Watching the west wing season 1 again from the perspective of fifth it is interesting to reconsider how the show began, especially now that creator Aaron Sorkin is gone. When watching the pilot episode you have to remember that originally that President Jed Bartlett (Martin Sheen) was going to be a minor, recurring character, and that the series was really going to be about the staff in the West Wing: the authoritative Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry (John Spenser), the wunderkind Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), the cranky Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), debonair Deupty Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), and Press Secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney). However, getting Martin Sheen to play the President was just too good of an actor in too good of a role to ignore, and "the west wing" became something else. Final Thought: It would be interesting if when Barlett's second is up if the show continued with a Republican Administration. It will not happen, but it would certainly be interesting. __________ The West Wing box set The West Wing dvd