Emmy-winning Jayhawk directs pivotal episode of NBC’s ‘The West Wing’

For political junkies still suffering withdrawal from the 2004 presidential race, NBC’s “The West Wing” offers sustenance: a fictitious, yet fascinating race between Arnold Vinick, a Republican senator from California, and Matthew Santos, a Democratic congressman from Houston. In the highlight of the fall campaign, the two candidates met for a televised debate on a special live episode of “The West Wing” that aired Sunday, Nov. 6.

Directing the show was Emmy-winning Jayhawk Alex Graves, ’87, co-executive producer and a frequent director of the award-winning series, now in its seventh season. The Nov. 6 episode portrayed the candidates’ dramatic decision to toss out strict debate rules and engage in a spontaneous, genuine discussion.

“The arc of the hour was two presidential candidates, who are converted to two guys in a bar,” said Graves. He rehearsed for two weeks with actors Alan Alda (Vinick) and Jimmy Smits (Santos) to fine-tune the dense script and explore the notion of two over-prepared politicians daring each other to risk it all in a real debate. “We took debate as political theatre and turned it into our form of theatre, which the real candidates could never do,” Graves explained to a KU audience Nov. 10 during the “Hollywood and Politics” lecture series at the Dole Institute of Politics.

Though Graves remained close-mouthed about whether Vinick or Santos would succeed “West Wing” President Josiah Bartlet (played by actor Martin Sheen), he and the cast will shoot “inauguration” episodes in Washington, D.C., next spring, when Graves will conclude his final season with the show. He has written and sold to the Fox network a new TV series about the New York City Police Department’s counterterrorism division.

A self-confessed “Star Wars” fanatic, Graves wanted to tell stories on film since he saw the George Lucas classic 18 times as a teen-ager in El Dorado. Though he yearned to head straight to California, his parents convinced him to attend KU. “So I came to Lawrence, and two things happened that I didn’t count on: one, I fell in love with KU, and two, I took film classes for the first time,” he said. “Chuck Berg was my professor, and I remember him being so enthusiastic and articulate about movies and their history. It was sort of like I’d been French my whole life but had never been to France. Suddenly I was there, and he was talking about films and I was home.”

Graves left his Lawrence home to study film at the University of Southern California. He launched his career with his first feature film, “The Crude Oasis,” which he shot in El Dorado for $25,000 and sold to Miramax. Graves went on to direct episodes of “The Practice,” “Ally McBeal” and “Sports Night,” a series produced by Aaron Sorkin.

Sorkin, also the creator of “The West Wing,” convinced Graves to direct episodes in the first season and ultimately become a producer. Sorkin’s original intent for the series, Graves said, was to pay tribute to public servants. “It was meant to focus on people who aren’t in the headlines everyday and aren’t in the sensational side of politics but are doing the work. That’s how it started,” he said.

And though the show’s focus has shifted in a post-9/11 world, thorough research and stellar writing continue to portray the inner workings of the White House and the nation’s political process. Graves, whose mother worked for former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, R-Kan., said his interest in politics would continue even after “The West Wing,” but only as a storyteller, not as a participant: “I’d never get into politics myself. I know way too much. It would be like reading about hell and saying, ‘Oh sure, I’d like to go there.’”