West Wing Cannot End

[xkenx]

I think NBC's corporate masters have decided to shelve West Wing because of good old Rethug politics. Let's make enough noise to NBC/GE to force them to reconsider that move. After all, the show is one of the rare places in the media where issues are actually discussed and debated.

[deadparrot]

1. As much as I love the show,

I'm pretty sure the actors have their own plans for after the show.

Smits has a production deal in place for a show with ABC. And Brad Whitford is starring in Sorkin's new series.

But I know how you feel. I'm gonna be a mess two weeks from tonight. :)

[bluestateguy]

2. That's too simplistic of an explanation

WW was on the air for 7 years. Very few shows last that long, and NBC brushed aside the bitching from the right about the show for many years. The ratings were slipping, and the show had run it's course.

[Garbo 2004]

3. It was expensive to make & ratings didn't bring in the revenue. The

producers tried to shop the show around but they got no takers.

[kaygore]

4. I shall sure miss it, especially as long as the crooks & liars are in

power

[Bucky]

5. Nah, the show's ratings really are down.

Nice thought, but the show has had a pretty solid run and is now past it's "shark" years. It never truly jumped the shark, but the writers have clearly run short on ideas--there's a predictable pattern in all the Lyman-Santos conflicts this season.

Josh: "just play it safe, Congressman, we can't offend our base"
Matt: "Okay, I'll think about it"
Then at the last minute Santos does-the-right-thing-damn-the-consequences while Josh looks on from the wings approvingly.

It's been a wonderful show, but plans have been on for this to be the last season since before December.

[serryjw]

6. 7 years is a long time for Martin Sheen

I'm sure he is tired. I don't think the new crew could carry the show when the ratings were not so great. I will miss it terribly. I love Martin in anything he does.Sometime when I have the money I will buy all 7 years. It would be graet to go back and watch it

[Technowitch]

7. The ratings didn't really drop until they moved it to Sunday night

...where many a good TV show has gone to die quietly.

[hlthe2b]

10. That and the long periods where it was preempted with other...

shows.... That always seems to be a determined way to kill a show...

[mikelewis]

8. Maybe they could end it by having Jeb lie about the reasons for...

staging a war and then have him face a International Human Rights Tribunal for ordering the torture of detainees. Now that would be "Must See TV".

[autorank]

9. Hears the deal...(channed it from my spirit guide, Walter Winchell)

The Jimmy Smits Latino President is too good a character to let go. There are millions of
Latino/Latina Americans who never get a shot at a character like this. And Smits has huge
appeal anyway.

Think they're going to let that go, NO WAY.

They cancel the current show, build a demand for a return, and then announce what they were
going to do all along...turn it into a new show, same story line, just a continuation.

AND they have a great actor, Alda, to play off of Smits and vis a versa.

It's brilliant. Show is going not where, just a new name and some PR.

...at least that's what my spirit guide Walter tells me.

[hlthe2b]

11. re: Alan Alda....

I'm so glad they are putting him in the final story line with some dignity... I adore Alda and the earlier part of tonight's episode where they were portraying him as both lost and in major denial about his future, while also keeping him true to being a basically decent politician (repug or no), just about broke my heart. I remember the last time a major show brought him on (ER) and made him out to be sort of a pathetic "has been" figure-- a once famous doctor and professor facing Alzheimers--and thus forced into retirement...oh, I nearly lost it. Alda has been my "mensch" since childhood and MASH.

Sorry to see West Wing go. It was too cerebral and political for a lot of people I know (and that isn't meant to be an elitist crack). Sadly, all we're going to have left on network tv is those damned reality tv shows. Yeck...