All Episodes Talk: Walk With Me

[SoMuchTV]

I’m confused. Why is there a separate 25th anniversary subforum here, with a bunch of topics that seem like they could be threads in the main forum? Is this a new thing now? 

[Fool to cry]

Rewatched the pilot and I don't know how Rob Lowe thought he was going to be the lead when it was clearly written as an ensemble show from the start. Especially when his plotline of being involved with an escort is the least interesting despite a winning turn from pre-House MD Lisa Edelstein. Also Moira Kelly really was like Chuck Cunningham, Randall Carver on Taxi, and Mark Brandawicz on Parks and Recreation wasn't she? I like her in other things but she just wasn't a good fit to the cast. It's either her character or I'm not buying Sorkin dialogue coming out of her mouth. I wonder if David Fincher hadn't made the young actors do a hundred takes on The Social Network they would sound just as awkward.  And boy Martin Sheen entrance in the last ten minutes still rocks. Yeah, the original plan to just see the President "occasionally" was thrown out after that!

[Orcinus orca]

4 hours ago, Fool to cry said:

Rewatched the pilot and I don't know how Rob Lowe thought he was going to be the lead when it was clearly written as an ensemble show from the start.

Was that his expectation or was that the original plan?  It's been so long but it seems to me that Lowe as the lead was the original premise but Sheen knocked it out of the park and the plan was reworked.  I could be remembering incorrectly.

[schnauzergirl]

2 hours ago, Orcinus orca said:

Was that his expectation or was that the original plan?  It's been so long but it seems to me that Lowe as the lead was the original premise but Sheen knocked it out of the park and the plan was reworked.  I could be remembering incorrectly.

This was also my understanding, but those last 10 minutes of Martin Sheen changed everything.  Would have been a hugely different dynamic/ensemble with Sam as the lead character.

Edited September 24, 2024 by schnauzergirl

[Fool to cry]

1 hour ago, schnauzergirl said:

This was also my understanding, but those last 10 minutes of Martin Sheen changed everything.  Would have been a hugely different dynamic/ensemble with Sam as the lead character.

What I like is once it became clear President Bartlett was going to be a main character Sorkin stops writing him as just the benevolent wise sage who's always right. He becomes more human. In the second episode he talks to his personal doctor he has become friends with about how he's uneasy dealing with his military advisors and he doesnt like violence. At the end of the episode when the doctor is killed by a foreign government his immediate reaction is to bomb them into the stone age amd the next episode is Leo and the joint chiefs talking him down. 

Edited September 24, 2024 by Fool to cry

[Orcinus orca]

3 hours ago, Fool to cry said:

At the end of the episode when the doctor is killed by a foreign government his immediate reaction is to bomb them into the stone age amd the next episode is Leo and the joint chiefs talking him down. 

To this day I remember Leo's question word-for-word - "And do you think ratcheting up the body count is going to act as a deterrent?"

[ProudMary]

 

[Fool to cry]

Rewatching episode 4 and Bartlett loopy on back pain medicine is still one of the funniest moments on the show. 

 

[Orcinus orca]

10 minutes ago, Fool to cry said:

Rewatching episode 4 and Bartlett loopy on back pain medicine is still one of the funniest moments on the show. 

It really was.  I never fail to laugh.

[Fool to cry]

On to episodes 5 and 6 and holy crap Elizabeth Moss was sooooo young and she sounded even younger! When Mad Men premiered in 2007 I didn't know any of the actors except her. "That's Zoey Bartlett!"  Jon Hamm as Don Draper was the lead but Peggy was the audience surrogate into that world.

It's amazing that Stockard Channing had never met Martin Sheen before coming in the show. Their chemistry is incredible.

Amy Sherman-Palladino must have seen episode 1x13 and went "That's my Paris Gellar!" and "That's my Chilton principal!"

