The West Wing

[JHyde]

I'm not surprised there was conflict over who did what and when. It gets confusing but it was a pretty major deal - who was going to win. I think they probably started out the season wanting Alda to win and maybe came around not long before Spencer died just before Christmas. At which point everything had to be re-written anyway.

Yeah, I also found it very poignant. I love the final episode, particularly the scene with CJ and Josh with the post-it saying 'WWLD'. I've also spoken on this thread at length about how Toby's presence hangs very heavy on this episode, even though RS isn't in it. You can really hear all those amazing scenes with Richard and Martin taking place all over again as the President wrestles with whether or not to sign the pardon for him.

I honestly think that the show was at its best in the scenes either in Leo's office or the President's office and some of my very favourite episodes are based around Toby taking to the President. Some of Sorkin's very best writing.

That thing about how long Lowe was on set was something I learned from an interview Rob Lowe did with TV Week in Australia in 2007, by which time he was working on Brothers and Sisters. They threw in a couple of questions about The West Wing because the final couple of episodes were screening here around the same time as his new show was screening for the first time on another network. He was only working with Janel Moloney and Brad Whitford, pretty much and that was 'cause he was only around for a few days. He was around for Janel's final shot on the show as well as his own, and he said that was really moving.

The West Wing is a bit of a cult show here in Australia. A lot of good friends from uni love it (we're all nerdy, political, writing types), but I find in the broader population it's not so well known at all, compared to the commercial hit it was in the States.