No West Wing thread!

splashthecash

Hey,

Just finished the West Wing and was looking forward to discussing it with other boardies but I see it doesn't have its own dedicated thread!! If shows such as Glee & Pokemon get their own thread, I don't see why one of the best written TV series ever can't have its own!

The quick fire lines of dialogue, those now famous hallway scenes, realistic atmosphere, brilliantly fleshed out characters who each add to the show in their own individual way

What do I need to do to get a West Wing thread started??

petes

splashthecash wrote: »

What do I need to do to get a West Wing thread started??

You just started one. You could also try searching if you haven't already.

Mr E

You mean a West Wing forum?

If it was still an active show, it would have a very good chance.
Since it finished in 2006, the forum would be full of retrospective chat and would run out of steam very quickly.

splashthecash

I don't mean a thread within the Television\Television thread...I mean clicking into the West Wing forum and then having lots of threads within that.

I know how to start a normal thread :rolleyes:

petes

splashthecash wrote: »

I don't mean a thread within the Television\Television thread...I mean clicking into the West Wing forum and then having lots of threads within that.

I know how to start a normal thread :rolleyes:

As Mr E said not much point of one these days as the show is a good while over.

Oh nad some shows have a "thread" instead of a forum if there isn't call for a dedicated forum. You said thread :rolleyes:

macjohn

splashthecash wrote: »

Hey,

Just finished the West Wing and was looking forward to discussing it with other boardies but I see it doesn't have its own dedicated thread!! If shows such as Glee & Pokemon get their own thread, I don't see why one of the best written TV series ever can't have its own!

The quick fire lines of dialogue, those now famous hallway scenes, realistic atmosphere, brilliantly fleshed out characters who each add to the show in their own individual way

What do I need to do to get a West Wing thread started??

Great show. When you say just finished, were you watching all the series together in a row - what a tv fest that would be, or the last one?

splashthecash

One season after another but over the space of a 6/7 months...got the first season last summer just to see what it was like...was hooked after a couple of episodes. Was actually a bit upset at the very end, seeing everyone going their own way....end of an old, beginning of a new.

Quality wasn't as great around season 4-5 but last season was brilliant, ended very well...Jed flying off into the clouds.

I felt the same way when I finished watching the Wire, so now I need to find something new to watch. Any suggestions..?

Mr E

splashthecash wrote: »

...now I need to find something new to watch. Any suggestions..?

Yup, loads. Look here.

Biggins

Absolutely best show ever created.
Well written by Sorkin, brilliantly acted by all, well, well though out/planned and the show is the creator of many techniques they use today as standard methods to bring shows to us.

Have the presidential box-set myself and am finishing up watching it for the third time shortly. A great show that is not dumbed down as per usual for a lot of viewing audiences.

meep

Just watched the season 4 episode where they explain why they walk the corridors so much. Hilarious!

P

splashthecash

Do you think it should have continued on with Santos as president? It could have begun introducing new characters\new stances on policy while at the same time holding onto some key characters (Josh, donna, sam, toby in the background, Santos, Vinick). I would have loved it to continue on and on but probably best it didn't, if it didn't work it would've been a real shame seeing as the previous seasons were so great.

Biggins

splashthecash wrote: »

Do you think it should have continued on with Santos as president? It could have begun introducing new characters\new stances on policy while at the same time holding onto some key characters (Josh, donna, sam, toby in the background, Santos, Vinick). I would have loved it to continue on and on but probably best it didn't, if it didn't work it would've been a real shame seeing as the previous seasons were so great.

50/50

It was great that we got to see a full two terms of a president and an indication maybe just some of the daily things that he got to deal with, the inner workings, etc.
Another series? No, as much as I love this show (and would dearly love another full eight years) and I put it number one against ANY other out now or in the past, it would have been dragged out to death (like "Dallas", "Dynasty", etc) and let's be honest Santos as not as charismatic a character as Bartlet/Sheen.

I think it ended very well - and that being said of any TV network series for America is a rarity.
We were left with indications of the futures of characters, hopes and dreams - all of whom in those eight years was great on their own and together. Going back a few episodes if you remember the episode of the opening of The Bartlet Library, we had a three year jump into the future and they had all moved on.

It ended well and my blue presidential box-set (THIS ONE) is one of my most treasured possessions.

The Black Oil

I have that set, it's great.

