Last week on Today, West Wing star Richard Schiff recalled that he'd only previously seen the District of Columbia “through tear gas and with riot police everywhere” and, referring to the show's liberal “President Bartlet” played by Martin Sheen, asserted that he encounters many who “kind of wish that Bartlet was in the White House at times and that the virtual White House was the real White House.”
MRC analyst Ken Shepherd caught the December 12 interview segment tied to the West Wing cast taping TV ads to promote Washington, DC tourism.
When Katie Couric inquired as to “how you all got involved in this project,” Schiff, who plays White House Communications Director “Toby Zeigler,” replied:
We were just asked to participate in it. Happily, certainly I happily volunteered to do it for them. And the rest of the cast, I think, did too. And, you know, for me, the city has been great to us. It's a beautiful, beautiful city which I never knew. The only time I had been there in my life before I started working on The West Wing was in a demonstration about 30 years ago. And I'd only seen the city through tear gas and with riot police everywhere. So I had no idea what a beautiful, beautiful city it is and it truly is. And the people there have been great to us. It's an inspiring place to be actually.
Couric later jokingly asked: “Are you afraid that tourists coming to the White House might go to the White House thinking they're going to see President Bartlet instead of President Bush?”
Schiff insisted: “Well, we get a lot of comments about how they, how people kind of wish that Bartlet was in the White House at times and that the virtual White House was the real White House.”
The West Wing airs Wednesday nights at 9pm ET/PT, 8pm CT/MT on NBC.
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
