The Runny Pen

I don’t watch much TV. I like football and occasionally turn on CASH CAB while eating a meal, but I’ve never followed LOST or SURVIVOR or SEINFELD. People tell me I’m missing out, that I should watch television because I love to write and love good story-telling. But none of these shows hold my interest. I can’t make it through an entire episode, I’m channel surfing by the third commercial. The last TV show I remember allotting time to watch each week was HILL STREET BLUES, and now I’m revealing my age.

Recently, I reviewed my Netflix queue and noticed how many documentaries I’ve watched on presidents. I was scanning new material when I remembered catching a few episodes of THE WEST WING at Weisenberger’s pad back in ‘02, when he was still in Santa Monica and we were working together on a game show called THE CHAIR (w/John McEnroe). I remember my forked steak often hanging in mid-air in front of my mouth as I sat riveted the few times I watched. I was always bummed when the episode concluded. The credits listed Aaron Sorkin as writer/producer and I thought…ah, makes sense.

Writer of A FEW GOOD MEN, THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT and CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR I’d seen Sorkin speak at a Writer’s Guild seminar back in the mid-nineties. He was down to earth and forthcoming. He spoke openly about his cocaine addiction and the difficulties of writing without its fueling assistance. He never spoke down to the roomful of struggling screenwriters stuffing their pockets with free cookies. What I mean to say is that he wasn’t a lecturer. He was a fellow writer merely sharing the details of his journey and process. You got the impression his compulsion to work hard and fast was driven by a feeling that he was only a paycheck away from unemployment. He stayed late after the seminar, giving a little time to everyone, firmly shaking my hand and meeting my eyes when he wished me luck.

My positive encounter with Aaron Sorkin isn’t why I love the show. THE WEST WING is rich, layered, well-crafted drama that avoids many of the pitfalls of other shows. The dialog (spoken in HIS GIRL FRIDAY manner) is witty and engaging. Instead of characters spitting lines back and forth in an endless two-shot, the show developed the walk and talk shooting style where characters converse while walking towards a destination, exiting frame as another character enters, preventing visual boredom. And these teleplays distill complex issues, simplifying the political process for the laymen.

The fictional democratic administration of Josiah Bartlet (the show is known around D.C. as THE LEFT WING) balances the viewpoint on issues which dominate its side of the aisle. And Democratic characters are often depicted just as poorly as Republicans. In fact, President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) selects a particularly outspoken Republican woman as a member of his legal team and she is painted as fiercely intelligent, even heroic at times. Character motivations are revealed slowly with surprising twists, so it’s tougher to judge or dismiss them. Whether you agree or disagree with their stance, at least you understand their views. Even the toughest critics from the right admire President Bartlet’s fierce loyalty to his wife and children, Christian beliefs and support of a strong military.

Political insiders ranging from Dee Dee Meyers to Karl Rove say THE WEST WING is accurate, very close to the real deal inside the Oval Office (though a few unnamed sources online say that the recent Bush administration was closer to THE OFFICE). I’ve learned more about our political system from watching this program than I ever did from any Civics or Poli-Sci courses I took in college and high school. If students watched all seven seasons throughout their high school career, I’m sure voter turn-out would skyrocket.

The performances are sublime. Only the most intelligent actors are permitted to join the cast, there are no guest appearances by Steven Seagal or popular rappers. Each plot’s theme is supported by a sub-plot which mirrors it. The endless compromises made in the chess game of politics refract through the personal lives of the characters.

The main criticism of the show I’ve read from Washington players is the idealism of the characters. They say that by the time a political operative is selected to become a member of a Presidential administration, they are mainly power seekers all-too-ready to compromise integrity in exchange for career advancement. Even if that were true, who would watch a show about political burn-outs happy to sell their soul, hoping for economic gains in the private sector at the completion of their term?

Over 30 years ago, Richard Nixon popped our nation’s naive cherry, resulting in a deep mistrust of our government in the hearts and minds of many Americans. If The West Wing errs on the side of an audacious tendency to dramatize the nobility of civil service, patriotism and the responsibility of every US resident to participate in the political process, then I say we should encourage this fantasy.

At its heart, the show is about service, loyalty, intelligence, courage, disappointment and friendship. The characters bypass traditional family life in exchange for frustrating, mercilessly long days at a sub-par pay rate. As a result, they form a makeshift family.

The producers had the balls NOT to create yet another television program about cops, doctors or lawyers. Instead they created a series detailing the inside workings of the world’s finest democracy. What makes the show so original and compelling is that none of us have any idea what happens behind the scenes in The White House. It’s a glimpse into the core of our way of life. Forget THE SOPRANOS or M*A*S*H or fucking LOST.  THE WEST WING is the greatest television program to ever grace the airwaves.