Politics--but Not as Usual

Politics and theater were fused long ago when rulers held public beheadings because they wanted hordes of villagers to watch. Over time, “running for office” became synonymous with “getting in character” and, in recent years, politicians began hiring advisors to help them beam, as well as repent, on the televised stage.

Today, the drama has somehow been lost amid the poise and polish, leaving a vast audience that has made it clear that when it comes to politics, they’re bored. There is, however, an exception--”The West Wing.”

NBC’s squeaky-clean White House drama is drawing hordes of politicos to the small screen every Wednesday night--as well as an average 13 million other upscale viewers. With its first season wrapped up, the show has 18 Emmy nominations, a Peabody and three Television Critics Assn. awards under its belt.

With a patriotic score that swells as American flags unfurl, “The West Wing” follows a group of fast-walking, fast-talking aides who try to save the world on a daily basis. On some nights they just stay late to have another go at the president’s birthday message to the assistant secretary of Transportation.

They are blue-sky patriots in an era of voter disdain. And just in case the show’s attraction couldn’t seem more puzzling, “West Wing” is nearly devoid of the gratuitous sex and violence we’ve come to expect from television.

What exactly is going on here?

“This is the president we all wish we had,” said Paul Schulman, president of Schulman/Advanswers NY, a large media-buying firm. Schulman is talking about President Josiah Bartlet, who is portrayed by Martin Sheen. “He doesn’t do devious things. Everything he does is with a great deal of moral fiber and strength.” Schulman’s big clients--like Energizer Batteries, Gap and Purina--have bought into the fantasy, laying down money for air time during the show.

“There’s true wish fulfillment in this show, especially at a time when people have given up on politics,” said Peter Roth, head of Warner Bros. Television, which produces the show for NBC. “Often we look to entertainment to take us on journeys we never go. To transform us.”

The drama’s creator and writer says he’s merely working from a template.

“ ‘West Wing’ is basically a western. It’s romantic, and there are heroes,” said Aaron Sorkin, whose film credits include “The American President” and “A Few Good Men.” “I think that Americans like a western.”

Sorkin’s cowboys are lean, online and well-dressed. His cowgirls have graduate degrees and power hair. As far as the showdowns, they’re legislative but somehow portrayed as darn right impassioned.

This Beltway western comes on the heels of “ER” and “L.A. Law,” which made high-stress workplaces sexy. So, perhaps it was only a matter of time before a show about civics seemed thrilling.

But “West Wing” is actually one season overdue. Sorkin handed NBC executives his pilot more than two years ago, a few weeks before anyone had ever heard of Monica Lewinsky. She brought a “snicker factor” to politics, Sorkin said, and network executives didn’t think the country wanted to “tune out” from round-the-clock impeachment hearings to a show about Washington.

Besides, Hollywood had never had a successful drama set in D.C. So, “West Wing” was set aside. Privately, executives talked about how much they liked it. They even mused about asking Sidney Poitier to star as the commander in chief.

The show premiered last September with Sheen as President Bartlet. He is a warm, Nobel Prize-winning economist from New Hampshire who still adores his wife of 35 years. He is a desexualized Catholic intellectual. Politically, he supports capital punishment. Personally, the decision sends him praying to God. He is safe. He is solid. And, listen up, America, President Bartlet does not fool around.

That’s not to say that Sorkin hasn’t fantasized about tempting him.

“From time to time I think about writing a scene where a young intern comes into the Oval Office and comes on to the president,” Sorkin said. “And the president simply says, ‘Young lady, you’re talking to the president in the Oval Office. This isn’t spring break. This isn’t Fort Lauderdale. Get your ass out of here, and don’t ever come back.’ ” Still, Sorkin has been accused of writing a show that glorifies the current Democratic administration.

“I get that that’s a fun exercise, but it’s a bit of a dead-end,” he said. “[‘West Wing’] wasn’t made to be based on today’s White House. I don’t know any of those people, and I couldn’t write about them if I wanted to.”

Former Aide Portrayed by Rob Lowe

One of those real people is Tom Janenda, 31, former deputy communications director at the White House under President Clinton.

“Their set looks like a law firm compared to the tight confines of the West Wing,” said Janenda, who is now a public relations strategist in Boston. “It’s much smaller and tighter in reality. They all chat with the president every day. . . . It wasn’t like I was sitting around chatting with the president every day.”

