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Post by Jeremy on May 17, 2018 14:01:17 GMT -8
It's worth noting that CCH Pounder was almost cast as CJ (she had previously worked with John Wells on several seasons of ER), and only narrowly lost the role to Allison Janney. Had Pounder been cast, it's likely that Charlie would never have been introduced at all.
(Actually, if any of the new dramas of the 1999 season had featured a black character, it's likely that Charlie would never have been introduced at all. Charlie owes his very life to tokenism.)
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Post by otherscott on May 18, 2018 6:28:40 GMT -8
Wait a second.
You're telling me of all the dramas introduced on the major networks in 1999, none of them had an African American main cast member? That...can't be right.
CCH Pounder would have made an awesome CJ. Like Allison Janney is awesome too, but CCH Pounder would have been awesome.
Of course that would probably also mean no Claudette, or at least a different actress playing her. Oh, the reverberations.
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Post by Jeremy on May 18, 2018 6:59:53 GMT -8
It did sound a little suspect, so I looked it up. There were several shows that year which had at least one black castmember, but none in a leading role.
Here's a quote from the New York Times about the NAACP statement:
"Pointing out that not a single prime time show among 26 to be introduced on the major broadcast networks this fall has an ethnic minority character in a leading role, the President of the NAACP yesterday announced the start of a campaign to pressure both networks and advertisers."
And later in the same piece, the show gets singled out:
"One of NBC’s most touted new shows, West Wing, is a drama about the White House under a liberal democratic administration, yet, its cast is virtually all white.”
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Post by otherscott on May 18, 2018 18:01:55 GMT -8
"Bad Moon Rising"
Whoa. That's how you do a setup episode. And yeah, it is just a setup episode for the dominos that are going to fall in a bit, but it's a hell of a setup. This season is really kicking into gear now and I'm looking forward to how this goes completely.
And Toby is on a massive role. He's barely in this episode and still manages to be nearly the best part of it.
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Post by otherscott on May 18, 2018 21:08:11 GMT -8
I kind of blitzed through to the end tonight without really stopping to comment and consider, and really it's just a terrific end to the season.
I don't think "Two Cathedrals" is a better episode for me than say "Long Term Parking" or even "The Suitcase", but I really don't want to nitpick a terrific episode. And really, I think I'm sold on The West Wing S2 being an excellent season of TV, though it's heavily buoyed by the end stretch from "17 People" onwards. That's not a complaint exactly, because the stretch is terrific, but it does take a while to get to that greatness.
I really should stop harping on the end credits, but my problem isn't even the bouncy music, it's the images they use with the bouncy music. There's tons of optimistic stuff to use in "Two Cathedrals" to set that music to for instance, Mrs. Landingham's funeral isn't the correct choice.
I really can't go without bringing up my favourite "ugh Sam" moment of these episodes, I believe it was in "The Fall's Going to Kill You" where he said something along the lines of "this line was definitely written by a woman." That's really bad. That's potentially worse than early S1 Sam. I still do not like Sam. Sorry, Sam.
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Post by Jeremy on May 21, 2018 18:52:08 GMT -8
Well, don't worry - Sam gets better in Season Three. And by "better," I mean "he appears less frequently."
And I totally understand the urge to rush through the end of the season - it's a terrific final run, and works perfectly as a binge.
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