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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: September 22, 1999
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: The West Wing, “Pilot” (season 1, episode 1). [Stream on Netflix.]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Before we get into The West Wing specifically, can we just recognize the special magic that the September 22nd date has for the world of television? 1994: Friends premiered on this date. 2004: Lost premiered on this date. And in 1999, NBC premiered an hourlong drama about a fictional White House with its fictional staff and their fictional president. Something’s in the water here. Good news, FOX baseball drama Pitch, ABC legal/media trash Notorious, and Netflix mumble-com Easy: you might be the next show blessed by the September 22nd faerie dust.
RELATED: VOTE IN DECIDER’S BEST POLITICAL IMPRESSIONS OF ALL-TIME BRACKET TODAY!
As for The West Wing, the story of its inception is more or less well known. Aaron Sorkin, having already written The American President, decided to invent another fictional, idealized Democratic White House for TV. Originally, President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) wasn’t supposed to be a main character; he was supposed to appear infrequently as the bulk of the time was ceded to his staff as they sought to carry out his policies. Rob Lowe and Moira Kelly were supposed to be the stars, and if you think about that for too long, you’ll go crazy. Imagine what kind of a show The West Wing would have has to be for it to have been the story of Sam and Mandy and their White House buds and also, very rarely, the President.
And yet, from the very beginning, that brilliant Thomas Schlamme-directed tour of the West Wing, following Leo McGarry (John Spencer) through the halls, the idea of the Rob Lowe/Moira Kelly show melted away while the audience was captivated by the ensemble within those halls. The pilot, after all, starts off with Sam sleeping with a call girl and Mandy getting a speeding ticket, both of them outside the White House and given big spotlighty debuts. But they’re also by FAR the least interesting parts of the pilot. The audience is instead captivated by Leo’s wrangling of the busy daily agenda, Toby and CJ and their quick banter, and what the hell is going to be done about what Josh said on Capital Beat. By the time the President makes his grand debut in the final scenes …
… the episode had already made its case for itself as an ensemble show. As the ensemble show, if The West Wing‘s quick rise to TV sensation was any indication. As episodes of television go, it’s a pretty good one. As TV pilots go, it’s damn near miraculous.
[You can watch The West Wing‘s pilot on Netflix.]
