john spencer

Did someone put something in the water that the Santos campaign workers are drinking? Everyone's hooking up! Lou (Janeane Garofalo) and the 23 year old campaign worker; two women who work on the staff; even...Josh and Donna! Yup, even they go off to Josh's hotel ro...HOLY CRAP, LOOK AT JANEL MOLONEY IN HER UNDERWEAR!!...room. Later in the day Matt and his wife get into the act, waiting for numbers to come in.

Are they sure the title of this episode isn't "Erection Day"?

Regular readers of my West Wing reviews know that I haven't been a fan of the show the past two years. Oh, it has had a certain quality, but it's nowhere near the level that we saw in the first four seasons, when Aaron Sorkin was in charge. But I gotta tell ya: if the remaining episodes continue the quality we've seen this season, then at the end of the year I'm not only going to name this show Comeback of the Year, it's going on my Top 10 list.

It seems like such a long time ago that we had a new episode of The West Wing. We had John Spencer's death, then the Olympics. Seems like it's been forever. So when they showed the "previously on The West Wing..." recap, I was actually interested in it. Where exactly did we leave off? Oh yeah, the nuclear accident in California, Santos starting to creep up on Vinick in the polls, the aftermath of the live debate. And now we see that Santos isn't just creeping up on Vinick, he has tied him in several states (including Vinick's California), and surpassed him in others. Donna and the gang is so happy by the polls that they go crazy and start waking up everyone in the hotel. Donna goes into Josh's room, and they are so ecstatic about the numbers that they...

When The West Wing airs the "Leo's Funeral" episode in mid-April, the show will feature members of the L.A. Air Force Base Honor Guard. (Leo McGarry was in the Air Force when he was a younger.)

Other news from this article: producers have asked several people from past episodes of The West Wing (including Stockard Channing - and I'll guess Allison Smith and Joanna Gleason too) to come back to the show for Leo's funeral.

The West Wing Continuity Guide site is also reporting that Bradley Whitford recently gave a speech at American University, and he disclosed that they have filmed the funeral episode, and that not only was he a pallbearer for Leo, he was also a pallbearer for John Spencer. (Lots of spoilers at that site, by the way, so surf at your own risk!)  

OK, so we know the show is canceled, and we talked about last night's episode. Here are some more news tidbits for fans:

• Producer John Wells knows who wins the election, but he's not talking. (The election will be held on the April 2 and 9 episodes; the two hour series finale is on May 14).
• Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme will not be returning.
• Producers are talking with Rob Lowe about coming back as Sam Seaborn. It all depends on whether he has the time.

NBC has made offical what many people thought would happen: they've canceled The West Wing. Actually, they canceled it before John Spencer passed away on December 16. They're just now announcing it.

They also announced that creator Aaron Sorkin and director/producer Tommy Schlamme will not be involved in the finale. Damn.

The series will end with a two hour episode on May 14. A one hour retrospective will air just before the finale. (Personally, I'm happy the show is ending. The quality has dropped off the past couple of years, and like NBC says, it's time.)

So tell us West Wing fans: how would you like the show to end?

 

 

Ah, someone from the cast who feels the same as longtime West Wing fans.

Richard Schiff, who plays Toby Ziegler on the show (yes, I say "plays" even though he's been fired - he'll be in upcoming episodes) wanted to leave the show. In this article about a play he is in, Schiff talks about the show:

"It’s been time for me to move on for quite a while actually. You know, the money was very good and that’s what kind of drew me back because I felt like after five years of 70-hour weeks that I kind of deserved to get a little bit of a payoff. And the money got very good in the last two years. I wanted to leave and then we kind of made a compromise that I would come back and give them a story that they could use to lead me going out. They came up with firing him... That wasn’t my idea!

Between you and me - and you can print this - Toby wouldn’t have done that in ten million years! But, you know, it’s not my show...And now it’s even greatly sad because of John Spencer’s passing. I certainly, honestly, don’t want to go back for another season without Johnny there. I couldn’t imagine The West Wing without Toby Ziegler and I couldn’t imagine it without Leo McGarrey as well. It’s just not possible. So, it might move on and become another show and that’s fine.

It’s important for people to know that I really, really loved this Toby character. And I really loved the people on The West Wing. Allison Janney is my soulmate on the set and John Spencer was just one of the most fascinating, wonderful human beings I’ve ever met. And Martin Sheen is singularly the best human being I’ve ever met. Tommy Schlamme who used to run the show and Aaron Sorkin and his writing and some of the writers who tried to fill his footsteps are truly wonderfully gifted and they’re family and I love them to death. I just feel like it’s time to get out of the kitchen once in a while. It’s time to move on."

 

 

First up tonight is a nice opening with Martin Sheen, a short tribute to John Spencer explaining what type of person he was like and that tonight is the first in five remaining episodes that will feature Spencer.

Tonight's ep mostly centers around Leo and how he is screwing up the prep for the vice presidential debate. That stuff is really interesting, but it's surrounded by these really lame domestic scenes with Matt Santos and his family. Eh. They aren't bad for some other show (I guess), but it's just not the whip-smart show The West Wing used to be. Still, Spencer's performance, the stuff about the inner workings of the debate prep, and that one scene with Josh and Toby on the phone (Josh: "I forget, in D.C., can felons vote?......Too soon?" Toby: "Little bit.") make it all worthwhile.

There was a lot of confusion last week when The West Wing's John Spencer passed away. Every single newspaper, magazine, and web site (including this one, but in our defense we missed the opening scene and were just repeating the news sites) reported that the character of Leo had appeared in a three years later flash forward in the first scene of the season opener. And that would pose a problem, since Spencer passed away and couldn't have been in a scene three years in the future.

But NBC is repeating the episode right now and it's official: Leo was not in the scene. So some of the speculation we talked about last week is still valid.