'West Wing' Murder Episode: Behind-the-Scenes Story

In “Inside the Episode,” the writers and directors reflect on the making of their Emmy-winning episodes.

As with real-life assassination attempts, to truly understand the power of “The West Wing’s” second-season two-part premiere, “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen,” it is necessary to take a look back at the actions prior to the attack. In this case, it would be the Season 1 finale of the NBC show, “What Kind of Day Has It Been?”, a cliffhanger that, in the nascent days of prestige television and the analysis of fan sites like Television Without Pity, it meant… called Wingnuts spent a summer obsessing over their VCR recordings as if they were the Zapruder movie. Which of President Bartlet's (Martin Sheen) employees was killed by a surprise gunshot? Was it the commander in chief himself? His daughter Zoey (Elisabeth Moss)? His boyfriend, Charlie (Dulé Hill)? What's with the footage of deputy communications director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) running while press secretary CJ Cregg (Allison Janney) is pushed to the ground? And where is communications director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff)?

“West Wing” executive producer Thomas Schlamme directed all three episodes and won the Emmy for directing a drama series for the second season doubleheader. He would also share the win on the show's drama series that year, which would end up being the second of four consecutive wins in the category.

But directing both the final and opening episodes didn't necessarily make his job any easier.

“As we neared the end of the first season, we knew this wasn't an assassination of the president,” Schlamme recalls. However, “what we didn't know and what Aaron [Sorkin, the series’ creator] What he didn't know (and he was very kind to inform me before he started shooting) was who, if anyone, would be hit. But someone would probably get shot.”

For Schlamme and his team, this meant taking bits of footage to use in the chaotic Season 1 finale montage when they filmed at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. and then returning to the crime scene several months later to recreate the events to match. with Sorkin's scripts for the season 2 premiere.

Schlamme also did not know how prophetic these episodes would be. The second season of “West Wing” would premiere in September 2000, about a year and a half after the Columbine High School massacre and two months before a heated U.S. presidential race that went all the way to the Supreme Court. But he wasn't eligible for Emmy consideration until 2001. Schlamme and other Emmy winners that year wouldn't be recognized until November, in a ceremony that had to be rescheduled twice in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“Aaron has said many times that we weren't forcing people to eat vegetables,” says the director and producer. “First of all, it is about what is good drama, good entertainment and a fascinating play. But deep down… I think he was very focused on domestic terrorism and this rage that is so incredibly prevalent in our country now.”

In an edited and condensed interview, Schlamme spent about an hour of another election year reflecting with The Times on these crucial episodes.

Was the Season 1 finale intended to be a reference to the infamous “Who Shot JR?” The suspense of the 1980s nighttime soap opera “Dallas”?

It was literally not part of the conversation. It wasn't, “Oh, we need a cliffhanger like they did 20 years earlier in 'Dallas.'” There was no relationship between those two shows, there was no relationship in the way Aaron works. In fact, we were quite surprised by the idea that it was this incredible cliffhanger. We knew it was a great moment and we wanted a great moment.

But what I remember most was having a conversation with Aaron. Because what surprised us, in the first season of the show, was the mail that we received that was incredibly supportive of the show. We got letters from Republicans saying, “We really hate your politics, but we love the show and we love these people.” They really got the idea that we weren't trying to impose a political agenda on anyone.

The only hate mail we received was after Dulé and Elisabeth's characters kissed on screen. I think it was 1999 and we were surprised that we were getting a lot of questions: “How dare this African American, basically an assistant to the president, have this romantic affair with the daughter of a white president?”

I think that's what started the idea of ​​”What if someone wanted to shoot Charlie?” not: “We should assassinate the president.” That's all we knew as we approached the end of Season 1.

It turns out that both Bartlet and Bradley WhitfordJosh Lyman, the deputy chief of staff, is shot. You said you didn't know who would be shot. But did you know if they would survive?

First of all, Brad and Aaron are very close friends. She wrote the role for Brad Whitford. So I don't think he would have killed him in the first year.

