alternatehistory.com
Culture: The West Wing
The West Wing was an incredibly popular political drama created by Aaron Sorkin for broadcast on NBC. The first episode, "Pilot" aired on September 22, 1999; less than six months after the Kargil War. The show had been initially adverse to adoption by the NBC network after many felt it was inappropriate to depict such a sensitive topic so fast.
However, NBC took a chance on it, and aired it to fantastic ratings. The President of the United States, John Conyers, spoke up and said the show gave a "rather accurate insight to the West Wing and the way things work around here."
The actor James Earl Jones, famous for his performances as Mufasa in the 1994 animated film The Lion King, and in the 1970s for his voice work as Darth Vader in the Star Wars trilogy, played Andrew Jefferson, the incumbent President of the United States. Jones' character was the first African-American president, and was controversial in some circles for being depicted as the African-American descendant of Thomas Jefferson. Jones' character is a noted leftist Democrat, elected in 1998 after beating the incumbent President's third term bid. It wasn't very hard to see that Jones' character is practically an expy of the incumbent President.
The actor Harrison Ford, also famous for his work in the Star Wars trilogy, and in the Indiana Jones films, was cast as Vice President Benjamin Wilson. Wilson, like Ford, is of Jewish faith. Similar to Jones' character, Wilson is practically an expy of Bernard Sanders, the incumbent Vice President. Wilson hails from the state of New Hampshire, a neighbor to the real Vice President's Vermont.
The cast includes others such as Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg, the White House Press Secretary, Richard Schiff as Tobias Ziegler, the White House Communications Director, Bradley Whitford as Joshua Lyman, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Sally Field as Irene McGarry, the White House Chief of Staff, and Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborne, the White House Deputy Communications Director.
The fictional staff attempted to fit into the current appearance as best as they could. Originally in the early drafts, John Spencer had been considered to be the Chief of Staff character, however, it was decided to be faithful to the real world, and select a female to portray the Chief of Staff.
The West Wing aired from September 1999 until 2010, when it concluded after the end of the Jefferson administration, having served three terms in the White House. (The West Wing universe runs on a system where elections are held in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010, so on and so forth.)
The show remains one of the most popular programs on American television to date.
((Vader/Indy 2016?
))
Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China
Culture: The West Wing
A history of Modern China
Culture: The West Wing
"When we were concepting this show in late '98, we had intended for the first episode to focus around Josh, the Deputy Chief of Staff, to get into some hot-water after offending the far-left factions such as the AFL-CIO... however, in May '99, we kind of changed everything, as everything had changed at the hands of madmen.
The Pilot episode was completely rewritten to be a walk-in to the aftermath of the Kargil War. It was so fresh in everyone's mind that it was impossible to avoid it. It really fundamentally set us up. The night after it aired, we got a telephone call and... well, the President of the United States talked to me for a few minutes, and said that our interpretation of the Oval Office during such a crisis was insanely accurate, and that the Public Relations offices would be sending people to help coordinate the show to accuracy. The White House Press Secretary and a few others came down the next week and sat down with Allison Janney and the other actors and well, history was made."
- Aaron Sorkin, 2003The Pilot episode was completely rewritten to be a walk-in to the aftermath of the Kargil War. It was so fresh in everyone's mind that it was impossible to avoid it. It really fundamentally set us up. The night after it aired, we got a telephone call and... well, the President of the United States talked to me for a few minutes, and said that our interpretation of the Oval Office during such a crisis was insanely accurate, and that the Public Relations offices would be sending people to help coordinate the show to accuracy. The White House Press Secretary and a few others came down the next week and sat down with Allison Janney and the other actors and well, history was made."
...
The West Wing was an incredibly popular political drama created by Aaron Sorkin for broadcast on NBC. The first episode, "Pilot" aired on September 22, 1999; less than six months after the Kargil War. The show had been initially adverse to adoption by the NBC network after many felt it was inappropriate to depict such a sensitive topic so fast.
However, NBC took a chance on it, and aired it to fantastic ratings. The President of the United States, John Conyers, spoke up and said the show gave a "rather accurate insight to the West Wing and the way things work around here."
The actor James Earl Jones, famous for his performances as Mufasa in the 1994 animated film The Lion King, and in the 1970s for his voice work as Darth Vader in the Star Wars trilogy, played Andrew Jefferson, the incumbent President of the United States. Jones' character was the first African-American president, and was controversial in some circles for being depicted as the African-American descendant of Thomas Jefferson. Jones' character is a noted leftist Democrat, elected in 1998 after beating the incumbent President's third term bid. It wasn't very hard to see that Jones' character is practically an expy of the incumbent President.
The actor Harrison Ford, also famous for his work in the Star Wars trilogy, and in the Indiana Jones films, was cast as Vice President Benjamin Wilson. Wilson, like Ford, is of Jewish faith. Similar to Jones' character, Wilson is practically an expy of Bernard Sanders, the incumbent Vice President. Wilson hails from the state of New Hampshire, a neighbor to the real Vice President's Vermont.
The cast includes others such as Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg, the White House Press Secretary, Richard Schiff as Tobias Ziegler, the White House Communications Director, Bradley Whitford as Joshua Lyman, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Sally Field as Irene McGarry, the White House Chief of Staff, and Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborne, the White House Deputy Communications Director.
The fictional staff attempted to fit into the current appearance as best as they could. Originally in the early drafts, John Spencer had been considered to be the Chief of Staff character, however, it was decided to be faithful to the real world, and select a female to portray the Chief of Staff.
The West Wing aired from September 1999 until 2010, when it concluded after the end of the Jefferson administration, having served three terms in the White House. (The West Wing universe runs on a system where elections are held in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010, so on and so forth.)
The show remains one of the most popular programs on American television to date.
((Vader/Indy 2016?
))- Asami
- Word Count: 660