I don't know
if you know this, but the President's son-in-law is banging the nanny." And Josh goes, "Why did you tell
me that?" And she goes, "Because you have to deal with the press." He goes, "Exactly! How am I supposed
to hide that? I'm a terrible actor! I'm a terrible actor, I don't like to pretend, I'm no good at it!" Watch, it's
there! So that's how I got him back.
MALINA: I met my match in our director, Alex Graves. We had a certain mano-a-mano going all the way
back to Sports Night. Whereas with Brad I would try to achieve a greater level of sophistication in my
pranking, with Alex it was just down and dirty. Now he's someone who has no barometer for proportional
response. I did something mild to him on Sports Night and then one day I was walking up the stairwell to
get to the stage and three people attacked me with fire extinguishers! I've tried to explain to him the
difference between the art of the prank and flat-out vandalism but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
He's a big music fan, so one day I took his iPod and I changed the controls to Mandarin Chinese, which
is actually fantastic because in order to change the settings back to English you have to know enough
Mandarin Chinese to get to the settings! I also erased all 8,000 songs, essentially rendering the device
useless. Instead of him plotting an elaborate revenge, I rounded a corner at work and he just punched me
in the groin! I was doubled over and gasping, "Alex, can you raise your game? This is just assault! Assault
and battery! Look at what I did it took time, I had to infiltrate, I had to steal your thing, I had to come
up with setting it... You're just attacking me!"

1 THE WEST WING EXISTS BECAUSE OF THE INTERNET

AARON SORKIN: The pilot did not test off the charts with focus groups. It tested fine, but it wasn't forcing
NBC to put it on the air. Where it tested very high was in four categories that they invented for this show:
Households making over $75,000 a year; households where someone has three years of college; people
who subscribe to the New York Times; and the final category and this was in 1999 was people with
home internet access. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it was a big deal then. In 1999 it was the height
of the dot com boom, so people with home internet access were a valuable demographic to reach. That
first season more than half the ad buys were dot com. They needed some place to advertise. It was those
four categories that got us on the air."

2 JOSH MALINA SAVED AARON SORKIN'S LIFE

JOSHUA MALINA: One of the small perks of being in a Broadway show is the ability to participate in the
Broadway Bowling League, which is about as glamorous as it sounds. But we quite enjoyed it; the guys
from A Few Good Men would bowl against the guys from A Chorus Line and hilarity would ensue. At
one of these bowling nights Aaron started choking on a piece of hamburger. He seemed to be doing schtick
for a little bit and we kind of pointed and laughed until it became clear this was really happening. It was
one of the rare crisis situations where I reacted with any kind of aplomb and I Heimliched him although
with no finesse whatsoever and I cracked three of his ribs in the process.

3 THE WEST WING NEARLY WASN'T THE WEST WING

DEE DEE MYERS: When Aaron sent me the script for the pilot, he didn't actually own the title. In fact, a
guy who had worked for me at the White House named Josh King had registered the title 'The West Wing'
for something he was working on. Sometime during that year before production began, though, whatever
Josh King was working on didn't happen and the title became available. I don't know what Aaron would
have called the show if it hadn't.

4 EVERYONE WAS ON SET FOR THE PILOT

THOMAS SCHLAMME: One of the things that I had demanded on the pilot was whenever we're shooting a
scene, everybody should show up. You wouldn't do a whole series like that, but because doors would be
open and glass would be seen, I wanted people to go into their office and live their life, even if they weren't
in the scene. So when Rob Lowe is in the Roosevelt Room giving the lecture to the young kids and then
goes out with Leo's daughter, you can see Allison and Richard Schiff in the background they're
background artists! They weren't in the scene, they weren't even coming into a scene later; they're just
there. Allison's going into Richard's office, Richard's coming out and getting something from his
receptionist, they're just getting on with their jobs. It was a really important exercise for everybody to start
to feel that this was their home. You felt the true sense of esprit de corps working on that show from day
one.

5 JON BON JOVI IS A FAN

JIMMY SMITS: Jon Bon Jovi was a humungous fan of the show and he came on to do a cameo for two
episodes. I got to meet him a month before in Philadelphia, there was a concert and I actually introduced
him it was the first time I felt like what a rock star feels like. After we came off stage we went to his bus
and he had made these "Matt Santos for President" t-shirts. He was loving the show!

