'The West Wing' almost didn't get on the air, but the Internet saved it

AUSTIN, Texas — The West Wing may be an iconic piece of trailblazing television, but the story of its initial journey to the small screen is one with unforeseen complications and an unlikely hero -- the Internet.

It was the late '90s when creator Aaron Sorkin typed "fade out" on his first draft of The West Wing pilot, putting a pin in what would become one of the biggest shows on television. But not minutes later, his hopes for what the show could be were put on pause as news of Monica Lewinsky's affair with then president Bill Clinton broke. In short, it wasn't the best time to roll out a show with a noble protagonist president and his White House staff.

His directive was to "sit on it." 

Thus, The West Wing went into a drawer, picked up "a little bit" later so a pilot could be made. 

At that time, NBC, the network with which the show was being developed, also underwent a leadership change, and they had their own ideas for the show. 

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"They were kind of interested in it, but they brought me up to the Chairman's office and had some notes," Sorkin told the crowd at the ATX TV Festival during a West Wing reunion panel. "They wanted things like Josh  [Bradley Whitford] to literally go out in a boat and help the Cuban refugees [in the pilot] ... This was just people talking and they had a problem with that." 

The pilot also did not test well with focus groups. NBC was "on the fence." 

Enter Warner Bros., said Sorkin, who was so keen on the show that it "decided to invent four new demographics" to convince the network -- households that make more than $75,000 per year, households with college graduates, households that are New York Times subscribers and households with Internet access.

This was 1999, "right in the middle of the dot com boom," Sorkin said -- a time where Internet companies were on the search for places to advertise. 

If you go back and watch first-air episodes (complete with commercials), you'll notice that "well over half of our ad buys were for dot coms," Sorkin said. 

"That's what got us on the air," Sorkin said. 

"I'm grateful to the Internet for getting this show on the air." 

The West Wing reunion included six cast members -- Melissa Fitzgerald, Josh Malina, Dule Hill, Richard Schiff, Bradley Whitford, Janel Moloney -- and creators Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme. 

It marks the second major reunion at the ATX TV Festival, which hosted a Friday Night Lights reunion on Friday night on Panther Field. On Saturday night, the festival will also host an Ugly Betty reunion. 

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