(Power Rankings sum up: Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules). Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)
Admittedly the past couple of power rankings have been kind of weak. It’s time to change that in a big way. The West Wing, like last week’s Malcolm in the Middle, also ended fairly recently in 2006 but its cast members have generally been far more active. Oh, and RIP John Spencer, elected Vice President forever in my heart. Sorry Mary McCormack, Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda. I had to draw the episode cut off somewhere. Wait for the In Plain Sight, NYPD Blue and M*A*S*H Power Rankings.
9. Stockard Channing (as Abbey Bartlett) – she was in small films Sparkle and Multiple Sarcasms and in TV movie Sundays at Tiffany’s. She was also in an episode of The Cleveland Show and in Pal Joey on Broadway, for which she was nominated for an Tony. She also narrated the last season of Meekrat Manor.
8. Janel Moloney (as Donna Moss) – She appeared in six episodes of Showtime three season show Brotherhood and in a House, M.D. and a 30 Rock. She also appeared in a Life on Mars and a Law & Order: Criminal Intent. That puts her in the bottom rungs on this power rankings, but in less headier competition she’d be in the top half with just that.
7. Martin Sheen (as Jed Bartlett) – They’re pretty much all winners from here on, so the ordering gets more difficult. The year of The West Wing’s end, he appeared in Bobby and The Departed. In future years, he was in films Imagine That, Talk to Me, Echelon Conspiracy as well as a voice in the video game series Mass Effect. He’ll be appearing as Uncle Ben in the preboot The Amazing Spider-man next year.
6. Bradley Whitford (as Josh Lyman) – Immediately after The West Wing, Whitford joined ill-fated Aaron Sorkin project Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as producer Danny Tripp. He co-starred in a British mini-series about climate change called Burning Up as an oil lobbyist. He appeared in episodes of Monk, The Sarah Silverman Program, In Plain Sight, Law & Order: LA and The Mentalist and TV movie Off Duty. He also co-starred in short-lived Fox show The Good Guys with Colin Hanks.
5. Joshua Molina – Molina replaced Rob Lowe after the latter’s much publicized departure from The West Wing. After the show ended, he appeared in three episodes of Numb3rs, one of Stargate: SG1, and two of The Nine. He co-starred in one season show Big Shots on ABC with Dylan McDermott. Since then he has appeared in single episodes of: Medium, Grey’s Anatomy, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, iCarly, House M.D., Psych, Bones, The Big Bang Theory, CSI: Miami, and Private Practice. Wow. He also is a recurring character in In Plain Sight, having appeared in 17 episodes as a car dealership owner dating the main character’s sister.
4. Richard Schiff (as Toby Ziegler) – in 2007, he appeared in two episodes of Burn Notice. The next year, he was in an Eli Stone, a Monk, and a Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles as well as in the film Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman. The next year, 2009, featured a In Plain Sight as well as films Another Harvest Moon with Ernest Borgnine, Imagine That with Eddie Murphy and Solitary Man with Michael Douglas. In 2010 it was supporting roles in movies The Infidel and Made in Dagenham, a main cast role in short-lived Fox series Past Life and an episode of British Jim Broadbent series Any Human Heart. This current year he’s been busier than ever with three episodes of The Cape, one of White Collar, four of Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, one of Up All Night and a role in Rowan Atkinson James Bond spoof Johnny English Reborn. He’ll co-star in a new Showtime comedy with Don Cheadle and Kirsten Bell next year.
3. Alison Janney (as CJ Craig) – After The West Wing ended, Janney appeared in a Two and a Half Men and had supporting roles in Hairspray and Juno. She was in an episode of Aaron Sorkin drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. In 2008 she appeared in the satirical Prop 8: the Musical and in the film Pretty Ugly People. In 2009, she was in Away We Go and Life During Wartime. She voiced a role in four episodes of Phineas and Ferb. She was in a Family Guy, two In Plain Sights, and in one of the last episodes of Lost as the mother to the Man in Black and Jacob. She co-starred in Matthew Perry’s failed series Mr. Sunshine and in this summer’s The Help.
2. Dule Hill (as Charlie Young) – Hill hasn’t had a whole lot of variety since leaving The West Wing but he has had a very successful role in a very successful cable series, Psych, on USA, as Burton Guster, the straight man in the partnership with Shawn Spencer that run the detective agency Psych as well as a pharmaceutical representative. Hill has played the role for five seasons so far and the sixth is currently airing.
1. Rob Lowe – Lowe left the West Wing after season 3 when he was downgraded from the main character to one of an ensemble. The season after his West Wing run ended, he got a chance to star in his own series, The Lyon’s Den which went all of 13 episodes. The next year he got a new series on CBS, Dr. Vegas, which also ended after a single season. He starred in a TV miniseries remake ofSalem’sLoton TNT. On 2006, he finally found his way onto a show the lasted, as a main character in an ensemble again on Brothers and Sisters. He left before the last season to co-star in NBC’s Parks and Recreation as state auditor Chris Traeger, known for being a physical fitness freak and his pronounciation of literally as “litrally”
Television, the Drug of the Nation 