Aaron Sorkin thinks he could still make The West Wing today, but there is one political factor he thinks would be very different than when the series ran 25 years ago: today’s Republican Party.
At an event in support of the upcoming book What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service in Los Angeles on Saturday, Sorkin acknowledged that he is sometimes asked if the show would work in the present day.
“Honestly, I think it would for roughly the same reason it worked when it did, which is that, first of all, it was a good show, just good stories well told by a great group of people,” he explained to the crowd at the Skirball Cultural Center. “But by and large, in popular culture, our leaders are portrayed either as Machiavellian or as dolts, right? It’s either a House of Cards or Veep. The idea behind The West Wing was what if they were as competent and as dedicated as the doctors and nurses on hospital shows, the cops on the cop shows, the lawyers on a legal drama, that kind of thing. And the result was something that was idealistic and it was aspirational.”
He continued that he thought audiences would respond the same way today, but “what would be different would be this, and I don’t want to get a rumble started over anything. This is simply what would be different. I’m afraid to say that right now — and maybe things will be different a year from now or two years from now, but right now — it would be implausible that the opposition party, that the Republican Party, was reasonable. People would watch that and it would be unfamiliar to them as the country that they live in. On the show, while the Republicans were the opposition, they were reasonable, the Republicans that they dealt with.”
The series, which starred Martin Sheen as Democratic President Jed Bartlet, ran from 1999 to 2006 and was created by Sorkin. He also wrote the foreword for What’s Next, which was written by cast members Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack. The author duo was joined at the event by Sorkin and actors Richard Schiff, Dulé Hill and Janel Moloney, with Hrishikesh Hirway and Josh Malina as moderators. Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford also made brief appearances via video.
“It’s very interesting to read the oral history and to read other people’s takes on what was happening. It really brought back memories and it just makes you want to keep going,” Sorkin said of the book. “A big part of the motivation in writing a new script every nine days for this was being able to put something on the table that these actors would like; they were the first audience for the show.”
He added, “I continue to be motivated by that. I want to write something else that they want to do,” as Malina teased that he already had audiences primed for a West Wing reboot on his social media channels. Sorkin replied, “Still need to have an idea.”