6 EVERYBODY LOVED ALLISON JANNEY

MARTIN SHEEN: You know, there was a survey done and all of us, all the players, were interviewed and
we were asked, confidentially, who we thought the best actor on the series was. As long as we were
assured it was confidential we all gave our opinions, which would not be made known until after the series
ended. Without a dissenting opinion, the entire cast voted Allison the very best among us. She didn't know
it and none of us knew that we'd all voted for her, but she was considered the very best.

7 MOIRA KELLY ISN'T LOST IN MANDYVILLE

Moira Kelly's Mandy Hampton makes an unexplained disappearance between seasons one and two, with
the fate of the character never explained or referred to. Among West Wing fans, the term 'going to
Mandyville' became a euphemism for characters who dropped off the show's radar for no particular reason
and would later be applied to the likes of Emily Procter's Ainsley Hayes, Matthew Perry's Joe Quincy and
even Rob Lowe's Sam Seaborn (it's never explained why he doesn't return to the White House after his
unsuccessful congressional campaign). In Mandy's case, though, it was simply because the character didn't
gel with the show. "By mutual agreement we let Moira Kelly go after the first season," says Sorkin. "Moira
is a tremendous actress and it was my failing alone that her character didn't work out. It had been my
intention to explain her absence in the second season premiere but I couldn't find a way to do it that didn't
seem like a naked bulletin to the audience."

8 AARON SORKIN'S BIGGEST REGRET WAS LOSING AINSLEY HAYES

AARON SORKIN: I made a mistake with Emily Proctor. I loved her on the show and when I had a chance
to lock her up as a series regular I didn't take it. Being conscious that I already had eight mouths to feed I
didn't want to be obligated to have the character in every episode, which I know now wouldn't have been
an obligation, it would have been a gift. And of course Emily was snatched up right away by another show
CSI: Miami and of course it was a giant hit. I made plenty of mistakes on the show but none of them
that big.

9 ALLISON JANNEY AND EMILY PROCTER DISCOVERED TWERKING

EMILY PROCTER: Allison and I had this dance that we would always do. I had seen this weird clip of
footage and I told her, "Allison, that dance, it's so bizarre. This is what the girls dance like." She was like,
"What is that?" and I was like, "I don't know." Then in the last year, I was like, "That dance was twerking!"
So Allison Janney and I had little twerking moments in our office. We were groundbreaking.

10 THERE WAS MORE THAN ONE GAIL THE GOLDFISH

ALLISON JANNEY: I told everyone when Gail showed up, I said, "I know Gail's going to be with us for
the run of the show, so I don't want to ever know if there is another Gail." So as far as I was concerned
there was one Gail for the whole show.
THOMAS SCHLAMME: There were like fifteen of those goldfish, which Allison thought was the same one.
It's like the first time you got a goldfish for your child, you run to the fish store and go, "Here's a dead
fish. Can you give me one that looks exactly like this?" And then you put the fish back in the bowl. That's
what happened. That fish would die constantly. To say that no animals were harmed in the production of
the show was just not true. Those things just don't live that long! But honest to God, Allison still believes
it was one fish the whole time she was there.

11 THE SOPRANOS WAS THE WEST WING'S NEMESIS

ROB LOWE: The Sopranos was the Manchester United to our Chelsea. It was great to have them there,
because it inspired everybody. That show's extraordinary; it's my second favourite TV show ever made.
Can you imagine what The West Wing could've been though if we had the same luxuries that David Chase
and HBO had? If Aaron said, "I'd like to be in a villa for a year in Italy and then when I'm done eating

pasta, I'm going to come back and we're going to start up again." Can you imagine? Or if they'd let Aaron
write a script that was as long or as short as he wanted it to be? Or if they said, "Aaron, how many do you
want to write this year?" "You know what? I think I'd like to write ten." They're like, "Great!" No, we
made The West Wing under the creatively crushing stipulations of network television and that it not only
competed but excelled against cable is amazing.

12 RICHARD SCHIFF GIGGLES. A LOT.

RICHARD SCHIFF: It became tradition on The West Wing that whenever there was a very difficult scene
and I was on the edge of that emotional line, if something messed up, I would go over to the other side
and go into a giggling fit for about 45 minutes. The first two or three years the crew would always be
entertained by it. But I was costing the production tens of thousands of dollars trying to get myself together
and by the third or fourth year, people would groan whenever I started giggling, but it didn't help. Ninety
per cent of the time it would happen with Martin, because words that were sometimes not English would
come out of his mouth. One time in a very intense scene, he turned to me and said, "What do you think,
Tobol?" I was gone for forty minutes. Another time was when Zakes Mokae was on our show. It was a
very tough scene, my God he played the leader of an African nation who was going back to his imminent
execution! But Martin and he had to speak French to each other and Martin's French sounds a little bit
like emotional Hebrew. I had to leave the room and they just kept shooting.

