The 2024 Emmy Awards brought Us all the way back to the Bartlet administration.
The West Wing‘s Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney and Richard Schiff were tapped to present Outstanding Drama Series at the ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 15, reuniting ahead of the show’s milestone 25th anniversary. The audience cheered as the actors appeared on stage in a mock Oval Office, with Sheen, 84, sitting behind the president’s desk.
“From 1999 to 2006, I had the honor of playing the President of the United States on an extraordinary series created by Aaron Sorkin and produced by John Wells,” Sheen began.
Hill, 49, chimed in, adding that it was an “honor” to serve in the fictional administration of The West Wing.
“It’s hard to believe that just 25 years ago, Aaron and the writers actually had to use their imaginations to create interesting plot lines for The West Wing,” Janney, 64, teased before announcing FX’s Shōgun as the category’s winner.
2024 Emmys Red Carpet Arrivals
The West Wing premiered in September 1999 and ran for seven seasons, ending in 2006. Created by Aaron Sorkin, the show followed the senior staff working under President Jed Bartlet (Sheen) and the eventual campaign to elect his successor, Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits). The series also starred Rob Lowe, Bradley Whitford, Stockard Channing, Elisabeth Moss, Joshua Malina and the late John Spencer.
Ahead of their Emmys appearance, the cast previously reunited for a Max special in 2020. The actors recreated a season 3 episode titled “Hartsfield’s Landing” on stage at the Orpheum Theatre in L.A. with guest appearances by Michelle Obama, Lin-Manuel Miranda (a superfan of the show) and more celebs.
Sterling K. Brown stepped in to play chief of staff Leo McGarry in Spencer’s absence. Finding an actor to fill the role was a “big challenge,” director Thomas Schlamme told Variety in 2021.
“Aaron used to read the characters who weren’t there at the table reads, and he’s a wonderful actor. I thought that would be a beautiful tribute,” he recalled. “The more we thought about it, the more we thought, ‘No, let’s find an actor who isn’t a John Spencer type necessarily, but somebody who could carry on the weight that Leo has in the show.’”
He continued, “I think three or four years ago, somebody had talked to Aaron about doing a reboot of The West Wing and if you needed a new president, what about Sterling K. Brown?”
Since the reunion special, which benefitted the When We All Vote initiative, fans have been hopeful that an official reboot might be in the works. Sorkin was recently asked about the possibility of returning to The West Wing, teasing that he needs “to have an idea” before fans get too excited.
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“Honestly, I think it would [still 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,” he said at an event last month promoting the new book What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service.
Sorkin explained that when it comes to portraying politics on TV, there are typically two options. “It’s either a House of Cards or Veep,” he said. “The idea behind The West Wing was what if they were as competent and as dedicated as the doctors and nurses on hospital shows, the cops on the cop shows, the lawyers on a legal drama, that kind of thing. And the result was something that was idealistic and it was aspirational.”
The West Wing won 27 Emmy Awards from 98 nominations throughout its run, winning nine trophies for its first season. At the time, the show set a record for most wins in a debut season. It remains tied for the most Outstanding Drama Series wins with Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Mad Men and Game of Thrones, each with four trophies to their name. The West Wing is also tied for the most Emmy wins for a drama series, joined by Breaking Bad and The Sopranos with nine total.
