Commander in Chief (TV series)

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Commander in Chief

Commander in Chief title card
Genre Drama
Running time Approx. 42 minutes
Creator(s) Rod Lurie
Starring Geena Davis
Kyle Secor
Donald Sutherland
Harry J. Lennix
Country of origin USA
Original channel ABC
Original run September 27, 2005–June 14, 2006
No. of episodes 18
1 TV Movie
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Commander in Chief was a television drama that focused on the presidential administration and family of Mackenzie Allen (portrayed by Geena Davis), the first female President of the United States, who ascended to the role after the previous chief executive, Teddy Bridges (played by Will Lyman), died in office from a sudden ruptured cerebral aneurysm. The series began broadcasting on ABC on Tuesday, September 27, 2005, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, although most countries outside North America began screening the series in mid-2006. It garnered the highest ratings for a series debut on a Tuesday night.

The show was #1 on Tuesday nights until FOX's American Idol took this honor. The show was also the #1 new show of the season until CBS' Criminal Minds surpassed it. Its major competitor in the 9:00 p.m. timeslot was FOX's House, which airs after American Idol.

The series was created by American director Rod Lurie, director of thrillers like The Contender and Deterrence, and may have been inspired by The West Wing, a popular political drama on rival NBC. Lurie directed the first three episodes of Commander in Chief.

On May 13, 2006, ABC announced that the show has been cancelled, although the remaining three episodes of the season were broadcast after the ratings year had ended. The network is in discussions with Rod Lurie, the creator of the show, about making a television movie based on the television show. On June 30, Davis told The Stage that the telemovie had been confirmed. [1]

Contents

[edit] Primary characters

Geena Davis as President Mackenzie Allen
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Geena Davis as President Mackenzie Allen

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Characters from Commander In Chief
Actor/Actress Character Position
Geena Davis Mackenzie Spencer Allen President of the United States (Vice-President in pilot)
Donald Sutherland Nathan Templeton Speaker of the House of Representatives (Served as Acting President in Episode 16)
Kyle Secor Rod Calloway First Gentleman
Harry J. Lennix Jim Gardner White House Chief of Staff
Peter Coyote Warren Keaton Vice President of the United States and President of the United States Senate (Resigned in Episode 15)
Ever Carradine Kelly Ludlow Press Secretary (Speech-writer in pilot)
Matt Lanter Horace Calloway Son of President Mackenzie Allen and First Gentleman Rod Calloway; Twin brother of Rebecca
Caitlin Wachs Rebecca Calloway Older daughter of President Mackenzie Allen and First Gentleman Rod Calloway; Twin sister of Horace
Jasmine Jessica Anthony Amy Calloway Younger daughter of President Mackenzie Allen and First Gentleman Rod Calloway
Polly Bergen Kate Allen President Allen's mother and White House hostess
Mark-Paul Gosselaar Richard "Dickie" McDonald Campaign Advisor
Anthony Azizi Vince Taylor Special Aide to the President
Natasha Henstridge Jayne Murray Speaker's chief of staff

[edit] The Commander in Chief universe

The universe of Commander in Chief shares a great deal of recent history with our own: in the first episode, Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney are mentioned, suggesting that the show's universe diverges from our own sometime after 2001. As the first episode states that Teddy Bridges served four years as Vice President and the show begins two years into his first Presidential term, some viewers assume that, in the universe of the series, either President George W. Bush served only one term (2001-2005) or that Teddy Bridges was his Vice President for the second term (2005-2009). This would place Bridges' election to the Presidency in 2008 and the show around the year 2011. It is also possible that the show takes place more than a decade from now. However, in the episode First Dance, Russia is described as having been a democracy for only 15 years, placing the first season around 2006, assuming a parallel unfolding of history. Another possibility is that the writers have simply disregarded statements made in the first few episodes and now retconned the series to take place in the present (in an alternate timeline).

