32. Yes, they did. Jimmy Smits' 2005 turn as unlikely victor Matt Santos was, indeed, inspired by a rising senator by the name of Barack Obama.
"We spoke to political consultants about what a minority campaign would look like," Wells told Empire. "They said, 'Well there's this young senator out of Illinois that people are talking about a little bit,' which turned out to be Barack Obama. They basically laid out for us what they thought the campaign strategy would have to be for him to ever run for president, although they kept telling us the whole time, 'It'll never happen, of course.'"
33. As for his adversary, pro-choice, principled moderate Republican Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda), he "was based on John McCain and a number of possible centrist Republican candidates," explained Wells. "The 2008 election was very odd. We called the political consultants we'd worked with and said, 'You guys kind of knew what you were talking about!'"
34. Even down to the unlikely ending, it turned out. With former chief of staff and party elder Leo McGarry as his running mate, Santos was still meant to lose out to likable California senator Vinick.
Then Spencer died midway through the season in December 2005. "Up until his death, the Republican was going to win the election," Sheen told Empire. "Jimmy Smits would be defeated and that wonderful actor Alan Alda would win. But with John's death they said no and, against history, the Democrats would continue."
35. An eighth season—focusing on the early days of the Santos administration with Bartlet popping in as advisor—was possible as well. "But when John died, they folded the tent," said Sheen. "It was over, and we thought, 'No, we can never go back there.'"
Instead they paid tribute to Spencer and McGarry with season seven's "Requiem," a slew of former guest stars returning for the party giant's funeral. "The episode where we actually had to carry his casket because his character had died," Hill told THR, "it was an empty casket, but it wasn't an empty casket."
36. After departing the series following season four, Sorkin truly never looked back. Kinda.
"Larry David had left Seinfeld a few seasons before the show ended and he called me and said, 'You can never watch The West Wing again. Either the show is going to be great without you and you're going to be miserable, or the show is going to be less than great without you and you're going to be miserable,'" he recounted to Empire. "I thought, 'Well, this is Larry David; he's kind of professionally miserable.' So I had them send a tape of the first episode that I didn't do. I put it in the VCR and I don't think I got 15 seconds in before I leaped up and slammed it off! It felt like I was watching somebody make out with my girlfriend."
He did make one return home, though, appearing on stage at Santos' inauguration in the series finale. So, again, we ask: What's next?