The West Wing cast on Ellen

by Jennifer Squires Biller

Fans of The West Wing, don’t miss Ellen on Thursday. The cast sits down with the Emmy-winning talk-show host to say goodbye to the show.

Hmm…I wonder how much she had to pay them? Just kidding. If you don’t get that joke, then you probably haven’t heard the news that NBC had originally planned to air a special interview and clip segment prior to the series finale, like other shows have done, such as NYPD Blue. That idea was scrapped after some cast members wanted more money for the sit-down farewell, according to Variety. If that’s true, shame on the actors. To end a series of this caliber without a special send-off is truly an insult to fans. I’m all for being compensated, but it’s not like these folks are starving.

Instead of the interview/clip show, NBC is running the pilot episode again. Yes, we’ve seen the pilot plenty of times on Bravo and on DVD, so I’m not sure why they chose this option instead of a best-of clip package. Perhaps, the move is to show how the Bartlet administration started and how it ended. (Much greedier, is my guess.) But I'm not bitter. I still love the show and the characters, and I'll watch until the very end.

Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, Jimmy Smits, Janel Moloney, Kristin Chenoweth and Dule Hill are scheduled to appear on Ellen Thursday.

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