Back in the early aughts, The West Wing had a pretty heady task in winning over American audiences in the wake of the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal. But with an idealized White House, an amazing cast and the musical writing of Aaron Sorkin, the political drama did just that. Before there was The West Wing, though, there was The American President, the romantic comedy starring Michael Douglas and Annette Bening that was also penned by Sorkin. That’s no coincidence, either, as it turns out the idea for the NBC series was inspired by Rob Reiner’s 1995 film.
It’s easy to see the similarities between the two projects. Aaron Sorkin’s quick and witty dialogue is unmistakable, and their two fictional presidents — Michael Douglas’ Andrew Shepherd and Martin Sheen’s Jed Bartlet — are equally beloved for being smart, capable and, above all, good-hearted. So how did a romantic comedy film deliver one of the best television shows of all time?
How The West Wing Was Inspired By The American President
In The American President, the story mostly focuses on the president himself and his budding relationship with environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) in a re-election year. The West Wing was intended to be the opposite — the exploration of the president’s senior staff with very little of the big guy himself — made possible through Aaron Sorkin’s overachieving first script. The writer said in The West Wing (The Official Companion):
I suppose if you had to trace it back someplace it was that my first draft of The American President was about three times as long as a movie is supposed to be. There were many more stories in it other than the story of the President and the lobbyist and their romance. I thought, you know, I never really did get to tell the stories about the senior staffers that I wanted to tell. When John Wells came around and said, ‘Would you be interested in writing a television show?’ I thought, boy, I’d be interested in writing this television show. That’s how it started.
While Martin Sheen’s portrayal of President Bartlet necessitated that he play a bigger role in the series than originally intended, his character’s story never overshadowed those of his staff, as we were gifted with one of the best ensemble casts of all time in John Spencer (chief of staff Leo McGarry), Bradley Whitford (deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman), Richard Schiff (communications director Toby Ziegler), Rob Lowe (deputy communications director Sam Seaborn), Allison Janney (press secretary C.J. Cregg), Dulé Hill (president aide Charlie Hill) and many others over the course of its seven-season run.
The West Wing’s Pilot Script Came Straight From The American President’s Cutting Room Floor
It’s funny to think that the first draft of The American President might have included larger stories for chief of staff A.J. (played by a pre-Bartlet Martin Sheen) or staffer Lewis (Michael J. Fox), but apparently that’s exactly what happened. The West Wing’s executive producer John Wells recalled that being part of his conversation with Aaron Sorkin as The West Wing was being developed. Wells told Empire:
We talked about how he had spent a lot of time preparing the script for The American President with the staffers who worked in the West Wing and how he hadn't been able to write about them as much as he wanted to in the movie.
One of those stories that was left on The American President’s cutting room floor became the basis for The West Wing’s series premiere, which aired on NBC on September 22, 1999. In the same interview with Empire, Aaron Sorkin said:
I had written a very long first draft of The American President: about 385 pages, when what you want is 130 or 140. So there were these tiny shards of ideas and one of them, about Cuban refugees, I was able to spin into a pilot.
This should come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen at least The West Wing’s first season and Rob Reiner’s rom-com, as there are some pretty obvious similarities between the two.
In the episode “A Proportional Response,” Jed Bartlet expresses frustration after being advised to issue a measured attack against forces abroad that shot down a plane carrying U.S. citizens. His question “What is the virtue of a proportional response?” is practically identical to Andrew Shepherd’s in a similar situation in The American President, where he tells his advisors: “Someday, someone's gonna have to explain to me the virtue of a proportional response.”
In The West Wing episode that followed — “Five Votes Down” — Bartlet’s gun control bill is one of the central focuses, particularly how the staff tries to drum up support for their admittedly weak legislation. It’s also the episode where Leo’s wife leaves him, as he tells her that as long as Bartlet is in the White House, his job is more important than his marriage.
Fans of The American President will surely see similarities to the movie here, as President Shepherd steals votes from Sydney in order to get his crime bill passed. His girlfriend loses her job over it and in her breakup rant she tells the president, “Congratulations, it’s only taken you three years to put together crime prevention legislation that has no hope of preventing crime.”
Several Cast Members Appeared In Both The Movie And The TV Series
There are plenty of actors you probably forgot were on The West Wing, but several of them you may have recognized from The American President, because the plot isn’t the only place where the two overlap. Obviously Martin Sheen was promoted to the Oval Office for the NBC series after serving as chief of staff in the movie, but he’s not the only Sorkin player to double-dip.
Anna Deavere Smith recurred as National Security Advisor Nancy McNally from Seasons 2 to 7 after playing press secretary Robin McCall in The American President; Joshua Malina, who joined The West Wing in Season 4, was a colleague of Sydney’s in the romantic comedy; and Nina Siemaszko, who played Sydney’s sister in the movie, appeared in nine episodes of The West Wing as one of the First Daughters.
Both of these projects are beloved pieces of work from Aaron Sorkin, and fans of The West Wing are likely more than grateful that the writer was so inspired by his White House research that he created the characters of the Bartlet White House that we love so much. The West Wing is currently one of the best shows streaming on Max, so fire up your Max subscription. While The American President isn’t available to stream anywhere currently, you can rent or buy the movie on digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video or YouTube.
