Wrapping Up Season 3

The West Wing really seemed to be hitting its stride in 2001-02; although perhaps not able to reach the critical creative heights of Season 2, one of the greatest full seasons in dramatic television history, the third season - dealing with the beginnings of a presidential reelection campaign and culminating in the emotionally gripping arcs of the Shareef assassination and the tragic end of the budding CJ/Simon Donovan relationship - was still high-quality TV. Given that the show earned 21 total Emmy Award nominations and won its third consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, industry experts agreed in giving Aaron Sorkin and company their due.

The overall path of the season couldn't escape the impact of the 9/11 attacks on America. With that event hitting just before the planned start of the television season, Sorkin and his crew hastily pulled together the Isaac And Ishmael episode (written, cast, filmed, edited, and aired just 22 days after the attacks, and broadcast just 13 days after Sorkin completed the script) to try to acknowledge the "new normal" in American politics and foreign policy. While the specific real-life attacks didn't actually occur in The West Wing, the background unease and anger that the nation felt definitely showed itself in the fabric of the show, from Toby ranting about the Islamic world and "They'll like us when we win!" to the concern over possible nefarious reasons for a truck accident involving nuclear waste to the season-ending arc of a foiled terrorist attack on the Golden Gate Bridge that led to the assassination of a Qumari government official.

Ratings-wise, the 2001-02 season of The West Wing turned out to be the high point for the series. Nielsen had it as the eighth-highest rated show of the season, with a rating of 11.4 (Friends was the top-rated show of the year, with a rating of 15.0). That rating worked out to about 17.2 million viewers, just a tick above the 17 million viewers from Season 2 (when The West Wing finished 11th, although with a slightly higher Nielsen rating of 11.6 for 2000-01).

2002 EMMY AWARDS

As I mentioned, The West Wing went three-for-three since its debut in 1999, winning its third-straight Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series (the other nominated series included CSI: Crime Scene Investigation with former West Wing actress Jorja Fox; Law & Order; Six Feet Under; and 24). The series led all competition with 16 nominations in the major categories (they'd had 12 the year before), and its four wins were the most of any program (also winning four in 2001).

Emmy Awards were won for:

• Outstanding Drama Series

• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, awarded to Allison Janney. It was Janney's third consecutive Emmy for her role as CJ Cregg, but this was her first in the Lead category after winning two Supporting Actress Emmys.

• Also for the third straight year, the Christmas episode was part of the winning submission for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (this time the wonderful John Spencer, for Bartlet For America and We Killed Yamamoto). Richard Schiff won the same award in 2000, in part for In Excelsis Deo, and Bradley Whitford received it the prior season, in part for Noël. 

• Even with Allison Janney being moved to the Lead Actress category, the series still won its third straight Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. This year it went to Stockard Channing, for her role as Abbey Bartlet in Gone Quiet and Dead Irish Writers.

Check out the numerous other Emmy nominations the show received for Season 3:

• Martin Sheen got a third straight nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (specifically for Night Five). He had lost the previous two years to James Gandolfini of The Sopranos, but with The Sopranos on hiatus between May 2001 and September 2002, this time the Emmy went to Michael Chiklis (The Shield). As I mentioned in my recap of the episode, I think Sheen's performance in Posse Comitatus ranks among the top acting jobs he's done.

• Dulé Hill (Hartsfield's Landing and Enemies Foreign And Domestic), Bradley Whitford (H.CON-172 and The Two Bartlets), and Richard Schiff (Hartsfield's Landing and Night Five) were nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. John Spencer kept that award in West Wing hands; Schiff and Whitford had won the trophy the previous two years.

• Janel Moloney (On The Day Before and War Crimes) and Mary-Louise Parker (The Women Of Qumar and H.CON-172) snagged nominations in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category. Allison Janney had won the award the previous two seasons, and Stockard Channing got the trophy this year.

• Three West Wing actors got nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series: Mark Harmon (as Simon Donovan), Tim Matheson (as Vice President Hoynes), and Ron Silver (as Bruno Gianelli). The award went to Charles S. Dutton for The Practice.

• Two directors were nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series: Paris Barclay for The Indians In The Lobby and Alex Graves for Posse Comitatus. Alan Ball won the award for the pilot episode of Six Feet Under.

• Aaron Sorkin was nominated again in the Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series category for Posse Comitatus, but that award went to Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran for 24.

2002 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS

The 2002 Golden Globes, as usual, were held in January, with nominations announced the previous December. That meant the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was actually honoring performances from the end of Season 2 and the first part of Season 3. The West Wing earned four Golden Globe nominations - second only to Will & Grace's five - but didn't take home any awards.

The nominations:

• The series earned its third consecutive nomination for Best Television Series - Drama, which it had won the year before (won this season by Six Feet Under).

• Martin Sheen got his third straight nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series (he won the award the year before), but this year's trophy went to Kiefer Sutherland for 24.

• Bradley Whitford was nominated for the second straight year for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film, but the award was given to Stanley Tucci for the HBO film Conspiracy.

• Allison Janney was nominated again for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film, but Rachel Griffiths snagged the trophy for Six Feet Under.

2002 SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS

The SAG awards were held in March 2002, with nominations coming midway through the 2001-2002 season. The series continued to be hailed by voters from the actors's union, with repeat wins in the three big categories.

• Just as in 2001, the show's cast received the SAG award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

• Martin Sheen, who received the same trophy the year before, once again was given the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series.

• And Allison Janney repeated her 2001 win with the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series.

With Season 3 in the books, there's only one more season that will include contributions from its creator, Aaron Sorkin. For a variety of reasons, he'll depart the show after Season 4, along with longtime director/producer Thomas Schlamme - but that's a topic for next season's wrap up post. Season 4 begins with yet another two-part episode, which turns out to be one of the landmarks of the series as a whole. We continue through the 2002 Presidential election, continued fallout from Bartlet's ordered assassination of Abdul Shareef, another Christmas episode named after a hymn, the departure of one of the original cast members, the appearance of the hilarious Marion Cotesworth-Haye, a career-threatening scandal for Vice President Hoynes, and not one but two episodes written without Sorkin's name on them. The season ends with a gripping cliffhanger involving President Bartlet's daughter Zoey, who returns for a key role after her last appearance in The Midterms in Season 2.