TVSquad

When The West Wing airs the "Leo's Funeral" episode in mid-April, the show will feature members of the L.A. Air Force Base Honor Guard. (Leo McGarry was in the Air Force when he was a younger.)

Other news from this article: producers have asked several people from past episodes of The West Wing (including Stockard Channing - and I'll guess Allison Smith and Joanna Gleason too) to come back to the show for Leo's funeral.

The West Wing Continuity Guide site is also reporting that Bradley Whitford recently gave a speech at American University, and he disclosed that they have filmed the funeral episode, and that not only was he a pallbearer for Leo, he was also a pallbearer for John Spencer. (Lots of spoilers at that site, by the way, so surf at your own risk!)  

First up tonight is a nice opening with Martin Sheen, a short tribute to John Spencer explaining what type of person he was like and that tonight is the first in five remaining episodes that will feature Spencer.

Tonight's ep mostly centers around Leo and how he is screwing up the prep for the vice presidential debate. That stuff is really interesting, but it's surrounded by these really lame domestic scenes with Matt Santos and his family. Eh. They aren't bad for some other show (I guess), but it's just not the whip-smart show The West Wing used to be. Still, Spencer's performance, the stuff about the inner workings of the debate prep, and that one scene with Josh and Toby on the phone (Josh: "I forget, in D.C., can felons vote?......Too soon?" Toby: "Little bit.") make it all worthwhile.

There was a lot of confusion last week when The West Wing's John Spencer passed away. Every single newspaper, magazine, and web site (including this one, but in our defense we missed the opening scene and were just repeating the news sites) reported that the character of Leo had appeared in a three years later flash forward in the first scene of the season opener. And that would pose a problem, since Spencer passed away and couldn't have been in a scene three years in the future.

But NBC is repeating the episode right now and it's official: Leo was not in the scene. So some of the speculation we talked about last week is still valid.

The West Wing star John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry, died today in a Los Angeles hospital of a heart attack, according to his publicist. Spencer played Chief of Staff to Martin Sheen's President Jeb Bartlet. On the show, ironically, Spencer's character suffered a heart attack that forced him to give up his White House gig. In a main storyline this season, though, his character had been tapped as a vice-presidential running mate for Democratic hopeful Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits.