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The West Wing

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: October 25, 2000

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: The West Wing, “In This White House” (season 1, episode 4). [Stream on Netflix.]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Among the many, many characters who have walked the fictional halls of Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing (and I know almost all of them), there were few more intriguing than Ainsley Hayes. Played by Emily Procter, Ainsley was a Republican lawyer/activist/strategist/op-ed columnist who was getting her start showing up on cable talk shows to shout at her left-wing opposition over some hot-button issue or another. After one such occasion where she wiped the floor with one Sam Seaborn, she catches the eye of President Bartlet, who leans on Leo to hire her for a position in the White House counsel’s office, much to her own bewilderment and the extreme consternation of the senior staff.

The contentiousness of the job offer to Ainsley is a big part of what makes “In This White House” memorable, but it’s also that Ainsley’s character holds a lot of promise. Given how often her character is referred to derisively by her hair color and telegenic nature, she was no doubt inspired by the 1990s rise of blonde Republican women who were sent to spread the GOP message on cable: your Ann Coulters, your Laura Inghrams, your Kellyanne Conways. Ainsley Hayes was the idealized Aaron Sorkin version of that, in that she was intelligent, idealistic hyper-verbose, and knew her way around some screwball comic timing.

It also seemed like she was in it for the long haul. Ainsley was brought on in the early episodes of season 2, after first-season regular Mandy (Moira Kelly) was unceremoniously dumped. The first three episodes Ainsley appears in are intensely focused on her, as if the show is taking great care in establishing her as a man character. She’s got bristling chemistry with Sam; she goes through disillusionment and redemption; the other West Wing staffers invite her into their fold. This is how you set up a character you want around for the long haul. And then … she fizzled. For whatever reason, The West Wing stopped writing for her; there were a handful of other appearances, mostly just repeating the usual beats with Sam where they squabble over some leftie issue or another. She blamed it on the bossa nova once. But that was about it. A few years later, Procter got a full-time gig on CSI Miami and that was that.

It’s hard not to see Ainsley as a big-time missed opportunity for The West Wing. This was a possibly dynamic character who could have changed the geography of the show and helped it go in some interesting directions. Particularly once the White House went to war with the GOP after the MS revelation. But we sure got some fun moments while she lasted.

You can stream The West Wing‘s “In This White House” on Netflix.