The West Wing 7 Best (& 3 Worst) Friendships
The West Wing: 7 Best (& 3 Worst) Friendships
The West Wing might have been a prestige political drama, but at the heart of the TV series was its many meaningful friendships.
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For a show that was ostensibly about the workings of a team of White House staffers, at its core, The West Wing was really about the bonds between these people, friendships and familial bonds and romances alike. The series would never have worked as well had its characters been disconnected or unlikable, as it would have been just another run of the mill political procedural barely worth investing in.
Instead, The West Wing routinely provided friendships worth getting emotionally invested in, no matter what direction the writing took them in. Some of these friendships would be changed for the worse in later seasons as a result of writing changes, and some of the friendships never should have been created in the first place. But overall, the series produced some of the best written friendships in TV drama history. Here, we take a look at how they all compare.
10 Best: Josh and Sam
Virtually nothing within the world of The West Wing would have been possible without the friendship between longtime best friends Josh Lyman and Sam Seaborn. After all, it was Josh’s decision to go and get Sam in New York when he realized Jed Bartlet was the candidate worth following and getting on board with that led to the success of the Bartlet campaign, in many ways.
Over time, these two proved to be the iconic bromance that the series needed, replete with plenty total political nerd moments, awkward dancing, meaningful speeches, and plenty of hugs that were all so very deserved. When Sam left the series, the lack of their friendship presented a hole that the show never quite knew how to fill.
9 Best: CJ and Charlie
Sometimes, the best kinds of friendship are the ones that feel like they might as well be family. Take, for example, the big sister meets little brother dynamic developed between CJ Cregg and Charlie Young.
Over the course of the series, these two built a hilarious back and forth rapport, featuring plenty of pranks and warm albeit cheeky insults. Allison Janney and Dulé Hill played off one another with the kind of comedic timing only natural to true comedians and gifted actors, which made all of their scenes together guaranteed to stand out as some of the funniest the series had to offer.
8 Worst: Josh and Toby
At one point in the series’ run, Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler could be considered good friends who trusted each other. Despite their mutually snarky ways and tendency to not trust many people, these two curmudgeons with hearts of gold got along better than almost anyone else in the White House, when the timing was right.
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But in the series’ later years, with Josh’s increasing role in trying to run the campaign of future President Matt Santos, and Toby’s shifting political loyalties, it became clear that these two men weren’t destined to remain the truest of friends for much longer.
7 Best: Toby and Sam
Some of the best friendships are born from polar opposites finding common ground together. The bond that developed between fellow writers Samuel “Sunshine” Seaborn and Toby Ziegler is a perfect example of that fact.
As the self-proclaimed Batman and Robin of speech writing, these two had each other’s backs in the political world and in the written word. Sam considers Toby his favorite writer, and Toby wanted to be there at Sam’s side when his political campaign inevitably ended in failure. They were the best of best friends, and a relationship the series would definitely have benefited from focusing more on, had it been given the chance.
6 Best: Jed and Charlie
The relationship that formed between President Jed Bartlet and Charlie Young was one of the most pleasant surprises in the series, particularly given the fact that Charlie’s prominent role in the White House came as a surprise to even the young man himself.
Through his years of service as Jed’s Personal Aide, Charlie became almost like a son to the President, earning a rightful place in his list of loved ones and family members long before Charlie even began dating First Daughter Zoey Bartlet. Charlie was routinely willing to lay his life down for Jed, and it went so far beyond the requirements of his job.
5 Worst: Sam and Ainsley
It’s not always a guarantee that any new character will fit seamlessly into a series, but it’s probably not the best approach to try and shoehorn a new character into a supposedly meaningful relationship with one of the series’ already established and beloved lead characters. The attempt to build such a dynamic between Sam Seaborn and the judgmental and contrarian Ainsley Hayes was, therefore, destined to fail from the very beginning.
The two virtually never agreed on anything, but the show treated their bond as something worth rooting for and caring about. When Ainsley was written out of the series, and Sam was allowed to return to other relationships worth caring about, it was hardly a disappointment.
4 Best: Jed and Mrs. Landingham
It’s not always true that the longest relationships are the most important or healthiest ones in a series. But when it comes to the unshakable bond developed between Mrs. Landingham and President Jed Bartlet, it’s clear that the length of their relationship greatly influenced the significance of their influence in each other’s lives.
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Mrs. Landingham knew Jed when he was nothing more than a teen in a prestigious private school, and she always knew how to call him on his bluffs and make him stand up for what he believed in. And she continued to know him better than almost anyone, and force him to stand by his principles, even after her tragic, sudden death at the end of the series’ second season.
3 Best: CJ and Toby
Few friends in the series were as unflinchingly loyal and completely devoted to one another as longtime coworkers and glorified work spouses CJ Cregg and Toby Ziegler were. Through ups and downs, CJ and Toby had each other’s backs, whether it involved personal emotional breakdowns, bold moves in the workplace, or out of character writing decisions like the choice to have Toby leak crucial information.
No matter the outcome of their respective storylines, CJ and Toby were there for one another, and routinely proved themselves to be the most important person in each other’s life.
2 Worst: Jed and Toby
Despite being a high ranking member of Jed’s political team, it was clear that Toby Ziegler and President Jed Bartlet never quite saw eye to eye. Both men were strongly opinionated, and even in moments of clear political success and celebration, they managed to find things to disagree about.
But things took a true turn for the worst and unfixable in the series’ final season, when Toby turned out to be the source of a leak that threatened the legacy of the Bartlet administration. The scandal presented the final blow out fight between the two men, who had never quite seen eye to eye, but would surely never again come remotely close to doing so. It may have been an out of character writing decision, but it was one that hammered home the fragility and failure of this relationship in the process.
1 Best: Jed and Leo
“You have a best friend? Is he smarter than you? Would you trust him with your life? That’s your chief of staff.” From day one, the relationship between President Jed Bartlet and Chief of Staff Leo McGarry was the beating heart of The West Wing as a whole.
These two men went through it all together: health scares and public scandals, failed marriages and struggling home lives, and one brutal political campaign after another. Even when they were butting heads with one another, given their mutual stubborn streaks, Jed and Leo always had each other’s best interests at heart – and loved each other, without question.
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Katerina is a List Writer here at Screen Rant with a background in literary criticism and creative writing. She has been in love with all things film and television since she saw her first movie in theatres at 2.5 years old (Muppet Treasure Island, in case you were wondering). She has a passion for character-driven stories with dynamic but flawed leads, and a special weakness for all things 1980s. If she’s not ranting about characters who deserved better or typing away at one of her many fan fiction epics, she’s probably asleep.
She’s been living in a galaxy far, far away since she was 11 years old, though she makes the occasional stop in Themyscira, Hawkins, and Westeros – and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
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