What if 'West Wing' Turned Right?

Newsday ^ | 11/20 | Noel Hoston

[GulliverSwift]

November 20, 2002

Regime change, anyone?

I'm not talking about Iraq, although its oppressed citizens obviously could use a more benign leader. I'm talking about a changing of the guard on "The West Wing." Maybe the time is opportune.

The defection of viewers from NBC's Wednesday-night White House drama is the talk of the TV industry this fall. Its overall Nielsen numbers are down about 20 percent from last season - 30 percent if you're talking about the important 18-to-49- year-old demographic. One theory - much discussed and at least as persuasive as the notion that viewers are bailing to watch ABC's "The Bachelor" or Fox's "Fastlane" - is that executive producer/head writer Aaron Sorkin has pushed the show into such blatant, in-your-face partisanship that it's alienating some viewers who, because of events of the past year, are feeling generally more conservative and specifically more favorable toward President George W. Bush.

Starting late last season and extending through this fall's election arc, Bush has undergone the video equivalent of being hanged in effigy on "The West Wing." "Saturday Night Live" and the all-but-forgotten Comedy Central sitcom, "That's My Bush," haven't served up a meaner parody of Bush than "The West Wing's" faux-Republican presidential challenger, Robert Ritchie (James Brolin), a Sun Belt governor with the most vacuous look this side of the inbred hillbillies in "Deliverance." Ralph Cifaretto had a fairer chance against Tony Soprano than Ritchie had when he met eloquent Democratic incumbent Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) in the series' big debate episode four weeks ago. Ritchie wasn't on the stump, he was a stump.

[newgeezer]

Yeah, when pigs fly.

[newgeezer]

the all-but-forgotten Comedy Central sitcom, "That's My Bush,"

Can't forget something you've never heard of.

Actually, in my house, it's "the all-but-forgotten Comedy Central" (period).

[theDentist]

A good call. Did you see the episode last night? The President passes power to the Speaker of the House (John Goodman) under the 25th amendment. His daughter has been kidnapped by terrorists, and he decides (as all liberals do) that he must pass over power for the good of the nation. And of course, the Speaker is a Republican. No sense of humor, no compassion, just appears to be power mad.

Now the thing of it is, when we go into the fall/winter schedule (and the repeats next summer) it will be election year, and each week they'll have the chance to dump on a Republican President in office who was not elected by the Popular Vote... an "illegitimate president". Now where have we heard that before?