The placement of the series within the federal election cycle is also in question. Although early episodes refer to Bridges' death occurring prior to the midterm elections, later episodes e.g. The Mom Who Came To Dinner refer to two years remaining in the Presidential term. This is inconsistent with First Strike, which places Bridges' death months after the midterm elections. As the series' episodes have paralleled their actual air dates, including events such as the Atlantic hurricane season, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, it would make sense that Bridges' death occurred during his third year in office, which would mean a Presidential election due shortly thereafter. It is possible that like The West Wing's timeline skew, the universe of Commander in Chief is also shifted by two years in comparison to the "real world".

According to the rules of Presidential succession, if Allen began serving out Bridges' term less than two full years after he was sworn in, she can only run as a candidate in one Presidential election. However, if Bridges' time in office was more than two full years (even by a matter of a week or two) Allen would be allowed to run in two Presidential elections, and thus could potentially be president for almost ten years (See Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution).

As on the political drama The West Wing, the world of Commander in Chief includes both real countries (such as Nigeria, North Korea and Iraq), as well as fictitious ones (such as the South American country of San Pasquale). However, there are apparent errors in the portrayal of Nigeria's judicial system and governance. First, there are no Sharia law in Lagos where the rescued woman was held, hence there will be no jurisdiction for her detainment in Kirikiri prison. Also, Nigeria does not have a parliamentary system of government, so the Nigerian Ambassador should be reporting to the Nigerian President and not a Prime Minister as portrayed in the first episode.

There are subtle hints that the show may be taking place in a post-9/11 world, but in Commander In Chief's universe 9/11 may have taken place during Bridges' Presidency. The Department of Homeland Security, created in the wake of 9/11 in the real world, has been mentioned. In the episode No Nukes is Good Nukes, Templeton mentioned that President Bridges launched a raid on the Khyber Pass, an area of Afghanistan, so an invasion of Afghanistan may have taken place in the Commander in Chief universe. And in the episode First...Do No Harm, President Allen faced a crisis when a terrorist group resembling Al-Qaeda attempts to launch an attack in the United States.

[edit] Timeline

Though specific dates are not given, many events are assigned relative to the present (i.e. 10 years ago) with considerable detail due to the show's use of flashbacks. The following is a list of notable events and their relative time.

1965
Nathan Templeton is a Democratic candidate for office. It is unclear whether Templeton is publicly a segregationalist, however he is taped privately during this time making very extreme segregationist statements.
Approximately 22 years before the first season
Teddy Bridges is elected Governor of his home state, he is re-elected at every election until his election to the Vice Presidency 16 years later.
10 years before "First... Do No Harm"
Mackenzie Allen, a Republican, is approached by a group of moderate Republicans in her district to run as an Independent for Congress as a far right Republican is expected to easily win the primary.
8 years before "First Disaster"
First-term Congresswoman Mackenzie Allen defies the will of Speaker Nathan Templeton when she is left with the deciding vote for a piece of legislation. Templeton reminds her of her Republican heritage and the wide Republican support for the bill, however she refuses to support it as she views it as wasteful spending.
Approximately 6 years before the first season
Teddy Bridges is elected Vice President of the United States on a Republican ticket.
2 and a half years before "Pilot"
Vice President Teddy Bridges approaches Mackenzie Allen, a former two-term Independent Congresswoman, to be his running mate.
8 months before "First Strike"
While campaigning during the midterm elections, President Teddy Bridges asks Nathan Templeton to agree to become his Vice President, Bridges suggested he could create a vacancy in the office by appointing Vice President Mackenzie Allen to the Supreme Court of the United States. Templeton declines, saying the Vice Presidency would be a demotion from his current office as Speaker.

[edit] Controversy

The Traditional Values Coalition, FrontPage Magazine and conservative commentators have gone on record complaining that the show was really a thinly-veiled attempt to lay groundwork for a possible 2008 Presidential run by prominent Democrat Hillary Clinton. This charge has been denied by Lurie, Davis, and ABC. However, after Lurie's departure, Nathan Templeton's character was notably softened, and his raw villainy smoothed out. The Speaker and the President even became allies when it suited them.

