The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

Sunday night NBC aired the live “The West Wing” debate. It was actually performed twice, once for the East Coast and once for the West Coast. While at its heart it’s really a stunt to grab ratings and hopefully drive new interest to a show that has seen its ratings slip since being moved to Sunday night, it’s one of those stunts that fit. The current season is all about the Presidential campaigns of Democratic Congressman Matt Santos and Republican Senator Arnold Vinick, so it makes sense that at some point they’d have a debate. Making that a live debate and blurring the line between entertainment and news was a smart move on the part of John Wells and producers/writers of “The West Wing.”

The episode was very successful. Writer Lawrence O’ Donnell crafted a gripping, dramatic script that kept you glued to the television the entire program. He made an interesting choice to have Vinick propose at the outset that they actually hold a “real” debate that isn’t encumbered by the many debate rules previously established. This allowed for two important things to happen: it allows the drama to be enhanced by the “less structured” (it’s hard to say less structured when you consider this was a scripted program, but so be it) nature of the debates and, because of that format, it allowed those natural flubs or over-talks the actors would naturally do seem real and not at all jarring when they did happen. Smart move.

As for the breadth of topics and amount of time given to each “candidate,” I thought it was very even. Both men presented ideas that are partial to their parties, but they also both addressed them in their own way and style, not as though they were simply beholden to their respective political parties.

As a stunt, this live show was far more successful than the last live show Executive Producer John Wells produced a few years back, the live “er” episode. The big differences being a far less complicated show to pull off logistically– “er” used their entire set while “The West Wing” had only a single stage with the two candidates and a moderator– and two incredibly fine actors in Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda to pull it off. I remember watching the live “er” episode and thought it showed the acting weaknesses of many in the cast, but this “The West Wing” episode just further enforced my respect for the acting ability of Smits and Alda. They nailed each of their parts. Nailed them.

I was a bit surprised that this episode really was presented as a “live” Presidential debate in every way. I expected there would have been cut aways to show each campaign’s reaction to their candidates, but there was none of that. You had an audience, you had a moderatotr (played surprisingly skillfully by newsman Forrest Sawyer) and the two candidates. That’s it. No shots of Josh proclaiming victory or Bruno screaming about something. No, we saw an “actual” debate (hell, it was more of a real debate than we’ve seen in the last two real life Presidential elections). Some people just don’t like debates, though. The number of people I know who couldn’t be bothered to watch the actual Presidential debates is surprising. They just found all that talking head stuff to be boring. But I guess you have to think “The West Wing” watching crowd is active and interested in politics as well as interested in these characters, so finding this format boring probably wasn’t a big concern for the producers.

What I did find very surprising was that the entire time the show aired they included the NBC News logo in the bottom right hand corner. And they even got a real life newsman in Forrest Sawyer to moderate the debate. Talk about blurring the line between news and entertainment. How do you think those at NBC News felt about this? Sure, the news divisions have been battling against the push for the past 30, 40 years to make news more entertaining, but this takes things to a higher level. And does this bring into question the journalistic integrity of Forrest Sawyer? I can say this much for Sawyer– for someone who’s not an actor by trade, he did a pretty damned good job of acting in this episode.

Overall I’d have to say the live “The West Wing” episode was a success on all levels. The writing was great and the acting was spectacular. This episode caps what is a remarkable comeback for a series that was given up for dead in its fifth season. I can’t wait to see who wins this election?

Oh, who did I think “won” the debate? I’d give it to Santos by an edge, mostly for his passion and the fact that Vinick came off a bit angry for my tastes. You can tell the world who you thought wont the debate right now at nbc.com. As of this writing, Matt Santos is kicking some Arnie Vinick ass 70-30.

… about what it is that what the world really needs. No, it’s not food for the hungry or money for the poor. No, it’s not stricter environmental controls or an explanded defense system. No, it’s none of those things. The only thing this world really needs is more bikini car washes.

When I was growing up I used to hear about them all the time and there were movies about them on Cinemax late Friday nights and all of that. Today, I don’t see them anywhere and they’re generally frowned upon. This is a shame. Has society gotten to a point where we don’t have them anymore? Is Los Angeles a bikini car wash free zone? Do you have to travel to Florida to find yourself a good bikini car wash? And lastly, is the bikini car wash a strictly American tradition, or do Europeans, Asians and Australians enjoy a good bikini car wash?

And we all wonder why society is so “screwed up” and stuff. Solution– more bikini car washes.

Pondering the questions of the bikini car wash makes me tired.

Hey Folks, anyone out there know how to add another site’s RSS feeds to your own? And I wouldn’t be using a WordPress plug-in as it won’t be added as part of a WordPress blog. If anyone knows how to do this, please drop me a line! I could use the help.

“What was the name of the monkey in ‘B.J. & The Bear?’”
     – Randy on “My Name Is Earl,” Episode “Broke Joy’s Fancy Figurine,” November 2nd, 2005

My favorite artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec still has staying power, it seems. One of my least favorite pieces by the artist, “The Laundress,” just sold for 22 Million smackers. Now, understand, I don’t post this here to try to boost my high society street cred– fuck that noise– but rather because, well, he’s my favorite artist in the world and it’s not that often you see news about him or his creations anymore, ya know, considering he’s dead for like more than five years.

When I was in ninth grade I had to write a series of short papers (3 or 4 pages) on a variety of different artists for an art history class. The usual suspects were all there like Michelangelo and Da Vinci and Van Gogh and the bunch, but it was when we got to Tolouse-Lautrec that I got really, really interested. I think my report came in at around 10 pages, which actually lost me some points on my final grade for being too long. But I became fascinated by the little broken man, who had terrible drug and drinking problems and loved the whores a wee-bit too much.

I remember being fascinated when I read that his family paid a servant to accompany Tolouse everywhere he went to keep an eye on him and make sure he wasn’t still drinking. Tolouse couldn’t go without his every-half-hour cocktail, so he had a cane hollowed out so that he could fill it with alcohol and steal a sip when the narc servant wasn’t looking.

Wow, I was 13 years old and captivated by a midget, drunk, hooker frequenting master artist. A kid’s gotta have a hero, I guess.