So Long, C.J.

The other night I was watching a re-run of the Golden Globe ceremony. I wanted to catch Hugh Laurie’s speech. It was great. I also caught Gina Davis’ speech. It was nearly as good. I sat there watching her—she’s always been easy to watch—and I thought about what Shan used to say “It’s Gina’s world: we all live in her shadow.” Shan was right. I mean, look at the woman. What is she: eight feet tall? But as I watched her and remembered how sexy she was in Earth Girls Are Easy I said out loud to Hanna, “You know, I love Gina Davis but I’ve never watched her show.” … “Why,” Hanna asked. … “Because I’ve only got room for one president in my life, and my president is Josiah Bartlett.”

And the next day West Wing was cancelled.

It’s always sad when your favorite show gets cancelled. We all saw it coming, of course. The end of this season, when Bartlett leaves office, is the appropriate time to end the series. Few American TV shows have had such a clearly laid out time table and story arc as one about a sitting president. Term Limits will do him in the same way they got Regan and Clinton. The only way the show could have kept going was if Alan Alda’s character, Senator Vinick, won the election and they could show a Republican administration for awhile. But that was not on the agenda of the show’s creators and besides, I *SO* want Jimmy Smitts to be president. So it’s right that the show end. But still, it’s sad. Sunday night’s episode was one of the better ones. This is still the best written show on T.V. And now liberals will have no place on TV to turn to for such unabashed liberalism. In the era of G.W. Bush, West Wing was the only thing around that validated liberals in their beliefs.

Plus I will miss C.J. All the characters are great. Toby was the Jiminy Cricket of America. Josh was like Dennis the Menace in a suit and tie. Donna had to be named after Donna Reed. Leo was the rock of Gibraltar (rest in peace, John spencer). Has there ever been a feminist lobbiest sexier then Amy? Charlie was the American every person thrust into the halls of power—the person we all wish we could be just to see how power really works, and the boss’s daughter falls for him in true Horatio Alger style. Rob Lowe is what we wish every politician and staffer could be like and look like (I’ve got a friend who runs a congressman’s office in California, and he reminds me so much of the Rob Lowe/Michael J. fox/George Stephanopoulos type it’s scary). Abigail is the world’s greatest doctor. President Bartlett is a liberal Ronald Regan, the wise and kindly grandfather to an entire nation.

But C.J.: C.J. is sex in a Park Avenue suit. She is classic 1950s movie star sexy: Sexy and competent and independent and feminine. She reminds me of Megan, the woman I used to fight for in the S.C.A., only taller. C.J. is brilliant, funny, vulnerable at the right moments, strong in a crisis, and tall.

Just like Gina Davis.

Hey, wait a minute………