The End of a Memorable Television Series: The West Wing

In an era in which television series have short lifespans and creativitiy and intelligent television writing is hard to come by, I am saddened to see one of my favorite television drama series, the West Wing go off the air after 8 successful years of its production on NBC.

West Wing was one of those television shows in which ten years from now the American public will be saying, "Remember the West Wing and what a great television series it was?" The images and character of president Barlett and his cast with Tobey, Dona, Josh, John Spencer and many other will forever be engraved in my memory. These were the characters that I grew up with in my childhood. These same characters helped me get through my history and government classes in high school.

Besides the tremendous entertainment that the show brought to audiences around the nation, West Wing taught ordinary citizens about the real way in which a government functions. I remember clearly one day in my college government class as my professor put on the West Wing episode that was about the filibustering in Congress of a bill for autism. That episode which featured a Congressman getting up in front of Congress and reading the dictionary was a great way to capture how a filibuster really works and prevents one party in Congress from controlling all of the decisions being made.

Alas, as this coming Sunday approaches I will shed a tear, not just because West Wing is going off the air, but because a man whom I feel I have become strong friends with, yet have never met, John Spencer passed away a couple of weeks ago. John Spencer was one of those actors who never really got his proper due. He never really was among the most famous actors in Hollywood. He acted in dozens and dozens of films that most people didn't even realize and he served as an anchor of the West Wing show along with President Barlett for so many years. Those two actors were the main reasons that the show lasted for eight strong years.

The final episode of West Wing which will be shown on the Sunday April 16 will feature the funeral of John Spencer, a proper ending for the final episode of West Wing to honor a great actor who gave the last eight years of his life to this show. John Spencer gave his life to the West Wing show and died of a heart attack but his films and television shows that he was in will forever live on. The last episode of West Wing will be one last chance for viewers to say goodbye to the memorable actors on the show life Tobey who hasn't appeared in an episode in quite some time.

The question which I still struggle to this day is why did such a great show go off of the air? I have some reasons which while I don't like to admit it are very true. In the final year of West Wing, it was somewhat obvious that the show had run out of ideas. A show that was famous for its originality and character development seemingly ran out of ideas. I did enjoy the campaign race between presidential candidates Santos and Vinick. However I still think that the writers of the show took the wrong approach. For eight years the American public had watched as a liberal Democratic president was in office. After eight years of a liberal in office, the show should have taken the viewpoint from Arnold Vinick's campaign instead of repeatedly showing the Santos campaign. While I agree that it was an interesting storyline of Santos coming from out of nowhere to win the election, had the campaign of a Republican instead of a Democrat been shown to give an opposite viewpoint, perhaps more of the American public would have tuned in to see the show in its last scene and perhaps the show could have been extended another year.

Another failure of the show I truly believe was the departure of the great writer, Aaron Sorkin who for so many years wrote many great episodes. I loved his sense of humor and drama and the way he made the characters mesh so well together. That camaraderie seemed to be missing in the last season of the show.

Finally, I think another big reason for the show's downfall was its awful decision to move from its Wednesday night prime time slot to Sunday night. On Wednesday nights I find myself flipping through the channels with nothing good to see on television, still void of the West Wing time slot. On Sunday nights most people are busy and every network has their best shows on Sunday night. ABC dominated NBC with its new series of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. With these new hit shows that grabbed the American public, West Wing had no chance of competing. Especially with an early 8pm time slot when some families are still eating or getting home from a long day of activities, it was just a terrible decision.

In today's society, other shows have tried and failed in my opinion to replicate the West Wing. Shows such as Madame President I have found to be unoriginal and cheesy. Many of the show's episodes are the same storylines that the West Wing had.

In an age in which television shows do not last, I hope you and most of the American public will tune in this Sunday to not only mourn the passing of a great actor in John Spencer, but mourn the passing of one of NBC's greatest shows, The West Wing.