ONCE GREAT "WEST WING" ENDS ITS RUN

May 12, 2006

President Jed Bartlet once told White House staffer Will Bailey to "never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world."

"Do you know why?" he added.

Will responded, "Because it's the only thing that ever has."

The quote isn't an original. It was borrowed from anthropologist Margaret Mead. Regardless, it's wholly representative of the joyous civic optimism that permeated almost every episode of "The West Wing" during its seven years on the air. In the real world, politicians at the national level rarely do anything to inspire these days, and the dealings of Washington are mostly only looked upon by the public with heavy skepticism.

So it's always been uplifting to see the workings of an idealized American government on the NBC drama, a show that, in its prime, was loved by casual TV viewers and critics alike. "The West Wing" won the Best Dramatic Series Emmy four times. Its wonderful cast received an astounding 33 nominations in the various Emmy categories for acting during its run.

For its first four years alone, before the sudden departure of creator Aaron Sorkin, "The West Wing" deserves a place among the best works of art the medium has ever produced. Sorkin wrote or co-wrote most of those episodes and imbued each with brilliant, crackling dialogue that jumped from the page to the actors to our TVs like little, charged bolts of poetic lightning.

The year after Sorkin left, taking director Thomas Schlamme with him, the series took a creative nosedive, one I couldn't bear to watch. So, with great sadness, I gave up on the show in season five. Many stuck with it, though, and most critics and die-hard fans will tell you "The West Wing" rebounded valiantly in its last two seasons, moving the focus slowly away from Martin Sheen's President Bartlet and toward the two men battling to succeed him - Alan Alda's Senator Arnold Vinick and Jimmy Smits' Congressman Matthew Santos.

I started watching the series again sporadically a few months ago and, more recently, began making a concerned effort to tune in every week, knowing that the series finale, airing this Sunday at 8 p.m., would be here soon. It's still not as good as the series I remember and will catch occasionally in reruns on Bravo. (And, oh, how it misses the late John Spencer, who played Leo McGarry before he died halfway through filming this final season.) But there remain moments where that political idealism shines through, making you want to jump up off your couch and do some volunteer work for the political party of your choice.

Some of the dialogue continues to sparkle, even if Sorkin isn't writing it. I liked Santos' response to Amy Gardner (Mary-Louise Parker) after she suggested a slew of female candidates for the vice presidency -- now open after candidate McGarry passed away along with the actor who played him -- and other cabinet positions: "I can't walk in here and staff the place like it's Noah's Ark." And the return of Rob Lowe's Sam Seaborn earned big smiles. After being M.I.A. since Lowe left "The West Wing" three years ago, Seaborn found a meeting at his law office casually crashed his old buddy Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), now Santos' chief of staff. Lowe's first perfectly-delivered words: "I thought you'd never call."

Speaking of Josh, it's been worth tuning back in just to see him and Donna (Janel Moloney) finally hook up in these last few episodes. There's never been much room for romance on "The West Wing," but these two deserve to end up together as much as any would-be TV couple. In fact, the two share the most touching bit of romantic dialogue I think I've ever heard on a television show. In season two, after Donna is in a minor car accident and her boyfriend stops to have a drink with friends before visiting her, Josh pitches a mini fit and then tells her, "All I'm saying is, if you were in an accident, I wouldn't stop to get a beer." Donna replies, "If you were in an accident, I wouldn't stop for red lights." It may not sound like much, but on a series that devoted hours and hours to the price of oil, the state of education in American, and threats to national security, it was enough to punch through the most hardened of hearts.

Santos defeated Vinick for the presidency, and "The West Wing" will retire on Sunday along with President Bartlet. Shortly after Santos' big win, Bartlet tells Josh, "Me and Leo, we're the past. You're the future." Then let's take a moment to salute the past because television as powerful and thought-provoking as "The West Wing" isn't something that can be replaced every four years at the punch of a voter's ballet. It was a supremely special show that showed us a version of American politics that, in all likelihood, resembled more closely what this country's founding fathers had in mind all along.