No, Thank YOU, Mr. President

The tears started around 7:55pm on Sunday night as the final scene of the pilot episode aired. The tears continued to come and go until the scene of the airplane in the sky faded to black. There was some laughter, a great deal of smiles, and a definite appreciation and nod to 7 years of one heck of a great time.

It was interesting to me that The West Wing closed the curtains on its series run on Mother’s Day as it was my own mother who convinced me to watch this show. I hadn’t seen any of the first season’s episodes until I returned home for summer break in college. The first episode I watched was actually a rerun the week before the 1st season finale. Then, my mother and I watched the season finale together, and I predicted the assassination attempt pretty early on in that episode. From there, I watched the entire first season in reruns that summer and was hooked.

There was certainly an ebb and flow to this series, but regardless of the changing of the guard in writing and directing and the show taking a decidedly soap operatic turn mid-way through, I still loved every minute of it and never missed an episode. It was an escape from the reality of this country’s politics, and a look into what was a West Wing Utopia.

The awards and nominations abounded for this series and to that end Martin Sheen was profusely nominated but never won an Emmy. He did, however, win a Golden Globe once for his role as President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet. Allison Janney won multiple Emmy’s for her role as CJ (Claudia Jean) Craig first as a supporting actress and then as the more apt lead actress. Bradley Whitford won an Emmy for best supporting actor in his role as Deputy Chief of Staff, Joshua Lyman. John Spencer (may he rest in peace) won an Emmy for his role as Leo McGarry, Chief of Staff and best friend of the President…and to this day the only character on the show besides the First Lady who could tell the President NO and get away with it. Richard Schiff (whose character I didn’t like from about the end of the 2nd season on) also won an Emmy for his role as Toby Ziegler, the White House Communications Director and is still the only staff member to be fired from the Bartlet White House. The First Lady, Stockard Channing (Rizzo herself) won an Emmy for best supporting actress in the same year that she won a best supporting actress Emmy for her role in a television movie. The show won Emmys four times as Best Drama Series.

You will find no spoilers here even though there wasn’t much surprise in the last episode, but my favorite part was President Bartlet’s good-byes to his staff. Charlie’s (pronounced with Martin Sheen’s accent as CHAW-LEE) was probably my favorite. His relationship with the President as his personal assistant was one of the most brilliant pieces of writing I’ve ever seen. They were like a father and son who just plain understood each other. Nevermind the definite strain in the relationship with Charlie started dating the President’s daughter Zoey. :)

The death of Mrs. Landingham, though I’m still upset about that one, is probably one of the most well done storylines of any series I’ve ever seen. And my favorite episode to this day is the 2nd Season episode titled “The Midterms.” A religious radio talk show host called out the Bartlet White House on many issues, but in her visit to the White House for a reception, the host is met with a President who is even more fluent in the Bible than she claims to be. It’s my favorite scene when he basically pulls the carpet out from under her on everything she has claimed on her show while she remains seated on her stool in the reception room. At the end of his speech, he tells her one more thing: “In this building, when the President stands, NO BODY sits.” Causing her to jump to her feet and recognize how wrong she was. That speech still gives me chills.

But, alas, all good things must come to an end, and last night closed the door on an irreplaceable series. Even as President Bartlet was telling his staff what a pleasure it was working with them, I could only think about how the pleasure truly was all ours as viewers.