West Wing fans, look here!

[stokeriño]

I remember watching the very first show and thinking that Josh was likely to be the 'main character', in as much as series like these have them at all.

Not sure why. I think he had that combination of foolishness and wit.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

And then after Sorkin left he just became an all-purpose jackass

[stokeriño]

I fail to see how he was any more or less of a jackass in any series. ¬_¬

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

He was funny and occasionally the voice of reason (when the rest of the group is talking about doing something because of it's political benefits, Josh adds "and maybe because it's the right thing to do?"). Then later on he just became Smuggy McSmug.

[stokeriño]

He wasn't Smuggy McSmug (what the hell is that anyway?) when he was working for Santos. Nor was he for most of season 5. Hell, I'm watching season 5 right now and just finished the episode where he got all whimsical about space and telescopes and shit.

[Bigal]

Josh was the star, at least if you judge it on how many episodes he was in. I think he was them in all apart from the Debate, so you know.

The series definitely lost some of its shine in series six and seven, with the lack of the original characters (apparently due to their high wages). Plus:

Spoiler: Click here to view

Toby being the leak

was absolute bullshit and made no sense.

[sahyder1]

How did it not make sense?

[stokeriño]

Uh...yeah. His motivations were right there. :/ What with his brother and all.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

He wasn't Smuggy McSmug (what the hell is that anyway?) when he was working for Santos. Nor was he for most of season 5. Hell, I'm watching season 5 right now and just finished the episode where he got all whimsical about space and telescopes and shit.

I'm on episode 2 of season 7, and I can't remember a single time Josh has been right on anything about campaign strategy. It's always Josh saying "you need to do this", Santos (or someone else) offering another suggestion, and that other suggestion (done against Josh's better judgement) providing the badly-need boost in the polls.

[stokeriño]

Being less than genius at election campaigning doesn't make him smug. ¬_¬

[Bigal]

Toby thing:

Spoiler: Click here to view

Because Toby would never betray the President by going against his express wishes.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

I was thinking today, the way Santos got the Democratic nomination is precisely the way Hillary would have been accused of "stealing" the nomination from Obama. Russell had more votes, more delegates and won more primaries/caucuses. The clear intent of the Democratic voters on the West Wing was Bingo Bob to be their nominee. Interesting, I think

[Guest Mr. Plow]

Except that Hoynes factored into the fictional race with enough delegates that he should have been the kingmaker.

[Guest Mr. Plow]

Why do Toby, Bartlet, Abby (twice), Zoey, Ron Butterfield, Danny Concannon, Fitzwallace, Amy, Ainsley, Margaret (twice), Hoynes, Will, Kate, CJ, Mrs. Landingham, Josh, Nancy McNally, Donna (four times), Leo (twice), Mallory, Sam, Helen Santos, Santos, Vinick, and Charlie all have Facebook pages?

[stokeriño]

Especially since a couple of those are supposed to be dead and all.

[sahyder1]

What's wrong with them having fan pages?

[stokeriño]

Nothing really. The real question is why Ryan Pierce doesn't have one. He's better than Helen Santos, for a start!

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

I want to be Facebook friends with former Vice President John Hoynes and the corpse of Mrs. Landingham.

[Guest Mr. Plow]

http://bloggingthewestwing.blogspot.com/

Beaten to the punch, sahyder.

(Two people - a longtime fan and one who's never seen an episode - are going through the series and blogging about it episode by episode.)

[sahyder1]

I've been linked to the site before too but have never bothered to check it out. Anyways I'm up for doing this ehever you guys restart watching the series. It never gets old for me.