yea, she's talked about it on the West Wing Weekly podcast about how she wished she didn't leave, but couldn't turn down that CSI opportunity.
I'm only a few episodes into season 5, but did they ever address Sam not coming back to the office after his congressional election? They had it set up where Will got his old job and Sam was going to get promoted if he didn't win. Then Toby told Sam he was going to lose huge in the election. Then I don't remember hearing his name again the rest of the season. Seemed kind of odd.
Yeah I mean she was on CSI: Miami for 230+ episodes and is likely set for life as a result. You can't turn that down even with the step down in quality of show.
I almost went back and rewatched some of those episodes to see if I missed something. I get that some people leave and you move on, but Sam was a huge character and they just pretended he didn't exist after one day.
yea, and they knew he was leaving for a long time. He was intended to be the star of the show so he had the largest contract. When it was immediately clear he wouldn't be carrying the show, they tried to get him to agree to the same contract as everyone else and he declined. Eventually it got to the point where they told him to kick rocks. They had plenty of time to give him a real exit but went for the quick disappearance.
Nope, which was annoying. Would've been easy to write him off but there was a lot going on. Rob announced he was leaving, then like 6 weeks later Sorkin and Schlamme said they were out. Sorkin wanted to go out on the big cliff-hanger, Sam just seemingly got lost in the shuffle with everything.
I know, I'm just saying he'll get some degree of closure. It's not like Mandy where they pretend she never existed.
I’m actually rewatching it for probably the 3rd or 4th time right now, we’re currently selecting a Vice President after rescuing the presidents daughter from terrorists. Really wish Sorkin and Schlamme and Lowe could’ve figured out a way to all stay, there’s a definite drop off after they exit despite still being an excellent show.
Doing my 7th or 8th run through at the moment. We've finally got ourselves a Democratic nominee for President.
I'm an emotionless robot, and I still came close to crying during the President's speech about the people from the swim meet who died in the pipe bomb explosion in season 4. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels.
I got to the episode where Toby fixed social security last night. Kind of amazing that this impossible to solve problem no one could touch was solved in one day. I'm starting to lose interest if this is where we're going.
Seasons 5 and 6 get a little rough, but I thought season 7 was really good (just ignore what they do with Toby).
i gave up in season 5 during my initial watch and eventually went back and started from the beginning through the end last season is good but they really struggled to get their footing after Sorkin and Schlamme left
I’ve watched it all the way through like 5 times. I’ve watched it another three times all the way until something is about to happen in season 7. I just can’t bare to watch that anymore.
Arguably one of the greatest shows of all time and its start was one great writer pointing out a poster on the wall to another great writer the night before a meeting. That’s fantastic. Thanks for posting.
I am at this point in yet another rewatch, and haven't touched it for about a week. Either going to skip a couple episodes ahead or just let it be and call it a success.
Cj was the best choice but I’m not sure Josh wasn’t a choice as well. I mean it’s basically what he ended up doing for Santos.
CJ was a good choice because the actress was fantastic and made the switch flawlessly. The character herself wasn’t the best choice especially because she was used as the person who didn’t know anything about govt so it could be explained to the audience by Toby or Sam.
Re-watching it now. On season 3 I think now, wish Netflix would let you download it. Don't think I ever made it past season 4 when it was airing live.
Finally binged through the last couple seasons over the last month or so after stopping at Gaza last year. Seasons were okay, but more stuff pissed me off than reminded me of the early seasons. - Toby stuff was beyond stupid, although I did enjoy his S7 strategy calls with Josh - Similarly, Leo as VP made zero sense on any level. Sucks that he died, but it almost fit the show for how stupid that decision was. - Would have been one thing for Bartlett to choose CJ, but Leo telling Bartlett that she was the only choice was stupid to me, given his relationship with Josh and what Josh was about to do - Along those lines, I love Charlie as a character the first 5 seasons, but him suddenly being CJ's go-to aide was absurd. Former press secretary and body man running the show shaping policy and I'm just supposed to go with it? - Felt like they tried too hard to make Santos look like a saint. I liked how they handled Vinick, and I also enjoyed Bruno as a character - Santos talking about replacing Josh after a bumpy moment because he was getting pressure pissed me off - Mandy might be the worst character I've ever seen on a TV show, but Will Bailey isn't far behind. They made zero effort to make him a likable character and he brought nothing to the table in terms of the plot.
rumor is that CJ getting promoted was because the show was catching heat because there weren't any women in positions of power. They clearly didn't want to risk bringing someone new in so CJ was the only option. there really wasn't much else he could do to stay involved in the show after they took him out of the CoS role. love how in the old days characters could just disappear of a TV show without explanation and nobody bats an eye.
The show had Cj, Nancy, Kate, Abby all in positions of power. Not sure I buy that faux outrage. Josh was a pit bull and was constant flying off the handle and all over the place. Toby was Toby. No chance in hell they introduce a new character in that role at that point. She made the most sense from most angles.
in the hierarchy of the show they weren't in power positions. CJ reported to Josh and Leo, Nancy reported to Fitz and Leo, Kate wasn't on the show yet, and Abby was just the wife who gave Bartlett shit about being president while having MS. I don't really buy the outrage either but I remember TWWW talking about that being one of the reasons
Nancy was the fucking director of the NSA. Just because you ultimately report to someone doesn’t mean you’re not in a position of power. We all report to someone.
That’s a bit misleading. She was very scarce the first few seasons. Which is not the time frame we’re talking about. They could have easily left it that way but chose not to.
Josh was a pit bull who was then told by Leo to go find a Dem candidate he believed in and get him elected into the white house like he did with Bartlett. Maybe that's why Leo thought CJ should get that job because Josh needed to leave, but I think Josh's loyalty to Leo in the first 5 seasons at least earned him that scene in the show. And I don't buy that they couldn't introduce someone new. They introduced a ton of new characters in the final 2 seasons, and at the very least a new character in that role could have given them something to do instead of being so bored with White House staff stuff that they made Toby commit treason for no reason.
They could have introduced cookie monster instead of will bailey and it would have been an improvement
I agree they could have introduced a new character but you have to think money factors in at some point. You’d be introducing another high salary role into the roster.
The CJ stuff would be stupid in real life but it worked on the show, IMO. Charlie tagging along with her was dumb in both respects but I think they knew that and never intended to make a plot point out of it, but just reinforce that Charlie was extremely bright and headed for big things.
I don't think that was a huge deal, but I'm also not as annoyed by that part of the story line as some of the other stuff I posted. I just thought it was weird.
Charlie is one of my favorite characters, and I get why they did it. It was just a weird thing to put him with CJ, given her inexperience in that role. I always liked Charlie's relationship with Josh and wonder if going that direction might have been better. Not a huge deal. Just one of those things that seemed unrealistic in a show that was so much more grounded in the early seasons.
Yeah that’s a good point, him going with Josh would have been more interesting. I didn’t watch it live but I wonder if Dule Hill had another show towards the end - he got a lot less screen time so maybe the actor didn’t have capacity to take on a heavier role with Josh.
they needed a way to keep him near the president for all the great bartlett-charlie scenes. Can't really happen if he is in a completely different wing of the white house.