New people look here, Weekly FAQ
Gareth Milner
--------------------------------------------
This FAQ is posted weekly on Mondays.
Comments are invited: please e-mail g...@garethmilner.co.uk with any
queries, additions or suggestions.
Contents.
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1. Welcome to the Bullpen
2. When is The West Wing returning to C4/E4?
3. Charter Information
4. Spoiler Policy: Why do we have it Anyway?
5. General Posting Etiquette
6. Off Topic Discussion
7. DVD and Video Releases
8. Whatever happened to Mandy Hampton?
9. Oh, and can someone tell me...
1. Welcome to the Bullpen.
--------------------------
If you're reading this for the first time, Hello and Welcome to
uk.media.tv.west-wing. Created out of Cyberspace Ether by Liz Batty, this
group serves as the place in Usenet to discuss the NBC Drama Series "The
West Wing" from a UK perspective. "The West Wing" (TWW for short) airs in
the UK on Channel 4 and it's digital-only station E4.
2. When is The West Wing returning to C4/E4?
--------------------------------------------
Season Four of The West Wing been shown on E4, Channel 4's
subscription-digital sister station. Channel 4 have not yet
shown season four, and currently appear to have no plans to
do so. It is generally suspected that the fourth season will
have a UK DVD release before they do so, but Channel 4 have
not made any official statement on the long-term future of
The West Wing on terrestrial television. As one may suspect,
this has been a cause of great dissapointment for many users
of this newsgroup.
3. Charter Information
----------------------
The Charter can be found at
PLEASE take 5 minutes to read it.
4. Spoiler Policy: Why do we have it Anyway?
--------------------------------------------
This Group operates a Spoiler Policy which is partially dictated by
consensus. Discussion of episodes not yet seen on any terrestrial or
satellite station in the UK is PROHIBITED... which includes information on
the Fifth Season currently running on NBC in the USA, or available to
download via the Net. This was decided via a straw poll vote in December
2001 where discussion of S3 episodes was rejected by almost a four to one
ratio.
Discussion about episodes which have been seen only on E4 is permissible
ONLY with the
inclusion of the appropriate Spoiler Space (see below).
If you wish to discuss an episode of The West Wing that has not yet been
seen on terrestrial television, please adhere to the following:
a) Add AT LEAST 30 lines of "Spoiler Space" (press return at least 30
times) before you start your message!
b) In your Subject: line you MUST include the word SPOILER: so it is clear
to anyone reading that your post contains them.
PLEASE NOTE that failure to do both a) and b) is in direct violation of the
charter.
PLEASE avoid putting stuff in your Subject: line that could spoil a Channel
4 only reader (for instance "SPOILER: Season Five Episode 15; Josh revealed
to be an alien!" would be a spoiler [as well as a
distinct impossibility...] However: "SPOILER: Season Two Episode 15;
Amazing Plot Twist" is a fair deal more considerate)
The rule of thumb has to be, be considerate for other people.
5. General Posting Etiquette
----------------------------
PLEASE do not top-post in this group (that is, reply to a message and leave
the rest of the message intact under your reply) It can cause problems
(especially with Spoiler Space) and some newsreaders will ignore the reply
altogether, treating the reply as part of the message. This is a good time
to learn how to cut, paste and correctly attribute.
PLEASE refrain from excessive swearing. Yes we all swear...but there's
really no need for a string of expletives when a cleverly placed single
profanity will do.
This group only functions correctly if people are willing to follow basic
rules of politeness and co-operation. There have been a number of incidents
in the past ofdeliberate and malicicious "spoilering" of future episodes.
Everyone here present is politely asked to act responsibly and in a manner
that is appropriate for a public forum of discussion.
6. Off Topic Discussion
-----------------------
As much a part of life on most Usenet groups as emoticons and flames is
the Off Topic post. Everyone at some point has done it, some people
hate them and some thrive on them. If you're uncertain of whether your post
will be recieved in a hail of abuse or with hearty applause it's always
best
to ask before you post, or simply to mark your subject: line with an [OT]
prefix. Most newsreader software will allow people to mark posts like these
and ignore them or not as they see fit.
One final thing: this is not a newsgroup about politics, it's a
newsgroup about a show that deals with politics. Political discussion can
be
a VERY volatile subject, and if you want to talk about the real world of
politics this really isn't the right place to do so.
7. Merchandise Information
--------------------------
The First Season of "The West Wing" is available to buy on DVD in two
parts...
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000068433
and
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000071341
There is a complete Season One box set...
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000071344
The second season is available in two separate parts also, on DVD...
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000077589
and
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000080574
And additionally as a complete Season 2 box set...
