The West Wing Retrospective Character Study: Four Reasons Bradley Whitford Was So Brilliant as Josh Lyman

 

 

When I first watched The West Wing I was still a novice when it came to watching TV shows and still in the process where I had 'favorite characters'. They were always the biggest names in the cast or even the showiest actors but I could form an emotional connection quickly.

With Chicago Hope it was Adam Arkin's work as Dr. Aaron Shutt, almost always the voice of calm in a hospital filled with craziness. With The Practice it was Steve Harris as Eugene Young the biggest believer in the rules and justice at Donnell, Young, Frutt & Dole. With Homicide while I really loved every character the one that I most consistently favored was Kyle Secor's work as Tim Bayliss and if you've read my articles on the show you know why.

And with The West Wing it was Josh who I instantly connected with from the first minutes of the Pilot and who, even after Aaron Sorkin left the series in 2003, I always felt was the most true to himself.

I can't point to a single reason why that became so true in the first season. Maybe it was because from the start he had this tendency to, to use a political quote, 'shoot from the lip' which was something that was excusable in private but every time he did in public it was destructive even if he was right. (Sam famously said: "A very good friend of mine is about to be fired for going on TV and making sense.") Sometimes it could be hysterically funny as when he hosted his only press corps briefing and said the President had a secret plan to fight inflation, and sometimes it backfired as when he let policy details slip to his girlfriend and as a result he got chewed out by Bartlet and nearly suffered a policy defeat. (I didn't mind he and Amy broke up; he was always too good for her.)

Or maybe it was because he was the smartest person in the room and never missed an opportunity to show it. Everyone loved the way he lectured Donna on policy or history or the White House's statistics (even Donna admitted she was smarter for doing so). Of course with great genius comes great arrogance and that also got him into trouble more than once, particularly with CJ. (So many of the scenes between him and Alison Janney were the comic highpoints of the series.)

Or maybe it was because there was a level of tragedy in his life that we learned about early that made him more relatable in a way it took much longer for us to get to know the personal lives of everyone else on the show. In the fifth episode we learned that his sister Joanie had died in a fire when he was a teenager and by the end of the first season we learned his father Noah had died on the night of the Illinois primary. (Those who have read my review of the classic In the Shadow of Two Gunmen' know how magnificently Sorkin handled that storyline.) For that reason he was perhaps more loyal to the people at the West Wing then any other character was and you got the feeling everyone supported him beyond the political reasons.

But much of it had to do with the incredible work that Bradley Whitford did for the entire run of the series. By that point I was starting to cover the Emmy nominations in a casual fashion and I remember being annoyed that of all the 19 Emmy nominations The West Wing got for its first season Whitford somehow had been ignored. It was a lapse the Academy would immediately correct: Whitford would be nominated in 2001 and deservedly win. He was also nominated the following two years, which were the last two of Sorkin's tenure on the show.

There are many ways to show how much I loved Bradley's work as Josh but I think the most effective way is to show what I think most fans will considers one of the most important relationships during the entire series: that of Josh and Leo.

Leo is White House Chief of Staff and Josh is Deputy Chief in the Pilot so clearly Josh is the go-to guy for basically everything Leo considers a priority. But it becomes clear very quickly that the two of them have a bond that has more to do with the fact that they clearly worked together to put Bartlet in office. As we learn in Gunmen Leo was a friend of Josh's father and the two of them clearly moved in the same circles in DC for years. Josh was one of the chief aides for John Hoynes when Hoynes was in the Senate and Hoynes clearly has a high opinion of Josh as Leo does when it comes to politics. We've gotten a hint of that in the Season 1 finale with the following exchange:

Hoynes: If I listened to you two years ago, would I be President right now? You ever wonder about that?

Josh: No sir, I know it for sure.

It's clear that Josh's decision to come work for the Bartlet campaign was the first step that led to Bartlet's seemingly impossible victory to claim the Democratic nomination and then the Presidency. Everyone in the administration knows this and it's clear by the end of the Pilot Bartlet knows this and is always going to have a place in his heart for Josh no matter what.

