How did the character end up leaving the White House? Was he elected to Congress?
Was he a law school dropout? He did work for as a lawyer. From the official NBC website:
I thought that Sam left because he won election to some California Congressional seat, or at least left because he wanted to continue doing California politics. He took over for a candidate who died but Will still got elected. (Maybe a slight jab at Ashcroft?)
As far as being a lawyer, in a flashback episode where they showed what all the crew were doing before they were in the WW, I clearly remember him working for a law firm and brokering a deal for oil tankers. He quit when he told the client that they should spring for the money for better (safer against oil spills) tankers than just get the cheapest they could and buy good insurance. I also seem to recall several times where he made legal sorts of decisions or gave advice that only a lawyer should do.
The NBC website is, well, incorrect (but if that’s the type of information the past year’s writers went on, no wonder the show sucked so much).
Sam did undergrad at Princeton, graduated from Duke Law. He worked for Gage Whitney (a very prestigious NY law firm) and was on the verge of becoming partner (which is something he absolutely could not do if he were not a lawyer & law school graduate) and marrying Lisa Sherborne. But then, he got caught up in the Bartlet for America campaign and eventually became Deputy Communications Director.
in 2002, in Orange County, the Dems had nominated someone who had had 3 heart attacks (or maybe it was 4) had another, and eventually died while campaigning. Due to the law in that jurisdiction, if the dead guy won, there couldn’t be an appointee to the position, there’d be another election. Sam, who had met with the campaign manager (Will Bailey), made a promise to the widow that should the dead guy win, he’d run (but it was Orange County, he was sure that no Democrat, especially a dead Democrat would ever win, ever). In a streak of bad luck for Sam, the dead guy won. Sam kept his word. He ran (and though it was never stated outright) very most likely lost… while Sam was campaigning for the re-election, Will came to Washington to help write the Inaguration address. The staff liked him, so they offered him the Deputy Communications spot and decided to make Sam a “presidential advisor.”
We haven’t seen Sam since - but he’s assumed to be somewhere in the background giving occasional advice.
So Sam is either a Congressman or an advisor or living with Chuck?
Not everyone liked him. All the speech writers quit.
Actually Sam ended up at a high-powered Washington law firm for a few weeks.
Rumor has it he’ll be working in Las Vegas this fall. For a little while, at least.
And they broke up because she’d be Lisa Sherborne Seaborne.
I just watched an ep on Bravo where he had Ainsley look over a resolution for legal language, making sure everything was tight and correct. I know that she’s the White House Counsel, but shouldn’t he have been able to look it over himself?
???
See, hearing stuff like this is going to happen is why, having seen and loved 2 and 1/3 seasons of West Wing, I’m kind of afraid to watch any more. That’s how they wrote off Sam? No. Freakin. Way.
Couldn’t he have at least won the election? Of had some kind of meaty psychotic break to play? (OK, been there, done that, but still.)
Have you seen the ep in which Josh tries to stop Sam from representing himself when giving a deposition regarding drug use in the White House? 
I think one of the things about Sam was that, though a brilliant guy and a lawyer, he wasn’t a brilliant lawyer. If you take my meaning. Especially since, working as Deputy Communications Director, he probably forgot a lot of stuff he learned in law school and in practice.
Actually, it was Sam who had to stop Josh.
I saw that episode fairly recently. Toby liked him (in that way Toby has of liking people because they irritate him) and told Leo that he wanted to make Will Deputy. Leo asked what about Sam when he returns from California. Toby said it was time Sam was promoted anyway, and that Sam should be White House Senior Counsel.
Which, I suppose, indicates that he’s still considered a good lawyer.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I ever saw them mention the final result of Sam’s election. They must have, but I never saw it. I hope he did win, though that would leave him with a tough political career ahead, having to try to hold on as a Democrat in that district. But it would be a step toward Bartlett’s one-time prediction that Sam would someday be President himself.
As a general tip on these sorts of things, if you show it to the Counsel’s office and then later on people find something wrong with it, you can say “It’s not my fault! I showed it to the Counsel’s office. It’s their fault.” It’s a way to CYA.
amarinth:
:smack: :smack: :smack:
So it was. (Thanks for the correction.)
Wait…
Sam didn’t win? Wow I must really be misremembering something because I was positive that he won his campaign in Cali. Now thinking back on it I suppose its possible the results were never mentioned in the show. Strange.
I have also heard that after the huge success of the first two seasons of West Wing, every cast member was given a raise save Rob Lowe. I have no cite for this, not sure where I read it at.
Such a good show, too bad it “jumped the shark” after the big Zoe kidnapping two-parter. They really screwed that story line up.
I think that with its last season-ender, it might be salvageable. Even were it to drop several levels, it’d still be the best American television drama. I intend to keep following it.
Just bear in mind, even after the raises everyone else got, he was STILL making more than everyone except Martin Sheen.
On the rerun episode that aired on Bravo last night, Sam was nearing the end of his Orange County campaign, and Toby had taken over as his campaign manager. At the end of the episode, they were in a bar, and Toby told Sam that he was going to lose the election, but in a spectacular and meaningful way. I suppose tonight’s episode might clear up what the actual result was, but it looked like they were planning to lose it.
While the West Wing is good it can’t touch season 1 of Six Feet Under.
I disagree. Every aspect of West Wing, from directing, to acting, to editing, to writing, to lighting, to photography… top o’ the line across the board. Feature film quality, in my opinion. But on top of all that, it is filled with fascinating facts, information, and insight into how the federal government works.