Recently saw this promo and it concludes with, "Watch the 2 hour series finale of the West Wing" but I remember "Tomorrow" only being an hour.
Was there some sort of hour-long featurette on the ending of the show? Was it originally 2 hours? Was Institutional Memory part 1 and Tomorrow part 2?
"Tomorrow" Promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfCCKfAJ288
I honestly can't remember, but it must have been a series retrospective, because the show was only an hour long.
🎭All the world is a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.
The You Tube link goes to a promo that may have been produced to promote the series finale, but was not used. A retrospective, which was apparently to be an hour long, was originally planned to precede the finale, but was reportedly abandoned due to pay demands from cast members.
Some interviews were reportedly recorded. The promo features Martin Sheen, Dulé Hill and Allison Janney. It is likely that these vignettes were recorded during production of the retrospective.
There is a West Wing Retrospective, produced by Jonathan Buss on Vimeo (Sorry, the link won't post. Comes up easily on Vimeo search). Some sources indicate that the 4:54 long piece is partly composed of some of the interviews and wrap party film. However, most of this Retrospective is made up of scenes from the series. Jonathan Buss is an active Producer and Director, but does not appear to have had any association with The West Wing.
When Tomorrow originally aired on NBC, it was preceded by the first episode, Pilot.
Wow! Great information. I'll check out the Vimeo retrospective. Thank you so much.
shareI found it. So great. Wish it was more than this 5 minute preview though. :(
Thanks for letting me know it's out there.
https://vimeo.com/30720838
My pleasure. As the You Tube promo was apparently made to be shown in the spring of 2006, and the final episode aired on May 14, the NBC retrospective must have been near completion, if not finished, so there must be more somewhere if they were going to fill 42-44 minutes of air time.
If there were problems at the time with actor compensation issues, there would have been no commercial reason for NBC to resolve them since, so I doubt that NBC will ever officially release their retrospective.
I don't know if the Jonathan Buss Retrospective material was part of that footage, but some of the interview settings look very similar to the background in the promo.
The first minute and forty seconds or so of the Buss piece is composed of backstage shots and interviews with Martin Sheen, Dulé Hill, Aaron Sorkin, Bradley Whitford, Janel Moloney, Thomas Schlamme, and John Wells. It is conceivable that NBC has license to show this footage, but not interview footage related to some of the other cast members.
Show excerpts would be a different matter. NBC presumably has the contractual ability to use clips in promotional material, and an unaffiliated producer would have some Fair Use ability to use show clips.
On a somewhat related note, have you found the Thomas Schlamme guided tour of The West Wing set on You Tube? If not, search for A Tour of the Set - The West Wing.
They actually aired the pilot in place of where the retrospective was going to go. So, The West Wing did actually wind up being a two-hour block that night.
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