Enter the Lymans
For us, “The West Wing” was appointment viewing from the pilot, on. We remember being in Richmond, rushing into the living room to catch the opening credits. Maybe it was because we’d be going to help Bill Bradley in New Hampshire (really — Al Gore was a dick during that entire primary), maybe it’s because we hadn’t had the optimism of the transformative power of politics and government beaten out of us yet. Eight years of Bush the Lesser and going on four years of a Congress led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid has done that, in spades. Regardless, the show looked like fun.
For year on year, we went back to the show the same way an evangelical Christian would go to revival — for hope. It helped restore our hope that if a group of people who really cared about making America better coalesced and kicked ass, we could get some progress in DC. Le sigh.
Picking a favorite character (excepting Martin Sheen as President Jed Bartlet, who was on another level) is akin to picking a favorite from the Beatles. Josh Lyman is definitely up there, though, well-played by Bradley Whitford. It’s fairly well known now that Lyman was based off the man who is now President Barack Obama‘s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Maybe if “The West Wing” was on HBO and not NBC, Lyman might have had a significant cache of f-bombs, but this was network TV, brother.
Thanks to Phil Bailey of the S.C. Senate Democratic Caucus tweeting it, this picture is now flying around the South Carolina political class at break-neck pace.
Oh, ho. Wow. This is as close as you’ll come to political porn not involving U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.
I completely relate to everything you’re saying…West Wing was appointment viewing and I still rewatch the DVD’s of the two seasons I own.
There were so many parallels between the 2008 campaign and the campaign to succeed Bartlett…old moderate Republican vs. young telegenic minority Democrat, who won his nomination as an upstart against the establishment Democrat in a fight that was up-in-the-air to the convention. Of course unlike WW–Biden is still alive.
I used to have that picture! However, it doesn’t change the fact that Lyman being based on Emanuel is a myth. Aaron Sorkin used to have a Facebook page where he debunked that. Ari wasn’t his agent back when he first wrote the character, so he wasn’t aware of Rahm. And in early interviews Whitford consistently said Stephanopolous’ book was his preparation for the part. Recently Whitford has changed his tune completely feeding into your story, but doesn’t make it true.
I disagree. If you watched the last season of entourage–Sorkin, brings the myth back full circle and puts it to bed once and for all in the jail house scene with jeremy piven gary when he does a cameo. Too long of a scene to describe. go back and watch it.
segsig: I think it’s hard to tell definitively whether all this Hollywood-back story type of stuff is true or not. But just b/c Rahm’s brother wasn’t involved in West Wing as a casting agent doesn’t mean it isn’t true…what about all the Clinton Admin people who consulted on the West Wing? They would have worked with Rahm in the White House. I’m talking about Dee Dee Myers and I believe Gene Sperling too. Plus Lawrence O’Donnell probably knew Rahm. And I think a lot of the story lines of the West Wing were inspired by events in the Clinton Administration, esp. early on in the show.