Where to find a West Wing episode guide

The West Wing was an American drama series that followed the lives and fortunes of a fictional Democratic administration in the White House. Starring Martin Sheen as President Josiah Bartlet, the series ran for seven seasons, from 1999 to 2006. It proved popular with audiences and critics alike, winning three Golden Globe Awards and 27 Emmy Awards. The fast-paced dialogue and intelligent story telling of The West Wing has won fans from all over the world. If you are keen to hunt down episode guides, then there are several options to consider.

West Wing websites

There are a lot of guides to The West Wing online. One of the best fan sites is Westwingepguide.com. It covers all the episodes from each season with information from both TVGuide.com and NBC. There are information links for each episode which provide reference guide to various subjects mentioned in the show, for example people that are mentioned, topics that are discussed and even song lyrics heard on a car radio. The site also offers a search facility. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) provides a good quality guide to episodes as well as viewer ratings, memorable quotes, trivia and photographs. Another online site to check out is The West Wing page at Wikipedia.

Books

The West Wing, with a foreword by Martin Sheen and written by the show’s writer Aaron Sorkin, is a beautiful hardcover coffee table style book. Published in 2002, it is the official companion to the first two seasons of the show with a detailed synopsis of all episodes, character profiles and behind the scenes gossip. An unauthorised and unofficial Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping is a paperback that does a similar job but on a smaller scale. However, if you want to read the crackling dialogue for yourself, writer Aaron Sorkin has published the scripts he wrote for the first four seasons.

DVDs

The ultimate episode guide has to be one that you write yourself! Invest in a box set of the West Wing DVDs and provide your own commentary. If you haven’t seen this fine example of television drama before then you’re in for a treat. If you have then you’ll need no excuse to watch this wise and witty political drama over and over again.