13 THE WEST WING HAD AN UNOFFICIAL REUNION EPISODE

ALLISON JANNEY: The last time we were semi-assembled was for Mary McCormack. Her sister was
running for State Supreme Court in Michigan and we recorded a PSA-type video for her. It was so much
fun to all be together again. It felt so easy, I mean I've spent more time with these people than with my
own family. I'm not even kidding! We slipped straight back into it and did a whole walk and talk. I don't
know if it was a result of the video but she won!

14 YO-YO MA DOES INDEED RULE

BRADLEY WHITFORD: Dul Hill is an amazing tap dancer. He started in Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da
Funk on Broadway. When we were shooting Nol, Yo-Yo Ma comes out and starts improvising on his
cello and Dul gets up and starts tap dancing. With Yo-Yo Ma!
DUL HILL: I did. There's video out there somewhere, I think I have a VHS of it. He was playing one
time and I just started to dance with him. It happened organically. There was a camera there and Tommy
Schlamme started to roll, but they didn't do the sound. But there is footage of me dancing with Yo-Yo
Ma. It was a really special moment.

15 NOT EVERYONE FOUND THE SHOW INSPIRING

BRADLEY WHITFORD: I was at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and this young kid comes up
and he's obviously a staffer on the Hill. And he goes, "Hey man, I just want to tell you, you're the reason
I went into politics." And I said, "Oh wow, thank you, thank you. I really appreciate that." And he goes,
"Actually, I'm exhausted, I'm broke and I'm never going to kiss Mary-Louise Parker." [Laughs] He was
pissed off that I led him astray!

THE BEST OF THE WEST WING

Bad On So Many Levels
LOWE: Sam had a way of capping scenes. Like in the pilot, "This is bad on so many levels." That was my
audition scene and at the end of it, after everybody laughed. Aaron turned to the executives and said "I
told you that scene was funny." I love the pilot, I think the pilot is probably the best first episode in
television ever.

17 People
SCHIFF: I went to Aaron without any idea that this MS storyline was happening and I said, "Hey, if we
ever do an episode where Toby is trying to figure something out that's fairly important, I have this image
of him sitting in the office bouncing a ball. I think we should do an ode to Steve McQueen in The Great
Escape." He went, "That's a great idea," and the next thing I know he writes what I think is the best episode
in terms of writing, which is 17 People.
Sorkin: By the middle of the second season we were running over budget. I was asked by the studio to
write an episode that would be inexpensive to we could make up some ground. No locations, no new sets,
no guest cast and no extras. That's how I wrote 17 People, which turned out to be one of my favourites. I
liked working with those kinds of limitations. It felt like a play to me and that's where I'm most
comfortable.

Turkeys
JANNEY: One of my favourite episodes was the Thanksgiving one where I had to deal with the turkeys. I
was never the 'A' story line in those days, but Aaron always gave me something very funny to do, even if
it was some practical joke war with Charlie. There was always something silly to balance out the
seriousness in each episode. If there were any barnyard animals, they went to C.J.!

Ass Kicked By A Girl

LOWE: I loved Emily [Procter] and I thought her character was one of the best characters that ever
appeared on The West Wing. Her introductory episode, where she and I are on Capitol Beat together, is
one of my favourite sequences of all time. I remember, she was desperate to stay on The West Wing. She
very much did not want to go, but they literally made her an offer she couldn't refuse. She was amazing
and I was very sad to see her go.

In Exclesis Deo
SCHIFF: In Excelsis Deo became one of the all-time favourite episodes, not just because of Toby, but the
whole episode is quite stunning; it just fits together like a perfect mural. I remember the character
deepening and defining himself during that episode in a way that was very memorable for me.

No Exit
MALINA: Occasionally, in order to save money and to come in under-budget, a particular episode is shot
only in a couple of very specific locations, so you're not leaving the studio what they call a 'bottle
episode'. There was one, very cleverly done, where the White House is on lockdown; I think there's an
anthrax scare. It was called No Exit. All my scenes are with Richard Schiff; we're stuck in one room and
while the characters had a certain tolerance for each other they also had a desire to get the hell out of that
room as quickly as they could. I particularly enjoyed shooting that episode.

