Shown: Sheen as President Josiah Bartlet; Channing as first lady Abigail Bartlet.
The two had never met before shooting the pilot. “I loved the show, and I always wanted to do more of it,” says Channing, “but it was called The West Wing. It wasn’t The East Wing.”
Shown: Rob Lowe (as Sam Seaborn), Richard Schiff (as Toby Ziegler), Bradley Whitford (as Josh Lyman), Allison Janney (as C.J. Cregg).
“Everything we came up with just paled in comparison to what was happening in the world,” says co-executive producer Kevin Falls of the impact of 9/11, which was addressed in an October 2001 episode titled “Isaac and Ishmael.”
Rick Cleveland (left) and Aaron Sorkin with their awards for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for The West Wing at the 52nd annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
“I went to a lot of Latino politicians whom I know on both sides of the political spectrum,” says Jimmy Smits (left, with executive producer John Wells) of his research process.
From left: John Aylward as Barry Goodwin, Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman, Martin Sheen as President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet, Dule Hill as Charlie Young, Jimmy Smits as president-elect Matthew Santos.
“John [Spencer] died at Christmas, and it was within a month or so that we filmed it. It was raw enough for all of us,” says Stockard Channing, who played first lady Abigail Bartlet.
Sheen behind the scenes of the finale, “Tomorrow,” snagging a souvenir from the set.
“It was interesting to be playing the president’s daughter at the same time there was this very high-profile president’s daughter,” says Elisabeth Moss (with Dule Hill) of Chelsea Clinton, who visited the West Wing set.
Season one of The West Wing premiered in September 1999. “Martin had to be convinced to submit himself in the best leading actor category instead of supporting actor,” says Sorkin. “He felt it was an ensemble and that to submit himself for leading actor would be an insult to the rest of the cast.”
“That was always the Bermuda Triangle for us,” jokes Lowe of the never-ending full cast scenes in the Oval Office, where someone invariably would laugh and ruin a take.
It took seven years before Bradley Whitford’s Josh and Janel Moloney’s Donna hooked up. “I remember thinking, ‘How emotionally constipated is this dude?’ ” says Whitford. “But I think they wisely held off.”
“When I won, I said to John [Spencer], ‘You’re next,’ and he was, because Aaron would write these phenomenal teleplays for us,” says Whitford (right, with Sorkin, center, and exec producer Tommy Schlamme in 2001).