The West Wing

rebel girl 15

I got into this series around season 5, and have ended up getting all the series. Just wondering how many around here were into it? I know some people thought it changed a lot around season 4 when Sorkin left.

opening credits from season 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmp1sGsHOAg

Daemos

I usen't actually watch it, but IIRC it was always on late on RTE, and when I heard that opening music I knew it was almost bedtime

crixus veritas

Love the show. One of the only shows i could sit through regular repeats. I suppose it did get bogged down around 5, but 6 and particularly 7 were excellent. Wish they had kept it going but they'd have had to make some major changes to the American Constituion to have done so. )

rebel girl 15

I thought they could have kept it going with Santos, as you had Sam, Josh, Donna and quite a few others part of the Santos administration. Matt Santos was actually based a bit on Obama

I used actually record it because it was on so late!!

ari gold24

Quality show alrite.

Only got into it towards the end of season 4 and followed it till the end.
Got the complete series to catch up on what i missed n was very impressed. Disappointed when it ended as i thought the Santos admin could have carried the show but i guess NBC wouldnt take the chance without Martin Sheen as its lead.

abouttobebanned

Best show ever to be on a television screen.

mikemac

Definitly the best show on TV I've seen

Watched it once already and now halfway through my season five on second viewing

Now watch this and tell me it doesn't bring a tear to your eye

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfweVIG6wbA

Or sit back and be in awe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbetgsqIdMo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaUPDYXQUtw

Bald? er, dash!

rebel girl 15 wrote: »

I thought they could have kept it going with Santos, as you had Sam, Josh, Donna and quite a few others part of the Santos administration. Matt Santos was actually based a bit on Obama

I'd say the opposite - Obama is based on Santos!!! He did get "elected" four years before Obama after all!

Bald? er, dash!

feelingstressed wrote: »

How the hell is Santos based on Obama? Bartlet was finished before Obama got elected, I'd say Obama is based on Santos

Go back, and try reading my post properly...:rolleyes:

OT: A fav scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSXJzybEeJM

rebel girl 15

Bald? er, dash! wrote: »

I'd say the opposite - Obama is based on Santos!!! He did get "elected" four years before Obama after all!

Nope, the ethnic aspect and how Santos dealt with it is based on Obama, found the article it is mentioned in

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/21/barackobama.uselections2008

edit: post above - when the President stand, nobody sits! Loved the way he ripper her to pieces!

Matt Santos

You are not gonna believe this but I think it was the greatest show ever made on TV! The Santos Administration could easily have been followed up on. Sheen only took a very small role in Season 7..

rebel girl 15

Matt Santos wrote: »

You are not gonna believe this but I think it was the greatest show ever made on TV! The Santos Administration could easily have been followed up on. Sheen only took a very small role in Season 7..

Love your username!!!!!

scheister

love it but lost a disk in the middle which is bit annoying http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_OtPc4dNyI one of my favourite scenes in west wing not sure how to post as a video rather then link

handsome ken

Got the first series on video cassette but lost it when moving house. I have the rest on DVD and i must have watched them all about six or seven times at this stage. The other half keeps nagging me about watching it again and again but every time i watch it i seem to pick up something in the dialogue i previously missed. best writing and acting in a tv series by far

Revie11

I thought a great idea would've been to somehow have an on-line election between Santos and Vinick and write at least one season based on the results. Not sure the writers of the West Wing could've coped with writing for a republican president.

Anonymous1987

I've just bought the box set having heard great things and I'm halfway through series one. TBH I'm not really impressed, very idealistic with very little of the grubby reality of politics.

the west wing

As you can imagine this is my favourite show. I love everything about it. The characters, the dialogue, the set, everything was gripping. Yes it was idealistic but that was its charm. It showed what the world could be like if there was an intelligent leader in place, as opposed to Dubya. The show was something to aspire to rather then reality.

scrubber72

I am watching the debate episode at the mo.
Love this programme and I reckon this will make most of you jealous as hell but I met the cast in 2003 in Washington DC whilst on holiday.
They were filming an episode where Barlett was being re instated for a second term.
They all were there bar John Spencer (RIP) who was my favorite and let me tell you all that each and everyone was as nice as possible.
The crowds as you can imagine surrounded Martin Sheen which was kind of hard to get to but gave everyone an autograph or photo.
Allison Jenny was as graceful and friendly as anyone I have ever met. Bloody tall too:D.
Richard Schiff was actually quiet talkative unlike his character.
Surprised that Bradley Whitford was as tall as he is.
That day will stay in my memory for a long long time.
Sad that it finished but dont think it could of lasted with Jimmy Smiths at the wheel. Loved Alan Alda`s character too.

strooooble

Hehe. Possibly the best TV show ever.

