Issue Date: February 4, 2007
Hail to the Chief
A political operative on "The West Wing: The Complete Series"
"The West Wing: The Complete Series," now in stores, comes in an elegant blue gift set, with 45 discs.
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THE PLOT: During its seven-year term, NBC's "The West Wing" explored the inner workings of the White House. Fictional president Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his dedicated staff handled wars, political showdowns, romances and an assassination attempt.
INSIDER'S CREDENTIALS: Paul Begala was on the team that helped Bill Clinton get elected president in 1992, then worked in the White House as a counselor to the president. He's now a professor at Georgetown University, a political consultant and a CNN commentator.
OVERVIEW: "It's hard to believe any series could do a better job of capturing the pace, the pressure and the complexity of demands that come with working in the White House, while being as entertaining. Aaron Sorkin [the series creator and lead writer] is a genius."
Disc 1, Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot -- Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) isin trouble for taunting a religious leader, and speechwriter Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) learns he has accidentally switched pagers with his lover, who, it turns out, is a call girl.
"[The Clinton staff] was told some of the characters were based on us."
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"[The Clinton White House staff] was told some of the characters were based on us, and my mom got excited and invited in all the neighbors to watch the show. And I had been the one who started an uproar when I criticized the Rev. Jerry Falwell on TV. Afterward, my mother called and said, 'I hope you weren't the one involved with the hooker.' Only she would think Rob Lowe would play a character based on me."
Disc 13, Season 2, Episode 22: Two Cathedrals -- Bartlet attends the funeral for his beloved secretary. He's also suffering from multiple sclerosis while being investigated, dealing with a foreign policy crisis in Haiti and deciding whether to run for re-election.
"This is the series' best episode. It captures the extraordinary pace at which things happen in the White House and how much resiliency a president needs to cope with these competing pressures. In the week when Clinton's mother died, he had to put up with anti-gay protesters at her funeral, go to Russia for a summit, and he fought with Senator Dole. It was also the week when he caved in to pressure and asked the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor for Whitewater. That may have been the worst mistake of his presidency."
Disc 15, Season 3, Episode 3: Manchester, Part II -- The White House staff frays under the strain of dealing with a foreign policy crisis and realizing that Bartlet lied to them.
"This episode captures what it's like in the White House when the president lies. You form bonds with the people you work with that are like family, and when the president does something seriously wrong, it's shocking, like realizing your parents are human."
-- Jamie Malanowski
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