Aaron Sorkin: The West Wing’s ‘Reasonable’ Republican Party Would Be ‘Unfamiliar’ to Today’s Viewers

As the 25th anniversary of The West Wing‘s Sept. 22, 1999 premiere draws near, series creator Aaron Sorkin was asked how the acclaimed White House drama would play today.

The NBC drama, which ran for seven seasons and collected 27 total Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Drama every year from 2000 to 2003), followed the administration of fictitious Democratic President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen.

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Noteworthy Republican characters who entered the mix over the series’ run included (but were not limited to) White House Counsel Ainsley Hayes (played by Emily Procter), Florida Governor/presidential nominee Robert Ritchie (James Brolin), White House Counsel Joe Quincy (Matthew Perry), California Senator Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) and Missouri Rep. Glen Allen Walken (John Goodman) — and Sorkin has to wonder if as a whole, they would feel like an anachronism in these post-2000 times.

Appearing at a Saturday event in support of the upcoming book What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service, Sorkin said (per sister site THR), “I don’t want to get a rumble started over anything… and maybe things will be different a year from now, or two years from now… but right now, it would be implausible that the opposition party, that the Republican Party [as portrayed on The West Wing], was reasonable.

“People would watch that and it would be unfamiliar to them as the country that they live in,” he continued. “On the show, while the Republicans were the opposition, they were reasonable, the Republicans that they dealt with.”

Even so, Sorkin believes The West Wing could work today, “for roughly the same reason it worked when it did, which is that, first of all, it was a good show, just good stories well-told by a great group of people.”

What do you think of Sorkin’s POV? Have you given The West Wing a recent rewatch, and found elements simply outdated?

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