The best way, I believe, to illustrate the relationship between Josh and Leo is by looking at the Christmas episodes for all four seasons in Sorkin's tenure. Any fan of The West Wing knows that these episodes are among the greatest episodes not just in series history but TV history. The cast themselves knew that. In each of the first three years of The West Wing's tenure it won Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for, Richard Schiff, Whitford, and John Spencer. Each time the actor in question had submitted the Christmas episode for that year for consideration for voters and it had ended up winning them the prize. (In Excelsis Deo would be the only episode to win the Emmy for Best Dramatic Teleplay.)

All of them are extraordinary episodes for reasons that don't always have to do with Josh and Leo's relationship but something I realized after the series ended was that it was always present even if it wasn't front and center.  This is clear with In Excelsis Deo where most of the show is focused on Toby but Josh and Leo's relationship is still there.

In the previous episode The Short List, a Congressman named Lilienfeld has begun to start talking about how one out of every three White House staffers is on drugs. At first no one takes this seriously, not even Josh:

"Five White House staffers in the room. For the 1.67 of you that are stoned right now, its high time for you to share!"

Toby is taking it seriously and he tells Josh to lead the interviews. Eventually however, he goes to Leo because Josh has figured out what this is about.

"You know the worst kept secret in Washington is that you're a recovering alcoholic?" he says gently. By this time the viewer knows this. Josh dismisses it at first: "You're Boston Irish Catholic...Were you maybe into something less acceptable?"

Leo tells him Valium and that he spent time at a rehab facility called Sierra Tucson. Josh knows that somehow Lilienfeld has though records. Which leads to this magnificent line:

"You're Leo McGarey. You're not going to be taken down by this small fraction of a man. I won't permit it."

This is the first time the viewer has become aware of just how loyal Josh is to Leo. We get a sense of how far he's willing to go in the next episode – against Leo's wishes.

Josh tells Leo that he wants to do 'a preemptive strike.' By this point Josh knows about Sam's relationship with the high-priced escort Laurie but when he even hints at it Leo tells him absolutely not. Josh considers going against it but Donna is worried about it and says that Leo would do the same for any of us.

Josh then persuades Sam to do it and Sam is, if anything, angrier than Leo is. It's only when Josh tells him of the stakes – and more importantly that Leo went to rehab while he was Secretary of Labor – that he agrees.

The meeting goes badly to say the least. Laurie (Lisa Edelstein) immediately throws a fit. Josh tries to defend himself:

A man has left himself to open to the kind of attack from which men in my business do not recover. Now, if our tactics seem less than civilized, its because so are our attackers.

Josh might have been able to prevail had he left it at that. But then he goes too far:

We don't need your cooperation Laurie. One of your guys wrote you a check, and the IRS works for me. And anyway I don't feel like standing here, taking civics lessons from a hooker.

That is going to far and Laurie immediately chews him out by making it very clear she has Democratic customers as well as Republicans and she doesn't like being bullied. Sorkin, as is his brilliance, lets her have the last word:

You're the good guys. You should act like it.

This is horrible. But then they come back to the White House.

Leo: You saw Sam's friend?

Sam: How did you know?

Leo: I had you tailed.

When Sam asks why:

Leo: On the off chance that you're as stupid as you look.

He makes it clear he holds the same standards as Laurie. Josh says he did it because he wanted to help Leo.

Leo: Is that supposed to mean something?

Josh: Yes.

(pause)

Leo: Well, it does.

It's clear Leo doesn't agree with what Josh chose to do but he does respect his loyalty. And we're kind of proud of him too

Noel won Whitford the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor and deservedly so. (imdb.com ranks it one of the highest reviewed episodes of Season 2.)I've discussed to an extent in my piece on Janel Moloney but to review this episode takes place in a therapy session between Josh and a psychiatrist named Stanley (I can't tell you what it meant to see Adam Arkin doing it). As we know Josh was shot in the Season 2 premiere and has spent the last six months physically recovering from having 'hot lead shot into his body'. Most of the staff and the President basically managed to get through in the episode 'The Midterms' (which I'll go over at another point.) Josh hasn't been so lucky. There have been signs, subtle but clear, that Josh has been struggling with PTSD throughout the second season and its clear during the leadup to Christmas it all came to ahead.