Well, it's right there at the top sharing my personal first place with The X-Files, but the West Wing really cannot compare to the X-Files as the topic is entirely different after all.

There is just nothing about the West Wing that I didn't enjoy.

Anyone here still rewatching the whole thing every now and then, like me?

rebel girl 15

strooooble wrote: »

Hehe. Possibly the best TV show ever.

Well, it's right there at the top sharing my personal first place with The X-Files, but the West Wing really cannot compare to the X-Files as the topic is entirely different after all.

There is just nothing about the West Wing that I didn't enjoy.

Anyone here still rewatching the whole thing every now and then, like me?

Yeah, I do - I sit down and watch it from start to finish - gonna do that once I finish watching my current season of NCIS!

MBateson

Have digitised the entire boxset (which I own) so I don't even have to swap DVDs in\out when I'm re-watching.

rebel girl 15

MBateson wrote: »

Have digitised the entire boxset (which I own) so I don't even have to swap DVDs in\out when I'm re-watching.

That is actually a great idea!!!

strooooble

That is true.

It was a bit of a thing before Christmas when I decided to watch all the seasonal episodes one evening starting with In Exelsis Deo and working my way through the seasons.

Fave eps, anyone?

syklops

strooooble wrote: »

Hehe. Possibly the best TV show ever.

Well, it's right there at the top sharing my personal first place with The X-Files, but the West Wing really cannot compare to the X-Files as the topic is entirely different after all.

There is just nothing about the West Wing that I didn't enjoy.

Anyone here still rewatching the whole thing every now and then, like me?

I have seen the entire thing dozens of times. Just started re-watching it again today(its on now).

I got in an argument on here once with someone surrounding why it ended the way it did. According to my source, which is well placed but for which I do not have a link, the original idea was to have Leo win the election, and to have Santos join as VP. Unfortunately, John Spencer died during filming and they could not do that. By the end of Season 7, they had lost a lot of their ratings, and while it had been thought that with Leo as POTUS, they could entice back many of their regular viewers, that with Matt Santos ratings would continue to dwindle.

Take what you will from this.

Regarding favourite episodes, one of my Favourite episodes is "Evidence of Things not Seen" in Season 4. The reason I like it so much, is one of the many interesting sub-plots is Will Bailey, dressed in an Air Force Officers uniform, is doing his reserve duty for the JAG corp. He is going to Mount Cheyanne, which is where NORAD is based to defend 2 guys who work a shift in a missile silo. If the radar shows a missile attack coming in, their job is to fire missiles at Russia. This happened and the 2 guys questioned if Russia was really attacking when they should have been going through the launch sequence.

Why do I like that episode you ask? Well, it is very similar to the opening of the 1983 movie Wargames, where 2 guys in a missile silo in Mount Cheyenne are told to fire their missiles only one of them questions the order.

"So?" I hear you say. Well guess who was one of the guys in the silo(And I dont mean Michael Madsen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReJ3RltihME

The episode also has Matthew Perry in a different but fresh role for him.

To be honest though, I think it would be easier to ask what are your least favourite episodes. I was not mad about the reality tv-style Documentary. I think it was just called "Documentary". Also any episode where Matt Santos' wife says more than 2 words.

Footy101

The best tv show ever made! Have the box set and every few months I find myself sticking it on and watching 3/4 episodes till the early hours! Following Sorkin's new one - The Newsroom. Looks like it's going to be a good one also. Would be great if they did a one off special to see how the Santos Administration got on!!

donegal_man

scrubber72 wrote: »

....................... Loved Alan Alda`s character too.

