The West Wing goes live



ER, Will & Grace, The Bill, Coronation Street, that Quatermass experiment: all TV shows that have gone live as a gimmick. There's no need for it. It merely generates publicity and probably gives the cast and crew concerned a rare buzz, like working in rep again. Trust The West Wing to pull off the same stunt but for intellectual and contextual reasons: a live presidential debate between the fictional candidates, Vinick (Alda) and Santos (Smits). Now, I've read on various blogs and forums that it was unscripted. Don't be silly. Of course it was scripted. It was written by Laurence O'Donnell Jr and directed by Alex Graves. There's no way NBC are going to turn an hour of almost-primetime (well, Sunday night) to two actors doing improv, even actors of this stature. This was planned and blocked and rehearsed like a short play, and yet managed to retain a sense of live-ness that made it exciting even when watching it un-live, some weeks later, in the wrong country. It was a great episode. Gimmicky by defintion, but also sly, in that the candidates touched on issues that were not touched on by the real candidates, Bush and Kerry, in the last televised debate. As we have come to expect, this is political porn - an idealised version of real life.

I wish there was a transcript somewhere - I've searched all the political blogs and can't find one. (If you do, let me know.) The chairman was real-life journalist Forrest Sawyer, who did a calm and authoratitive job, telling off the live studio audience for clapping (which, of course, will have been scripted, just like the guy who shouted out, "You liar!" at Vinick and was removed, Walter Wolfgang-style, by the truth police). When Vinick called for the usual rules to be torn up, so that they could have a "real debate", it actually felt - I don't know - dangerous. Also convincing was when they moved out of range of their fixed podium mics, and were handed roving mics. This was clearly designed to allow the actors to roam.

"How many jobs will you create?" Sawyer asked Vinick.
"None," he replied. "Entrepreneurs create jobs. Business creates jobs. The president's job is to get out of the way."

"Republicans have tried to turn 'liberal' into a bad word," said Santos. "Well, liberals ended slavery in this country."
"A Republican president ended slavery," Vinick retorted.
"Yes, a liberal Republican, Senator. What happened to them?"

It was chilling to hear this fake-Republican say he'd rather drill for oil in Alaska and upset a few animals than, hypothetically, drill in the Grand Canyon and upset some tourists. (Alda, a committed liberal, must have relished doing this material.) Equally, you could hear a pin drop among the Democrat households of America when Santos vowed never to go to war over oil, and urged Vinick to join him in this solemn promise. He refused. George W Bush was probably watching Extreme Makeover on the other side. (Which, incidentally, whupped The West Wing in the ratings that Sunday night. It managed to squeeze its total up to about 9 million from the usual 8, but this is small beer in the world of network television, especially for a show that once commanded audiences of 18 million.)

A genuine poll after the debate went out revealed that Vinick's fake-approval ratings had gone up. Alda did do a marvellous job. But then, he is an actor and isn't going to be president. Those italics are to remind me, not you.