A "Cold Open" Of Sorts

In television parlance, the "cold open" refers to an episode starting right in the midst of the action, a scene that is presented just as the show begins at 7:00 or 7:30 (or 6:55, for those who remember the old TBS Superstation days). Credits and the show's title theme (if it has one) run after the cold open, and then the episode begins in earnest. Cold opens are pretty much standard these days - many times with comedies the cold open is a completely stand-alone scene, with no connection to the episode's plot lines, while in other shows (particularly dramas) the cold open will kick-start the plot of the night.

Cold opens didn't used to be so widespread. Back in the golden days of TV, and even up through the 1980s at least, the majority of programs would begin with the opening credits and theme song. In a trend similar to movies, though, it's now a rarity to find a show that starts with anything but a cold open (many movies these days don't even run their main credits or titles until the end of the film).

So why is this a "cold open," of sorts? I'm just getting all fired up about starting a rewatch of The West Wing and talking about it here, but there's some background to get out before we get to the Pilot episode. So, why not a "cold open"? Heh ... yeah, I'm so clever (although I admit to stealing the idea from The West Wing Weekly podcast, where the original episode announcing the upcoming podcast was titled Cold Open. I only steal from the best).

First off, it seems a little weird to me to be so anxious to get started on a rewatch. I just finished watching the entire series last November, so to go back and start at the beginning only a few months later seems weird. I mean, it's not like I have hours and hours of free time that need filling, you know? But as I mentioned in an earlier post, given our current administration and the absolute clustermess of President Trump and his merry band of incompetents (not the mention the fear of what this clueless group of idealogues could actually end up doing to the country), to escape into an alternate timeline where caring, competent public servants are actually trying to do the right thing for the country sounds pretty darn good. Not to mention, this last rewatch, while finished only a few months ago, probably started sometime in early 2015. So it's been about two years since I started with the season 1 episodes. That's long enough, right?

Okay, so how did this series ever get going in the first place?

We must start with Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin first gained attention in 1989 with his script for the play A Few Good Men (I was actually lucky enough to play Col. Jessep in a local production last year - what a great role in a great play). Sorkin moved on from that to write the screenplay for the movie version (1992), and also wrote the screenplays for Malice (1993) and The American President (1995). His dialogue - clever, snappy, smart, and oh-so-fast - proved to be his trademark. After The American President, which took Sorkin four years to write, he basically was working as a script doctor, tuning up screenplays written by others.

That's what he was doing in late 1996 when he was taken by surprise in a meeting with producer John Wells. Sorkin believed the lunch meeting would just be a talk about general ideas on TV series possibilities. Instead, Wells asked him to pitch a specific series idea. The night before, Sorkin had been hanging out with actor Bradley Whitford, his wife Jane Kaczmarek, and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. Goldsman pointed to a poster for The American President and said, "You know, that would make a great TV series."

Sorkin's response to Wells' request for a pitch was to describe a series based on staffers at the White House, and the germ of The West Wing took hold. The show was brought up to NBC in 1997, but with the Clinton administration in the throes of the Monica Lewinsky/impeachment scandal, the network didn't think the time was right for a political TV series. Meanwhile, Sorkin developed the show Sports Night for ABC (a series spurred by Sorkin's non-stop watching of ESPN while he was working on the script for The American President), which debuted in the fall of 1998.

About that same time, NBC decided the time was right for The West Wing, and picked up the show for the 1999-2000 season. Sorkin ended up writing nearly every script for the show's first four seasons (while also writing nearly every script for Sports Night, which overlapped The West Wing's first season before being canceled). Sorkin left the show after the 2002-2003 season, partly due to burnout, partly due to personal issues (including some serious problems with drug use).

The first four seasons of The West Wing are generally regarded as some of the best television drama ever produced. After Sorkin's departure, producer John Wells stepped in as the overall showrunner, and the quality of the scripts and storylines did drop off somewhat (although the worst of The West Wing is still far and away above most of what you'll find on TV). Season 5 was kind of a struggle re-finding the show's footing, but once Season 6 got the upcoming presidential election storyline running, the show closed with a strong Season 7.

That's the background of how things got started. For me, I absolutely recall watching the original run of the show. I can't remember for certain if I started watching at the beginning in the fall of 1999 (although this type of show is certainly in my wheelhouse, I imagine I did start with the pilot) - my work schedule was something that certainly affected whether or not I might have Wednesday evenings free for TV, so I do remember the VCR getting a workout. I watched pretty faithfully on broadcast TV throughout those first four seasons, although in my recent rewatch there was an episode here and there that didn't really ring a bell, so I probably missed a couple now and again. Season 4 ended with a kidnapping cliffhanger and President Bartlet actually stepping away from his office, and that seemed to turn something off for me. I'm pretty sure I saw very, very little of Season 5 during its broadcast run (I remember hearing about storylines and promos for the show, but also know I didn't watch much), but I must have decided to go back and give it a shot at the beginning of Season 6. I do recall seeing Leo's heart attack at Camp David early in the season, although some of the other plotlines in the first 8 episodes or so don't sound familiar to me. By episode 9 and 10, Josh is convincing Matt Santos to run for President, and from that point on I was back on board.

After the show ended in 2006, I didn't think much about it for some time. I remembered it fondly; I saw a rerun or two when they were broadcast on the Bravo cable network; but it was a show in the past, you know? For some reason, though, The West Wing has worked its way back into the zeitgeist. Lin-Manuel Miranda, he of In The Heights and Hamilton fame, is a longtime fan, and worked references from The West Wing into Hamilton (and at the curtain call for Lin-Manuel's last performance as Alexander Hamilton in July 2016, conductor Alex Lacamoire actually played Snuffy Walden's The West Wing theme - fun note; my son was in the audience that night). Several podcasts have sprung up discussing the world of the show, with The West Wing Weekly (featuring former cast member Joshua Malina) perhaps the best-known. As interest in the show's universe has re-built, we bought the entire series on DVD a few years back (but only watched some extras and an episode or two). Then I realized the entire series was available on Netflix. As I said, I started at the beginning maybe two years ago, paused for a few months, then charged ahead to watch the whole thing and finished last November.

There you have it. How things got started, how I got interested, and now you and I can get going on this trip through the Bartlet administration together. To wrap things up, this is corny, but it's a theme of the show, so I'm going with it - okay. What's next?

The Pilot. Pilot is next.