I am watching a rerun of the *West Wing * that I’ve seen before. It is one of the episodes where Josh goes to his shrink, Stanley. In the course of the session, Josh tells him how his sister, Joni, died in a housefire when they were kids.
Now, the shrink has always been played by Alan Arkin, but in the rerun he’s played by someone else who looks and talks like Arkin, but is not Arkin!
What is going on here? Was this non-Arkin Stanley in the original airing, and somehow I missed him? Or did they really replace Arkin in the sydicated version, maybe to save on residuals? If so, did thay make the switch on all the syndicated Arkin episodes?
How could they go and reshoot all the scenes? And they re-edit the episodes? And why would Adam Arkin not want to appear in the reruns? Or why would the producers not want to pay him? Why would Adam Arkin not want the money?
It’s my understanding that Stanley was played by a different actor in the first episode (which was, I think, supposed to be a one-shot thing with Josh) but then when they expanded the character, especially in relation to Bartlett, they went with a “name” actor.
According to IMDb, Stanley was played by Guy Boyd in the 1st episode with Josh (“The Crackpots and These Women”) in Season One.
Adam Arkin doesn’t show up until Season Two (“Noel”) and is in four episodes.
I was either really confused (always consider this possibility first), or the IMDB got the character’s name wrong, or the WW did a weird thing with the names of the psychiatrists, because I think these are two different psychiatrists – played by two different actors.
The first guy, in season one, who hears the story about Josh’s sister, is like a regular run of the mill therapist guy. I’m a little fuzzy on this, but I think this doctor says something (snarkily) to Josh about how Josh doesn’t have regular appointments anymore, and Josh implies it’s because of his job.
The second guy, Adam Arkin, is a trauma specialist who is brought in by Leo to see Josh, and I recently caught this re-run and I’m pretty sure I remember that he introduces himself to Josh as if they have never met before.
Now that I think about it, it’s a little odd that Josh initially resists the idea of counseling in the Adam Arkin episode, because it’s been established that he did previously see a therapist, at some point on a regular basis, so apparently he’s not one of those people who thinks that counseling is for the weak-minded, but perhaps that’s supposed to be a reaction specifically related to the his traumatic experience.
It was my understanding that Josh’s first therapist was a personal therapist. Adam Arkin was the special White House post-traumatic stress therapist and he helped Josh through the getting shot aftermath.
Seinfeld did it. Originally, George’s father was not played by Jerry Stiller. They went back and re-shot scenes for syndication in early episodes with Stiller. Both appear on the DVD collections.
Yeah, you’ve got it mostly. Arkin plays the FIMA -trauma specialist.
One of the things people bring up when trying to come down against The West Wing, is that Aaron Sorkin was notorious for running the show with an iron-fist. And one of the results of that kind of production is that characters get dropped (Mandy, Ainsley, Laurie) and plots get changed (In the pilot Pres talks about his 10 year old, not-Zoey, daughter getting a hate-doll from a right-wing group). I totally approve of all the Sorkin episodes, even if I did want more with certain characters. He always comes through with quality shows.
Also, Aaron Sorkin seems to like shrinks. (There’s one in Sports Night) So it would seem, towards the beginning of the show, he maybe wanted to explore Josh’s character talking about work to his shrink. But that didn’t pan out (he probably decided Donna was a good enough sound-board for Josh), but he got to do some stuff like it after the assasination. Then they needed another shrink for the President during the second election and got Arkin again, even though he’s a trauma specialist (although they mention that they ‘know’ him ,and that’s why)
The only grandkid I remember is the grandson who is 5 or 6 (I think) who was supposed to light the Christmas tree in one episode & freaked out because he didn’t realize there were going to be cameras & everything.