Why did The West Wing producers kill off sweet little Doris Landingham, secretary to President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen), in May's next-to-last episode?

        “Her death was there to understand what the president was like, and who his father was,” says Thomas Schlamme, an executive producer and director of the Emmy-winning drama.

        When she was killed by a drunken driver in the May 16 show, viewers learned that Mrs. Landingham (Kathryn Joosten) had worked for Jed's father, the demanding, distant headmaster at his son's prep school. The flashbacks occurred while Bartlet was under fire for not disclosing his multiple sclerosis to the public.

        “It was not a cavalier decision at all,” Mr. Schlamme says. “It was such a wonderful, emotional vehicle to tell a story about the president and his father.

        “It allowed us to go into Bartlet's psyche, and understand him in the same way that the assassination (episode, May 2000) was there simply to understand how all these people got together” with Bartlet, says Mr. Schlamme, who was executive producer with West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin on ABC's Sports Night. His directorial credits include Friends, ER, The Practice, Ally McBeal and The Larry Sanders Show.

        Mr. Schlamme credits the 61-year-old actress for creating such a lovable impression despite not being a regular cast member. (Ms. Joosten appears in NBC's Scrubs sitcom Tuesday.)

        “People don't have any idea how few episodes she was really in. She did seven or eight episodes last year,” he says. “It's a testament to her talent, that somebody on the show so little could create such a huge impact.”

        But he makes no excuses for her shocking sudden demise.

        “That is what death is about. It doesn't happen to the people who deserve to die. It happens at a moment that you get a phone call, and you simply can't believe your whole life from this moment on changed because of that piece of information. We've all experienced that moment in our lives. You know how profound that is.”

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