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| Written by Aaron Sorkin |
| Directed by Thomas Schlamme |
| Rob Lowe as | Sam (Samuel Norman) Seaborn | Deputy Communications Director |
| Moira Kelly as | Mandy (Madeline) Hampton | Public Relations Consultant |
| Dulé Hill as | Charlie (Charles) Young | Personal Aide to the President |
| Allison Janney as | C.J. (Claudia Jean) Cregg | Press Secretary |
| Richard Schiff as | Toby {Zachary} Ziegler | Communications Director |
| John Spencer as | Leo {Thomas} McGarry | Chief of Staff |
| Bradley Whitford as | Josh (Joshua) Lyman | Deputy Chief of Staff |
| Martin Sheen as | Jed (Josiah) Bartlet | President of the United States |
| Timothy Busfield as | Danny (Daniel) Concannon | (Washington Post) Reporter |
| Jorja Fox as | Gina Toscano | Special Agent |
| Janel Moloney as | Donna (Donnatella) Moss | Assistant to Deputy Chief of Staff |
| Elisabeth Moss as | Zoey {Patricia} Bartlet | Bartlets' youngest daughter |
| Suzy Nakamura as | Cathy | Assistant to Deputy Communications Director |
| Michael O'Neill as | Ron Butterfield | Head of POTUS' Secret Service detail |
| John Amos as | Admiral Percy (Fitz) Fitzwallace | Chairman of the Joint Chiefs |
| Tim Matheson as | Vice President John Hoynes | |
| Kathryn Joosten as | Mrs. Landingham | President's Secretary / Delores (first name) |
| NiCole Robinson as | Margaret | Assistant to Chief of Staff |
| Kim Webster as | Ginger | Assistant to Communications Director |
| Devika Parikh as | Bonnie | Communications' Aide |
| Melissa Fitzgerald as | Carol | Assistant to the Press Secretary |
| Kris Murphy as | Katie | Witt (last name) / Reporter |
| Charles Noland as | Steve | Reporter |
| Ralph Meyering Jr. as | Tom | "Phil" |
| Steven M. Gagnon as | Officer #1 | |
| George McDaniel as | Officer #2 | |
| Linda Burden-Williams as | Moderator | |
| Emidio Antonio as | Lou | "Lou" (wrong name) |
| Christopher Dukes as | Phil | "Phil" (wrong name) |
| Lisa Croisette as | Patty | "Patty" (wrong name) |
| Larry Stahoviak as | Steve | "Steve" (wrong name) |
| Derek Triplett as | Mikey | "Mikey" (wrong name) |
"It's a matter of life and death. It's a very elaborate action sequence." - Rob Lowe
"Something squirrelly in 'The West Wing'?"
By Peter Johnson
May 3, 2000
USA Today
Speaking of season finales, we're all in D.C. filming TWW's first. You're right, that I took the same title at the 1st SN [Sports Night] finale. There was just something that felt right about doing that. - Aaron Sorkin
Posted at AaronSorkin@yahoogroups.com
By List Owner
Date Unavailable
Message 559
Think politicians are fast and loose with the truth? They've got nothing on NBC's The West Wing. In the season finale, military heavy John Amos asks chief exec Martin Sheen about the presidential seal: "Most of the time, the eagle is facing the olive branch, but when Congress declares war, the eagle faces the arrows. How do they do that?" Sheen promises to get an answer, but we've beaten him to it. "That's not accurate," says White House spokeswoman Victoria Valentine. In 1945, Harry Truman ordered that "the beak should always face the olive branch. Previously, it had faced different directions, primarily toward the arrows." Guess that one shot right by the show's eagle-eyed writers.
"Reality Check"
By Corey Takahashi
June 2, 2000
Entertainment Weekly
"It's not about who's coming back and who's not, ... but a kind of convention that he's [Aaron Sorkin] interested in exploring." - John Spencer"The fact that he's [Aaron Sorkin] using it now when we don't need it is further evidence that it's not part of [a audience-grabbing] plan." - Richard Schiff
The cast members joked about the resolution of the cliffhanger next season.
"I think Toby dies," mused Hill.
"But first he has an affair with C.J.," added Schiff to laughter.
"West Wing stars say they're in the dark about series' cliffhanger"
By John McKay
June 8, 2000
Canadian Press
"I promise you that moment in the show happened for the exact same reason every moment on every show happened: I thought people would like it," - Aaron Sorkin
"West Wing finale shot down"
By Tyler McLeod
July 15, 2000
Calgary Sun
The legendary shootout in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was his inspiration, Sorkin said.
"Who wants to be a West Wing survivor? Not Kelly"
By John Allemang
July 17, 2000
The Globe and Mail
"I wish everybody had liked it. Obviously that's not the case," - Aaron Sorkin
"'West Wing' creator looks past finale to next season"
By Chuck Barney
July 17, 2000
Contra Costa Times
"I'd be fibbing if I told you we didn't get hammered by critics about that ending," Sorkin said over lunch at the Warner Bros. studio where The West Wing is produced."Not many critics liked it. Wait, that's not quite accurate. Nearly all the critics hated the ending.
