TVSquad

As I mentioned before, I recently completed my summer project of watching the entire series of The West Wing from start to finish. After using a month or so to cogitate, I decided that while the show feign realism, it didn't quite achieve the mark.

Many of the events I refer to occurred after creator Aaron Sorkin was ousted from the series. I take that as more than coincidence.

Major spoilers for the show follow after the jump, so if you haven't seen it yet, turn back now.

It's still odd to think about Ron Silver, who died of cancer earlier this week, being gone. I mean, sure, cancer can hit anyone at any age, but it's odd to see it happen to someone in a fairly recent show, and one that I watch a lot of (thank you, DVD sets). I felt the same thing when another West Wing cast member, John Spencer, died a few years back. That was even more shocking because he was still on the show at the time.

West Wing creator/writer Aaron Sorkin pays tribute to Silver in Time. He says that Silver was not only the type of actor who was very generous ("someone who's there for the piece and not for himself"), but one that would make the other actors laugh and get into a good mood between takes.

(Originally aired November 22, 2000)

Last year I picked The West Wing's "The Indians in the Lobby" episode as a standout episode of the series. It just so happens that we're blessed with two Thanksgiving episodes of the show that are standouts. This one is called "Shibboleth."

The plots: While President Bartlet has to figure out what to do with dozens of Chinese immigrants who have stowed away on a freighter, Toby tries to get Leo's controversial sister nominated for an education post, C.J. has to pick one of two turkeys who will get to be pardoned by the President, and Charlie goes shopping for the perfect carving knife for the President.

When family members appear on each other's TV shows -- if they're a show biz family, of course -- sometimes the results are great. And sometimes they're not. Jerry Van Dyke appeared twice on The Dick Van Dyke Show as Rob's brother Stacey, and he was terrific. (Much better than he was on My Mother The Car).

Tyne Daly popped up on Wings, playing scenes with her brother Tim, and again, it worked out great. On the other hand, when Martin Sheen guested on Two and a Half Men in 2005, it was a dud. I don't know, maybe comedy really isn't Martin Sheen's forte.

Fortunately, Charlie Sheen isn't above trying again. Charlie's brother Emilio Estevez is going to do a guest turn on Two and a Half Men in an upcoming episode. They won't be playing brothers, but Emilio will be one of Charlie's best buddies from times gone by.

Did you know that Paris Hilton is running for President? I know, I know, you haven't seen any commercials on TV and she hasn't participated in any of the debates and who knows if she even knows what the word incumbent means, but she wants to be the next leader of the free world. And she's asked the best fake President we've ever had for some advice.

That's right, Paris has asked Martin Sheen (aka Jed Bartlett) for advice on how to be a fake President if that day should come. At first Sheen seems rather confused at why he's talking to Hilton ("I don't usually come to this kind of party."), but he eventually gives her advice, including how to solve problems in the kitchen ("During my fake Presidency, the kitchen was always my favorite spot to solve the great fake issues of our time), and why it's harder to be a fake President today than it was when his first term started in the late 90s. Sheen is pretty funny: great delivery and he does it all with a mock seriousness. Also look for a cameo at the end by the highest-paid sitcom star on TV right now.

I'm not sure if Bravo has brought back their "West Wing Mondays" for good or if this is just an election year thing, but today the network is airing a marathon from 9am to 5pm.

And it's not just any season they're doing. The first episode is the fourth season opener, which means that most of these episodes are election-related, including the "20 Hours In America" two-parter, with Josh, Toby, and Donna trapped in a small town during a campaign swing; "Debate Camp," which shows the Bartlet campaign gearing up for the showdown with Governor Richie; and "Game On," the classic episode where Bartlet and Richie debate and Bartlet decides not to hold back and just creams the guy (more debates should be like this). You'll also see "Election Night" and "Process Stories," which were the start of Rob Lowe's exit from the show.

I wonder why they're not doing this next Tuesday, which is Super Tuesday? That would have been clever programming.

