History Series / TheWestWing

* SorkinRelationshipMoment

* HoYay: Quite a bit between Santos and Josh.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/TheAmericanPresident''. Notably, some cast members were also transferred; Anna Deavere Smith moved fron White House Press Secretary (CJ's role) to National Security Advisor, and Joshua Malina was originally an unimportant coworker of the heroine, and Leo's role was originally played by ''Martin Sheen''! This makes re-watching the movie almost indescribably eerie, as one expects Sheen-as-Leo to just kick Michael Douglas out of the Oval Office. Not only did they recycle most of the cast, they also recycled most of the situations, and even several of the lines of dialogue.

* ThreeWallSet
* TechnologyMarchesOn: It happens several times that a news story is about to break, and a character reports that it has already been published on the internet, which means that it will be reported by traditional media soon - the implication being that internet outlets themselves don't matter and are only relevant indirectly through their impact on traditional media outlets. This seems rather strange in times in which many or most people get their news mainly from the internet.

-->'''Toby:''' Ginger, [[PassThePopcorn bring the popcorn!]]

* PoseOfSilence: On Ainsley's first day, she has to meet with two Jerkasses about a stupid thing they did, and suggests that they go out into the hallway rather than discuss it in their open-plan office. Being new, she doesn't realize that the hallway will be as full of people [[WalkAndTalk walking and talking]] as any given room. She leans in and says, "Okay, we'll keep our voices down." One Jerkass leans in long enough to sarcastically say, "Okay," then straightens up and they both spend the rest of the scene in normal poses talking at normal volumes, while she continues to lean and whisper. No respect, no Pose of Silence.

** During Admiral Fitzwallace's memorable speech about "not knowing if it's peacetime or wartime anymore", he calls himself a "soldier". The rivalry and pride of the different service branches is very well known; a Navy man would ''never'' call himself a soldier, always a sailor. Leo, a former airman, does the same in 'Game On'.

[[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast No, the Enchanted Rose isn't located here.]]

** As mentioned above, Aaron Sorkin is a huge fan of ''Theatre/SeventeenSeventySix'', and went so far as to name several major characters after historical figures who are prominently featured in the musical. President Josiah Bartlet is named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Bartlett Dr. Josiah Bartlett]] of New Hampshire (and said to be his descendant), his wife Abigail is named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams Abigail Adams]], and Josh Lyman is named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyman_Hall Dr. Lyman Hall]] of Georgia. Referenced more directly on the few occasions where Bartlet insists on being called "Dr. Bartlet" to remind people that he has a doctorate in Economics; the historical Bartlett was a practicing physician.

** In a very early episode, Sam cracks "Like we don't have enough trouble with the first lady and her ouija board," a reference likely inspired by Nancy Reagan's fondness for astrology and setting up the idea that the first lady is a bit of a flake. Then Abbey actually shows up, played by Stockard Channing, and she's a smart, savvy, no-nonsense doctor with not a hint of flakiness about her.

** The titular character in "Mr. Willis of Ohio" is a representative appointed to his wife's seat after her death. Except members of the House of Representatives don't get appointed replacements when they have to leave office early - only Senators do. Special elections are held to replace departed representatives. Consultant Lawrence O'Donnell actually pointed that out to Sorkin during the writing of the show - according to O'Donnell, Sorkin was pretty annoyed to learn that, eventually just shrugging and saying that he didn't want to make the episode about the Senate, because Senators are more recognizable and it would break verisimilitude for the audience.

*** Actually averted. The conniving chief of staff may not be seen again, but her candidate is. After successfully maneuvering him into a presidential candidate, he is asked by a reporter why he wants to be President. He chokes, and this is treated as a final nail in the coffin of his presidential bid.

* MusicalTrigger: Josh's [=PTSD=] reaches critical during the Christmas season because of all the bands playing in the White House.

*** This callback is actually inverted, as Josh's actual PTSD symptom has him interpreting music as sirens, rather than the sound of an emergency (gunfire) being interpreted as music.

* OverprotectiveDad: "Just remember these two things: She's nineteen years old, and the 82nd Airborne works for me." And that's the suitor for his daughters that the President likes best!

''The West Wing'' was a political drama (1999-2006) created by Creator/AaronSorkin, starring Creator/MartinSheen as the idealized President of the United States, nerdily intellectual Democrat Jed Bartlet. The real focus, however, is on his smart and dedicated staff, who [[WalkAndTalk roam the White House endlessly discussing the pressing political issues of the moment]]. In fact, the President wasn't even originally intended to appear very often, but Sheen was so impressive in the pilot that he was made a regular instead of the original four-episodes-a-season plan.

* CommutingOnABus: Stockard Channing from season 5 onwards; while her appearances were always sporadic, in the final seasons she's featured in only a handful of episodes each season (though still credited with the regular cast when she appears) and she's often referred to as being on trips or in the Bartlet home in Manchester when not appearing.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: The show frequently deals with various military crises of varying severity. Oftentimes a Navy ship of a real class but a fake name will be mentioned.

** The "peacetime or wartime" speech also makes some claims about how civilized the nature of war has been historically, which many historians would laugh at, but perhaps Fitzwallace was making some broad strokes generalizations to make his point.

** [[BrattyHalfPint Anthony,]] [[MouthyKid the kid]] [[ServileSnarker Charlie]] took over as [[BigBrotherMentor big brother]] for in the beginning of season 4, was never mentioned again, but we can probably assume Charlie continued working with him offscreen.

* [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucracy]]: While the show has an idealistic image of those public servants who are individually important, it does ''not'' shy away from lampooning the hell out of the entrenched, glacial, irrational bureaucracy of the federal departments.

* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]]: Donna several times, perhaps most notably in "20 Hours in America", having to deal with Toby and Josh while they're making their way through Indiana.

* PutOnABus: Creator/AaronSorkin loves this trope. [[BlondeRepublicanSexKitten Ainsley Hayes]], [[TheAce Sam Seaborn]], and [[CantStandThemCantLiveWithoutThem Danny]] [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther Concannon]] are notable examples. TheBusCameBack for [[spoiler:all of them]].

* [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]]:

** Nicely averted by the recurring character of [[GoodShepherd Al Caldwell]], a very reasonable Christian minister who serves as a foil to the [[TheFundamentalist much more militant]] [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Mary Marsh]]. [[TruthInTelevision Sorkin does know how to write both the good and bad of Caldwell's religion.]]

* ComplexityAddiction: Kate comes to this realisation during the US[=/=]Canada border tensions subplot in "A Good Day". Everyone in the Situation Room is so used to dealing with crises that they've gotten themselves rigidly locked into a near-permanent crisis mode. This has the result that what ''should'' be a completely inconsequential situation nearly becomes a war between the United States and Canada because everyone involved unnecessarily over-complicates the situation by [[SeriousBusiness acting as if a couple of schmucks who just got lost while hunting and accidentally wandered into Canada is tantamount to an illegal military incursion that requires official sabre-rattling, back-channel diplomatic wrangling and a war-footing military build-up]].

* ConspicuousConsumption: At the end of the series when the Bartlet Administration is winding down, C.J. gets a job offer from a tycoon looking to start a charity and explicitly asks C.J. to suggest something that doesn't come across as Conspicuous Compassion, a subtype of this trope. He asks her to suggest something "not sexy" but still needs to happen; she responds with gravel road infrastructure improvements in the african bush.