But look, there were deaths on “The West Wing.” There weren't that many, but there were deaths. It was never with the thought of “Oh, let's kill this character.” [for ratings or shock value].” It was always to push some kind of story for a reason.

brad's mother [however]I didn't know and I was scared to death because not only did you shoot Brad but he's not going to be on the show anymore.

We now have a stereotype, for better or worse, of what a domestic terrorist “looks like.” Were there conversations then about what the shooters would be like? They are young, white men with short hair.

Oddly enough, I think we had cast one of them at the beginning of an episode as an extra in the background. And when we started talking about whether Charlie would be the target, we said, “Do you remember that extra one?”

If the season finale and the premiere were shot at different times, how did you go back and match what you'd done before?

Difficulty is the word. If we had known everything, and it had been contemporary television, we would have shot at least that part of the next episode right there.

For me, the number one thing was securing the location, and that was the Newseum. So we had to let them know that we would have to return. We only had a limited time there. … We had to leave there, disconnected and all, at 6 in the morning when the sun was already rising. When Richard finds Brad, you will see that the sky is a little bluer. We didn't have the digital proofing software we have now.

We were loading the trucks, they told us that we had to leave and that we couldn't shoot anymore. We start the evening with this great production and end with a guerrilla film. It was just me, the [director of photography], Brad and Richard and a couple of extras. I did not call for action; I didn't do anything because they didn't know we were shooting.

Rob Lowe's Sam Seaborn and Allison Janney's CJ Cregg deal with the aftermath of a shooting on “The West Wing.”

(Warner Bros. Discovery)

At a press conference after the shooting, Janney's trial judge makes a statement about all the people who died from gun violence the night of the assassination attempt. Were you trying to make a political statement?

That is a very powerful speech that Allison gives. [and one] that you could still hold on [as to why] We need some gun control legislation. We weren't trying to make a statement. It's just that that's what that press secretary would say about what happened that night with [shooting victims] next to the most protected person in the world.

The scene where Charlie discovers that he was the intended victim is very slow and deliberate.

If you look at the choreography of “The West Wing,” it was always set up to move, move, move. And then, even if it was just to have a coffee, everything would come to a standstill a little because it is information that you need.

And by the way, this refers to the theory that you don't need a lot of dialogue, especially when it's Aaron, who writes a lot of dialogue. I think Dulé Hill, in that scene where they tell it, is amazingly brilliant. I think it has three “OKs.” And each one is filled with something more than [is processing].

This is also an early episode that hints at something that will be a bigger plot point later: tThe president has multiple sclerosis. The First Lady (Stockard Channing) is a doctor and shares this little-known fact with his anesthesiologist in a sort of robotic, “no matter what” way: this is the information you need; Do whatever you want with it later.

There is a frenetic energy as he runs out of the White House. Also, a fun little detail here: the [man playing the] The head of his security team is a man named Willie Gault, who played for the Los Angeles Raiders and was an Olympic gold medalist. Therefore, he is literally one of the fastest human beings in the world. My only prompt to Willie was, “Can you slow down a little bit because you're so far ahead of everyone else?”

But Stockard and I talked and [the direction was], “Find your daughter. And from that moment on, you are a medical professional who is in a hospital with a critical patient.”

It's really interesting because it's very disconnected. …It's just business. And because Stockard is so brilliant down there, you think, “Holy shit, her husband just got shot. But she has to be this doctor.”

I shot it so you could see the president in the background. It is not something that is above the shoulder of the [anesthesiologist]. It all depends on Stockard. I don't care about the doctor's reaction to this. He means nothing to me in the narrative.

You were honored with these Emmy Awards a few years after your wife, actor Cristina Lahtidid to her famous golden globes acceptance speech after his award was announced while he was in the bathroom. Do you give each other notes on award speeches?

No. Well, I'm sure Christine has gone over her speeches with me. Not because she trusts me. So is she; she is very open.

I rarely do that. That's not an asset. I'm also embarrassed to have to write them before [might win] them.

But I was president of the Directors Guild for four years. I have worked in negotiations. I have also given speeches, as has Christine, in politics and elsewhere. We will absolutely share it among ourselves.

But if we go to an awards ceremony, I just make sure Christine doesn't leave the table.