"The Indians in the Lobby"
Originally aired on November 21, 2001

There are so many ridiculously great episodes of The West Wing, trying to pick one out is like trying to pick out the best note in a piece by Mozart. But since it's November, I figured I'd choose the best of the show's Thanksgiving Day episodes, "The Indians in the Lobby" (and yes, fans of "Shibboleth," I love that one too, but this one has just a little bit more.)

It's Thanksgiving, and President Bartlet is making the stuffing ...

We've said it here a million times (and by "we" I'm including TV Squad readers): Toby would never have leaked classified information the way he did in the last season of The West Wing. And in the off chance that he did, it would only be because he was covering for someone else. Now, Richard Schiff (in the pic on the right with his wife, actress Sheila Kelley) says he agrees (this is an addendum to an article from last year).

In an interesting interview in The Independent, Schiff says that he felt let down by the writers in the last season, and in fact to get through it he actually made a fictional plot in his head as to why Toby was acting the way that he was.

I was trying to figure out how to review this set. Should I even mention how great the series is (brilliant cast, brilliant writing, brilliant direction, blah, blah, blah)? And then I figured, no, I'm not going to review certain episodes or the series as a whole. Everyone knows how good the show was, and if you're a fan you already know all that stuff, so you really want to know how the rest of the set is and if it's worth upgrading from the individual sets to this new set.

You're Martin Sheen. Okay, I know you're not, but for the sake of this post pretend that your are! You've just come off of a very successful political drama where you were President of the United States and the world is your oyster. So, what do you do? Do you sit at home and count the money you made? Do you look for a new television or movie project? Or, do you watch over son Charlie to make sure he doesn't do anything else stupid to further damage his fragile reputation?

You don't do any of those things. Instead, you enroll in college. And, that is exactly what the 66-year-old former star of The West Wing did last Friday when he enrolled as a student at National University Galway in western Ireland.

Hey, the Emmys are on NBC right now! Keep refreshing your browser if you're not watching the show as we'll have the winners as they're announced. (Winners will be in bold and underlined.)

(If you're looking for the 2007 Emmy Award winners, those are on another post.)

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

Grey's Anatomy
The West Wing
24
House
The Sopranos

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

The Office
Arrested Development
Two and a Half Men
Scrubs
Curb Your Enthusiasm

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Peter Krause (Six Feet Under)
Denis Leary (Rescue Me)
Christopher Meloni (Law and Order: SVU)
Martin Sheen (The West Wing)
Kiefer Sutherland (24)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

Lisa Kudrow (The Comeback)
Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine)
Stockard Channing (Out of Practice)
Debra Messing (Will & Grace)

Well, I know what I'm giving myself for Christmas this year.

Warner will release The West Wing: The Complete Series on DVD November 7. The set will include every single episode of the series (154 episodes) on 45 discs. The set will contain the same sets as the individual sets already released, but will also include a copy of the pilot script, including a special intro by creator/head writer Aaron Sorkin. The set will sell for around $300.

The set for the last season will also be released that day, separately, with bonus materials.

(S07E22) Was anyone else struck by the differences between the pilot episode of The West Wing (shown tonight before the finale) and the episodes from the past couple of years, including this one? Such a different vibe. So much energy and passion and great writing (not to mention inspirational music and romanticism) in the pilot, compared to the last couple of years of so-so writing, dark camera work, bad changes in characters (although this season was a comeback). I would have rather have seen a retrospective, but it was interesting to see how the show began and how it will end.

The series finale got so many things right and also a few things wrong. Let's talk about them.

As a follow-up to my post earlier today, some West Wing fans are speculating (scroll down past the Prison Break finale info) that the West Wing retrospective that NBC canceled in favor of the pilot ep this Sunday might make it to the last season DVD set, which will be released later this year. Which makes sense, since the special has already been shot.

[via TV Tattle]

Aaron Barnhart over at TV Barn wonders why NBC isn't showing the West Wing retrospective this Sunday (as you've probably heard, they're running the pilot episode instead). Barnhart is trying to find out from someone at NBC what happened to the one hour special, but they haven't called him back yet.

He does, however, think it's one final slap in the face to the show and to the fans that made it a hit.