As President Jed Bartlet’s deputy chief of staff on The West Wing, Josh Lyman was granted access to pretty much any room he wanted, and that includes “the room where it happens.” Even Bradley Whitford, the actor portraying him, had certain privileges when it came to the leader of the free world’s quarters. However, even for those who drink from the keg of glory, there are some spots that are tough to get into. The set of Friends would be one of those.
Bradley Whitford recently looked back on the days of The West Wing (which can be streamed with a Max subscription), where he first worked with The Handsmaid’s Tale star Elisabeth Moss. The cast of The American President-inspired political drama would sometimes travel to Washington, D.C., to shoot on location, and it sounds like portraying one of the White House senior staff members carried a certain cachet. He told EW:
When I worked on West Wing, we shot a couple of times around the White House. And if I went to the White House, the secret service guys would go, 'Oh hey, you can go through.'
It’s kind of wild to think about security around the White House being lax in any way, but I guess it was safe to assume Bradley Whitford and his castmates had no ill intentions and were too well-known to get away with anything anyway.
The security around the Warner Bros. lot back in Burbank, California, however, made no such assumptions. Bradley Whitford recalled trying to get a script to Friends star Matthew Perry, who appeared on three episodes of The West Wing as lawyer Joe Quincy. With the two NBC shows shooting on the same lot, Whitford thought it would be easy to deliver the scripts to his buddy.
Turns out that wasn’t the case. The Friends set was apparently locked down like Fort Knox, and security not only didn’t care that Bradley Whitford knew Matthew Perry or that he worked there too; they also refused to pass along the script after denying him access to the Chandler Bing portrayer. Whitford said:
You just couldn't get in there. They wouldn't take the script. You couldn't go in. Show business security always cracks me up.
Maybe if the actor had come equipped with the finest muffins and bagels in all the land, the security guards might have been more amenable to his needs?
I’m not sure what the norm is regarding security on the sets of popular TV shows, and if people are typically allowed to wander around other sets, but I personally find it good to hear that the security guards took the safety of the Friends cast seriously. As stars of one of the best sitcoms of all time, the six main actors skyrocketed to fame that remains as strong as ever 30 years later.
The same could also be said for The West Wing cast, as the drama also remains one of television’s most rewatchable shows. Fans have maintained hope of a reboot of some sort, and while we still may not know “what’s next” for the Aaron Sorkin universe, we can get excited about another upcoming reunion.
After The Handmaid’s Tale came to end in 2025, thus ending Bradley Whitford’s reunion with Elisabeth Moss, Whitford will now join Allison Janney on The Diplomat (streaming with a Netflix subscription) for Season 3. A first look at The West Wing alums playing husband and wife even had fans making a reference to an old episode, so I guess another rewatch is in order!
If you want to relive either The West Wing or Friends, both series are available in their entirety on Max, and keep an eye on the 2025 TV schedule for The Diplomat Season 3 premiere date.
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