Trivia / The West Wing

• Billing Displacement: Cast members are always placed in alphabetical order in the opening credits, regardless of when they joined the main cast, with the exceptions of Rob Lowe going first (seasons 1-4), Moira Kelly going second (season 1), Martin Sheen going last with an "and" credit, and Jimmy Smits going second to last with a "with" credit (seasons 6-7). This means that John Spencer, Richard Schiff, and Bradley Whitford, three of the most central actors on the show, are always billed last. This was especially prevalent in the final season, where Whitford's Josh Lyman was arguably the main character. The likes of Alan Alda, Kristin Chenoweth, Mary McCormack, and Joshua Malina, all of whom joined the main cast in the second half of the show, are all billed before Whitford (and Schiff and Spencer).
• …But I Play One on TV: After the first season, people around Hollywood started treating Martin Sheen like he was the President for real.
• Cast the Expert: Every person in uniform during the funeral in "In Excelsis Deo" is an actual member of the United States Armed Forces, performing their roles exactly as they would during a genuine military funeral.
  • Yo-Yo Ma appears as himself in the second season episode "Noël" , performing Bach at a White House event. According to episode director Thomas Schlamme, instead of miming the motions of the song to recorded music, he actually played the song for each take.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Alan Alda was considered for the President. He eventually joined the series Oval Office candidate Arnold Vinick.
  • Kristin Chenoweth (Annabeth Schott) was originally approached to play Ainsley Hayes but could not commit to a regular role on a television series due to Wicked.
  • Bradley Whitford was originally cast as Sam Seaborn, even though Aaron Sorkin had created the Josh Lyman character specifically for him.
  • Janel Moloney originally auditioned for the part of CJ Cregg before being cast as Donna Moss.
• The Character Died with Him: John Spencer's death from a heart attack was written into the show. Several episodes where he was still alive aired after Martin Sheen's tribute to him before one episode, and the in-universe death occurs on "Election Night".
• Creator Backlash:
  • Rob Lowe has consistently lashed out against the powers that be over Sam Seaborne's diminishing role as well as constant refusal, on Warner Bros.' part, to renegotiate his salary even though everyone else on the cast received significant raises. These are what led to his early exit from the series.
  • Richard Schiff hated his storyline in Season 7,^note He was convinced to stay by being paid for the entire season despite only appearing in about half the episodes. and it was many years before he started appearing in TV roles again, not wanting to risk again spending years crafting a character only to be forced by the writing to betray him.
• The Danza:
  • Connie Britton as Connie Tate during the re-election cycle.
  • Oliver Platt as Oliver Babish.
• Defictionalization:
  • The White House introduced a real-life (virtual) Big Block of Cheese Day in 2014.
  • In 2006, the British parliament enacted the stunt depicted in "A Good Day" (2005), an event now known in Parliamentary history as "The West Wing Plot".
• Died During Production: John Spencer passed away roughly halfway through the final season. The remaining episodes, which were produced after his death, continued to include him in the opening credits as a tribute.
• Directed by Cast Member: Richard Schiff directed two episodes in the later seasons ("Talking Points" from season 5 and "A Good Day" from season 6). Tim Matheson, who played John Hoynes, directed the seventh season episode "The Last Hurrah".
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Marlee Matlin (Joey Lucas) is deaf in real life.
• Executive Meddling: Aaron Sorkin wanted to get Josh and Donna together. He kept being told "Wait another season!" The chemistry was apparent from the pilot and didn't get fulfilled until the last season.
• Flip-Flop of God: Regarding the series finale. Lawrence O'Donnell said that the original plan was to have Vinick win, but after John Spencer's death they changed it to Santos to make it easier on the audience. John Wells, however, says this wasn't the case.
• Hide Your Pregnancy:
  • Mary-Louise Parker was pregnant during season five which resulted in a lot of loose jackets, conveniently placed folders and close-ups on her face as she sat behind a desk.
  • Mary McCormack was pregnant when she joined the show so most of her early episodes see her conveniently standing behind parts of the set that hide her belly.
  • Averted when Marlee Matlin and NiCole Robinson both got pregnant in the later seasons. Since Joey Lucas and Margaret were minor characters they were both established as being pregnant when their actresses were.
• Life Imitates Art:
  • The presidential election in the last season has been noted for its uncanny resemblance to the real-life 2008 presidential election. The mind-blowing thing is that the presidential election in the West Wing universe takes place in 2006... two years before the real life one, and when there was no guarantee that either Barack Obama or John McCain would win their respective nominations (The front-runners in 2008 were Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mitt Romney).
    • The election sees Matthew Santos being elected as POTUS, Santos's character was based on Barack Obama after the show's creators met him while still an Illinois state senator. The real life "Josh" (Rahm Emmanuel) also took over as Chief of Staff.
    • Santos' Republican opponent Arnold Vinick was loosely based on John McCain - Southwestern Senator with bipartisan appeal.
    • In "Welcome to Wherever You Are", there's a brief scene where we overhear a Vinick ad using the slogan "Yes, America Can", which the Santos campaign complains was actually their slogan. Obama's slogan, of course, ended up being "Yes We Can".
