Aaron Sorkin was visibly emotional during a visit to the White House on Friday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “The West Wing” — so emotional that he’s pondering a revival of the critically acclaimed political drama.
“If I had an idea, sure,” Sorkin later told Variety, “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never really thought about it seriously until today… I guess we’ll see what happens when I wake up tomorrow. But if you ask me right now, this is how I feel.”
Sorkin, director and executive producer Thomas Schram, and cast members Martin Sheen, Richard Schiff, Dule Hill, Janel Moloney, Emily Proctor, Melissa Fitzgerald, and Mary McCormack met with President Joe Biden in the Map Room and then got a personal tour of the building. (Biden then headed to a meeting in Delaware.) Afterwards, First Lady Jill Biden held a formal Rose Garden ceremony for the show, just outside the actual West Wing and Oval Office.
“I had some ideas for episodes just walking around the White House,” Sorkin said. “I was like, ‘Why haven’t we done this before? Why haven’t we done that?'”
Sorkin said he’s hesitated in the past about making a new version of “The West Wing” out of concern that audiences would be too nostalgic for the original cast. “I think it would be difficult for a new president to strive to live up to people’s memories of Martin,” he said of Sheen and President Jed Bartlet, whom he plays. “But maybe enough time has passed and we’re now into a whole new generation, which, by the way, because of streaming, thinks we’re making this show now!”
Sorkin said he had no political motives in considering a return to “The West Wing.” “I just thought it would be a great place to set things,” he said. “It has all kinds of stories you can tell, and the aspirational, idealistic, romantic style of it suits me.”
Of course, the political environment has changed dramatically since “The West Wing” ended its seven-season run in 2006, and Sorkin acknowledged that “there’s no way we could sit in a room and come up with a story that’s crazier than the story we’re actually seeing.”
He agreed that in this context, it might be “very hard” to stick with an aspirational, idealistic story. “Part of it is idealistic, so for it to work, it needs to feel like it’s happening in the world we live in,” he said. “It needs to feel like our world. So it’s going to be hard, but as Brad Whitford, who plays Josh Lyman, says in the Season 3 premiere, “20 Hours in America,” ‘It’s going to be hard,’ and as Toby says, ‘It’s going to be good because it’s hard.'”
Sorkin also said it’s a good question to ask whether a return of “The West Wing” would be appealing to him if Trump were re-elected. “It would certainly give us an incentive to do it, but it would also give us a headache,” Sorkin said. “I would worry that everything we did on the show would be seen as a rebuttal to Donald Trump’s world.”
Warner Bros. Television chairman Channing Dungey, who was at the White House event, said he was open to anything Sorkin decided to do (she has previously suggested she’d be open to a new version of “The West Wing”).
“There are so many shows being rebooted right now that I think it would be hard to go back to The West Wing, but I think Aaron could do it,” she says. “He’s a very smart guy. What I loved about The West Wing was that it wasn’t a partisan show. It was about people who were willing to fight for something bigger than themselves. There were regular arguments and debates between both parties. I like it as an idealized look at how things work. If I started now, today, in the current climate, it would definitely be different. The political landscape has changed a lot since the show was made.”
At the White House event, Dr. Biden, Sorkin and Sheen all spoke, and Sorkin drew applause when he noted that Joe Biden’s decision in July to end his presidential campaign in the national interest was a perfect moment straight out of the TV show “The West Wing.”
“For years, when political tensions were at their highest, I’ve noticed that pundits have warned us not to expect ‘White House’ moments, not to expect selfless acts of statesmanship, not to expect anyone to put country first,” Sorkin said in his speech. “But the fact is, ‘White House’ moments do happen, and Dr. Biden, we saw the evidence of this on the morning of July 21st.”
Sorkin later said he remembered thinking when news broke that Biden was dropping out of the race that it was a “The White House” kind of sacrifice and that “you could almost hear the music behind everything he was doing.”
Sorkin said he doesn’t mind critics calling these events “White House on the Hill” events. “I want this to be something to aspire to, especially in this dark and divided political world,” he said. “You don’t have to look far to find sad reminders of how far we’ve come. But I don’t think we’ve come so far that we can’t recover, and hopefully we can fix it.”
The White House event included many unique touches to the show, including a performance of the “West Wing” theme song by the White House Marine Band and a cocktail called “The Jackal,” named after the dancing and lip-syncing of the show’s press secretary, CJ Clegg (played by Allison Janney). A White House exhibit celebrating the 25th anniversary of “West Wing” featured a mock-up of the show’s set, as well as another “big piece of cheese” inspired by the show.
“I can’t tell you how many people — from Marines to bandmasters to Secret Service agents to senior aides — were inspired to become public servants because they watched The West Wing. This was a big deal,” Sorkin said. “It was an emotional day. They were clearly watching the show!”
Dungey added, “It’s amazing the impact ‘The West Wing’ has had over the years. It’s so wonderful to see so many people excited and inspired to meet their TV heroes. It’s awe-inspiring. There was one moment when we went up on the balcony in the East Wing and the Marine Corps band was playing the theme song and it blew us away. Everyone’s eyes were watering.”
Speaking at the event, Biden praised the show’s storytelling: “When The West Wing hits the screen, the swell of the opening theme, the brisk walking down seemingly endless hallways, the performances, all of it changes how we see the public servants struggling behind these white walls for a better tomorrow. So when we start to grow cynical or apathetic, we must remember Jed Bartlett’s White House. A place with a big block of cheese, where everyone belongs. A place to do good. That’s the story The West Wing showed our nation. This family that we’re creating here, dedicated to a purpose bigger than any of us.”
Biden then introduced Sheen and, in an impassioned speech the way President Barrett might have delivered it on the campaign trail, recited Rabindranath Tagore’s “Where There Is a Fearless Heart.” (The poem, about India under British rule, ends with the line, “Awaken my country,” and perhaps now as a call for Americans to stop turning a blind eye to the challenges facing democracy in the United States.)
Sorkin said his original plan for celebrating the 25th anniversary of “The West Wing” was to send Schramm an email and reflect on how much time had passed, but with the help of Warner Bros. TV, it became a week-long celebration that included a cast reunion during Sunday’s Emmy Awards ceremony.
“The original idea for The West Wing was that in pop culture, elected leaders are often portrayed as Machiavellians or fools,” he said. “I asked myself, what if they were as dedicated and competent as the doctors and nurses in a hospital drama, or the cops in a crime drama, or the lawyers in a David E. Kelley show? Hopefully, we could entertain the audience from nine to ten o’clock, hold their attention for however long it took, and everything else would be an afterthought.”
Absent from the White House ceremony were several stars who are busy filming projects, including Allison Janney, Rob Lowe and Bradley Whitford. “The rest of us are apparently out of work,” Sorkin joked, to which Biden quickly retorted, “Not yet!”
