Uma
Thurman is dancing in place at the bar in a black miniskirt
and jacket, hair swept up in a golden twist, surrounded by a
group of admirers. A very pregnant Kate Hudson is perched on
a nearby chair, laughing. Alec Baldwin walks by on his way to
the restroom.
The
“Back to School” party, an annual bash the Creative
Artists Agency puts on for its television and movie writers
at the beginning of the fall season, is in full swing at “The
Blue Whale,” architect Cesar Pelli’s dramatic sapphire-hued
Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, and Mark Goffman ’90C
is riding the escalator up to the main floor.
“Hey,
congratulations on The West Wing,” a partygoer behind
him says, reaching out to shake his hand.
“Thanks,”
says Goffman, smiling.
It’s
been an intense week for Goffman and his fellow writers on NBC’s
Wednesday night political drama, which takes viewers inside
the White House of a fictional Democratic administration. On
Sunday, the show took the Emmy for best drama series for the
fourth year running, tying Hill Street Blues for most
consecutive wins in the category. And last night, The West
Wing season premiere was broadcast, earning a thumbs-up
from reviewers at the New York Times and trouncing its
competition, the season finale of Big Brother 4 and the
premiere of The Bachelor.
“It’s
funny how many e-mails and phone calls I got from people saying
they recognized the top of my head on TV, ” says Goffman,
who took the stage with the rest of the West Wing team
in a rare moment of recognition for the show’s writers,
who operate mostly behind the scenes.
The
West Wing has a reputation for being one of the most smartly
written, literate shows on television; to land a writer’s
position on staff is the equivalent of being drafted to the
majors. The unlikely story of how the thirty-four-year-old Goffman
came to be standing on the stage of the Shrine Auditorium at
the fifty-fifth annual Emmy Awards has the makings of a screenplay
itself.
After
graduating from Emory with a double major in philosophy and
economics, Goffman went on to receive a master’s in public
policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. When
a screenplay he and a fellow Kennedy School student wrote—about
a twelve-year-old who became a mayor in New England—received
attention from an agent and a producer, he decided to move to
Los Angeles.
His
parents, back in his hometown of Houston, were understandably
a bit nervous. “They didn’t know anyone in show business,”
he says. But his grandfather, George London, a concert violinist
in the 1930s for the Baltimore Symphony, was his biggest supporter.
“He had stopped playing violin professionally and became
an accountant. He told my parents, ‘I gave up my dream
and worked this hard so that my family could pursue theirs.
If Mark wants to go out there, he should have that opportunity.’
”
The
deal for the screenplay never materialized, but Goffman persevered,
working as a political consultant while honing his craft in
Hollywood. One of Goffman’s mentors was polling strategist
Frank Luntz, who hired him to write speeches for clients such
as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
In
1999, Goffman entered a Warner Brothers script competition.
Out of a thousand entrants, he was one of twenty-five selected
for the WB Comedy Writers Workshop, an L.A. institution. “It’s
like a farm league for sitcom writers,” he says.
At
the workshop, each of the participants wrote a fresh script.
Two were selected to be read aloud on the final evening; one
was Goffman’s. Producers for the ABC series Odd Man
Out, a comedy about a teenage boy living with five women,
were in the audience, and hired Goffman on the spot.
Like
half of all new shows, the series was cancelled the following
year.
Not
to be dissuaded, Goffman wrote several more movie scripts, did
a series of commercials for Gibson guitars and Baldwin pianos,
wrote and directed two short films, freelanced for CBS’s
Touched by an Angel, and worked with James Cameron on
the Titanic expedition, before being hired on to The West
Wing.
“I
always thought you got one big break,” says Goffman, who
now commutes to the Warner Brothers lot each day from his 1920s
Spanish-style home off Melrose Avenue. “But instead, it
was a series of small breaks.”
As
time nears for The West Wing’s daily writers meeting,
Goffman and the other writers start gathering outside the conference
room, noshing on snacks from a cupboard and a refrigerator stocked
with yogurt, soda, cereal, crackers, Bazooka bubble gum, and
granola bars. An assistant has made a Starbucks run and is distributing
lattés and espressos. Goffman, who doesn’t drink
coffee, gets a Jamba Juice.
These
brainstorming sessions—where writers fine-tune the lively
banter, divine the current political zeitgeist, and come up
with timely and compelling new plotlines—are an integral
part of creating each year’s twenty-two new West Wing
episodes. The meetings are attended by about a dozen people,
including executive producer John Wells (The West Wing’s
creator and chief writer, Aaron Sorkin, left in May).
The
show’s main writers—seven men and three women—are,
as a whole, young, bright, Ivy educated, and opinionated. Many
of them came from other top series—Friends, E.R., China
Beach, and Sex and the City. Others have political
experience, such as Al Gore’s former speech writer, Eli
Attie, and MSNBC’s senior political analyst, Lawrence O’Donnell
Jr. The air is relaxed and informal as the writers take their
seats around a rectangular table that dominates the room.
“We’ll
joke around, loosen each other up, then as we settle on stories,
we do the research and develop the storylines,” Goffman
says.
In
general, writers have the creative control in television, as
opposed to directors and stars in films. The hierarchy ascends
from staff writer to story editor to producer. For the past
four years, however, Sorkin wrote much of The West Wing
dialogue himself, using the writers more as a research and support
staff. This year, in Sorkin’s absence, the process has
changed.