Cold Coffee
WHITFORD: I love the spit-take that happens in the episode where I meet Joey Lucas. Wearing waders.
But I think the most amazing episodes are where the stakes are high. I loved all the stuff with Mary-Louise
Parker. It's like watching a rugby ball bounce you don't know where she's going to go. But she's
wonderful.

20 Hours In America
SCHIFF: The one where we get lost in Indiana was so much fun to do; we spent a week in Pennsylvania
shooting that. The basic DC prejudice against more rural settings, Josh making cracks about the locals
and Amy Adams taking offence All of that stuff.

Somebody's Going To Emergency, Somebody's Going To Jail

LOWE: In terms of just selfishly for Sam, I love the episode that got me the Emmy nomination, which is
Somebody's Going To Emergency, Somebody's Going To Jail. Every once in a while, Aaron would write
a free-standing episode that was hermetically sealed in terms of its narrative, with no dangling through
lines that you needed to follow. He didn't do many of them, but when he did they were pretty special and
that was one of them. It's just a brilliant construction and it works on ten different levels; it was a real
showcase for the character. For me that was the highlight of doing the show, for sure.

Let That Be The Next Guy's Problem

SCHLAMME: I remember driving once at four in the morning after shooting a scene between John and
Martin in the Oval Office, I think it was Take This Sabbath Day. It was two adult men and there was a
moment in it where we found this little nugget that just enhanced the scene. I felt like, "God, if we hadn't
found that moment, that scene would've been good, but it wouldn't have been as good." I remember driving
home being so excited about my job, that I got to work with those two men doing that scene. I literally
remember being on the 405 and kind of hitting my steering wheel with excitement, going, "I'm so excited!"
You know, and thinking, "I'm alone in this car, this is stupid."

Paul Revere
HILL: Well for Charlie himself, it's Shibboleth. That's where President Bartlet had me running around
looking for knives. And finally when I couldn't understand what was happening and I'm kind of at my
wit's end, President Bartlet gives Charlie the knife that his father gave him, which was the Paul Revere
knife. I really love that episode because it really took Charlie and President Bartlet from employeremployee and translated that to being a father-son relationship. That's when Charlie really became a part
of the President's family. And for Charlie, whose mother had been gone and his father wasn't in the picture,
it's just he and his sister, it was really powerful.

Head-Banging
SHEEN: Aaron Sorkin had this sense of humour. There was one scene, I was frustrated to the point of
literally banging my head on the desk in a scene. I remember saying, "You do not seriously... this is a
metaphor? You don't really want to see me banging my head on the desk." "Oh yes," he said, "I want to
see it." The courage to go there here you have this dignified world leader banging his head on the desk
in the Oval Office. He made us human in the most stringent of protocol, he would always pull a fast
one.

Nol
SCHLAMME: In Nol, when Brad and Janel come out at the end and the carollers with bells are playing,
that was the night Aaron's daughter Roxy was born. We had those carollers do a traditional Jewish folk
song with a crane shot in front of the White House and then sent it to him. That is what I remember most
about that episode. Athletes have mentioned this before: it's not necessarily the game, it's the locker room.
When I think about the episodes, the process is so much more a memory to me than the result.

The Secret Plan To Fight Inflation

DEE DEE MYERS: We did that whole episode, where C.J. has root canal and somebody else has to brief.
That was fun for me, because it was payback. Everyone always thinks they can do better than the press
secretary, whoever's doing the briefing, people are sitting there in their chairs going, "Well, I would've
answered it like that." So C.J. can't brief because she's got this "woot canal" and Josh briefs in her place
and he makes a complete hash of it. He creates a monetary crisis, the head of the Fed is calling up. I
thought, "yeah, you guys think it's so easy? Alright, Josh Lyman, take that!"

Two Cathedrals
SHEEN: The latin scene in Two Cathedrals would have to be the defining scene for me. That was kind of
the turnaround that led to the catharsis and his wanting to run again. But it was also his Job-like experience,
you know? It's a very Tevye-type moment, he's talking to God and he's raging "how could you do this to
me?" And so it had that kind of flavour: a man struggling with his faith who has an image of God's
responsibilities and God wasn't living up to them. That is my favourite Episode of the whole series. It was
very deeply meaningful to me personally.