Posted in: NBC, Opinion, Peacock, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: martin sheen, nbc, peacock, The West Wing

Martin Sheen Reacts to John Spencer's Final "The West Wing" Moments

Martin Sheen reacts to seeing the late John Spencer's final on-screen moments during the final season of The West Wing for the first time.

For some, it's Bill Pullman from Independence Day. For others, it's Michael Douglas from The American President. In fact, there are any number of on-screen fictional Presidents of the United States that you can look to as having had an impact on pop culture. But we will humbly say that none of them come close to the impact of Martin Sheen's President Josiah Bartlet (from Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing) on our pop culture and political landscapes. President Bartlet wasn't just an amazing character on a great television show – he became the bar by which we set our hopes and dreams regarding how politics and politicians should be instead of what they have been (at least on the GOP side). In Washington, D.C., this past week for an event on Saturday honoring the release of Melissa Fitzgerald (Carol Fitzpatrick, assistant to Allison Janney's press secretary C.J. Cregg) and Mary McCormack's (Deputy National Security Adviser Kate Harper) new book What's Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast And Crew And Its Enduring Legacy Of Service, Sheen even had a chance to exchange salutes on the South Lawn of the White House during a visit – and Sheen plans on hitting the campaign trailer for Vice-President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz heading into the November election.

So when we learned that Sheen and MCormack would be joining MSNBC's Inside with Jen Psaki to discuss the beloved series, the book, and the upcoming presidential election, it was a given that we would be checking it out. What we weren't expecting was the hard kick to "the feels" that we would get right from the start, with Sheen getting a chance to screen what he said was the last filmed scene from the late Emmy Award-winning actor John Spencer – his final time on camera as Leo McGarry. Spencer passed away on December 16, 2005, as the result of a heart attack – with "Running Mates" and "The Cold" in post-production at the time of his death. The actor's death would be officially incorporated into the series during the show's seventh and final season, with vice-presidential candidate McGarry (running alongside Jimmy Smits' presidential candidate Matt Santos) suffering a heart attack on election night.

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