Ladies and gentlemen, I am a man in mourning. On Sunday, NBC announced it’s canceling “The West Wing” after seven seasons.
The multiple Emmy-award winning political drama has hit a ratings slump. And now, with the current fake president played by Martin Sheen about to be term-limited out of office, the end of this season seems like a natural place to end the show.
I only discovered “The West Wing” a little more than a year ago. I was going through a difficult time. So rather than go out and face the world, I stayed in and rented the first three seasons of the presidential drama.
Right away I was hooked. It immediately supplanted “The Apprentice” as my favorite show on TV and caught up with “Sports Night” and “Mission: Impossible” to make a three-way tie for my favorite TV show of all time.
Last April, when season four came out on DVD, I called every video store in town to find out when they were going to get the discs. This Christmas, when season five came out on DVD, I dropped some not-so-subtle hints to my father, who got me the set.
This is a bittersweet end to an exceptional show. I believe the show lost a huge chunk of its energy when actor Rob Lowe and series creator Aaron Sorkin left after the fourth season. Lately, all the characters have been playing musical chairs with their jobs, and the tone of the show has drifted away from its roots. As the plots become more contrived, the characters are becoming more flat.
I mention these criticisms to point out that I can respect the decision to end the show. I’d rather see the show go out while the memory of its peak is still fresh. (Much the same way I feel about Brett Favre’s career). The decision especially makes sense given that actor John Spencer recently died of heart attack during the middle of the current season, though NBC claims the decision to end the show was made before Spencer’s death.
Still, it’s hard to say goodbye.
As the show winds down, fans and media critics will opine on what made the show so special. They will talk about how it supposedly made politics cool or introduced the public to a variety of public policy issues. I don’t know that politics was ever cool. And the notion that there are millions of Americans out there who get their civics education from “The West Wing” is more depressing to me than the thought that there are millions of Americans out there who get their news from “The Daily Show.”
I think what made “The West Wing” great were the same things that make any TV show great: superb writing and gifted actors. No matter how many ways the show was new or different or even groundbreaking, it had the fundamentals down.
If I were going to dig deeper for an explanation though, I would say “The West Wing” resonated with audiences because it showed us the fulfillment of the unfulfilled promises of the last 50 years. What would America be like if JFK hadn’t died so young? What America be like if Bill Clinton had been trustworthy? What would America be like if Ronald Reagan had been a Democrat?Kennedy, Clinton and Reagan are the three presidents most closely mirrored in the early seasons of “The West Wing.” The policy issues facing the White House during the first four seasons are straight from the Clinton and Reagan years. The character of the president is an amalgamation of all three leaders. Lately, the episodes have had a more contemporary “ripped from the headlines” feeling. But still, they give us a chance to imagine what it would be like if the whole country could agree that no matter how we feel about his policies, our president is a good man who’s doing his best to look out for us.
The remaining episodes will chronicle the conclusion of the presidential election that will decide Martin Sheen’s successor to the fake oval office. The series will end with the inauguration of the new president. According to an Associated Press report, the show’s writers have recently decided who will win the election. Alan Alda plays Senator Arnold Vinick, the GOP nominee, while Jimmy Smits plays Democratic nominee Matt Santos.
Personally, I’m rooting for Vinick – not because I’m a Republican but because I love Alan Alda as actor.
So as “The Apprentice” stands poised to regain the number one slot on my list of favorite TV shows, I’ll try to say goodbye to “The West Wing” with as much manly stoicism as I can muster. And perhaps a single tear, rolling down my cheek.
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