Wednesday, January 26, 2000
The 'acting' White House
From its hallways to its scripts, NBC's 'The West Wing' stays entertainingly correct
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BURBANK, Calif. — Walking through The West Wing, you're surrounded by the global power of the president of the United States.
The White House walls are filled with photos of the president with Boris Yeltsin, Yasser Arafat, John Glenn, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ted Kennedy and Tip O'Neill.
But they're all fakes.
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ON THE AIR
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• What: The West Wing
• When: 9 p.m. today
• Where: Channels 5, 22
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In every photo, set designers at Warner Bros. studios have skillfully placed the smiling face of Martin Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlet on NBC's The West Wing drama, on top of another man's body.
“It's a little embarrassing,” says Mr. Sheen, when TV critics toured the make-believe White House inside Warner Stage 18.
The replica White House is one of many elements that makes The West Wing a hit series. Not insignificant are Aaron Sorkin's textured chatty scripts; a top-notch cast; and Thomas Schlamme's directorial style. But the authentic looking Oval Office area, first used in Mr. Sorkin's The American President feature film, establishes instant credibility.
This White House conference room is adorned with portraits of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Outside the Oval Office doors busts of Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on pedestals. TV viewers can't tell the bronze busts are plastic.
“A group of Secret Service men who worked in the White House came through one day, and they loved it,” says Ken Hardy, production designer. “They knew their way around the set pretty well.”
Even President Gerald Ford told TV critics on the winter press tour that TV's West Wing layout gets “the rooms right,” although he criticized the series for too much hustle and bustle in the offices.
“He's probably right, but he didn't have to make a television show,” says Mr. Schlamme, an executive responsible for the look of Mr. Sorkin's The West Wing and Sports Night. Mr. Sorkin, a screenwriter and former playwright, and John Wells (ER) also are executive producers.
“I believe if you went to the West Wing, you'd see more movement than Gerald Ford saw. When we went there (last year), every person looked like they were doing something terribly important ... running all over the place,” Mr. Schlamme says.
The illusion of importance also comes from Mr. Sorkin's “chatty, glib and talky” scripts, to use his own words. His White House scripts have grown from his infatuation with the young Clinton administration staff he met in 1994-95 while researching The American President. He hit it off with George Stephanopoulos while the former White House communications director ate lunch at his desk from a cafeteria tray.
“It didn't make me nervous like, "Oh God, these aren't men of steel.' It was like, "It's guys like me and you who are running the place,'” Mr. Sorkin says after TV critics toured the set.
“It made me feel fantastic, as patriotic as I ever felt. And I'm sort of filled with this feeling every time I write a West Wing script.”
His fast-paced cross-talk style, introduced on ABC's Sports Night last year, comes to life in long sweeping shots through White House halls.
“It's really derivative of what John Wells set up on ER, which works for Aaron's rhythm of writing, which a lot of times calls for a lot of movement,” says Mr. Schlamme, husband of actress Christine Lahti.
Mr. Sorkin's words also earn glowing praise from the people who speak them.
“It doesn't get any better than this,” says Mr. Sheen, the veteran actor from Dayton, Ohio, who was lured into his first TV series by Mr. Sorkin's scripts.
“We are blessed with brilliant, incredible words,” says John Spencer, who plays Chief of Staff Leo McGarry. Asked to compare The West Wing to his experience on the Emmy-winning L.A. Law, Mr. Spencer says: “This is harder work by maybe three times.”
Critical, ratings hit
NBC Entertainment President Garth Ancier says he's thrilled that The West Wing is both a critical and commercial hit. It wins the ratings at 9 p.m. Wednesday, and draws more affluent viewers ($75,000 income and up) than any other NBC show.
“It's always nice when you see a show that clever, and well done, become a water cooler show,” Mr. Ancier says, meaning that viewers discuss the program the next day at work. “He's a brilliant writer.”
His close-to-the-edge style, however, has been a bit jarring to the cast. Often scripts aren't completed until shooting is about to start. Mr. Sorkin writes The West Wing on weekdays, and Sports Night on weekends.
When TV critics toured the set last week, Mr. Sorkin offered this insight into his creative process:
“Before I came over here this morning, I finished the second act of the script we start shooting Monday. I have a certain degree of confidence of what's going to happen in the third act, and less about what's going to happen in the fourth act, and no idea what's going to happen in the next episode after this.
“I'll write Sports Night this weekend, as I wrote this week's Sports Night last weekend.
“This particular moment in time is slightly more severe than usual,” he admits. “It's hard. There's no question about it.”
Mr. Sorkin also likes to bounce ideas off actors before writing their scenes. He took Stockard Channing to lunch and talked about his notion of having her character, the first lady Abby Bartlet, be a medical doctor (and able to hide the president's multiple sclerosis from friends and the press). Such consultation “has never happened before” in her distinguished acting career.
“He's hired very intelligent and talented people, and he takes full advantage of them,” Ms. Channing says.
A case in point is Mr. Sheen. He was hired last summer for only four shows, because Mr. Sorkin wanted to focus on the senior White House staff. He had envisioned viewers only seeing the president at a distance, or walking away at the start of a scene — until he saw Mr. Sheen's presence in the Oval Office.
“I felt it would quickly get hokey,” Mr. Sorkin says. “It would be like the next-door neighbor on Home Improvement, and it would be silly.”
Mr. Sheen, who played President John F. Kennedy in an NBC miniseries, also keeps the cast and crew loose singing Sinatra tunes and joking around.
“I call myself the acting president,” he says.
A "parallel universe'
As the 2000 presidential election heats up, the real-life race for the White House won't penetrate the totally fiction “parallel universe” of The West Wing, Mr. Sorkin says.
“I don't want to compete with the actual presidential campaign, which before too long will become very dramatic on its own, and be tough to compete with,” Mr. Sorkin says.
As Mr. Sheen points out, no TV drama can realistically portray the leader of the free world.
“The only thing we can get into are the relationships that happen behind and away from public view — the personal moments, and the effects of policy and personalities on the staff,” Mr. Sheen says.
“It's not possible to have any clue what it's like to be president,” he says. “There are only (five) guys alive who could relate to that.”
TV Critic John Kiesewetter is reporting from the TV critics' press tour.