Always thought they should have had him winning the election, he was a much more interesting character than Santos.

littleteapot

I've just started watching this. It somehow passed me by the first time around. I'm only up to episode 7 but I like it so far. Does anyone know of anywhere online I can legally watch this? It's not on netflix or sky go

rebel girl 15

Not sure tbh, but the boxsets are only about 15/20 a season, well worth the investment

itchy elbows

is this show any good, or worth watching, i know its finished but always wondered about it.

littleteapot

I ended up buying the boxset off play.com for around €75. I'm about half way through season 2 now. I can't get over how good this show is! Kicking myself for not watching it the first time around.

shinzon

Martin Sheens finest moment on The West Wing from two cathedrals

Shin

pinkypinky

This is very clever: Mary McCormack (who played Kate Harper) got the cast together to film something support her sister who is running for the Michegan supreme court.

http://youtu.be/v52FLMOPSig

jasonb

For me, just the best TV show I've ever seen...

donegal_man wrote: »

Always thought they should have had him winning the election, he was a much more interesting character than Santos.

As far as I know, the plan was for Vinick (Alda) to win the election, not Santos. But then John Spencer died, which meant they had to kill Leo, and the writers reckoned it would just be far too rough on Santos for him to lose Leo and then the election too.

To be fair, Vinick was such a well written character, you could see yourself not minding if he'd won...

J.

littleteapot

Well, it took me a long time but I finished watching today. I absolutely loved it! I'm actually looking forward to starting over again when my life is not so busy.

cjmcork

am actually re-watching it for about the 7th time at the moment (having tried unsuccessfully to sit through The Wire for a second time - that fifth season was not good), so am back with Josh & Co...........still as brilliant as the first watch of it..........

SebBerkovich

The show was almost perfect, 3rd season was a little bit of work to get through but 5,6 and 7 are solid gold.

The Black Oil

I believe Sorkin said he struggled to write after Sept 11th, hence some issues with season 3, but I'm open to correction on that. 5 was the worst as it started to suffer from John Wells and co. taking over.

cjmcork

thought I'd share - fired on S4 Disk 5 just to have in the background.........and the first ep is one of my favs........... www.lemonlyman.com!!

cjmcork

Re 'Process Stories' - the first Christian Slater ep...........re Pentagon procurement and the $400 ashtray on the submarines cos they only break into 3 places...........didn't they make a big song and dance when the sub went missing in North Korea about the marines no longer being allowed to smoke on subs..........it irks me every time I hear it

Also - re the whole ep about the significance of the President's first veto - but if you watch S1, there's a few eps where they refer to him vetoing stuff

2 MINOR flaws I've noticed ;-)

syklops

cjmcork wrote: »

Re 'Process Stories' - the first Christian Slater ep...........re Pentagon procurement and the $400 ashtray on the submarines cos they only break into 3 places...........didn't they make a big song and dance when the sub went missing in North Korea about the marines no longer being allowed to smoke on subs..........it irks me every time I hear it

I have a similar criticism of Crimson Tide, at the start the captain makes a big thing about his last cigar and he says something "Last breath of polluted air for a few days", but then you see him smoking all the way through the movie.

In relation to your question, I have it on good authority that the only places on a nuclear submarine you can smoke are the officers quarters and the engine room. Usually, it is down to the discretion of the ranking officer in those areas. If the Chief Engineer smokes you're golden, and presumably if you are an officer and you are in your own quarters alone, then you are the ranking officer in the room, but if you're not an engineer, and your an enlisted crewman, you can't smoke.

cjmcork

thought that fans of Two Cathedrals would find this interesting (from 1996) - not sure if there's any commonality in writers, editors, etc............... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZqeqrkBhfA

niamh1975

I have just started watching this series on Netflix. Am totally hooked.

syklops

niamh1975 wrote: »

I have just started watching this series on Netflix. Am totally hooked.

I would nearly say "Don't do it". The West Wing basically ruined television for me. Nothing else satisfies you once you have seen it. You end up basically watching the west wing on loop and sleeping occasionally.

syklops

cjmcork wrote: »

Also - re the whole ep about the significance of the President's first veto - but if you watch S1, there's a few eps where they refer to him vetoing stuff

Theres a great line after the president gets shot and they are in a quandary because he didn't sign a letter, and Margaret says she can sign the Presidents signature, and get them out of the mess and Leo says something like: "Its bad enough we have the president in the hospital, but we have Margaret, vetoing things and sending them back to the hill"

cjmcork

just at the end of S4 - it's ages since I properly watched it - the last ten minutes of Commencement are bloody brilliant - 'Twenty Five' starting now..............laters!