Question: Are you at all surprised that John Spencer didn't receive a posthumous Emmy nomination for his work on The West Wing? I thought his death would earn him a nod at least in an honorary sense. But given the condition of the current system, I cannot say that I am completely surprised.
Answer: It is surprising, but really, with this year's nominations, where do you start and where do you end? Truthfully, and with all sincere respect to the terrific and much-lamented John Spencer, this was not Leo's greatest season on the show, and I think the nomination in that category for Alan Alda was more appropriate. A sentimental nomination for an actor taken from us too soon is without doubt the sort of thing you'd expect from a conservative group like the Emmy voters, so it is kind of jarring. But overall, this is one of the more interesting, eclectic categories this year, and just having Gregory Itzin (24's President Logan) in the running is very satisfying. (He's my pick over Alda,
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Question: I watched the "Requiem" episode (centering around Leo's funeral) of The West Wing last weekend, because I was a fan of that show back during its first seasons and because you and other reviewers have said that it had finally gotten back to good form in its final days. It was like getting back in touch with an old friend. But why wasn't Sam (Rob Lowe) at the service? The previews show him returning next week, so Rob Lowe is obviously willing to return to the show. Why didn't they get him back for the funeral episode? That would have been perfect, giving us old-school fans a last glimpse of the original gang back together (albeit with Toby on the outside now).
Answer: I can't say why, but I figure that the show's producers were busy enough just figuring out how to do this salute to Leo (and John Spencer) right. Finding a way to shoehorn the return of Sam (and Rob Lowe) into the episode might have been too much of a distraction, though I agree it would have made sense. (For my
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John Spencer, The West Wing
Question: I was impressed and gratified by The West Wing's handling of the death of John Spencer/Leo McGarry in last week's episode (April 9), and I wonder if this is the road to the kind of classy ending you hoped for for the show. Clearly it was a story line that couldn't be delayed — no other plausible way to explain the absence of the vice-presidential candidate, especially given the real-life circumstances — but the writers wisely kept the ultimate focus on election results. Grief was expressed by the characters closest to Leo, while others showed the harsh reality of politics. Josh's turnaround was evident but not overplayed. Best of all, throughout the show the presidential candidates displayed the kind of nobility that drew us to this series in the first place. I lost my enthusiasm for The West Wing a while back, but for me this episode is close to full circle.
Answer: Isn't that the truth. The West Wing at its best has always been an idealized romance about public service, and
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Such a bittersweet victory for Jimmy Smits' Matt Santos on The West Wing Sunday night, winning a nail-biter of a presidential race (it all came down to Nevada, a state in which he couldn't even remember campaigning) in the wake of running mate Leo McGarry's tragic death. Leo's obit made headlines before polls closed in the West, making matters even more tense and emotional. (And can I just say one more time how much I'd love to live in West Wing's wish-fulfillment universe, where candidates take the high road and you can almost believe that voters went for whom they liked most instead of whom they hated least.)
This is a bittersweet moment for The West Wing itself in so many ways. In its final episodes, the show is better than it has been in some time, but relatively few are watching since NBC moved it to Sundays, where the network is pretty much an als
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Question: You would have thought that the writers of The West Wing could have put more creative thought into these final episodes instead of more Santos campaign drivel (as per the March 26 episode). I know we're all in anticipation of the treatment of Leo's death, but the original cast has been largely pushed aside. And those of us who are longtime fans of The West Wing would have appreciated seeing the original crew hard at work at the end of Bartlet's last term.
Answer: Can't really agree, but then, the ratings bear out the fact that few are all that excited about the election episodes of this final season (which NBC has effectively buried on Sunday nights). For me, and for most others I know who are still watching the show (not very many, admittedly), the election brought some storytelling vigor back to a show that had stagnated in its depiction of life in the lame-duck Bartlet White House. I thought the campaign episodes dealing with the fallout over the nuclear-plant incident, and
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Martin Sheen and John Spencer, The West Wing
During this, The West Wing's seventh season, the NBC drama's producers have had to make one difficult decision after another. When should the on-screen election air? Who should win? Could the show continue on past this season, following Bartlet's successor? In the wake of original cast member John Spencer's sudden passing, how should Leo's absence be addressed? And lastly, once it was determined that this would in fact be the final season, how should the show come to an end?
Thinking back to the fall and the issue of the show's longevity, executive producer John Wells says, "We had a decision to make: Do we try to press NBC to continue the series [with] another presidency? Or were we coming to the natural end of our storytelling? The series
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Question: You failed to answer the big West Wing question last week: How are they going to deal with John Spencer's death?
Answer: That's old news, Dennis. I only report new news in AA. But here's the scoop anyway: Leo will die off screen of natural causes in an early April episode, forcing Santos to find a new running mate just days before the election.
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Question: I know that Sandra Oh and Patrick Dempsey are getting all the award nominations for Grey's Anatomy, but after watching some recent episodes, T.R. Knight has been the standout for me. In "Begin the Begin" he helped a teenage girl understand what she really wanted to be in life, and in "Tell Me Sweet Little Lies," he and Carole Cook had maybe the best scene I've seen in this show since Cristina screamed and sobbed, "Somebody sedate me!" Knight has finally come into his own; he has become moving and distinguished in subtle ways. If anything, I think he deserves some award recognition. I know you don't base your TV-watching on awards, but I'm an awards-show aficionado. What do you think his chances are at the Emmys this year? P.S.: I admire your column and read it every Monday and Wednesday. Thanks!
Answer: Thank you. I'd seen T.R. Knight a number of times on stage before he got this big break with a character that fits him like a surgical glove. He is terrific: hilarious,
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I'm often quick to criticize NBC when it blunders, which sometimes seems like a full-time job. And it's pretty clear the network is still far from perfect — witness the bungling of The Book of Daniel, buried on Fridays where low ratings would almost certainly have doomed it, even without a religious-right protest that scared away spineless advertisers.
But when NBC does something right, as in a series of aggressive moves announced over the weekend, it seems only right to take notice. Among the highlights:
Ta-ta, West Wing: Calling it quits was inevitable, but even so, I feared that NBC would, out of desperation, try to keep the franchise going after President Bartlet passes the torch to his successor. Thankfully, that will not be the case, and the show will wrap up with a retrospective and series final
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As long as Lost and Brokeback Mountain won the big awards, which they did, anything else that happened at the historically random (and often, randomly hilarious) Golden Globes was gravy to me.
What I love about the Golden Globes as a TV show is the rare opportunity to see movie and TV stars — or, in the case of Felicity Huffman, one and the same — share the spotlight. After all, where would a multinominated movie star and director like George Clooney be without TV having made him what he is? And then there's Geena Davis, resplendent in red and accepting her Commander in Chief Globe with a hilarious mock anecdote of how inspiring her presidential role is to some little girl she made up. She has gone from TV to movies (and an
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