The West Wing cast reunited at the 76th Emmy Awards last night (September 15) ahead of the show’s 25th anniversary.
READ MORE: The 76th Emmy Awards: see the full list of winners
Stars Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney and Richard Schiff appeared on a replica set of the Oval Office before presenting the Best Drama Series, which was won by Shōgun.
During their segment, Janney also took a pop at the current state of politics as she said: “It’s hard to believe that 25 years ago, Aaron and the writers actually had to use their imaginations to create interesting plot lines for The West Wing.”
Schiff added: “Unlike today, where story lines can be plucked right off the news, storylines that writers would have deemed a bit far-fetched, if not utterly ridiculous 25 years ago.”
Full video of The West Wing Cast presenting at the 2024 Emmy Awards!#Emmys pic.twitter.com/ZaX09vS1Xj
— Kenny (@kennysroys) September 16, 2024
It comes 25 years after the show launched on NBC, on September 22, 1999. It ran for seven seasons.
Earlier Bradley Whitford, who played Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, announced that he couldn’t be in attendance due to filming commitments.
“It breaks my heart not to be able to be with my ‘West Wing’ family at the Emmys tonight or at the White House later this week to celebrate our 25th birthday, but I’m in Budapest on another White House set pretending to work for another administration. (I know. I need to work on my range),” he wrote.
“My God, the writing on ‘The West Wing.’ Those characters. Played by people I love and admire and get to be part of a family with for the rest of my life. As Janel said in her beautiful piece, it was, and somehow continues to be, a privilege. A gift.”
It breaks my heart not to be able to be with my West Wing family at the Emmys tonight or at the White House later this week to celebrate our 25th birthday, but I’m in Budapest on another White House set pretending to work for another administration. (I know. I need to work on my
— Bradley Whitford (@BradleyWhitford) September 15, 2024
Shōgun was the biggest winner on the night walking away with 18 wins – shattering the record for the most nominated and most awarded single-season drama series ever. Among the awards won by Shōgun were Best Drama Series, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series and Best Directing for a Drama Series.
You can view the full list of winners here.
Last month, The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin said that it would be “implausible” to make the Republican Party look “reasonable” if the show was made today.
He added: “What would be different [today] would be this, and I don’t want to get a rumble started over anything. This is simply what would be different.
“I’m afraid to say that right now — and maybe things will be different a year from now or two years from now, but right now — it would be implausible that the opposition party, that the Republican Party, was reasonable,” Sorkin continued.
“People would watch that and it would be unfamiliar to them as the country that they live in. On the show, while the Republicans were the opposition, they were reasonable, the Republicans that they dealt with.”
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