Brilliant show. It went off the boil in the post-Sorkin era, series 5 in particular (damn you, John Wells turning into ER), but it picked up again towards the end. Gotta love the humour in it, e.g., Josh in fishing gear, falling on his arse, etc. Toby was the best character, I think.

WesternNight

This show has a massive spot in my heart. Seriously. Out of the hundreds of TV shows I've watched (and thoroughly enjoyed, too) this one is the one that feels like part of the family. The one where I feel like I know the characters personally.

The first four season were amazing. Then Sorkin left and you could definitely feel the change. I would happily watch the first five, maybe six seasons over and over. But I didn't like the last one very much at all. It was a combination of the introduction of new characters, the loss of the White House as the primary setting, and the scatteredness of the original cast. Also, what they did to Leo's character was unforgivable as far as I'm concerned. He was my favourite character and by the end of it they'd made him into an incompetent laughing stock.

I loved the attention to detail. The lighting, the music...my god the music choices were amazing. The dialogue...I don't think there's a show that quite compares. Episodes that stand out are Two Cathedrals and Noel.

Must really watch it again!

splashthecash

I could talk about this show all day, just love it..

I found it a bit strange that the first episode of the last season the flash forward to three years in the future and some of the gang were gathered together, then josh arrives and says the president is here...it kinda ruined the whole tension\suspense of who'll win, Santos\Vinick. Obviously the writers kinda asumed that everyone thought Santos would win and just popped it in. Maybe you all assumed it too but I thought it could go either way. I always made it practise for me never to read ahead in the little booklet that came with the season or look at the pictures as I wanted every episode to have all its own surprises.

My favourite character would be either Toby or Josh...I didn't like Toby at the start but he grew on me with all his smart remarks and great character development.

LeperKing

splashthecash wrote: »

Obviously the writers kinda asumed that everyone thought Santos would win and just popped it in. Maybe you all assumed it too but I thought it could go either way.

It was actually going to be Vinick who was to win, but they changed the outcome after John Spencer died. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200276/trivia

Thanks,
LK.

TheIrishGrover

splashthecash wrote: »

Do you think it should have continued on with Santos as president? It could have begun introducing new characters\new stances on policy while at the same time holding onto some key characters (Josh, donna, sam, toby in the background, Santos, Vinick). I would have loved it to continue on and on but probably best it didn't, if it didn't work it would've been a real shame seeing as the previous seasons were so great.

Good news!

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/aaron_sorkin_announces_new_west

