"The West Wing" Cancelled
NBC announced today that they are canceling The West Wing. This is too bad, but not totally unexpected. It needed to do really well this year to stick around.
A lot of speculation now about how they will wrap the whole thing up. Apparently there WILL be a series finale story.
One thing this simplifies, is what to do about the Leo McGarry character, now that actor John Spencer has died. My guess is that now they will have the character move offstage, he will be referred to, and possibly appear in stock footage. But, win-or-lose, his character will fade into TV history, alive, with the rest of the story's players.
The conventional wisdom lately has been that the Democratic Santos/McGarry ticket was going to win, and tonight's near-nuclear-meltdown story reinforces that. But let me propose this: It would be kinda classy to NOT tell us who wins.
Ratchet-up the drama of these two, charismatic, honorable, but opposing candidates. Surface some more important national issues. Have the race be "too close to call" as Josh wrote on the board tonight. And then, on election night, as the winner is about to be announced, fade to black, letting the audience make their own judgement.
It would be a memorable way to go out.
Posted by jackhodgson at January 22, 2006 10:49 PM