'West Wing' to Air Attack Episode ("West Wing" to Profit from Tragedy)

AP ^

[jporcus]

'West Wing' to Air Attack Episode

LOS ANGELES (AP) - NBC's White House drama "The West Wing" will respond to the East Coast terrorist attacks with a special episode written by series creator Aaron Sorkin, the network said Friday.

Production on the episode, titled "Isaac and Ishmael," has begun and post-production will be hurried to make the Oct. 3 broadcast (9 p.m. EDT), NBC said.

"Aaron is a brilliant writer who has something he wants to say. We have great faith in his abilities to interpret last week's events in a manner that will make this an important hour of television," NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker said.

Details of the story were not released, but the network said it will deal with "some of the questions and issues currently facing the world in the wake" of the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

The drama's planned season premiere, "Manchester, Part I," has been moved to Oct. 10 to accommodate the special show.

The Emmy-winning series follows the political and personal lives of fictional President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his staff.

[jporcus]

NBC: Let's see, how can we make money off this tragedy?

[isom35]

gee, what will mushroom boy come up with this time?

[Travis McGee]

I wonder if Aaron will write this one drunk, or stoned, or on crack?

[Fred Mertz]

I noticed that some company used firemen in their push for drugs of some sort.

Watch the fireman angle.

[FReethesheeples]

As others have doubtless commented before, they should call it "LEft Wind" because fo the 100% LEFT-wing composition of this Lib-twit cast.

I have NEVER seen an spisode yet, so I don't know what effect, if any, having at least one conservative writer (Rob Long) does for the show.

Martin Sheen's intemperate remarks against Bush during/after the Election last Fall turned me off, among others.

[motexva]

Maybe all three.

[FReethesheeples]

I mean, "LEFT WING."

[Travis McGee]

Probably has his head in a paper bag full of airplane glue also.

[GreatOne]

Hate to say it, but in spite of trying to resist watching this show, I've become a fan. It's sadly the best commercial for the Democratic Party out there. I just hope we don't get much/any storyline about the "conscientious objector", who while he doesn't want to retaliate, is still a good American.

Maybe Sorkin will give us something like the SNL parody. If you haven't seen this, with the fighting cats and the dead-on impersonations and dialogue, you missed out on one of the best skits of last year.

[willyboyishere]

Sorkin is not a "brilliant writer"---Tolstoy and Shakespeare and Faulkner and Bellow are brilliant writers. Sorkin is a slick crackhead who has not enough class or imagination to resist capitalizing on Sept.11 by "ripping it from the headlines", which is a common practice on what we laughably call the "best" television. And the Clintonesque Martin Sheen on that show will suddenly become Bush, I take it? These people are shameless.

[Tarheel]

The WTC disaster will be a very raw emotion for most people for a very long time--years. To trivialize it with a 'story' when we have all seen the misery, live and in our living rooms would be a sacrilege.

The Tarheel

[Arthur McGowan]

And since Left Wing already takes place in a fantasy world (President Bartlett is a Democrat, a babykiller, AND a man of integrity), why should the WTC get destroyed in their fantasyland? It should simply be left alone.

[A CA Guy]

Not very sensitive! I think this will help end the whole show.

[Rose in RoseBear]

This is going to be such a mistake for this show!

Sorkin will write a lot of liberal-babble words, Sheen will add some more, and it will wind up with Sheen's character, "The President," prostrating himself before his enemies with fulsome apologies for being American and inherently evil and the proximate cause of the death of the American citizens. His enemies will honor his abject groveling, and there will be a major "kumbiyah" moment, when the people of the world unite in sweet agape love.

Feh.

And all the apologists, the "blame-America-firsters," will not understand why people rise up against the show for trivializing American deaths.

[TBP]

This is typical of liberals. They are totally lacking in compassion. All they are is greedy and selfish. This kind of insensitivity is to be exected from them.

[ClancyJ]

What do you want to bet they show the actor president as rushing back to the White House immediately in a big old show of bravery? Then the actor pres will immediately call for a nationwide telecast before he rushes off to issue orders to halt the air traffic, to contact the v-p, the cabinet, and to determine what happened.

I bet it will in some way be used to drum up some negative on Bush. Good luck to them - we are not fooled.

[lowbridge]

"Aaron is a brilliant writer who has something he wants to say.

Translation: This episode is going to lay the blame at Republicans Reagan and/or Bush.

[Sueann]

Maybe the attack will take place on the set of the "West Wing". Now, wouldn't that be interesting??

[lowbridge]

What do you want to bet they show the actor president as rushing back to the White House immediately in a big old show of bravery?

Oh, yeah! You hit it right on the money. I forgot about the recent liberal critics of bush..accusing him of staying away from DC in the hours following the attack, not for security reasons, but for turning coward and running away.

As a result, they will show THIS tv President's security team insisting that he take cover in a nuke safe bunker. Oh, no. He will override the Secret Service and head straight for ground zero like a heroic little liberal.

We could write this episode in our sleep.