The show is magnificent showing in flashbacks how Josh has been hiding how he hurt his hand. He's been saying all episode that he broke a glass and that was the reason. In fact there's been days of tension leading up to it and what it has to do with is the Christmas music. The biggest hint comes when Josh is upset about it and says: "I can hear the damn sirens all over the building."  It finally comes to a head when he's listening to Yo-Yo Ma play and then he goes home and says that the shooting did it.

Now for obvious reasons if it were to come out that the White House Deputy Chief of Staff was suffering from PTSD, it would be the kind of thing that got him fired. Leo has called in Keyworth to do it. At the end of this magnificent episode we have this incredible conversation.

First make it clear Josh has been in session at the White House for ten hours. It's Christmas day. Leo is in the hallway:

Leo: How'd it go?

Josh: Did you wait around for me?

Leo: How'd it go?

Josh paused

Josh: He thinks I may have an eating disorder…and a fear of rectangles. That's not weird , is it? (pause) I didn't cut my hand on a glass. I broke a window in my apartment.

Josh has just told this to his boss. This is Leo's speech and I know this speech got Spencer a nomination himself (though there were a lot of other episodes he could have submitted)

This guy's walking down a street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep, he can't get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up: "Hey you, can you help me out?"" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up: "Father I'm down in this hole; can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. "Hey Joe, its me, can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says: "Are you stupid? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah but I've been down here before and I know the way out."

(Pause)

Long as I got a job, you got a job, you understand?

I honestly think no matter how much therapy Josh got (and he got some no question) that speech meant as much to him, if not more.

When Whitford accepted his Emmy as he walked to the stage he whispered to John Spencer, who he had defeated and said: "Next year." This wasn't just well-wished: by that point the 2001 Christmas episode 'Bartlet for America' had been completed and everyone came away from it convinced it was Spencer's best work so far that season, if not the entire series to that point. They were right: Spencer would submit it for consideration and would indeed win for it the following year. (Again imdb.com ranks it as the best episode of Season 3.)

Once again I have to give background. At this point the Congressional investigation into Bartlet's lack of public disclosure about his illness has come for Leo and he fears the worst. With good reason. One of the Republicans on Oversight knows a secret. On the night prior to the final debate Leo was fundraising where alcohol was served. He started drinking and relapsed. One of the fundraisers (not in Congress yet) saw it and knows about it. He intends to ask Leo about at the fundraiser, even though it has no relation to the hearings because there's an election next year and he wants Bartlet to lose. He knows that if this becomes public knowledge, Leo will have to resign and this will be another body blow for the campaign.

I will deal with this story specifically when I come to John Spencer in this study. For now I will simply say that Josh knows about this and wants to help Leo. Before the hearing begins:

Leo: Don't help me.

Josh: I'm going to help you, cause you know why?"

Leo: 'Cause you walk around with so much guilt about everybody you love dying that you're a compulsive fixer?

Josh: No, Leo, no. Its' cause a guy is walking down the street and he falls into a hole see.

Leo becomes serious

Leo: Yeah.

Josh: Yeah.

Josh then spends the rest of the episode talking to Sam and telling him to find a way to get the congressman out of the room but he has no intention of giving up Leo's secret so he doesn't tell Sam why. As a result Sam fails in his quest and the only reason he escapes is because White House Counsel Cliff Calley intervenes and forces the majority leader to call a recess.

In the following episode H. Con 172 Calley comes to Leo and offers him a deal: they will end the hearings right then in exchange for the President accepting a joint censure. Leo has too much pride: "I take a bullet for the President. He doesn't take one for me." It's because Calley goes over Leo's head to Josh (via Donna) that Josh convinces the President to take the censure. When the staff learns about Josh tells them flat out that he recommended they take it and this is the end of the discussion as far as he's concerned. Josh's firmness on the subject forces the staff to let it go.

