E.G. NICK'S

pasta • ribs • plankfish

WING

from page R51

Restaurant

6066 MAPLE,

North of Orchard Lake Rd.

• 851-0805

and Carry-Out Dept. next door • 851-8577

Tony Berri & Nichdas
with their management c' staff
Extend - Most Sincere
(Wishes For A
Very g-kat-thy and Happy
New Year
To (Their Customers and Friends
And 91-eartdy Thank
Everyone
For (Their
Wonderful-
Support

FOOD &
SPIRITS

JOE AND HELMA BERNARDI
AND FAMILY
WISH ALL OUR FRIENDS
A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

118 W. WALLED LAKE DRIVE, CORNER PONTIAC TRAIL • (248) 624-1033
WALLED LAKE

We Wish Our Friends and Customers
A Healthy and Happy New Year

6ro kl en Ph o e nix

Chinese American Restaurant

Sugar Tree Plaza

6257 Orchard Lake Rd. ■ West Bloomfield (248) 855-3570

9/14
2001

R52

[real] West Wing [of the White
House], and the counterparts of all the
people playing the characters had e-
mail relationships.

near Traverse City. We like to go there
for a family vacation. In fact, my
whole family was there in August, and
I met them after I was done shooting.

JN: What about President Bush?
TS: When we came to Washington to
do last season's finale, they invited us
to the White House. All the counter-
parts were there and they were very
generous and kind to us — the presi-
dent was not there. They are in their
first year, and it takes getting used to.
I don't think it would be any different
if Gore had won.

JN: While Christine's family is from
Michigan, your parents fled Nazi
Germany and settled in Texas?
TS: Both my parents were German
Jewish immigrants who ended up in
Houston in 1938. They met in high
school. My father went back to
Germany as an American GI and was a
translator. He went into one of the
very first camps that were liberated. He
went back to his home as an American
GI and found out most of his relatives
had been killed by the Nazis.

JN: Speaking of Gore, if he had won
and there was a Jewish vice president,
would that make a dif-
ference?
TS: No, it also doesn't
make a difference in
the writing that we
have a Republican
administration now.
When we first did this
show, we didn't think it
would have a cultural
significance. The fact
that it became kind of a
barometer — that peo-
ple would talk about
the Bartlett administra-
tion in relationship to a Director Tommy Schlamme: "I have often said about
current administration
growing up the son of immigrant- Jewish parents in
— was so far from what Houston, Texas — with a name like Tommy Schlamme
we thought would ever
— that if I don't know the fine balance between drama
happen. But I think
and comedy, then no one will."
that Lieberman was an
asset. I think Gore ran a
dreadful campaign. And I think
JN: How did being the son of Jewish
Lieberman gave it a boost.
immigrants influence your life grow-
ing up?
JN: I understand you spent a night in
TS: I have often said about growing
the Lincoln Bedroom even before you
up the son of immigrant Jewish par-
did The West Wing. Did you bring
ents in Houston, Texas — with a
that experience to the show?
name like Tommy Schlamme — that
TS: My wife, son and I were guests of
if I don't know the fine balance
President Clinton. He made the offer
between drama and comedy, then no
while we were all at the wedding of
one will.
our close friends Ted Danson and
Mary Steenburgen. The next morning
we were sitting next to the Oval Office JN: Were you raised in an observant
Jewish home?
— the halls were very busy and people
TS: When my mother and father
were coming and going. The way I felt
came to Houston there was a young
sitting there, watching that world go
temple just starting, which was
by, was exactly the kind of emotion
Reform, and the members were people
and visceral feeling I wanted to create
my parents knew, so they joined and
in The West Wing.
became Reform Jews. They probably
would consider themselves closer to
JN: Your wife, Christine Lahti, is
Conservative, but the temple was
from the Detroit suburbs. Do you get
important to them. I went to Sabbath
back to Michigan?
school and had a bar mitzvah. My par-
TS: Her family no longer lives there,
ents believed in the principles of
so we don't really get back to Detroit,
Judaism. I remember Christine's father
but her father still has a place in
once asked how we celebrated
northern Michigan on Torch Lake,