Still, Janenda’s colleagues teased him about being portrayed by Rob Lowe, whose character is deputy White House communications director. There is some irony in the fact that Lowe finds himself playing a character in a liberal White House. In 1988, Lowe was captured on a grainy home movie with a woman and a 16-year-old girl in an Atlanta hotel room during the Democratic National Convention. Many joked that it appeared to be one of the only unscripted moments of the convention, but the incident nearly derailed his career.

Janenda likes the show. So does Vice President Al Gore, who “holds it in high regard,” according to his spokesman. Republican presidential nominee Gov. George W. Bush has never seen it, and on the way home to Austin, Texas, after a July campaign swing through Chicago, he shrugged and asked: “Is it good?”

Not if you ask some conservatives. Albert Auster of the Chronicle for Higher Education wrote in May that “The West Wing” was “less ‘All the President’s Men’ than it is ‘Touched by an Angel’ for the Congressional Quarterly crowd.” Tom DeLay, majority whip in the House of Representatives, told an audience at the National Press Club in May that Sorkin portrayed religious conservatives as “hypocritical totalitarians.”

It’s an accusation that makes Sorkin bristle.

The show “is a valentine to public service,” Sorkin said. “In one episode you have the president of the United States on his knees in the Oval Office praying. This is what conservatives have been begging for all along.”

Whether or not they’re begging, they’re going to get more.

NBC plans to air four reruns in between the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia and the Democratic National Convention in L.A. The shows will run at 10 tonight and Tuesday night, and on Wednesday viewers will get a doubleheader that begins at 9 p.m.

For advertisers, it may bring more of the viewers they love--a warm and dry audience with disposable income, more advanced degrees and more home computers (and Internet access) per viewer than any other prime-time show’s audience.

“It has the strongest concentration of upscale viewers,” said Mike Nelson of NBC’s publicity department. “It also attracts a broad audience, unlike some of our comedies, which tend to be pretty focused on the 18-to-49 [age] demo. ‘The West Wing’ is attracting an older demo as well.”

Standing Ovation From TV Insiders

At last year’s meeting where network executives unveiled their new shows to advertisers itching to find the next big thing, the room delivered an unprecedented standing ovation for the cast of “The West Wing.”

“You never know what’s going to be a hit,” said Scott Sassa, NBC president of entertainment. “The conventional wisdom was that people don’t care about Washington, and then the Monica Lewinsky thing happened, and people were even more cynical. When ‘ER’ premiered in 1993 there was tremendous skepticism about the medical profession. People said medical shows hadn’t worked . . . but the rest is history.”

To ensure the show looks, sounds and feels real, especially to the Beltway crowd that would see a fake a mile away, NBC hired powerhouse consultants who promise fly-on-the-wall details: Clinton’s former spokeswoman, Dee Dee Myers; President Jimmy Carter’s former advisor Patrick Caddell; President Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter Peggy Noonan; and President George Bush’s press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater.

Even though the consulting team is half Democratic, half Republican, producers make no bones about the fact that “West Wing” is clearly a Democratic administration. The night the Democratic National Convention ends, Sorkin plans to shoot scenes inside Staples Center for next season’s second episode.

“The West Wing” will see a few new regular characters next season, including Anna Deavere Smith as the national security advisor. (She played the White House spokeswoman in Sorkin’s “The American President.”) Smith is one of several characters of color that Sorkin created after minority activists dressed him down for the show’s all-white premiere. Immediately, black actor Dule Hill appeared to play the president’s personal aide, and John Amos agreed to play chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Latino actor Edward James Olmos is also expected to make additional appearances as Judge Mendoza, Bartlet’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sorkin’s days are monopolized by creating his fantasy Supreme Court, developing the leader of the free world and adding sexual tension to press briefings with a smitten Washington Post reporter. But every six weeks, fantasy meets reality when he takes his cast and crew to Washington to film the outdoor scenes and exterior shots of the city.

During a visit last January, they were invited to watch the State of the Union speech in a room of the White House. That’s when Janenda, the real deputy communications director, met Lowe, the actor. That’s also when National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, Health and Human Services Director Donna Shalala and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ribbed the producers. All three wanted to know how President Bartlet could get through his days without characters playing their parts.

Clinton returned from Capitol Hill to join the party, and at one point in the evening he pulled aside one of the cast members.

“I understand,” said Sorkin, “the president suggested a few plots.”

*

“West Wing” can be seen on NBC today and Tuesday at 10 p.m., and Wednesday at 9 p.m. The series normally airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14).