I mention this for context mainly because it show collectively that Josh is willing to do for Leo what Leo did for him. His discussion with Leo in that episode and going forward is him being the rational one, dealing with Leo's pride and issues. It is a case of the child becoming the parent.

Holy Night was the last Christmas episode in the Sorkin era. By this point both the critical acclaim and the ratings were off the rose of The West Wing and while it would win its fourth consecutive Emmy for Best Drama that year (a record that only Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law held before it and only Mad Men and Game of Thrones have equaled since) it would win just one more Emmy in 2003 and none of them were for acting. The show had its moments (both the season premiere and season finale are among the greatest in the show's history) but it was losing altitude) In truth Holy Night is not at the same level as any of the previous Christmas episodes. But it still has its moments and much of them do focus on Josh and Leo.

At this point both Leo and Bartlet are dealing with their consciences for their role in the assassination of Abdul Sharif at the end of Season 3. (At this point no one outside them in the West Wing knows it but that is about to change in large part because of events in this episode.)

When Leo learns from Josh that the church of the Nativity in Israel has been bombed he demands Josh start calling people in order to get it fixed. Its Christmas Eve and Josh has plans. Then Bartlet comes to Josh and says he wants to fold an infant mortality bill into the next budget for Congress on January 1^st

Josh: I think you're saying that before it goes to the printer on January 1^st you want to rewrite the Congressional budget.

Bartlet: You think this is crazy?

Josh: No, certainly not crazier than Leo for going for peace in the Middle East by the close of business.

Josh actually has to call Donna and tell her to cancel her Christmas plans – with her new boyfriend – as a blizzard is starting.

In the final act Bartlet and Leo both admit their trying to exorcise their guilt.

Leo then calls Josh in and tells him he's calling it off and that he's sent Donna off to meet her boyfriend. By this point Josh and Donna's attraction to each other is becoming more obvious in Sorkin's writing.

In the final minutes as they listen to the title carol:

Leo: It's four years later and there are things that are worse and things that are exactly the same. Where do you start?

Josh: By fixing a roof. I'm staying on the phones. You want to stay with me?

Leo: Yeah.

The episode ends with a montage of the various cast members. One of the final shots is of Leo and Josh both on the phone. Its Christmas Eve and though Sorkin never says so both men are exactly where they want to be right now.

With the exception of Allison Janney Whitford has had the most consistent career with TV success since The West Wing ended in 2006. He starred in Sorkin's follow up series for NBC Studio 60 which ended up being a disaster. He then starred in the undervalued Fox comedy The Good Guys with Colin Hanks which was canceled after season. He actually appeared in two other failed comedies that had some merit: ABC's Trophy Wife and Showtime's Happyish. However in 2014 he appeared in a guest role in Amazon's groundbreaking comedy Transparent and would win his second Emmy for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy. While he was there he met his current wife Amy Landecker whom he married in 2014.

He would eventually be cast Joseph Lawrence one of the architects of Gilead in the landmark Hulu Series The Handmaid's Tale. That was his most successful role to date: he would win Best Guest Actor in a Drama in 2019 and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama in 2020 and 2021. Last year he was cast along Alison Janney, who is now playing the Vice President on The Diplomat as her husband which means as of Season 4, he's now First Gentleman. Nor was this the only major role where he was close to political power in 2025. In the new series Death By Lightning which focuses on the life of James Garfield he has been cast as James G. Blaine, a force in Republican politics for more than two decades and Garfield's Secretary of State. This role could be seen as a mirror of his previous role as a historic politics Hubert Humphrey in All The Way in 2016.

And just to be clear every time Whitford is in any piece of work, whether it is film or TV, it is as much a draw for me then and is was when I first was introduced to him in The West Wing. The boyish youthful is gone and his hair is shock white but the same relentless energy and determination that drove Josh is present in every role he has played since then. He is just as entertaining and fun in comedies as he is riveting in drama. TV is a better place because Bradley Whitford is still working in it, just as the Bartlet Administration was a better place because Josh was Deputy Chief of Staff.