Week of Aug. 6: Presidential Themes

By Sylvia Gurinsky

This week included President Barack Obama's 49th birthday and the summer session for the Television Critics Association to hear about - and write about - new television shows for fall.

One has nothing to do with the other, but it's fun to combine the two purposes and recall past television series with presidential themes. Here are four, from least successful to most successful:

*"Nancy": This should have been successful, because it was a good idea: A small-town veterinarian from Iowa, played by John Fink, meets the president's daughter, played by Renne Jarrett. Courtship and marriage ensue. Good ratings didn't, however. The most famous alumnus of the show is Academy Award winner Celeste Holm, who played Abby Townsend, the First Lady's press secretary. Holm would later be featured on the CBS show "Promised Land."

"Nancy," which ran on NBC in 1970-71, lasted just 17 episodes, not even long enough to introduce actors as the First Couple. Curiously, it produced a book, which is a collector's item.

Interestingly, "Nancy" was cancelled just as the public started hearing about the upcoming real-life wedding of Tricia Nixon, the oldest daughter of President Richard Nixon, to Harvard law student Edward Cox.

*"Hail To the Chief": This show, which ran on ABC in 1985, was disgraceful, wasting the talents of Patty Duke as President Julia Mansfield and Ted Bessell ("That Girl") as her philandering husband, as well as character actors like Richard Paul ("Carter Country"), Pat Hingle ("Murphy Brown"), Rose Marie ("The Dick Van Dyke Show") and Herschel Bernardi. Mercifully, it lasted just seven episodes. It was created by the same folks who were responsible for "Soap," "Benson," "The Golden Girls" and "Empty Nest," but there was no magic to this one.

*"Commander In Chief": What a lost opportunity this one was. This show, which starred Academy Award winner Geena Davis as President Mackenzie Allen and Donald Sutherland as House Speaker Nathan Templeton, started so well in 2005; it was created by Rod Lurie, who had successfully explored the presidential theme in the film "The Contender."

But an impatient ABC pushed out Lurie because he was having trouble adjusting to the television schedule. Rather than getting him some help, they replaced him with Steven Bochco, who is much better at police shows than presidential shows. That move effectively ruined the series, as Bochco changed the tone.

Though Davis won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy, the show's ratings sagged with all the changes, and it lasted just one season. It is available on DVD.

*"The West Wing": The absolute gold standard, and one of the finest dramas in commercial television history.

Aaron Sorkin, John Wells and Thomas Schlamme were the creators of this show, which ran on NBC from 1999-2006, and the original intent was to look simply behind the scenes at the White House staff - including John Spencer as Chief of Staff Leo McGarry; Bradley Whitford as Assistant Chief of Staff Josh Lyman; Richard Schiff as Communications Director Toby Ziegler; Rob Lowe as his deputy, Sam Seaborn; Allison Janney as Press Secretary C.J. Cregg and at the beginning, Moira Kelly as strategist Mandy Hampton.

But then President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, entered during the last scene of the first episode, and the dynamic was altered; Sheen was so good (and should have won an Emmy, which he never did) that he got a much bigger role.

The show sagged somewhat after Sorkin's departure at the end of Season 4, but picked up a bit during its seventh, and last season, as Congressman Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Senator Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) ran for the chance to succeed Bartlet. Vinick was modeled after Sen. John McCain, and Santos was reportedly modeled after a new United States senator named Barack Obama.

"The West Wing" wound up with 26 Emmys - not to mention a lot of miles walked around those fictional White House corridors.

I'll end with some classic West Wing, when Josh pinch-hit at a press conference for C.J., who had a root canal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG5AwvS5WFQ&feature=related

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!