    • After Santos wins the election, he offers Vinick the position of Secretary Of State. While it doesn't go across-the-aisle as it does in the show, in real life, President-Elect Obama offers the job of Secretary of State to his primary rival in the 2008 election, former first lady Hillary Clinton.
    • On a related note, Vice President John Hoynes almost seems like a uncanny Expy of real-life senator, 2004 vice-presidential nominee, and 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards... except most of the things that create the similarity to Edwards happened after the show aired. Both men were forced to endure a failed Presidential campaign and a career-destroying sex scandal hinging around infidelity.
• Money, Dear Boy: Richard Schiff hated Toby's storyline in the seventh season and only stayed on the show because he was paid a full season's worth for what was a handful of appearances.
• The Other Darrin: Sterling K. Brown replaces John Spencer as Leo McGarry in the 2020 HBO Max special after the latter passed away in the final season of the original series.
• Production Posse: Bradley Whitford, Joshua Malina, Timothy Busfield, and Clark Gregg had been part of Aaron Sorkin's stable of actors going all the way back to the original staging of A Few Good Men.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Bruno Gianelli first appeared as the campaign manager of Bartlet's 2002 bid for reelection, and later reappears as Eric Baker's campaign manager for the 2006 Democratic primary, only to become an independent consultant to Republican nominee Arnold Vinick after Baker withdraws from the race. This was based on his actor Ron Silver having switched parties from Democrat to Republican between his character's appearances on the show.
  • Jimmy Smits (Matt Santos) was arrested in 2001 for his participation in protests against U.S. Navy bombing practices on the Puerto Rican offshore island of Vieques, which is exactly what happened to Josh's friend Billy Molina in an early episode. Additionally, Smits, like Santos, is a firm believer in education as the great equalizer and has done lots of nonprofit work to promote that goal.
  • Bartlet's struggles with multiple sclerosis mirror late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone's affliction with the same disease.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Martin Sheen's son Emilio Estevez played the younger Bartlet in "Twenty-Five".
  • Sheen's daughter Renée Estevez had a recurring role as Nancy, one of Bartlet's secretaries. Subtly lampshaded in the series finale when Bartlet stops to speak to Nancy and mentions that he's looking forward to seeing her mother once he leaves office.
• Star-Making Role: Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford's profiles significantly increased because of the show, especially the former.
• Stunt Casting:
  • Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits in season six-seven. James Brolin in season three-four.
  • Not to mention President Bartlet being played by Martin Sheen.
  • Another example would be Matthew Perry's casting as a White House counsel (although he predictably fit in rather well). Christian Slater, on the other hand....
• Technology Marches On:
  • The show started off with beepers and accordion envelopes. Cell phones are rare enough in early seasons that it's not considered unusual for senior staffers like Josh to not carry one (Donna has to hand him hers if someone tries to reach him out of the office). By the fourth season everyone has a cell phone and... well the accordion envelopes were still there, just with computers on top of that, too. In later seasons, people start being glued to Blackberries, then at the height of their popularity (before being pushed out by Apple and Google).
  • Several times on the show, a news story is about to break, and a character will report that it has already been published on the internet. This implies that it will be reported by traditional media sooner, and that the internet outlets themselves don't matter and are only relevant indirectly through their impact on traditional media outlets. This seems rather strange in times where many or most people get their news mainly from the internet.
• Throw It In!: CJ's performance of The Jackal. Allison Janney used to use it to entertain her castmates.
• Uncredited Role: John Goodman appeared in four episodes but was only credited for "The Stormy Present" which was his final appearance on the show.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sidney Poitier was considered for the role of the President, but his asking price was too high. Hal Holbrook and Jason Robards were also considered.
  • Bartlett was originally supposed to be a satellite character who'd make sporadic appearances, but Martin Sheen's performance was just too good, so he quickly became the show's core.
  • Mandy would have come back for an episode later on, but this didn't pan out.
  • Aaron Sorkin intended Zoe's kidnappers to be domestic terrorists, which was why Nancy McNally said that it was probably a cheap-shot operation in the episode when it happened, and there were many incidents with domestic terrorists throughout the season. The new showrunners went with generic Muslim terrorists who were mad about Sharif.
  • According to Liza Weil on The West Wing Weekly podcast, there was some talk of making the Karen Larsen character a recurring presence following "Take Out the Trash Day", but it ultimately didn't come to fruition.
  • There was an option for Ainsley Hayes to make further appearances in the fourth season. However, Emily Procter was eventually offered the chance to be a series regular on CSI: Miami, and therefore Ainsley did not appear again until late into the final season.
  • When Rob Lowe announced he would be leaving the show in the fourth season, among the names considered to replace him were Jon Cryer, Macaulay Culkin, Judd Nelson and Dermot Mulroney.
  • Robbie Coltrane was offered a role, but had to turn it down due to his commitment to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
  • Judd Hirsch was considered for Leo McGarry.
  • Eugene Levy was conisdered for Toby Ziegler.
  • C.C.H. Pounder was considered for C.J. Cregg.

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