West Wing Episode Commencement' title='West Wing Episode Commencement' />The West Wing was drama first, politics second. FR-EE The American Side Full Movie. Club. With so many new series popping up on streaming services and DVD, it gets harder and harder to keep up with new shows, much less the all time classics. With TV Club 1. 0, we point you toward the 1. Commencement may refer to Culture. Commencement, a 2002 album by American band Deadsy Commencement, a 2010 novel by J. Courtney Sullivan Commencement, an episode. An Episode Guide of NBCs The West Wing including episode descriptions, credits, reality information links and media quotes. Created by Aaron Sorkin. With Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Allison Janney, John Spencer. Inside the lives of staffers in the West Wing of the White House. HifByYHb8k0/0.jpg' alt='West Wing Episode Commencement' title='West Wing Episode Commencement' />TV series, classic or modern. If you watch these 1. Watch If A Man Answers Online If A Man Answers Full Movie Online'>Watch If A Man Answers Online If A Man Answers Full Movie Online. These are not meant to be the 1. Considering the show ended just eight years ago, it is a bit early to make this statement, but theres a significant argument for the following The West Wing may prove to be the most influential television show of the golden age of television. Not because The West Wing did for the medium what The Sopranos did or Mad Men continues to do, and not because the show is really that brilliant. But outside the realm of television, this series shaped government. The West Wing changed American politics. It was instrumental in creating a sense of mission and purpose about government in a particularly cynical and despairing age. And that, in turn, inspired young people, who went in droves to work for campaigns, make calls for progressive candidates, and agitate for change in government. Simply put, its hard to imagine Obama For Americas success without its fictional precursor, Bartlet For Americathe campaign for President Bartlets re election in the show. The similarities dont end there its uncanny As Brian Stelter at The New York Times observes, The West Wing offers a prescient view of how Barack Obamas campaign against John Mc. Cain would play out. And whether or not President Obamas staff are fans of The West Wing though this video suggests at least Press Secretary Jay Carney is, the idealism of the show lives on in the imaginations of those who expect great things from government. Maureen Dowd invoked the spirit of The West Wings Josiah Bartlet in a column leading up to Election Day 2. Burmese politicians told Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton they were watching the show to learn the ropes of democracy. While its hard to prove that The West Wing changed politics, its harder still to deny its influence. The piece mentioned above about the Burmese politicians, from Ian Crouch in The New Yorker, goes on to observe that Obamas speechifying style echoes Sorkins Bartlet indeed, the entire Democratic National Convention in 2. The West Wings formula for success After two years spent running away from health care reform and other contentious achievements, the Obama campaign decided in Charlotte to acknowledge what the Administration had done. That, along with the seizing of national defense for the first time since 91. The West Wing. And the triumphant return of Bill Clinton, the ultimate Explainer in Chief, capped it all off, proving, as Sorkin did before him, that percentages, policy papers, and political parables can make for good television. Though the show was unabashedly liberal, The West Wings most significant bias was toward optimisma belief in good government so galvanizing that it motivated a generation to public service. The show put the viewer squarely in the middle of a political narrative that rarely made it out of the halls of governmentthat of the bureaucrats and administrators behind the scenes, the people who hammered out the presidents every word, the piles of paper and red tape that had to be untangled before any major policy initiative could move forward. It made that exciting and inspiring, a feat that had not been accomplished until then and is still unparalleled. The West Wing was born out of Aaron Sorkins own rose colored view of government. The first few seasons are written in direct and defiant response to the demoralizing liberal administration of the late 9. Watch Off The Grid Download. White House embroiled in a sex scandal in 1. Congress partially shutting down in 1. Sorkins President Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, was in some ways the anti Clintonan academic from New Hampshire who came unwilling to politics, a Nobel Prize winning economist who first wanted to be a priest. Where the Clinton administration and the government tactics of the end of the 2. The West Wing exhorted idealism. Around Bartlet, Sorkin created a group of lovable and nerdy political operativesthe policy wonks, speechwriters, and personnel who showed up to work every day out of a strong and almost pathological sense of public service. But as the nation changed, so did the show. In the middle of The West Wings second season, the Supreme Court ruled on the Florida recount scandal, determining that Republican George W. Bush had won the contentious 2. And shortly after that, at the beginning of The West Wings third season, 91. The show that began as a fantasy in response to a sex scandal became a fantasy in response to a new world order. Though it failed as much as it succeeded, it was at the forefront of a rapidly changing sense of American identity. In all of the talk of how the show influenced politics, though, its easy to forget that it was just a television show. The drama series was an old school network behemoth, clocking in at 2. It seemed to speak a language that only Washington insiders knewbut it was instead a fevered vision by just one man who had never worked in politics. What we now think of as hallmarks of the Sorkin style werent first used on The West Wing, but they became famous there. And it is a formula. The statistics laden monologues the verbose, high speed arguments about beliefs and principles in the middle of the street on a Tuesday. The inescapable preachinessusually well intentioned, but impossible to ignore. The walk and talk, of course. The flirtations marked as much by casual petty violence as by affection or desire. And what Sorkin himself mocked in the season two episode, And Its Surely To Their Credit an antiquated idea of duty. As infuriating as Sorkins beliefs could sometimes be, it was hard to fault his sense of moral purposethe energy of each script speaks to the back and forth between what is right and what is easy, and pushes back on any piece of arcane policy with arguments of its own. The West Wing was one of the last great network dramas, a product of the NBC studio machine that had not yet found itself challenged by streaming services and cables prestige dramas. Though it was squarely embedded in that system, it still managed to do drama incredibly well. Given that The West Wing is so much about the day to day of the White Houseand given that the day to day of the White House is often spent putting out firesit seems fitting to view The West Wings 1. It speaks to the power of The West Wing that even though the show did a bottle episode, a live show, and an alternate history episode, it spoke through those forms to speak some truth to some power. The pilot Pilot season one, episode one Sorkin didnt come to The West Wing without experience Hed already made his bones with two well received political dramas, A Few Good Men and The American President, as well as the short lived show Sports Night. The pilot reflects this experiencetheres a confidence with the characters and their place in the show, right off the bat, as well as that signature frenetic pacing and hyper intellectualism that cant be at all like what people are in the real world. The pilot also introduces some of Sorkins pet issuesthe rise of the Christian right, the soulless debate on political pundit shows, and the vagaries of post Cold War foreign policy, all of which set this pilot squarely in the world of 9. But theres nothing that better demonstrates Sorkins approach to the show than the slow and suspenseful reveal that the presidents big accident was crashing a bike into a tree. Your presidents a geek, exclaims Chief Of Staff Leo Mc. Garry, about the leader of the free world. And after being talked about and mocked all episode, President Bartlet walks into a meeting with the Christian right by simultaneously correcting them on the language of the first commandment and introducing himself to the show .