Celebrating 20 Years of “The West Wing” – One of the Greatest TV Shows by Marcus Blake | Top 10 Episodes of The West Wing by Marcus Blake and Julie Jones

Twenty years ago today one of the greatest TV shows premiered on NBC. I admit that I didn’t see the pilot episode on TV or really get into the show until years later. I was in college and I was in the Army so TV wasn’t really a priority, but like many fans, I came to quickly realize how wonderful this TV show truly was and how it became a breath of fresh air when it came to political dramas. I am talking about The West Wing, created by Aaron Sorkin. If you’re a huge Aaron Sorkin fan, this is probably his greatest achievement, although personally I do like The Newsroom a little bit more as a journalist. But never have we ever had such a great show about politics, about the inner workings of the White House and all of the foreign and domestic issues that faced a president no matter what political party is in charge. The show was much more than that. It wasn’t even so much about the president as it was about the staffers that worked in his administration while having to work through their own personal demons and the drama of their personal lives to best serve a president and try to make America better then I was before their administration came into power.

The President is the face of the oval office so we never really think too much about the staff and everything that. One of the best things about The West Wing was all of the technical advisors that worked on the show, a lot of them coming from the Clinton administration’s and of course the inspiring well-written speeches of Lawrence O’Donnell. The show never truly showed what we were so much as what we could be. Yes, it pointed out the frailties of American politics and all the ridiculous conundrums involving elected officials because they can’t seem to work together for the betterment of America. In many ways, The West Wing was a fairytale of what we truly want and what we can be. But I will never argue about having something like that considering one of my favorite movies is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Sometimes you need those fairy tales to inspire people to go and do great things.

Clearly, the best part of the West Wing was Aaron Sorkin’s fantastic dialogue and the banter between characters…I don’t think anybody can truly deny that we’ve never had a show like that before and only so many shows have come close to capturing that kind of magic. Every election cycle I always laugh at the fact that the best person I can vote for is in fiction because real politicians can never live up to what I want them from Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing. In fact, every time we have a presidential election, I always wear my Bartlet for America T-shirt. That’s who I truly want as president and a lot has to do with how great Martin Sheen portrays that character, not as a perfect president, only a president who had the perfect intentions, but still wrestled with his own demons especially his catholicism where religion should never be apart of politics. And let’s face it, if you’re a fan of the show and you were president when you want a staff just like Leo McGary, Josh Lyman, CJ Craig, Sam Seaborn, Toby Ziegler, and Charlie Young. I’ve met so many political operatives who helped run campaigns over the years that try to make their staff emulate that of The West Wing and I think that’s a testament to how brilliant the show is.

The West Wing dealt with real political issues, controversial ones from gun ownership, to abortion, to the role of religion, foreign policy, the role of the Federal government when it comes to economic policy, and my favorite issue because two of my favorite episodes have to deal with, the role of the Supreme Court and the type of judges we should have on the supreme. I’m not ashamed to say that my favorite episode is titled The Supremes oh, it’s not even written by Aaron Sorkin, but it’s about having judges that are polar opposites argue and finding common ground and respect each other. the two characters who are nominated to the Supreme Court are representative of the relationship that Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony Scalia had…they pretty much disagreed on everything, but we’re still friends and respected each other…. God forbid we still have that in society.

But maybe the best part of the show really is the fact that it’s like watching seven seasons of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington we’re even though it’s for the most part like a fairy tale, it shows us what we truly what we want from American politics, what could be. I think the show is even more relevant now because of the polarization we have and American politics, where compromise is essentially a pipe train and the only views that most people want to hear are their own and can’t fathom having any respect or friendship with people that might disagree with them. The biggest problem in American society when it comes to politics is us and it’s why The West Wing needs to be watched again, why it’s still is very relevant. If nothing else to show that Republicans and Democrats can actually work together and serve the common good despite disagreeing with one another. It’s too bad that the characters in The West Wing really are fictional because if they were real and we actually had a president like Josiah Bartlett can you imagine how better off we would be in America.

We don’t often talk about politics unless it’s in a satirical manner at That Nerd Show, and we do talk about great dramas and how they can inspire society and that’s why after 20 years, we’re still talking about The West Wing because it isn’t just about politics, there haven’t been too many great dramas over the last 30 years that really dealt with real-life issues and the frailty of the human condition. Sure, we get great cop shows and doctor shows, yes, they are relevant to a point, but when politics dominate so much of the American landscape, I think it’s important to have a show that can inspire us to be better and to show us what we truly can be when it comes to American politics. It’s too easy to be divided and to forget what respect and common decency truly is. Every election year I watch all 7 seasons of The West Wing. Yes, I’ve seen every episode at least a dozen times and I never get old, but if there is one enduring legacy of The West Wing is that Martin Sheen as Josiah Bartlett shows us what an American President should be the same way that Jimmy Stewart showed us what an American Senator should be. It doesn’t matter if the show was set 20 years ago, the ugly side of American politics has always been the same and needing an inspiring show is a good thing. Perhaps, it’s an American political drama called The West Wing that shows us what’s possible in American politics and that will forever be its enduring legacy. And it’s one hell of a good show too!