From West Wing to the real thing | World news | The Guardian

These days they're rerunning the West Wing episodes with Matt Santos. Reminds me of this old article about the connection between Matt Santos and Barack Obama....

For what those West Wing fans stunned by the similarity between the fictitious Matthew Santos and the real-life Barack Obama have not known is that the resemblance is no coincidence. When the West Wing scriptwriters first devised their fictitious presidential candidate in the late summer of 2004, they modelled him in part on a young Illinois politician - not yet even a US senator - by the name of Barack Obama.

'I drew inspiration from him in drawing this character,' West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie told the Guardian. 'When I had to write, Obama was just appearing on the national scene. He had done a great speech at the convention [which nominated John Kerry] and people were beginning to talk about him.'

More from the The Guardian.

Of course lots of people noticed.... Fan made ads and Youtube mashups abound, Martin Sheen says Obama was a big fan of the show. Me, I think they should consider playing the West Wing theme every time Obama walks into the room, instead of Hail to the Chief. See how well it works?


(I'm also a fan of the Mad TV parody. LOL.)