“John
[Wells] took us all to Hawaii for a week in June—the five
new writers and five returning writers—to develop character
and story arcs for the season,” Goffman says. “Then
he assigned writers to each episode.”
 This
afternoon, Goffman’s episode, “Shutdown,” is
on the agenda. In it, President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin
Sheen (left), and the Speaker of the House have a classic Western-style
standoff, reminiscent of Gunfight at the OK Corral. Feedback
from Goffman’s colleagues has been good so far, but he’s
still a bit apprehensive about the meeting.
“Sometimes
the scripts are discussed line for line. You’re having
your work scrutinized by the best writers in the business,”
he says. “It can be painful. But that’s how you learn.”
Wells,
clearly the clan’s patriarch, sits at the table’s
head, gently directing the conversation. He’s one of the
most prolific writers and producers in television and film today—executive
producer and creator of E.R. and Third Watch,
producer of White Oleander and One Hour Photo,
award-winning writer on China Beach, former president
of the Writer’s Guild of America. Yet, dressed casually
in khakis and a short-sleeved shirt, he looks more like a rumpled
suburban dad.
The
afternoon sun throws slanted shadows against the walls, which
are covered with dry-erase boards, one per episode, containing
the evolving storylines. As each episode is shot, the writers
get to erase that board.
During
the meeting, details are added to several episodes in progress;
the looks and mannerisms of a new character are determined;
the continuing occupation of Iraq is discussed, as is the impact
media coverage can have on political events.
A
guiding creed (referenced in almost every decision) is that
the show must transcend politics and get at the heart of what
democracy means: to have a government made up of real, flawed
human beings who are called upon to make monumental decisions.
“We want to appeal to the ‘better angels of our natures,’
” says one writer.
Goffman
listens intently as portions of his script are discussed.
As
the meeting nears its midpoint, Wells is called to another commitment
and leaves the writers to continue their session. A few seconds
later he re-enters the room, walks over to Goffman and, with
a smile, shakes his hand before leaving again.
Much
of The West Wing is filmed on two enormous soundstages
in the Warner Brothers lot, next to the E.R. hospital
and The Gilmore Girls’ town square. Everything from
the White House Press Room to the Oval Office has been painstakingly
replicated.
Goffman
frequently visits the set, especially when his scripts are being
shot, so he’s available to answer questions about the intent
of a scene or line, or to make timing adjustments. It’s
an amazing process to watch, Goffman admits, standing aside
as cameras are rolled into the Roosevelt Room. Actor John Spencer,
who plays Leo McGarry, Bartlett’s chief of staff and main
confidant on the show, is eating an ice-cream sandwich between
takes.
“This
is their domain, the actors and directors,” Goffman says.
“They bring emotions to the scene you didn’t even
know were there, or take it in a different, better direction.
With the caliber of actors we have, that often happens.”
A
trademark of The West Wing is that much of the pivotal
dialogue takes place in hallways while characters are walking
from office to office. That keeps the shot from being static,
Goffman explains, and underscores the rapid-fire pace of the
characters’ work life. The main characters also finish
each other’s sentences and even talk over one another.
“It’s
like the lyrics of a song,” says Goffman. “You don’t
have to hear every word, just enough to care and be interested.”
Three
times a year the cast and crew fly to Washington, D.C., to film
select scenes. These on-location shots make the show one of
the most expensive to shoot in television, but sometimes there’s
no replacing the panoramic grandiosity of the nation’s
capitol.
“In
my episode, the story pivots around President Bartlet walking
down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. So even though that
ended up on page thirty-nine, I had to write that scene first,”
Goffman says. “It took a half day to shoot in D.C., and
then, more than a month later, we shot the rest of the episode
here on set at Warner Brothers.”
While
Bartlet, a Nobel laureate in economics and unapologetic liberal,
is still the clear lead and moral authority of the series, strong
Republican characters are emerging this season as well. Wells
has said the drama will be more balanced in presenting the Democratic
and Republican perspectives.
“In
the beginning, we had a lot of Republicans who watched the show
and we’ve lost some of that audience,” he told reporters.
“It’s incumbent upon us to get it back—we don’t
want to just be preaching to the choir.”
The
New York Times gave a favorable review to the premiere, saying:
“Viewers can already tell that The West Wing has
taken a sharp right turn. . . . It shatters the complacent amity
of the Bartlet White House, giving room to all the tensions
that flourish around a real Oval Office. . . . The nation may
not have a shortage of Republican face time, but The West
Wing did: its heroes needed a worthy enemy.” The review
concluded that “overall, the first episode of the post-Sorkin
West Wing is a treat.”
In
Goffman’s office, photos of him shaking hands with President
George W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton are displayed
on the top of his bookshelf. Before moving to Los Angeles, Goffman
was pursuing a career in public service.
“I
love politics,” says Goffman who, contrary to the perception
that West Wingers are all die-hard liberals and yellow-dog Democrats,
is a registered Republican.
Even
though a whole fan culture has sprung up around the show, with
“Re-elect Bartlet” banners and “Jed Bartlet is
my President” bumper stickers, Goffman says the reason
The West Wing attracts an average of sixteen million
viewers a week isn’t partisan politics.
“The
show isn’t so much about Republicans or Democrats,”
he says, “as it is smart people passionately debating policy
at the highest levels of government.”
Exactly
the sort of debate one hopes is happening, at this moment, in
the West Wing itself.
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