|
TV's "West Wing" offered Utopian presidency
2006-05-12
American television bids goodbye on Sunday to "The West Wing," a landmark drama offering viewers a Utopian narrative -- some might call it fantasy -- of a president and White House staff who always put country above politics. The Emmy-winning series starring Martin Sheen as the man in the Oval Office heads off the airwaves after seven years on the NBC network (one year shy of two presidential terms) just as newly elected successor Jimmy Smits is about to assume office. The nation's real-life political landscape has changed dramatically since the show debuted in 1999, during the post-Monica Lewinsky twilight of the Clinton administration. But "The West Wing" has stayed its course through the turbulent years that followed, often reflecting actual events and politics, although usually with greater eloquence, clarity and decisiveness than viewers could find on the evening news. "It was a kind of Utopian notion of the kind of president that we wished we had but that the political process would never be able to deliver," said Robert Thompson, head of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television. Moreover, the show's idealism resonated with a U.S. electorate disillusioned by real politics, said University of Maryland professor Trevor Parry-Giles, author "The Prime Time Presidency: The West Wing and U.S. Nationalism." "It played right into this seeping cynicism and gave audiences this countervision," he told Reuters. "The show didn't really rip stories from the headlines but played off cultural anxieties and angst." Critics hailed the series, especially during its first four seasons under the guidance of creator Aaron Sorkin, as a show that earned a place beside such groundbreaking dramas as "Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law," "thirtysomething" and "ER." "West Wing" won the Emmy Award as best TV drama four years in a row and holds the record for most Emmys trophies in a single season -- nine for its first year. Although it lost considerable ratings steam, the show was widely regarded as having enjoyed a creative renaissance in its final season. POLITICAL WISH FULFILLMENT As a portrait of the political and personal struggles inside a Democratic administration, the show was embraced by many liberal viewers as prime-time wish fulfillment while derided by some conservatives as Hollywood leftist propaganda. Still, producers sought to depict Sheen's character, President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet, as a leader for all people, endowed with an integrity and nobility seldom seen in Washington on either end of the political spectrum. A Democrat, yes, but he was no Jack Kennedy, or Bill Clinton, for that matter. The biggest scandal Sheen's character faced during his tenure was over his concealing the fact that he suffered from multiple sclerosis. In one of the show's more outlandish story lines, an international crisis involving the abduction of his daughter, Bartlet puts the nation's interests ahead of his own by temporarily handing power to the Republican House speaker. Bartlet's top aides were likewise smart, earnestly dedicated, and fiercely loyal civil servants. Much of the show's appeal hinged on their personal lives, which, as in real-life Washington, did not stray far from the office. Executive producer John Wells said that unlike nonfiction politicians, his characters were largely unfettered by Washington's single-biggest imperative -- money. "The strangest paradox of all is that the political ads that paid for a lot of 'West Wing' ... (are) forcing our political system to be something we all wished it wasn't," he said. While the stories were told from a Democratic perspective, Republicans were generally treated as worthy adversaries. "I don't think the show pandered to liberals," Parry-Giles said. "They tried to give the Republican viewpoint at least a fair hearing." To enhance balance and a sense of realism, producers consulted with a bipartisan coterie of Washington insiders, including former Clinton White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers and onetime Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein. Both presidential contenders in the show's climactic election campaign this season -- Democrat Matthew Santos (Smits) and Republican Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) -- were cast as politically moderate, intelligent and extremely likable. When Vinick loses by a razor-thin margin, he gracefully declines to contest the election, and Santos winds up asking him to be secretary of state. Despite its obvious departures from reality, "The West Wing" stands as the most complex, nuanced portrait of the presidency to date in pop culture, Parry-Giles said. "Most two-hour movies give you either a romantic hero president, who saves a large airplane from Russian terrorists (Harrison Ford, "Air Force One") or defeats aliens (Bill Pullman, "Independence Day"), or the malevolent president who murders somebody, like in 'Murder at 1600,' or the Gene Hackman character in 'Absolute Power,"' he said. "West Wing" may not be the only political show to leave the airwaves this month. A new ABC drama, "Commander In Chief," starring Geena Davis as the first female U.S. president, may not be renewed for the fall due to low ratings. Reuters/VNU
Some women disappointed in ABC's Vargas (2006-06-03)Vargas exit provokes debate, unease (2006-06-03)TV's "West Wing" offered Utopian presidency (2006-05-12)Davis Awarded As ABC Shelves 'Commander' (2006-05-04)'Commander in Chief' Takes Six-Week Break (2006-02-01)
| 
