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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: February 13, 1944
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Stockard Channing is best known for three roles, but only one of them was on television, so that’s the one we’re going to talk about on this, the day of her birth, but before we do: Stockard Channing played high-school mean girl Betty Rizzo in Grease at the real-life age of 34. Fifteen years later, she was playing an Upper East Side doyenne in Six Degrees of Separation at age 49. The odd ways in which Hollywood has misestimated her age notwithstanding, but were iconic roles and gave her the space to deliver best-in-show performances that I’ll be watching for the rest of my life.
And then came The West Wing. If Martin Sheen’s Jed Bartlett wasn’t originally supposed to be all that big a presence in the original vision of the series, it’s terrifying to imagine what that would have meant for the role of Abbey Bartlet. Stockard Channing doesn’t show up as Abbey until the seventh episode (“The State Dinner”) and is only in three season 1 episodes overall. Of course, one of those episodes was “The White House Pro Am,” during which she gets to deliver one of Abbey’s best monologues (starts at 5:35 of the below clip).
Still, it’s a good thing that Aaron Sorkin in all his pompous wisdom decided to expand her role in season 2 and beyond. Part of that was likely necessity. The President’s multiple-sclerosis storyline was beginning to ramp up, and that called for a beefed-up presence for Abbey. Which suited the show fine, since the relationship between the President and First Lady was always one of its strongest. In fact, when the show began to decline in seasons 5 and 6, one of the first signs was an inability to write good Jed/Abbey material anymore.
So which are the best Abbey episodes to stream on Stockard Channing’s birthday? A few suggestions:
- “Bartlet’s Third State of the Union,” where Abbey gives Jed what-for for deciding to run for a second term without telling her. [stream on Netflix]
- “War Crimes,” where Abbey and Oliver Babish have a tense strategy session about her testimony before Congress. [stream on Netflix]
- “The Indians in the Lobby,” where Abbey engages in a bit ob subterfuge on the subject of whether to have Thanksgiving at Camp David or not. [stream on Netflix]
- “Dead Irish Writers,” where Abbey, C.J., Amy, and Donna share a few bottles of wine and discuss the aftermath of the censure, and Abbey gets some real talk. [stream on Netflix]
- “Red Haven’s On Fire,” where Abbey acquires the services of Amy Gardner as her kick-ass new chief of staff, and it’s awesome. [stream on Netflix]
- “Twenty-Five,” where Zoey gets kidnapped and Abbey is an absolute wreck. [stream on Netflix]
