TVSquad

Well, now, at least we know why there's not going to be a West Wing retrospective this Sunday. And -- surprise, surprise! -- the reason is money. According to Lisa de Moraes of The Washington Post (among other sources), more than one of the primary WW players balked at the low amount of money NBC and Warner Bros. was offering to them to do the clip/reminiscing show, originally scheduled air before Sunday's series finale. So, instead of breaking the bank to create a show that will air at 7 PM on a Sunday, the two parties decided to just air the show's 1999 pilot instead.

Judging by the tone of de Moraes' article, she isn't taking the actors' side. I don't blame her; all they're doing is sitting and talking about the show that paid them handsomely for seven years. If it were me, I'd be so grateful for the opportunity WW gave me (before this, for example, Allison Janney was best known for a New York Lottery commercial and a small role in Private Parts), I'd do the retrospective for scale. But I'm just a lowly blogger, so what do I know?

[Thanks to Karen for the tip.]

This is interesting: according to this press release, NBC will not be showing a West Wing retrospective before the final episode airs on May 14. Instead, they will rerun the show's 1999 pilot episode. Remember, this was back in those heady days when a) the U.S. still had a Democratic president, b) we were in that odd period after the Cold War and before the War on Terror, so the country wasn't as keen on what was going on politics-wise, and c) Rob Lowe was actually considered the star of The West Wing.

What I remember from that episode is when Lowe's character Sam Seaborn is with a hooker (played by Lisa Edelstein of House!) and his pager goes off. "What's POTUS mean?" she asks. Seaborn juts his jaw and says, semi-proudly, "That's the President of the United States." Ahhhh, memories. What a difference seven years makes, huh?

[via The Futon Critic]