Jed Bartlet

There were seven seasons, 156 episodes, so that'll keep me busy.

Martin Sheen plays President Josiah Bartlett.

He goes by Jed.

He's a Nobel Prize-winning economist.

With, hopefully, empathy, because whenever I get to that point, whenever I realize that the family has a definite, specific agenda or narrative that doesn't quite match with the facts, I have to remind myself of a scene, of all things, a scene from the West Wing.

where Jed Bartlett, the president, his daughter has been kidnapped, and he has to decide what he's doing with his powers, and he realizes he has to step down because there's too much emotion to it.

And I'm butchering the quote, but he says something like, he's telling his staff, he's like, you know, if these people, if I find out that these people killed my daughter, I would...

I would nuke the thing.

I love

it 100% President Bartlett why can't President Bartlett just be like the world's president and you know the mad thing is at a time Bartlett was like God what a voice of sense and reason next to George W George W's obviously you know unleashed hell on the world in many ways but at least he had some semblance of presidential to a point compared to what we have now

It feels like a comedy now, almost, to West Wing.

It's so at odds with the world.

This week we're going to be talking about season four of The Diplomat, a show that asks, what if things in the world were bad, but some people are competent? Hmm.

Then we'll be talking about a different show involving a fictional president, but that somehow also features Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford, The West Wing.

And then we're going to have a final bonus segment on a topic no one will ever be able to see coming.

One that is near and dear to the heart of one Alan Sepinwall, TV's first visionary, Rod Serling.

And in this season four, things have shifted.

Kate Wyler, Carrie Russell's character, is still the ambassador to the UK.

But her husband, Hal, played by Rufus Sewell, is now the vice president.

Big glow up for him.

So it's a drama set inside the White House.

Focusing on the administration of a centrist Democratic president, Josiah Bartlett, played by Martin Sheen.

Focusing on his wise and clever inner staffers.

Chief of Staff Leo, played by the late great John Spencer.

We

should set up for those of you who did not watch it, by the way.

The premise is towards the end of season one, the president's daughter, Zoe Bartlett, played by baby Elizabeth Moss, has started dating the president's body man, Charlie, played by Dulé Hill, who I didn't mention earlier.

And because Charlie is black and Zoe is white, there are certain people in this country who have a problem with this because they suck.

We're a bunch of dumb college kids doing politics.

Of course we all think we're the next President Bartlett.

I definitely grew up in that era with like the Sorkin optimism.

We were all so idealistic.

I think a lot of people, certainly in my age bracket, would tell you that they learned a lot more from their failures than sometimes from their successes.

But I'm very appreciative of learning that President Jed Bartlett was actually a really nice guy.

So that's good information to have.

He still is just, you know, and he's a big activist and, you know, was arrested in the late 70s.