Product Description

The West Wing ventured where no other TV series had gone before: an extraordinarily intimate look at an American President and the inner workings of the White House. Experience all the crises, triumphs, lofty idealism and hard realities of the acclaimed series in this complete seven-season DVD set. Here, on 45 discs, are all 154 episodes of the series that won 26 Emmys, including 4 for Outstanding Drama Series. Hail to chief - and to the creators and stars of this ground-breaking series. Also Included: Pilot Script with Foreword from Series Creator Aaron Sorkin. Hours of Special Feature: Over 20 Commentaries Over 20 Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes Unaired Scenes, Gag Reels and More

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #536 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-11-07
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 45
• Dimensions: 4.95 pounds
• Running time: 42 minutes

Features

• The West Wing ventured where no other TV series had gone before: an extraordinarily intimate look at an American President and the inner workings of the White House. Experience all the crises, triumphs, lofty idealism and hard realities of the acclaimed series in this complete seven-season DVD set. Here, on 45 discs, are all 154 episodes of the series that won 26 Emmys, including 4 for Outstanding

On the DVDs
A prestigious, award-winning drama series like The West Wing deserves first-class treatment on DVD, and the Complete Series Collection really delivers the goods. Like the series itself, the packaging is first-class all the way. The entire DVD set is held in a dossier file box, with a faux-leather navy blue exterior graced with an embossed silver-foil presidential seal and a magnet-sealing flap that neatly closes the lid with no visible latches or clasps. The 45 DVDs are held in seven individually tabbed and numbered fold-out files (one for each complete season) with a pocket for each DVD and West Wing cast members pictured on each fold-out file. (In addition, the DVDs themselves are labeled with a photo of the entire primary cast.) And while the audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, gag reels, and other DVD extras remain the same from the previous individual-season DVD sets, the glossy, lavishly illustrated episode guide is exclusive to this set, and it's a convenient one-stop source for specific episode information. Also exclusive to this set is Aaron Sorkin's Emmy-nominated teleplay for the pilot episode, along with a new foreword by Sorkin detailing the genesis of the series from concept to casting. You can bet that Sorkin and his West Wing colleagues are pleased with the overall presentation of this full-series collection; it's durable, impressively stately without being ostentatious (like President Jed Bartlet himself), and guaranteed to look great on any bookshelf. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

No English subtitles, packaging scratches disks
The West Wing is by far the best television series I've ever seen. 5 stars for that. However this set, although nice to look at, has too many flaws for me to recommend it very highly. 3 stars for this set.

My main gripe is that there are no English subtitles. Why not? There is plenty of space on the disks and subtitles don't take up that much. The gain would be far greater than the cost!

I often have to rewind episodes three or four times to catch a phrase that I can't quite make out hearing the first or second time. There is often so much background noise (sirens, crouds, music, etc) that one can't make out all the brilliant dialogue by only listening to the audio.

The UK editions have English subtitles, so why can't the American versions?

Another gripe is the packaging. While it is very nice to look at on the shelf, cleverly designed with file folders holding each season, it is impractical and scratches the disks! The folders are hard cardboard and the slits (not even lined with felt or soft material) are so narrow you have to really press the disks in, damaging and scratching them up!

The UK boxed set uses 22 slimline DVD cases, holding two discs each, all packaged within season-by-season slip cases.

I recommend paying a little extra and ordering the UK version instead: ASIN B000I8OC08 on Amazon.co.uk. It has the same 21+ hours of extras this set has so you won't be missing anything except the booklet and script, which frankly doesn't add much value.

How much do you really like the series?
There is no question in my mind the "The West Wing" was one of the greatest drama series on television ever. And if you've been holding out on buying the DVDs until this box set was released then I would suggest you part with some cash immediately. The issue for a lot of people reading these reviews, however, is going to be whether or not they are going to want to replace individual box sets with this release. I'm not going to suggest to you what the best move is, although in the next few days you're going to see my box sets on sale, but this is really a decision on whether or not you want a beautifully packaged set. That is what this is. The 'leather' folder the disks come in is perfect in terms of design for this series. The two 'books' that the set contains are glossy, and the pictures are beautiful. It is also a welcome change to see seasons 1 to 4 discs one -sided as opposed to the previous release. The individual folders that the disks here come in are sturdy enough and again well designed. However, I can't spot any additional extras on the discs. The foreward by Aaron Sorkin also isn't new - it's taken from the first Scriptbook that was released. So if you are a Wingnut, chances are you've seen everything here before and as I said it really comes down to the packaging and the fact that you were going to buy Season 7 anyway so why not splurge on this. I'm giving it 4 stars as opposed to 5 because I can't quite forgive the makers for Season 5 and also because it would have been nice of them to include something extra for the Wingnuts here considering it is us who are really going to be purchasing this set.

westwing the complete series
Wow, what a joy it was to actually get my hands on this wonderful series.
It is everything I thought it would be, except that after season four, English subtitles are no more. Being a hearing impaired person, I was very very disappointed to find this out. The booklet never said...interestly the Individual box sets have English sub titles...So, If you're hearing impaired or deaf, buy the box set individually....it is a good series thought...