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000083390
Finally, both the first two series are now collected in a box of both:
http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000083966
Series 3 will be released on dvd as a complete box set {29/03/04}
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=R2&title=150552&p=57&c=&g=72
These are all DVD releases with Region 2 encoding, which means they are
designed to be played only on European DVD players. A Region 1 set of the
first series of the West Wing is now available across the Atlantic, but may
not play on all British DVD players.
The links given above, to the Blackstar website, are not an endorsement of
that shop, but a handy way for us to refer to them. You may also want to
look at the usual High Street retailers, and also:
And for the American DVD's:
It is important to note that at this current time Warner Brothers have made
a rather huge mistake, by putting in the UK season 3 box sets what appears
to be the booklet inserts for an american release, look at this link for
info
about getting a replacement.
http://neuro.me.uk/blog/archives/000463.html#comment000160
--
There are now a number of West Wing book releases, available from Amazon
and other on-line outlets. These include:
The West Wing: The Official Companion
Ian Jackman & Paul Ruditis
Pocket Books ISBN 0743437403
The West Wing Script Book
Aaron Sorkin
Newmarket Press ISBN 1557044996
The West Wing: Inside Bartlet's White House
Keith Topping
Virgin Books: ISBN 0753506122
The West Wing: The American Presidency As Television Drama
Peter C. Rollins & John E. O'Conner (eds.)
Syracuse University Press: ISBN 0-8156-3031-X
Inside the West Wing; An Unauthorised Look at TV's Smartest Show
Paul Challen
ECW press: ISBN 1550224689
The last of these is considered "pretty dire and inaccurate" by Sarah, the
original maintainer of this FAQ, so beware! The rest are generally well
regarded.
There are also some West Wing goodies now available from NBC at
http://www.shopnbc.com/nbcstore/depts/default.asp?deptid=50
..but of course, you have to be a US resident to buy them...:-<
8. Whatever Happened to Mandy Hampton?
--------------------------------------
Aaron Sorkin has this to say on the character of Mandy Hampton
(from the West Wing Official Companion):
"I never quite got Mandy right. Moira, who we know is a terrific actress,
unfortunately got the worst of that. It had nothing to do with Moira
and everything to do with me. I just couldn't get it to work.
There was a mutual agreement toward the end of the season "Why don't we
all just shake hands and try again on something else"
So, the long and the short of it is that she's there at the end of S1
and she's disappeared by the beginning of S2. There has, as yet, been no
onscreen explanation given for her disappearance... and I doubt there
ever will be.
9. Oh, and can someone tell me...
----------------------------------
After a summer purge by WB of online episode transcripts (which was at
least in part responsible for the closing of one of THE best fan run WW
sites) its a little more difficult to find copies of shooting scripts.
However, this year sees an explosion in the availablity of complete
episodes on the Net todownload. For obvious reasons you won't find details
of how to do that here, but if you can't wait for the DVD's or S3 on E4
just ask in the group and someone will know where to send you to find them.
Generally recommended WW websites include
http://westwing.bewarne.com
http://www.angelfire.com/ky3/westwingresource/index.html
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com
plus the excellent
http://www.bartlet4america.org
If you want to get close to Aaron Sorkin himself he has apparently been
seen
posting to this forum with the pseudonym "benjamin" Rob Lowe has also been
posting on these boards of late.
If you're interested in West Wing Fan fiction Sarah's personal
recommendations
are
http://members.tripod.com/tww_fanfic
and
http://www.fanficwithfootnotes.com
and
http://www.west-wing.net
..just follow the link.
If you're looking for slash
http://www.geocities.com/anthrrealm/front.html
Finally, want to know if you're a Republican or a Democrat?
Take the test at
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
to find out...
Amendments:
-----------
There has been a small but consistent objection to some of the wording
contained in the FAQ V 1.1: this has now been amended.
V 1.21 removes a now obsolete URL for West Wing information.
V 2.0 adds the result of the S3 Discussion strawpoll, information on DVD
and
video releases, comment on the treatment of TWW by C4 and loads of other
gubbins.
V 2.1 updates S2 information on C4, DVD and VHS info and has a general
spring clean.
V 2.2 removes the reference to spoiling the S1 climax, adds another WW book
and finally spills the beans over what happened to Moira Kelly...
V 2.21 adds the S3 Start Date and the DVD/Video update
V.2.3 has a general clean, removes some sections and is hopefully up to
date.
V.3.0 is a general clean in [Dec 2003]
V.3.1.1 Minor language changes [Dec 2003]
V.3.1.2 Yeah i changed it to my email [Dec 2003]
V.3.1.3 Dvd Updates for Season 3 [Jan 2004]
v.3.1.4 Added information about season 3 box set mistake
v.3.1.5 Added channel 4 rant
