Creation and Development
Show creator Aaron Sorkin had not initially intended to feature the president, having envisioned the series as being focused on the White House senior staff who execute and advise on major policy and political matters. "Then I felt that would become hokey," he says. "We'll constantly be just missing the president. As he walks around the corner, we'll see the back of his head." The character of Josiah Bartlet was then created as a recurring figure, and Martin Sheen was signed to appear in four episodes. Alan Alda (who went on to portray Senator Vinick), Jason Robards and Sidney Poitier were also considered for the role. After seeing Sheen's dailies, the producers were so impressed that they asked him to join the regular cast. "They realized that people might catch on that I'd be there only once a month, so they talked to me about a longer commitment," says Sheen. The actor says that part of the reason he took on the role of Bartlet is because of his involvement in social issues.
Sorkin's main interest in writing for the character was in exploring the side of the president that the public does not generally see. Sheen describes the character as being drawn largely from Bill Clinton: "He's bright, astute and filled with all the negative foibles that make him very human," he told Radio Times. Sheen said elsewhere that he adored Clinton and was welcomed into the Clinton White House for visits during the brief period between the show's beginning in the fall of 1999 and the inauguration of George W. Bush as President in January 2001. Sorkin has said he takes some of Bartlet's characteristics from his own father, namely his "great love of education and literature all things old," his " in a genuine goodness in people," and his "'Aw, Dad' sense of humor."
In the middle of the show's first season, it was revealed that Bartlet was suffering from multiple sclerosis. According to Sorkin, this was not planned; the plot came about because he wanted to write an episode in which the president was in bed watching a soap opera and the audience discovered that the first lady was a physician. "When I wrote the pilot, I didn't have any idea what was going to happen in Episode 2, much less 12," he says.
Read more about this topic: Josiah Bartlet
Famous quotes containing the words creation and, creation and/or development:
“As a natural process, of the same character as the development of a tree from its seed, or of a fowl from its egg, evolution excludes creation and all other kinds of supernatural intervention.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“As the truest society approaches always nearer to solitude, so the most excellent speech finally falls into Silence. Silence is audible to all men, at all times, and in all places. She is when we hear inwardly, sound when we hear outwardly. Creation has not displaced her, but is her visible framework and foil. All sounds are her servants, and purveyors, proclaiming not only that their mistress is, but is a rare mistress, and earnestly to be sought after.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I’ve always been impressed by the different paths babies take in their physical development on the way to walking. It’s rare to see a behavior that starts out with such wide natural variation, yet becomes so uniform after only a few months.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)