‘West Wing’ Cast Headed to Real West Wing to Celebrate 25th Anniversary
The West Wing is headed to the actual West Wing. To celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary, creator Aaron Sorkin and stars Martin Sheen, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney, and more will appear at the White House with First Lady Jill Biden today, Sept. 20, Variety reports.
The event was announced earlier this week after the show was commemorated at the Emmy Awards last weekend. Joining Sheen, Sorkin, Hill, and Moloney will be castmembers Richard Schiff, Emily Procter, Melissa Fitzgerald, and Mary McCormack. Top Warner Bros TV execs Channing Dungey and Brett Paul are also set to join.
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In a statement ahead of the event, Sorkin said, “Twenty-five years ago this week we were wondering if NBC would give us a full season. Speaking for [executive producers] John [Wells] and Tommy [Schlamme], the cast, the crew, and the producers, we’re enormously honored to be invited to the White House.”
At the Emmys last weekend, The West Wing was one of three classic shows feted during the ceremony, along with Saturday Night Live and Happy Days, both of which were celebrating the 50th anniversaries of their premieres. The segment for The West Wing featured Sheen, Hill, Moloney, Schiff, and Allison Janney.
“It’s hard to believe that just 25 years ago, Aaron and the writers actually had to use their imaginations to create interesting plotlines for The West Wing,” Janney said, prompting Schiff to add: “Unlike today, where storylines could be plucked right off the news — storylines that writers would have deemed a bit far-fetched, if not utterly ridiculous, 25 years ago.”
While 2024 is an anniversary year for The West Wing, the show — which has been off the air since 2006 — has shown a penchant for orchestrating reunions during election cycles. In 2016, much of the cast and creative team appeared together at the ATX Festival, while some even campaigned for Hillary Clinton in Ohio. In 2020, the cast came together for a theatrical recreation of the Season Three episode “Hartsfield’s Landing,” and in 2022, ahead of the midterm elections, the cast of The West Wing met their cynical, foulmouthed counterparts, the cast of Veep, for a virtual livestream event benefiting the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
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