“The West Wing” is back, although the opening credits in the video above are looking a little different now that the White House is a coronavirus hot spot.
The new credits were in honour of the cast of the beloved political drama paying a visit to Global’s “The Late Show” , with stars Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff joined by series creator Aaron Sorkin to chat with host Stephen Colbert about the upcoming reunion special for HBO Max.
While the special is being billed as a reunion, Sorkin disputed that terminology, given that the cast will be staging the season 3 episode 14 episode, “Hartsfield’s Landing”, at Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theater.
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“It’s not a reunion show. Reunion shows have this certain stigma attached to them, that you feel like it’s going to be a ‘Very Brady Christmas.’ Over the years I’ve resisted the opportunities to do a reunion show, but this opportunity came along to do something at a crucial time for When We All Vote,” Sorkin said. “So, while it is a group of people coming back together after having not been together for a while, it is not a reunion. It has a purpose.”
During the conversation, the cast reminisced about the show, with Sorkin explaining how the actors influenced the way he wrote their characters.
“Yes, of course, the actors influenced the characters as we went,” Sorkin said. “That’s one of the really nice things of doing series television, about staying with something. I stayed with it for four years. You’re kind of on your own with the pilot. Then, with this group, starting with episode two, you start to get to know them a little bit and they’re really filling out these characters and it just starts to work. I think we had some very good episodes in the first season, but I feel like it took us the first year to learn how to do the show.”
In that respect, Sheen recalled that he wanted the faith of his character, President Josiah Bartlet, to reflect his own real-life Catholicism.
“I wanted Bartlet to have a personal reference of morality so that it went beyond the normal course of politics or public life, that he took personal that there was reward and punishment,” explained Sheen. “But I also wanted him to have a Notre Dame degree for obvious reasons that I didn’t have one. So I’m grateful that Aaron gave me both.”
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“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” airs weeknights at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on Global.