Others, including the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine, charged that the series glorified the "Imperial Presidency" and that it favored using government force to impose the personal values of some Americans on other Americans who disagreed with them, and also impose the values of those Americans on the rest of the world.

General criticisms are that the series is so centered on Allen's gender that this becomes the focus of the show instead of the character's capability. However, a counter-argument is that the series is trying to depict realistically what the general public's reaction to the first female President would be, and such an occurrence would probably also focus public scrutiny on a female President's gender rather than her policies.

However, in interviews on the show's website, various cast members said that as time went on there was supposed to be less focus on her gender and more focus on the fact that she was an independent, especially when she would have run for election.

The April 27 episode generated further controversy and negative press in its fictional depiction of the bordering suburb of Hyattsville, Maryland as having the highest murder rate in the United States. It also indirectly depicted the town as being an urban ghetto dominated by poor minorities. The city and Prince George's County were very upset at ABC and somewhat surprised as well at this depiction; in reality the city is racially mixed, middle-upper middle income and mostly suburban in density and character. On May 1, 2006 ABC formally apologized to both the city and county.

Like the similar show The West Wing, the show was often criticized for its perceived left-wing bias on subjects such as campaign finance restrictions, the death penalty, environmentalism, the Equal Rights Amendment, and its overall portrayal of Republican politicians as malevolent figures. [citation needed]

[edit] Ratings

The series went on hiatus after its January 24, 2006 episode; in its place, ABC promoted a new Arrested Development type show titled Sons & Daughters. [2] Commander in Chief was scheduled to return on April 18 with either four or seven remaining new episodes (reflecting rumors that the number of episodes for the season had been cut by three). However, on March 29, ABC announced that it would instead return on April 13 and move from its Tuesday 9 p.m. slot to a 10 p.m. slot on Thursdays, directly competing with CBS hit Without a Trace and longtime NBC standby ER. Some media experts believed the show had already been unofficially cancelled and was moved to that time slot to burn off the remaining episodes--since it is one of the toughest primetime slots for ABC to compete in. However, other experts thought that ABC was hoping the show could be saved by gaining viewers from the surprise reality hit American Inventor aired right before Commander in Chief. [3] However, the reality show saw its ratings plummet to nearly half of what it once was, and proved to be a weak lead in to Commander in Chief. [citation needed]

The show's return April 13 was met by low ratings in its new 10 p.m. time slot, perhaps lessening its chances for a second season. Preliminary ratings available April 14 indicated that only 8.2 million viewers (2.4 rating/7 share in the 18-49 demographic) tuned in for the show's return. CBS's Without a Trace dominated the hour with 18.6 million viewers. Further competition also came from NBC's ER. The show aired a repeat the night Commander in Chief returned, yet it still narrowly beat Commander in Chief in the 18-49 demographic (2.6/7 versus 2.4/7), though it had about two million viewers less overall. [citation needed]

ABC pulled the series from its lineup on May 2, 2006, essentially guaranteeing its cancellation prior to the autumn season.

The series was officially cancelled on May 16, 2006, "although a two-hour movie is in the process of being made, with Geena Davis comfirming her performance in this TV-movie." [4]

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Commander in Chief episodes
President Allen at a press conference.
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President Allen at a press conference.

