# Is West Wing realistic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [April 29, 2013, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999 "2013-04-29T12:03:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/21 "2013-04-30T15:47:45Z")
I’m sure it provides a nice warm comfort blanket to a domestic audience. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/22 "2013-04-30T16:28:58Z")
The final season was absolutely absurd. An inexperienced, non-white, very liberal first-term member of congress being elected president! The only way they could have made it less realistic would have been if they had made him black rather than Hispanic! ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/23 "2013-04-30T16:58:26Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > The final season was absolutely absurd. An inexperienced, non-white, very liberal first-term member of congress being elected president! The only way they could have made it less realistic would have been if they had made him black rather than Hispanic! I see what you did there… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/24 "2013-04-30T17:00:13Z")
According to the producers, if John Spencer (who played Leo) hadn’t died halfway through the final season, the Republican candidate Vilnick (Alan Alda) would have won the election. He was one of the “good” Republicans on the show. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/25 "2013-04-30T17:04:40Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > According to the producers, if John Spencer (who played Leo) hadn’t died halfway through the final season, the Republican candidate Vilnick (Alan Alda) would have won the election. He was one of the “good” Republicans on the show. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not entirely true: > [@](#): > > Other statements from John Wells, however, have contradicted O’Donnell’s claims about a previously planned Vinick victory. The script showing Santos winning was written long before the death of John Spencer. In 2008 O’Donnell stated to camera "We actually planned at the outset for Jimmy Smits to win, that was our .. just .. plan of how this was all going to work, but the Vinick character came on so strong in the show, and was so effective, it became a real contest … and it became a real contest in the West Wing writer’s room. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/26 "2013-04-30T17:09:31Z")
Okay, I accept the correction. Still it sounds like they strongly considered having Vinick win after he turned out to be such a great character. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/27 "2013-04-30T18:08:18Z")
> [@BrokenBriton](#): > > I’m sure it provides a nice warm comfort blanket to a domestic audience. As does all good TV drama, and I am one of the last people here who will step up in defense of TV at all. I don’t doubt that Clancy readers take his uber-right presentations of government much more seriously than WW watchers did. You’d have to be a heavy soaper to take any of the show for reality. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/29 "2013-05-03T08:53:57Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > The Nobel prize winning economist as a politician is particularly far fetched. Mingus Campbell is an economist and a senior politician in the U.K. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/30 "2013-05-03T11:57:45Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Mingus Campbell is an economist and a senior politician in the U.K. Of course, I meant Vince Cable. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/31 "2013-05-03T12:05:09Z")
I never watch a full episode, but the scenes I saw in passing were always draped in deep dark dramatic shadows. If the lighting in the real White House was as poor, it would explain any lack of productivity- they can’t see what the hell they’re doing. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/32 "2013-05-03T13:17:44Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > If the lighting in the real White House was as poor, it would explain any lack of productivity- they can’t see what the hell they’re doing. Nor can they hear anything with than damn ball bouncing off the wall. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/33 "2013-05-03T13:36:04Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I never watch a full episode, but the scenes I saw in passing were always draped in deep dark dramatic shadows. If the lighting in the real White House was as poor, it would explain any lack of productivity- they can’t see what the hell they’re doing. Well, to be fair, half the scenes take place between 10 pm and 2 am. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/34 "2013-05-19T00:44:44Z")
Just have to jump back in and add: the season 2 ender “Two Cathedrals” may be the best hour of TV drama I have ever watched. Certainly in the top five. The last half was as intense, artistic and gripping as 90% of the movies I’d rate as excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/35 "2013-05-19T00:52:29Z")
…missed edit window grrfuggindammit… I honestly think that if that were the end of the series I’d walk away grinning. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/36 "2013-05-19T01:14:25Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I honestly think that if that were the end of the series I’d walk away grinning. Cursing God in Latin and grinding your cigarette out on the floor of the cathedral is pretty ballsy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/37 "2013-05-19T02:10:42Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I loved Obama’s comment about a previous Sorkin vehicle the other night at the WH Correspondent’s Dinner: Michael Douglas was also asked about the difference between playing the President and being the President. He paused to think for a moment and said, “I knew how the script ended.” ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/38 "2013-06-14T19:05:25Z")
Okay, we wrapped up Season 3 last night. I can see the comments about Governor Ritchie being a bit of a stereotyped 'Pubbie from the left-wing view. Still, within the context of the story, Bartlet’s line about “…and that’s when I decided to kick your ass” was pretty good. Question, though: did Mary-Louise Parker almost ruin the series for you? I don’t recall seeing her in anything before _Red_, where she was kind of charmingly ditzy. Her character in WW made me want to scream and/or throw things at the TV and/or run away very fast. She’s like… a cat on a combination of speed and catnip, her bullet-hole eyes continually telegraphing _I’m going to rip your throat out…_ _I’m going to rip your throat out…_ She’s intense without any reason to be, trying to get her lines in too fast and too hard and generally being creepy and repulsive. Mark Harmon I could have watched for another season; M-LP has had two episodes too many. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/39 "2013-06-15T11:27:20Z")
This thread will be forever incomplete without a link to a [a classic West Wing parody sketch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnxQk8C_-kE). The announcers voice at the end is as good as the sketch. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/40 "2020-08-26T20:06:17Z")
Bumped. _The West Wing_ cast will reunite to benefit Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote: ['The West Wing' cast will reunite to benefit Michelle Obama's When We All Vote | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/entertainment/the-west-wing-reunion/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2020, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999/41 "2020-09-13T02:23:25Z")
> **['The West Wing's' idealism looks even better 20 years after its first Emmy | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/11/entertainment/the-west-wing-column/index.html)** > > Watching "The West Wing" again 20 years after its first of four consecutive best-drama Emmys, it's remarkable how well Aaron Sorkin's creation holds up, and how much of the Bartlet presidency still echoes through our current politics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-west-wing-realistic/656999.md?page=1)