I believe this was in the NY Times back in 2005.Commander in Chief': Geena Davis as President
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By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: September 24, 2005
CREATE a show about the first female president of the United States, as Rod Lurie has done with the new drama "Commander in Chief," and right away you have a pivotal decision to make: does she come into the White House through the front door, by getting elected, or through the back, by inheriting the office?
In the series premiere on Tuesday night, it quickly becomes clear that Mr. Lurie has chosen the back way in: the president has a stroke, and his vice president, played by Geena Davis, gets the call. But Mr. Lurie, an executive producer of the series and the director of the first episode, said the setup was not a comment on the likelihood of a female presidential candidate being elected in real life.
"I thought that it would be more dramatic to have her inheriting the job, because that way more people could be opposed to her," he said. "Now I can have the Cabinet opposed to her, the entire Senate, the House."
Not only does this accidental president have no mandate, but she is an independent, chosen for the second spot on the ticket for cosmetic reasons and actually opposed to many of the policies of the man she replaces.
"That I was a vice president who nobody really wanted and that I'm an independent - I think those are both incredibly strong elements," Ms. Davis said. "We can only play 'Oh, my God, she's a woman' for so long, but we can play 'Oh, my God, she's an independent' forever."
The character most likely to be uttering such complaints is the speaker of the House, played by the often slithery Donald Sutherland. That, Mr. Lurie said, is one of the things that distinguishes his show from "The West Wing," the White House drama with Martin Sheen in the Oval Office. "We have an antagonist," he said. Oh, and another distinction: "Our president is much taller."
Not to get into any political discussions here (there are plenty of those on other threads!!
![[smilie=graytard.gif]](./images/smilies/graytard.gif "graytard"){kind=small}
) But I can't believe I haven't heard anything about the similarities, however slight, to the show!If I remember correctly, she was about the same age as Palin with both older teenage children and a younger grade school daughter. She also was a Washington "outsider" and had to figure out how to get things done b/c she was up against "the good old boys" (mainly Donald Sutherland's character).
Another case of Life Imitating Hollywood??
American Idol)