[edit] Season 1: 2005-2006

No. Prod. Title Airdate
1 101 Pilot September 27, 2005
2 102 First Choice October 4, 2005
3 103 First Strike October 11, 2005
4 104 First Dance October 18, 2005
5 105 First...Do No Harm October 25, 2005
6 106 First Disaster November 1, 2005
7 107 First Scandal November 8, 2005
8 108 Rubie Dubidoux and the Brown Bound Express November 15, 2005
9 109 The Mom Who Came to Dinner November 29, 2005
10 110 Sub Enchanted Evening January 10, 2006
11 111 No Nukes Is Good Nukes January 17, 2006
12 112 Wind Beneath My Wing January 24, 2006
13 113 State of The Unions April 13, 2006
14 114 The Price You Pay April 20, 2006
15 115 Ties That Bind April 27, 2006
16 116 The Elephant in the Room May 31, 2006
17 117 Happy Birthday, Madam President June 7, 2006
18 118 Unfinished Business June 14, 2006

[edit] TV Movie

Main article: Commander in Chief (TV Movie)

Shortly after the cancellation of the regular series, rumours began to arise that a TV movie would be produced in late 2006. Soon after, there were a number of reports confirming the TV movie, one of which was made by Geena Davis to The Stage. The TV Movie was set to enter production, but columnist Matt Roush reported "on excellent authority" in TV Guide that it is no longer in the works. [5]

[edit] Trivia

  • The characters of the President and Vice President were named after the two actors who played those roles in Rod Lurie's previous political thriller, The Contender. Teddy Bridges, named for Jeff Bridges who played President Jackson Evans, and Mackenzie Allen, named for Joan Allen who played Laine Hanson, his Vice Presidential nominee.
  • This was Donald Sutherland's first regular role on a television series.
  • Donald Sutherland's co-star Leslie Hope played the onscreen wife of Sutherland's son, Kiefer, during the first season of 24.
  • The character Nina Myers of 24 was played by Sarah Clarke. Sarah Clarke plays Christine Chambers in the final episode 'Unfinished Business'.
  • The first seven episode titles from the first season after the pilot all begin with the word "first" (e.g. First Choice, First Disaster). The eighth episode was the "first" not to do so.
  • Starting with the episode Rubie Dubidoux and the Brown Bound Express, Steven Bochco replaced Rod Lurie as head executive producer and showrunner. Bochco's changes included a staff of new writers and a new title design similar in style to that of NBC's The West Wing.
  • Part of the Greater Richmond Children's Choir (GRCC) of Richmond, Virginia was the French Choir in the pilot episode, making an ironic connection between real life and fiction since Mackenzie Allen was Chancellor of the University of Richmond when Bridges tapped her as his running mate as seen as a flashback in the pilot.
  • In the episode Happy Birthday, Madam President, Allen receives a 19th century bow and arrow from the Chinese premier, inspiring her chief of staff to remark, "I'm betting this President can handle a bow and arrow." This is an in-joke reference to Geena Davis' archery skills.
  • On August 15, the first episode of the series was aired on Germany's Sat.1 TV network. It was, however given an incorrect title: "Welcome Mrs. President" (instead of Madam).
  • Former Clinton Administration National Security Advisor Sandy Berger was signed on as an advisor to the show.

[edit] Awards & Nominations

[edit] Awards Won

Golden Globe Awards:

  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Drama Series- Geena Davis (2006)

[edit] Awards Nominated

Golden Globe Awards:

  • Best TV Series-Drama
  • Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Television Drama Series- Donald Sutherland (2006)

Screen Actors Guild:

  • Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Geena Davis (2006)

Satellite Awards:

  • Outstanding Actress in a Series, Drama Geena Davis (2006)

Emmy Awards:

  • Outstanding Lead Actress in A Drama Series Geena Davis (2006)

[edit] DVD

[edit] DVD Releases

Enlarge

On April 28th Buena Vista Home Video formally announced the release of Commander In Chief: The Complete First Season. [6] However, following the show's cancellation, it was decided that it should be split into two volumes. [7]

DVD Name Cover Art Ep # Region 1 Region 2 Description
The Inaugural Edition, Part 1 10 June 27, 2006 January 29, 2007 Episodes 1 - 10
The Inaugural Edition, Part 2 8 September 5, 2006 January 29, 2007 Episodes 11 - 18, Interview with Geena Davis, Unaired Scenes, Bloopers, Exclusive Creator Commentaries.

[edit] International Broadcasts

[edit] External links

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