Channing joined cast at last minute

The role of Betty Rizzo in 'Grease' is no longer the actress's signature role.
By ED BARK
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Stockard Channing had no inkling she'd be playing America's most famous fictional first lady. In fact, she was pretty much the last to know.
"The West Wing" had already premiered on NBC when creator Aaron Sorkin finally decided that viewers should meet the wife of Martin Sheen's President Josiah Bartlet.
Channing, on the East Coast preparing to begin work on another project, had to "make an instant decision" after an incomplete script suddenly landed in her lap.
She winged her way back to Hollywood, got outfitted for an evening gown and then spotted a tuxedoed Sheen "sneaking a cigarette" during a break from shooting Episode 7 ("The State Dinner") of "West Wing's" inaugural 1999-2000 season. She had never met the famed activist actor.
"I went over and introduced myself," Channing recalled. She then asked him, "We have three children, right?"
"Three daughters," Sheen replied just before the director barked, "Action!"
Thus began the life of first lady Abigail Bartlet, who arguably has supplanted tart Betty Rizzo of "Grease" as the signature role of the long career of the 60-year-old actress.
"So much for preparation," she told a group of high school and college students recently at a Southern Methodist University forum. "Sometimes you're just thrown into the water, and it's a very big pool."
Changes
"West Wing," winner of the Emmy Award for best drama each of its first four seasons, is under a new administration this year. Sorkin, notorious for turning in scripts at the literal last minute, left the show last spring at NBC's urging. John Wells ("ER," "Third Watch") is the new overseer, and Channing approves.
"It's been a pretty seamless transition, and I think a healthy one," she said. "We were getting to a point where there was a sort of pattern and a style that was choking us a little bit. So it had to be pruned and shaped to improve the health of the tree. We were getting a little tangled up with ourselves. And so far, so good."
"West Wing's" ratings have slid, however. The show ranks 31st in the season-to-date Nielsens after peaking at No. 8 in the 2001-02 season. Worse, it's "skewing old" on a network that says the only audience that matters is advertiser-craved 18-to-49-year-olds.
"We're absolutely satisfied creatively," NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker said in a recent interview with TV critics. "In terms of its ratings performance, obviously we would like it to do better."
NBC's multiyear deal with "West Wing" expires after next season. Zucker won't commit beyond that, saying only that the show "will continue to serve in office for at least another year."
The way things are
Channing, in a separate interview, said network TV's obsession with younger viewers is "the way of the world. Some great shows close out of town. We've been lucky to get into town and have a good run. I just hope we go out strong. The rest of the stuff, you can't do anything about."
"West Wing" will last long enough for Sheen to be playing a president on TV while also playing an active role in Democratic presidential politics. Four years ago, he campaigned for Al Gore. Good for him, in Channing's view.
"It's a very curious thing being an actor now, much less an actor in a show like this," she said. "There's gotten to be so much backlash about actors standing up and speaking their minds. Some of us are pretty intelligent, pretty well-informed.
"I don't always agree with Martin on everything that he stands up for. But I respect him for his activism and his energy. And his heart is in the right place. Actors are also citizens of this country, and we have the right to speak our minds."