Edited September 26, 2024 by Fool to cry

[Skooma]

On 9/25/2024 at 12:43 PM, Fool to cry said:

On to episodes 5 and 6 and holy crap Elizabeth Moss was sooooo young and she sounded even younger! When Mad Men premiered in 2007 I didn't know any of the actors except her. "That's Zoey Bartlett!"  Jon Hamm as Don Draper was the lead but Peggy was the audience surrogate into that world.

It's amazing that Stockard Channing had never met Martin Sheen before coming in the show. Their chemistry is incredible.

Amy Sherman-Palladino must have seen episode 1x13 and went "That's my Paris Gellar!" and "That's my Chilton principal!"

FYI there is a yellow box upper left to The West Wing's 25th Anniversary where there is a re-watch there and more people posting like it is the active West Wing forum now.  Maybe re-post this there at least?

[Orcinus orca]

"You get Hoynes."

[txhorns79]

On 9/25/2024 at 12:43 PM, Fool to cry said:

 

Amy Sherman-Palladino must have seen episode 1x13 and went "That's my Paris Gellar!" and "That's my Chilton principal!"

Liza Weil got her role as Paris after she auditioned for the part of Rory Gilmore, but lost it to Alexis Bledel.  Apparently ASP liked her audition so much, she created the role of Paris for her. 

[Macbeth1966]

When I watched the pilot of The West Wing - I was struck by how white the entire staff was.  I know the majority of the actors playing the lead roles were white - but for the pilot the only person not white was Suzy Nakamura who played Cathy who was an aid to Sam.

The 3rd episode introduced Dule Hill as Charlie, John Amos as Admiral Percy Fitzwallace, and Devika Parikh as Bonnie - Toby's aide.

I do realize that this show first aired 25 years ago.  And if the show aired today - the lead actors would definitely not all be white.  And a good percentage of the supporting players would definitely be people of color.

When it came to the shooting - it was clear that Charlie was the intended target.  The Secret Service told him in the hospital that he was the target not Bartlet.

Charlie, rightfully acted out, due to the stress of the attempted assassination of his life.  Asking Bartlet why didn't he make the fundraising calls from his office - using the word damn.

But the only scene that accurately described what had happened to Charlie was when Bartlet told Toby, who was also struggling, that what they had witnessed was an attempted lynching of Charlie.

For me that scene needed to have Charlie there.  It was imperative that his character know that the people he worked for understood what truly had happened to him.  Because he understood the gravity of the situation.  

To have 2 white men discuss the lynching of a black man without the black man being there is problematic for me.  

[newsjunkie]

Anyone subscribe to Oliver Darcy's newsletter with some background on the removal and now restoration of The West Wing to Max?:

https://bsky.app/profile/oliverdarcy.bsky.social/post/3lf4o6ofu722t

https://bsky.app/profile/oliverdarcy.bsky.social/post/3lf6iex3gn22b

[Orcinus orca]

Well, any thought to following the thread on Bluesky was quickly quashed with the  hateful comments.

At least I have the DVDs to comfort me.  It would be nice to see it streaming again, though.

[Cloud9Shopper]

On 9/24/2024 at 10:31 AM, schnauzergirl said:

This was also my understanding, but those last 10 minutes of Martin Sheen changed everything.  Would have been a hugely different dynamic/ensemble with Sam as the lead character.

I just started watching for the first time the other day (as soon as I heard it was back on Max because this is why I subscribed), and that was a very impactful moment to end the pilot on for me. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Sam from the jump but I have a long way to go so I won’t say too much otherwise. 

I’m already interested in seeing more Josh and Donna, and found CJ’s exasperation in the second episode about “the joke” relatable. Everything feels authentic with a nice balance of humor and I’m looking forward to more. 

Prior to this, I only saw the episode “Let Bartlett Be Bartlett” many years ago in college. I had a political science professor who loved The West Wing and we had to watch an episode in class and do an essay about it. This was so long ago that unfortunately I no longer recall the essay or why she picked this episode but it stuck with me. She was a wonderful professor, God rest her soul.