'West Wing' tries to cope

PASADENA, Calif. — When John Spencer died, the producers of "The West Wing" considered every possibility of how to deal with the real-life passing of one of the show's stars. Including shutting down the show altogether.

"We spent a lot of time . . . trying to figure out how we would deal with it," said executive producer John Wells. "We had conversations about whether it was even appropriate to continue to do the show without John, frankly. He was such a close friend and a wonderful actor and such a central part of the ensemble and of our lives together as a group."

At the time of his death on Dec. 16, "West Wing" had completed production on five unaired episodes, including three in which Spencer appeared. Wells and his team had "a lot of conversations . . . about whether or not we should change those episodes, re-shoot things. And the conclusion we came to was — John was so wonderful in the episodes that the best homage we could make to his contribution to the show was to let people see the last days of his work.

"And if you knew John, I think he would have been (ticked) at me if we had actually changed it. Like, 'Wait, you're cutting my scenes, kid? What are you doing that for?' "

While he remains mum about who's going to win the upcoming presidential election — Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) or Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) — Wells made it clear that, like the man who played him, Leo McGarry (Spencer) will die. And just before the election.

"West Wing" returns March 12 with three episodes leading up to Election Day. The election itself will play out in a two-parter on April 2 and 9; three episodes will follow the transition to the new administration; following a one-hour retrospective, the May 14 series finale will surround the inauguration of the new president.

"The series has celebrated from the beginning in (creator/former executive producer) Aaron (Sorkin)'s conception, the remarkable strength of American democracy," Wells said. "And one of the things that's most dramatic about American democracy is the peaceful passing of power from one leader to another. And we thought that was a really wonderful way to sort of end the series."

It was a decision borne out of declining ratings (NBC moving the show to Sundays was the death knell), but, as it turns out, cast members say they feel like it's the appropriate way to bring the series to a close.

"He was the guy," Martin Sheen (President Josiah Bartlet) said simply.

"He was the guy saying, 'This is phenomenal — relish this.' He was always saying that to me," Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman) said.