Inside The West Wing: An Unauthorized Look at Television's Smartest Show [Paperback]

Paul Challen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

Offering a detailed look at this hugely popular series, this guide reveals how The West Wing is put together, what ideas and political themes drive its plots, and, ultimately, why it's so popular. Through in-depth interviews, commentary from political and entertainment-industry observers, and extensive searches of the numerous official and unofficial show web sites available in cyberspace, the book provides a comprehensive look inside the show for die-hard fans and casual watchers alike. Also included are actor profiles and an episode-by-episode guide to the first two seasons.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Paul Challen is a writer with TV Times and Post-TV magazines, and writes regularly on pop culture and sports for magazines, newspapers, and radio in Canada and the U.S. His last book was Get Dutch! A Biography of Elmore Leonard, published by ECW in 2000.

About the Author

Paul Challen is a writer with TV Times and Post-TV magazines and writes regularly on pop culture and sports for magazines, newspapers, and radio in Canada and the U.S. He is the author of Get Dutch! A Biography of Elmore Leonard.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: ECW Press (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550224689
• ISBN-13: 978-1550224689
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,003,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shoddy and Secondhand, December 4, 2001

By 

Jane Harper "postmodern Catholic, PhD, NP" (Carbondale, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inside The West Wing: An Unauthorized Look at Television's Smartest Show (Paperback)

I scarcely know where to begin in cataloging the shortcomings of this book.

First of all, it's obvious that the publishers fired all their editors and fact-checkers (although, as always, it's the *author* who must ultimately take responsibility for this kind of slipshod journalism). Most egregious of the Somebody Should Have Caught This Club was the listing of series creator Aaron Sorkin's name as Eric, in the list of sources in the back of the book. Mr. Challen, if it was *Eric* Sorkin you were talking to, no wonder you didn't get anything right!

The first error of easily-checked fact came on page three, when he misquoted a line from the series pilot. How difficult is it to toss a tape in the vcr and verify a word? The sad fact is, of all the quotes Challen uses from dialog, it was difficult to find one that *wasn't* inaccurate. And for all his touted consultation of Big Name Internet Fans, he must not have asked any of them to read the finished product; I've only been a West Wing fan since midway through the first season, and from one search in one archive of one mailing list I discovered that the episodes aren't 45 minutes long, as he says on page 7, but rather 41:35. A perfunctory search of the first couple of chapters also notes mistakes in Aaron Sorkin's birthdate (he was born in 1961, Challen says 1960) and internal contradictions (on p. 10 he says Sorkin has written or co-written every episode, whereas in the episode guide on page 121 he correctly notes that Sorkin did not touch episode 8, 'Enemies').

The real fountainhead of misinformation, though, is Challen's "Episode Guide", that eats up more than a third of the book (70 of the 180 pages). Of the 44 episodes he allegedly summarizes, 24 of the reviews (which are as much opinion as recap) have factual errors.

The real sources of Challen's information should be obvious to anybody looking at the art; he has more photos from the set visit of one of the internet webmistresses than from any other single source. Not that this is bad, necessarily, but it shows that this "unofficial" guide was cobbled together using secondary sources, perfunctory perusals of published reports, and materials obtained indirectly from official outlets via third parties. All it takes to write a book like this, it seems, is to spend an afternoon in the public library copying everything that had been written in the past year about Aaron Sorkin, "The West Wing" and *some* (but not all!) of its players, and spend an afternoon cajoling transcripts of various press events from loquacious television critics. I know at least a dozen fan writers who could have done a better job assembling the book out of their memories and their own files.

And about the Big Name Internet Fans he *did* consult: one of them, Susannah Nix, runs a first-class operation at jedbartlet.com, the source of the aforementioned photos. Of the other three to whom Challen refers, one has shut down her site, one boasted to this writer that she never frequents mailing lists or chat rooms (where the real contact with fans takes place), and the last has a poorly maintained site, with out of date links to nonexistent webpages and obsolete cast lists.

I could go on for pages listing the specific errors of omission and commission in this sad excuse for journalism; I'll confine myself to saying don't waste your money. And if you live in Canada, I'd demand that the Ontario Arts Council, which provided funding for the project, get theirs back.

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing the fanatics don't know, January 4, 2002

By 

JennyM (Northern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside The West Wing: An Unauthorized Look at Television's Smartest Show (Paperback)

If you are a major West Wing fan, this book is NOT for you. There is nothing in here the dedicated fans and internet users do not already know! This is just a book of facts - and many wrong ones at that - and older photos. Nothing new in these pages!

If you are a new viewer to West Wing and want to catch up, I might recommend this book. However, all of the information here - and thensome - is available on the internet for free.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't get too excited..., January 1, 2002

By 

Lindsay Carpenter (Collegeville, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inside The West Wing: An Unauthorized Look at Television's Smartest Show (Paperback)

As a political science student and someone who appreciates "smart TV", my first clue that this book was going to disappoint me was the title. "An unauthorized look..." and so on. Clearly someone did not want him to write this book, or he would have been given authority.
There are so many mistakes in this book, that even the casual viewer could pick up on them. The ones that disappointed me the most were the ones in the episode guides.
I have been watching since the beginning of the second season, but have had help from people on message boards to catch up. Even with my "limited" knowledge... I picked up on a lot. In the synopsis of "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen" part 2, he says that Donna walked into the White House and hired herself without even being cleared by security. Maybe Challen wouldn't be so confused about security if he had correctly sited that Donna hired herself as Josh's assistant BEFORE Bartlet was elected!
This book appears to be thrown together by a casual fan. Next time someone wants to publish an "unauthorized" book... consult the hardcore fans... we know more.