SAN DIEGO—On day two of the 2008 San Diego SorCon, the biggest Aaron Sorkin convention in the world, screenwriter and producer Aaron Sorkin revealed plans for his next project, an animated continuation of his most popular franchise, The West Wing.
"I'm excited to bring my Emmy Award–winning writing to the field of animation," Sorkin said in a speech before approximately 30,000 screaming fans, many of whom were dressed up in the business-suit costumes of their favorite Sorkin characters. "The costs of live-action production restricted me to a set only slightly larger than the actual White House and an ensemble cast of under 15 actors. But animation technology will enable us to provide fans with extended 40-minute walk-and-talks, digitally compressed dialogue for faster delivery, and a cast of over 70 main characters. My vision will finally be presented in its truest, most uncompromised form."
The new project, which was rumored in the Aaron Sorkin press in the days running up to SorCon but unconfirmed until yesterday's announcement, marks Sorkin's first television project since 2006's Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, which was canceled after only one season. The new show, tentatively titled The West Wing: The Santos Administration, is the first foray into animated entertainment for the acclaimed Sorkin, who is considered by many to be the most important writer-producer of political and entertainment-industry workplace-comedy-dramas working today.
"When Aaron hit the stage and announced The West Wing animated series, the crowd went wild," said self-described "Sorkin nut" Karla Waples, 33, who has attended SorCon every year since its inception a decade ago. "It was such an adrenaline rush to see him make TV history yet again. This is why people drive all the way across the country to be here."
Held annually at the San Diego Convention Center, SorCon has grown from a small convention in 1998, when Sorkin screened his television series Sports Night for friends and family, into a major Sorkin-industry event attended by tens of thousands of upper-middle-class whites and political-science geeks—or "Sorkies," as they prefer to be called.
The convention features hundreds of vendors from both the Sorkin fan underground and the Hollywood studios. Would-be buyers can find everything from a limited-edition replica of the Paul Revere–crafted cutlery set owned by The West Wing's President Bartlet to a T-shirt commemorating Muhammad Ali's selection as "Athlete of the Century" in the second season of Sports Night. A set of cocktail napkins—identical to the ones on which Sorkin wrote A Few Good Men when he was a struggling playwright—fetched more than $15,000 at auction.
The event also featured episode re-enactments by fans, autograph-signing sessions with such celebrity guests as Bradley Whitford and Timothy Busfield, and a Gilbert-and-Sullivan-themed "Musical Salute To Sorkin."
"It's like no other Sorkin event out there," said attendee Peter Koechley, who won this year's trivia contest by identifying a line of dialogue from communications director Toby Ziegler in The West Wing's season-five episode "Eppur Si Muove." "There are interactive booths where fans can pitch their own version of the legendary 'Crazy Christians' sketch in the Studio 60 writers' room or lip-synch to 'The Jackal' along with C.J. from The West Wing. There's even a real-life 'Dolphin Girl' here posing with fans for pictures!"
Following his speech, Sorkin screened a four-minute clip from the pilot episode of The West Wing: The Santos Administration and explained the premise behind the new show. Beginning about two years after the last episode of the original series, the animated version focuses on President Matt Santos as he deals with his party's crushing defeat in the midterm elections and his advisers struggle with the death of President Jed Bartlet, who has finally succumbed to complications from multiple sclerosis. The pilot ends, Sorkin said, with a 15-minute speech from President Santos about holding unpopular ideals.
Sorkin stressed that the most important thing in doing another West Wing is staying true to his fans.
"I will make sure that everyone's favorite characters and policy issues from the first series return, along with an all-new Joint Chiefs of Staff and a few fresh constitutional crises," said Sorkin, pausing for deafening cheers. "And I can promise SorCon that there will be at least two filibusters in the first season."
Sorkin plans to write all of the new episodes as well as animate them himself. He has not yet sold the series for broadcast, but said he was "certain" that any network would "jump at the chance to work with Aaron Sorkin."
Events scheduled for day three at SorCon include a panel discussion on rapid-fire dialogue, an American President debate on what sorts of policy deals would cause the president's girlfriend to break up with him in the modern day, and a seminar on how freebasing cocaine can improve your screenwriting.

:pac::pac::pac::pac::pac:

splashthecash

haha..very good. and its from the onion, so you know its the gods honest truth! maybe they might bring back john spencer as a helpful ghost that speaks to santos and that who no one else can see or hear.

TheIrishGrover

splashthecash wrote: »

haha..very good. and its from the onion, so you know its the gods honest truth! maybe they might bring back john spencer as a helpful ghost that speaks to santos and that who no one else can see or hear.

Matt, use the Air Force!

splashthecash

question...spoiler alert so be careful..

When leo had his heart attack and needed to step down, he said to Jed that theres was only one person that should replace him...which was CJ. Why wasn't his first choice Josh, seeing as he was the deputy chief of staff and was a kind of a son figure to Leo?

WesternNight

splashthecash wrote: »

question...spoiler alert so be careful..

When leo had his heart attack and needed to step down, he said to Jed that theres was only one person that should replace him...which was CJ. Why wasn't his first choice Josh, seeing as he was the deputy chief of staff and was a kind of a son figure to Leo?

Who would you trust more to be Chief of Staff? I'd take CJ in a heart beat. For the sake of loyalty, perhaps he should have gone with Josh, but for the good of the country, CJ's the only choice. The problem with that was leaving the Press Secretary position weakened because she was damn good at that. Regardless of who was chosen it was always going to change the dynamic, no-one could ever have lived up to Leo.

28064212

splashthecash wrote: »

question...spoiler alert so be careful..

When leo had his heart attack and needed to step down, he said to Jed that theres was only one person that should replace him...which was CJ. Why wasn't his first choice Josh, seeing as he was the deputy chief of staff and was a kind of a son figure to Leo?

Well CJ was a kind of a daughter figure to him. Deputy Chief of Staff isn't an automatic lead-in to Chief of Staff. Santos said it best to Josh: "You couldn't do the kind of politicking you do behind Leo McGarry's desk".

corblimey

Apologies for bring back up a dead thread, but I don't think this deserved a new thread. Does anyone know of a parody of a west wing script that was doing the rounds a few years ago (while the show was still on the air). It was a short script with inscrutable dialog and lots of walking 'n' talking. Does that ring any bells with anyone?