"Was I hurt by the bad reviews? A little bit. I get upset when I get blasted in a supermarket shopper.
"But this wasn't a spur-of-the moment decision. I actually planned this two-minute scenario last fall. It leads into an important, two-part season premiere, which provides a back story about how Bartlet and his West Wing staff got together. Remember, in our story, Bartlet is at his midterm. From that perspective, that assassination attempt was an important scene to show how he got to the White House.
"So there is a method to this seeming madness," Sorkin said.
"I normally write on the wing, like six days before filming. So planning that scene last fall worked against my usual style. "
Then Sorkin, who talks with the rapidity and intelligence of his characters on The West Wing and the canceled Sports Night, confessed to a writing weakness.
"I've always had trouble with action sequences. I worried over the episode when Bartlet collapsed and was diagnosed with MS. That wasn't a particularly strong show.
"It's like closing my eyes and jumping into water. So maybe the assassination-attempt sequence wasn't as good as it should have been. But I think all will be forgiven when you see those season-opening episodes."
"'Wing' cliffhanger a sellout? Hang in there"
By Dusty Saunders
July 18, 2000
Rocky Mountain News
"I have read plenty of negative reaction, ...You write something and you hope everybody likes it. Sometimes that doesn't happen." - Aaron Sorkin"It was the only episode all year that I planned ahead," he said. "I knew how I wanted to begin this season and I knew how I had to get there." - Aaron Sorkin
"Wing commander"
By Tom Jicha
July 19, 2000
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"I have heard a lot of people say that it's the worst cliffhanger of the year," says [Aaron] Sorkin, who concedes there may be some truth there. "In everything I have written I tend to get into a little bit of trouble with action.""The last two minutes of the show in May are really the first two minutes of the season opener,'' Sorkin says. ``It really wasn't done to be shocking or to shake up the show."
"The first time I saw the [final scene] I said, `Holy cow, it doesn't really look like our show,' "
"`West Wing' cliffhanger dogs creator"
By Terry Jackson
July 19, 2000
Miami Herald
"We accidentally ran over her [Jorja Fox] leg with a limousine -- and she was great about it," said "West Wing" writer/creator Aaron Sorkin.Fox was filming on location in front of the Newseum in Arlington, Va. After the shooting, Fox fell to the asphalt alongside Dulé Hill, who plays Charlie, the president's aide.
"We were waiting for them to yell cut and all of a sudden I feel something heavy on my leg," Fox said. "And there's this limousine coming off my right leg. I was like, OK, it's a new life experience. I've been run over by a presidential limousine, which is kind of hilarious."
Fox jumped up immediately and she thought she was fine, but producers insisted she get checked out at a hospital, where all the nurses recognized her from her role on "ER."
"I felt like a walking miracle because I didn't break anything," Fox said. "It was kind of like a big bruise, a big contusion."
"Giving Her All"
By Rob Owen
July 25, 2000
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
... [Thomas] Schlamme, who logged onto the Internet the night the episode aired and discovered that "people were going back and studying the tape like it was the Zapruder film."
"West Wing won't bask in glory as season opens with two-parter"
By Alan Sepinwall
July 31, 2000
Newark Star-Ledger
"I understand people's misgivings, ...The cliff-hangerness of it all perhaps seemed a step down. Perhaps." - Aaron Sorkin
"Taking 'Wing'"
By Brian Lambert
October 1, 2000
St. Paul Pioneer Press
"There were complaints about the last scene, ... That was interesting to me that people were upset about that, just because assassination attempts are something that happened three times in my lifetime ... somebody has shot at the president." - Bradley Whitford
"'Wing' sets high bar for second term"
By Mark Dawidziak
October 1, 2000
Cleveland Plain Dealer
"It was never designed as 'a cool cliffhanger,' as a 'Who Shot J.R.?' way just to get more viewers," explained "West Wing" director and executive producer Tommy Schlamme of the assassination debate. "Our intent was to open a storytelling avenue."
"Bullets pump new energy into 'West Wing' storyline"
By Mike Duffy
October 1, 2000
Detroit Free Press
"You know what? I read plenty of negative reaction to it, ... But it's good to point out that response wasn't universal. There are lots and lots of people gripped by it and going around all summer and saying, `Who got hit? Who got hit?' It, frankly, was as exciting a piece of film as I've ever been involved with." - Aaron Sorkin
"`West Wing' finale was planned as setup for new season"
By William Larue
October 3, 2000
Newhouse News Service in San Jose Mercury News
"Those last two minutes kind of sailed into a lot of peoples' problem with television - that it will go to the cliche, that there must be a cliffhanger," ..."All of a sudden, (there was) cops-and-robbers kind of violence . . . which was very un-West Wing like." - Aaron Sorkin
"Writer shoots back"
By Betsy Powell
October 4, 2000
Toronto Star
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