I have been meaning to start this thread for a few days, since somone posted a link to a West Wing episode in reponse to a question of what a “filibuster” was all about (different message board).
I ended up spending a couple of hours following the links in YouTube and reliving all the greatness of this show. It wasn’t just the dialogue, it was the sets, the locations, the photography, the cast, and the running side stories. I look at what is on broadcast and non-premium TV today and it is hard to believe that only a few years ago we had something of this quality coming to our homes for free every week.
Yes, it had its bad moments, and it floundered for a season or two after Sorkin left, and it was preachy-left quite a few times, but it was at the same time patriotic and proud.
I’ll post a clip that probably doesn’t rate in the top 50 of great moments on the show, but that just goes to show how good this series really was.
I recently finished watching all 7 seasons thru Netflix, and I was sad when it was over. It really was a great show. Thanks for linking that clip - that tie scene was great.
“In Excelsis Deo” - the best Christmas episode of any series EVER, IMHO.
I’ve seen it probably a half dozen times, and get a lump in my throat every time. The way Toby and mrs. Landingham flinch at the gunshots is brilliant.
I loved The West Wing-- though I stopped watching after Sorkin left. I have a very close friend who is a recovering alcoholic, and they did a very good job of portraying Leo’s addiction/alcoholism (and the way normies react to it-- the ep about the presidential debate where he gets drunk after having just one with some fundraisers). He has a line about not understanding how you could have a drink and not want more.
I also loved the scene where Charlie tells Leo that Mrs. Landingham is dead. I’ve noticed that in most movies/TV shows they tend to do “bad news reaction shots” from a distance-- perhaps because it’s hard to get right as an actor. But they kept the camera still and on John Spencer’s face for like a full minute and you could see it sink in and him realizing what it meant. I remember thinking how awesome John Spencer was.
It should be noted that Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay for Charlie Wilson’s War, with Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman (directed by Mike Nichols), so here’s hoping a little of that WW magic is there.
I read somewhere that in the West Wing productions they often would “spring” news on actors, to get a better effect. So they said to the Donna character, “Bradley was shot,” [using the actor’s name] without her knowing about the script. I don’t know how true it is, though.
I hadn’t realized that. I enjoyed the trailers for that movie and was planning on seeing it, but that just moved it directly to the top of the list with giant stars next to it.
I knew I was going to like this show from the first episode, when the first time we see President Josiah Bartlett he is entering a room saying, “I am the Lord thy God, thou shall have no other gods before me.” The line was perfectly set up, it established his character*, and Martin Sheen delivered it with what I can only describe as “casual pomposity”.
*I don’t mean that Bartlett thought he was God, or that anyone in the show thought he was. It was the way he used it to get the attention of everyone in the room.
It was by far one of my favorite shows of all time. I loved the optimism as well as the feeling they were doing and could do, something good.
A phenomenal cast, great writing and a great ability to make things like religious tolerance, racism, addiction and fear understandable, if not understandable, copable.
I like reading the TWoP recaps. I think the scene where Bartlet curses God in Latin in the cathedral is one of the most chilling moments in dramatic television. You don’t need to know what he’s saying…but you KNOW what he’s saying. :eek: I think TWoP describes it as close as you’re going to get to Shakespeare on network tv.
Such good TV…if only Sorkin could have carried on with** Studio 60**…