West Wing Thoughts 1

The West Wing has been the only "must see" show on TV for me for some time. With the departure of Aaron Sorkin the show has definitely slipped. I think one way for the show to recapture some momentum and get back its fastball would be to bring back Rob Lowe.

Lowe's character was basically written out of the show (because Lowe and Sorkin didn't get along and Lowe thought he was being underpaid). Sam Seaborn ran for Congress in Orange County, CA and presumably won (I don't recall them ever actually mentioning whether Sam won or lost). In Sam's place the character of Will Bailey was brought in (played by Josh Molina). To put it frankly - Will Bailey has been the TV equivalent of replacing Mark Prior with John Burkett. It's just not working.

Reintroducing Sam Seaborn would be relatively easy. Just have Sam be a member of Congress who is helpful to the White House (just like Toby's wife). Maybe Josh and Toby use Sam on an important issue on the Sunday morning news shows - maybe Sam gets into an affair with one of the President's daughters, etc., etc. It wouldn't be rocket science to get the character back into the swing of things and it would also open up whole new avenues of plot structure (we never get to see how things work from the perspective of the Congress).

I hope Lowe realizes that he had it good on the ensemble cast of The West Wing. The catastophe that was The Lyon's Den I hope has taught him some humility.

The show was built on intelligence, humor and snappy dialogue. Bringing back Sam Seaborn brings back all those elements.