The opening night of PaleyFest New York celebrated twenty years of “The West Wing,” featuring a screening of its second season finale and a conversation with the series’ mastermind, Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin reflected on his creative process in developing such an iconic show and addressed the importance of its cultural resonance in our present-day political climate.
An acclaimed playwright and screenwriter, Sorkin’s entree into television writing was with “The West Wing,” a political drama following the daily lives of senior staff at the White House. The show first aired in 1999, in the wake of impeachment charges against Bill Clinton, and served as an aspirational vision of how a democratic government could function in our society – as an engine operated by intelligent, hardworking people who had their flaws but always strived to do their best for the good of the republic. It seems an appropriate time to look back on the seven season series – which racked up 26 Emmy Awards and is now considered one of the best television dramas of all time – as American society’s collective consciousness is witnessing more and more an alarming blurring of politics with commercial entertainment.
– New York, NY – 10/4/19 – PaleyFest NY Opening Night Presents – “THE WEST WING” – A Look Back with Aaron Sorkin.
-Pictured: Aaron Sorkin
-Photo by: Kristina Bumphrey/StarPix
-Location: The Paley Center for Media
“The West Wing” boasted an ensemble cast – including Martin Sheen, Allison Janey, Bradley Whitford and Rob Lowe – all of whom flourished in translating Sorkin’s notorious quick-witted exchanges and extended monologues to the screen. Sorkin often makes good use of the “walk and talk” filming method in his work, which plays so well in a drama about political decisions constantly being churned out within the confines of the White House. The audience at The Paley Center For Media received a good dose of these techniques during the screening portion of the evening with “Two Cathedrals,” an episode handpicked by Sorkin. In it, POTUS Josiah Bartlet (played by Michael Sheen at his prime), a devout Catholic, renounces his faith in God after the unexpected death of his beloved secretary Dolores Landingham (Kathryn Joosten). The episode exercises a series of flashbacks to enrich the backstory of Bartlet and Landingham’s relationship, bred out of a mentorship when Bartlet was in boarding school. Sorkin disclosed that he first started making use of flashbacks at the end of the first season, with the aim of enhancing the relatable, ordinary qualities of an otherwise extraordinary man. Sorkin is seen to pervasively use this technique in one of his more recent films The Social Network, which cuts between Mark Zuckerberg’s time at Harvard in the early 2000s developing Facebook (and enemies) to his struggle to fight a present-day lawsuit (brought on by said-enemies).
In relaying how he pursues the purpose of each of his characters, Sorkin noted that he “always loved Bartlet as a husband and father most,” and strived to create a series that portrayed the lives of White House staffers and officials as seriously as those in a hospital or legal drama. In calling writers block his “default position,” Sorkin said he wrote an episode of “The West Wing” every nine days, as there was “only ever time for a first draft.” He related his passion for creating a series whose crux conflict is the clashing of ideas. Growing up a fan of musical theater – noting at one point during the evening that theaters are his cathedrals – Sorkin revealed that he “hears words like music.” Thriving in writing fiery exchanges for the screen, it’s within the bounds of this medium where Sorkin is able to recreate “the sound of dialogue crashing into each other.” In listening to him speak, you get the feeling that the give-and-take comedic dialogue that’s so ingrained in his writing style is very much the mode in which he processes thoughts and expresses himself. There’s this sense that his mind is racing at 2x speed, and you can understand how the lyrical genius that occupies his headspace can be at once wholly transferred to the page.
Sorkin in conversation with moderator Julie James, the host of SiriusXM’s show “On Broadway”
A self-described “romantic and idealist” in his writing and in his views towards American institutions, Sorkin spent the latter part of the evening speaking to the show’s contrast to our current political state. He relayed that while his ambitions for “The West Wing” were never more than to make compelling entertainment, he acknowledged that the show was intended as a sort of “wish fulfillment,” but seems “quaint” in comparison to such “unnerving times” that we now live in. The episode he chose for the screening unabashedly emphasizes the age of political nostalgia that we currently inhabit. On the precipice of “Two Cathedrals” looms the possibility of an investigation into Bartlet after he didn’t disclose his multiple sclerosis illness to the American people. Sorkin touched on the irony of having his Democrat presidential character planning to appoint a special counsel of Republicans to investigate him: “He had a disease that affects the central nervous system and didn’t tell the voters about it,” he said. “It seemed like a really big deal when I wrote it.”
When asked by an audience member to reflect on the role of civics in today’s society, Sorkin responded that he’d like to see civics taken seriously in schools, and called kids going into public service because of the West Wing hopeful and inspiring, but that ultimately, “we need to make better voters.” Subsequently challenged by an audience member’s statement that it’s not better voters but better quality candidates we need more of, Sorkin agreed, but rebutted that informed voters means better candidates: “I think, in a democracy, how can it not ultimately be the responsibility of the voters? We’re right to point to all the people we’re pointing at right now in Washington saying, ‘This is so un-American, what’s going on,’ but when are voters going to bear some responsibility?”
In a Q&A that was bound to revert back to the political legacy of “The West Wing,” Sorkin contemplated the show’s strength in offering up broader ideological principles rather than having tangible effects on our current political circumstances. Just as the relationship between a candidate and its voters should involve a personal connection and healthy discourse, so should one between media and its viewers, as Sorkin concluded that throughout the entirety of “The West Wing,” he considered American voters “the offscreen character” that above all, he always attempted to treat with respect.
