West Wing & the Simpsons & the Office

I think I've mentioned in this forum before that I am a big fan of the West Wing; my wife is, too. We watch the daily reruns on "Bravo" and never miss the Wednesday night edition. It's fallen out of favor with most people, I guess; I never hear anyone talk about it, and I'm sure it gets creamed by the American Idol results show in the ratings.

Nevertheless, West Wing remains for me one of the most intelligent shows on television. What has amazed me recently, though, is the sheer star power of the show. In addition to the excellent cast of regulars, including Martin Sheen and Stockard Channing, the following persons all play recurring characters on the show: Alan Alda, Jimmy Smits, Ed "Al Bundy" O'Neill, Gary Cole (Office Space), Stephen Root (Newsradio; Office Space; O Brother Where Art Thou), Ron Silver, Oliver Platt, Tim Matheson, Patricia Richardson (Home Improvement); Teri Polo (Meet The Fockers), Jay Mohr, and John Goodman, to name but a few. Save for declining ratings, I don't see why the series couldn't continue on indefinitely and just change characters periodically.....like E.R.

I also love The Simpsons; who doesn't? Their run has been truly amazing and you hardly ever hear or read anyone knocking the show, except for evangelical outfits. It surprised me, then, to read the following in the TV listings of this week's Entertainment Weekly: "The Simpsons....sucks now. There I said it." Uh-oh.

As for NBC's Americanized version of The Office, I was underwhelmed by the pilot episode, but I'll give it another chance. The British version is hysterical; Carrie got me the complete series on DVD for Christmas and I spent an entire weekend watching it. I watched most of it again during a BBC America marathon last week.