Josh Reviews What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing!

I consider the first four seasons of The West Wing (overseen by Aaron Sorkin, Tommy Schlamme, & John Wells) to be among the greatest achievements of TV ever.  And so I was very excited to read the new look back at the show: What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, its Cast and Crew, and its Enduring Legacy of Service.  The book is written by two insiders: Melissa Fitzgerald (who played Carol on The West Wing throughout the run of the series) and Mary McCormack (who played Kate Harper, starting in season five).

This book is wonderful!  It’s an in-depth look back at every aspect of the making of The West Wing and its legacy.

The book isn’t an oral history, as I’d expected it to be.  That format has been very popular for books exploring the making of TV shows — some of my favorite examples make use of that approach (such as Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by James Andrew Miller & Tom Shales, and the two-volume The Fifty Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek by Edward Gross & Mark A. Altman).  So I guess I’d just assumed this book would use that format as well.  It doesn’t, but I liked the approach of Melissa and Mary’s recollections guiding the reader through the history of the show.

And the book has no shortage of great interview quotes!  Ms. Fitzgerald and Ms. McCormack were the perfect people to write this book.  They were able to get pretty much everyone you’d want to hear from in a book like this.  All the stars of the show participated in the book, as did Aaron Sorkin, Tommy Schlamme, John Wells, and many of the other less-famous people who worked behind the scenes on the creation of this show.

We spend a lot of time following the conception and initial development of The West Wing, including the casting process (which resulted in this all-star ensemble) and the process of writing and shooting the pilot.

From there, we follow through the seasons, with stops to dig deep into certain pivotal episodes along the way.  I was happiest with this book when they were exploring these key episodes and moments in the series (such as Bartlet’s argument with God while standing in a church in the pivotal season two finale “Two Cathedrals”).

The central theme of the book is service.  Ms. Fitzgerald and Ms. McCormack pause regularly in their narrative of the history of the show to explore how members of the show’s cast and crew have given back to the communities around them and across the world, highlighting causes they’ve supported (and providing lots of helpful info for readers who are inspired to support any of the many noble causes mentioned).  This is an interesting angle to take, and one that fits well with The West Wing’s championing of the nobility of service to one’s country through government.  This also serves to separate this book, in a nice way, from many of the other “making of TV-show” books out there.

(On the other hand, as a West Wing uber fan, there were times I wish they’d devoted some of that page count to exploring more great West Wing episodes that they skipped over!!  There are so many great West Wing episodes and moments that, even in this satisfyingly lengthy book, there were plenty of episodes I was shocked weren’t highlighted.  We need a volume two!)

The book’s main weakness, in my mind, is that it is unfailingly positive, avoiding any hint of discussing problems or ill-will.  Well, there’s a teeny quick dip into that when they mention Rob Lowe’s hurt feelings after departing from the show, but that’s a tiny blip in the otherwise placid waters of this book.  We don’t get any real discussion of the troubles leading up to Aaron Sorkin’s departure from this show that he’d created and been so integral in running for its first four years (writing or re-writing almost every single episode, an almost unheard of act in the world of making TV shows).  There’s little exploration of the behind the scenes challenges that must have gone into assembling a writers room to try to take over for Sorkin, or the generally-acknowledged weakness of season five, that first post-Sorkin season.  I’d have loved to have explored the process of the narrative pivot made in the middle of season six, when the show basically bifurcated to follow the dueling Vinick and Santos campaigns.  Did the reduced screen time for some of the regulars bother them?  I don’t need a gossipy book, but as someone who is extremely interested in the process of how these great shows get made, I’d have loved to have been able to learn more about the real behind-the-scenes challenges of making this show.

Getting back to the positives, I was pleased that the book explored a few West Wing-adjacent stories and projects, such as the making of the 2020 special to benefit “When We All Vote”.  (That performance of the classic episode “Hartsfield’s Landing” was amazing and filled me with joy.)

The love that the people who made The West Wing had and apparently still have for this show and for one another shines brightly through this book.  It’s very sweet to see.  (The authors devote a whole chapter to bashing Joshua Malina — it’s called “Meanest Man in the World” — but clearly that was only done out of love!!  That Josh Malina was apparently quite a prankster…)

If you’re a fan of The West Wing, you should read this book!  (And if you’re not a fan of The West Wing, what is wrong with you??  Your only excuse should be that you haven’t seen it, and if that’s the case, go watch it right now.  At least those first four Sorkin seasons…)