Indeed, the Oct. 4 episode filled in the back story of how Bartlet's inner circle was assembled and it was like watching the disciples getting the great call. In the New Hampshire primary flashback, future White House chief of staff McGarry was already a believer; so was his future communications director Toby Ziegler (Emmy winner Richard Schiff), a deep thinker who had been on more losing campaigns than he could count. But Josh Lyman was working for Hoynes, and he was disillusioned by his candidate's unwillingness to do the right thing -- or anything. Lyman's old school chum Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), the future deputy communications director, was unfulfilled too, working as a corporate lawyer finding tax loopholes for giant oil companies. Future White House press secretary C.J. Cregg (Emmy winner Allison Janney) was perhaps most unfulfilled of all, working as a movie publicist for a Hollywood public relations firm, even though she didn't give a damn about movies or public relations. Everything about C.J.'s slouching body language in the flashback screamed, "Kill me now."

In the Oct. 4 episode, McGarry, hoping to recruit Lyman for the Bartlet team, invites him to come to New Hampshire and hear the candidate speak. On his way there, Lyman stops in to visit Seaborn, promising to let him know if Bartlet was "the real thing." A few scenes later, after witnessing Bartlet's response to the dairy farmer, Lyman is standing outside Seaborn's office with a goofy grin on his face, nodding, "Yes." (It's a pretty good inside joke that the real thing -- the president -- is played by Sheen, one of Hollywood's most high-profile political activists. A proud remnant of the old left, Sheen has been arrested dozens of times in anti-nuclear, human rights, civil rights and peace demonstrations; his most recent arrest was on Oct. 7 at an anti-Star Wars missile defense system demonstration at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.)

"The West Wing" is staunchly in the tradition of the serial workplace drama, like "Hill Street Blues," "NYPD Blue," "ER" and "The Practice" before it. But it's built around a radical notion -- that politics doesn't have to be synonymous with cynicism. Most of the big TV dramas of the past 20 years tended toward battered liberalism and a dark worldview; their heroes were good guys struggling against the tide of disillusionment, dealing with the poverty, crime, sickness and other tragic consequences of political leaders' neglect. "The West Wing" is an optimistic show. It insists that politicians don't have to be jaded or spineless, and that it's not futile for people to get involved in politics or work for a cause. And that's why, at a time when politicians are having trouble lighting a fire under the electorate, "The West Wing" has managed to hook viewers (who are also, presumably, voters).

Of course, "The West Wing" has caught on for TV reasons, too. It's a crackerjack piece of entertainment with smart, meaty dialogue, wonderful acting, richly detailed characters and, for a show about politics, a surprising lack of preachiness. But I think it has also struck a chord with viewers because, like Mulder on "The X-Files," we want to believe. And "The West Wing" gives us a glimpse of what it's like to truly have faith, not so much in one candidate or one president, but in fighting the good fight. It offers a glimpse of what sort of leader we might elect if our political process were about substance, ideas and accomplishment, instead of "character," TV cameras and mudslinging. "The West Wing" makes you wonder if we could ever send a Josiah Bartlet to the White House.

In the series' defining episode, "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet," which first aired last April, Bartlet's staff was distressed over a leaked memo written by a political consultant for one of Bartlet's potential rivals in the next election; the memo detailed the weaknesses of the Bartlet administration, chiefly criticizing McGarry for being too cautious in holding Bartlet back from boldly articulating his principles and pursuing his agenda. In the midst of this crisis, Bartlet's people were also anxious about the downward spiral of the president's popularity rating. The West Wing staffers had gotten caught up in the game, at the expense of the ideals that had brought them to Bartlet's side in the first place.

In that episode, Bartlet has a chance to make good on his promise of campaign finance reform. Two seats open up at the same time on the Federal Election Commission, and Bartlet, at Lyman's urging, wants to appoint two supporters of campaign finance reform. McGarry thinks it would be political suicide, but by the end of the episode he realizes that the leaked memo was right. He is holding Bartlet back. So he presents Bartlet with a note pad on which he has written his new strategy. It consists of one sentence: "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet."

The dirty little secret of "The West Wing" is that it's not a valentine to party politics, despite what Beltway fans may think. Let Bartlet be Bartlet? The only presidential candidates allowed the freedom to be themselves these days are the footnote candidates, the Naders and the Buchanans. In the real world, Josiah Bartlet, with his frankness and his refusal to play ball with the big boys, couldn't get nominated -- let alone make it to the West Wing.

Recent Stories