I’ve just begun watching West Wing in syndication (I’ve never watched it in first run) and I’m curious: when did the timelines between reality and the show diverge? I’ve heard references to both Roosevelts and, I believe, JFK on the show, so that would mean that up until 1963 they were the same. However, Bartlet has two predecessors as president that I’ve seen on the one episode of the regular show that I’ve watched (John Goodman and James Cromwell) which would mean that it diverged at least 8 years before the start of the show, meaning that Bush the Elder and Reagan didn’t exist and probably not Reagan.
Who is the latest president or last real life event (it doesn’t have to be that specific, just something real and dateable like Watergate or Vietnam) actually mentioned on the series?
I don’t follow the show that closely, but I think James Cromwell was supposed to be Bartlet’s immediate predecessor, and John Goodman was the Republican Speaker of the House to whom the presidency passed temporarily during the time after the current VP resigned (over some scandal or other) and during the crisis during which Bartlet’s daughter was kidnapped.
As it happened, he thought he could not make decisions relating to the kidnappers or their cause (terrorist types, I believe) which might very well kill his daughter.
I believe they mentioned Vietnam when someone wanted to reinstate the draft. I remember he asked Toby what his draft number was. Now that I think about it, though, I’m not 100% sure they said Vietnam, so it could have been some alternate reality war.
I’m almost positive that Cromwell was his predecessor. I know for sure that Goodman was there during the absence of a VP and the kidnapping of the pres. daughter, just like Ogre said.
Leo has mentioned he’s served in Vietnam. The pretend Middle Eastern country is Qumar, but other than that, they follow current events pretty closely, like rescuing the soldiers off the coast of North Korea.
Bartlet was re-elected in 2000, so they’re two years off from reality.
I think you meant to say Bartlett was re-elected in 2002, so they’re two years off from reality.
That Qumar has been nothing but trouble. Good thing it’s fictitious. Maybe Pres. Bartlett will meet with the ambassador from Ruritania someday. Or possibly he’ll have to send special forces into Latveria to deal with Dr. Doom…
I believe Cromwell played a Republican former president, which would do away with Clinton’s terms in office. I’ve watched from the beginning and I can’t rmember a mention of a president past Nixon (at least, I think I remember a Nixon comment), but they have mentioned the Vietnam War in several situations.
My take is that events of the last 15-20 years are referred to only vaguely (but major events still ocurred in the West Wing universe, i.e. the fall of the Soviet Union, Berlin Wall) and specific administration are not mentioned. There may be references to “the last Republican administration” or “the last time Democrats were in office”, but they don’t name names.
It seems pretty clear that they’re avoiding references to living former presidents. So Nixon would be the last one they can go with, and even if anyone else dies now (Reagan can’t be long for this world, and a couple of others are long in the tooth), I’m sure they’ll mostly remain out of the picture. There’s one show where they refer to the previous administration in flashback. The Pubbies prank the Dems by “confiding” to Donna about the Missile Silos underneath the West Wing and worrying about the radiation risk. That’s an obvious spoof on the pranks by Clinton’s staff on the way out (like removing Ws from all the White House keyboards). Don’t know if that show mentioned the former President by name.
I think it’s pretty clear that nobody is supposed to be a “stand-in” for anybody. Sure, there may be real people that certain characters resemble the most, and maybe even a couple of character traits are based on the real person, but overall, they have original personalities.
At least one more than that. Keep in mind that the reason former Presidents Newman (Cromwell) and Walken (Goodman) were traveling with President Bartlet (Sheen) was to attend the funeral of former President Lassiter.
And in our next thread, we’ll try to straighten out the presidential history of Tom Clancy’s novels.
Don’t think that hard about it. Major events in the real world since the show started also affect West Wing continuity. For instance, although I don’t know that Sept. 11th or the Twin Towers are ever mentioned by name, the show post Sept. 11th deals with terrorism from islamic extremists and it’s clear that the show’s America had also suffered a devastating terrorist attack.
Really, Cliffy? I know they dealt with Islamic extremism, but not that there was definitely an attack. I may have just missed it. Just to be clear, though, you’re not thinking about the episode “Isaac and Ishmael”, are you? I know that was prompted by 11 Sep, but no attack actually happened on the show, and they said it was outside continuity anyway.