West Wing Writers Planned Vinick Victory

As fans of The West Wing prepare themselves for the post-Jed Barlet era (kind of like the sunset of Clinton), an article about the show's waning days appears in the New York Times. The article indicates that it was the death of John Spencer (aka Leo) that actually determined the outcome of the show's presidential election. The plan had been to have maverick Republican Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) win the election. But when Spencer died the show's writers decided that people would feel it would have been too much if Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) lost both the election and his vice president, so they changed course of fictional history.

I heard speculation that Santos will name Vinick as the new VP; I hope that will not be the case because then the show will have descended into pure fantasy. (Another sign of political fantasy taking over: the President is reconciled with Toby.) Watch for Sam to turn up for Leo's funeral. The article also reveals that Martin Sheen's plans for after the show include going to college full-time. Turns out the actor who played the know-it-all, Nobel-Prize-winning President never had any college and intends to rectify that. Good for him. Here's the article; you may have to have a New York Times login to read it. If you can't see it, let me know and I'll e-mail you a copy.