When Rob Lowe had some hard feelings about leaving The West Wing, he turned to humor.
In a TikTok posted July 24, Lowe, 61, spoke to the camera while in a storage room. “So a lot has been talked about my issues, such as they were, on The West Wing, which, I love that show and I love everybody in it,” the actor said.
“It’s all good now, but there were some difficulties,” he continued. “At one point, they had sort of written me off the show. I didn’t feel like I had a lot to do.”
“And so I made these, and I sent them to everybody affiliated with the show. The network, the studio, producers, executives,” Lowe said, holding up the item — a milk carton with a missing-children style advertisement for his character, Sam Seaborn.
“I sent these to everybody,” the Parks and Recreation alum said. “Let’s see what the stats are. Sam Seaborn, 170 pounds. Eyes blue. Missing since the Christmas episode, 2002. Please call Bernie Brillstein, my manager, if you’ve seen this man.”
Lowe began appearing on The West Wing as Sam when the show premiered in 1999. At the time, Sam, Deputy White House Communications Director, was meant to be the show’s main character, and Lowe was the highest-paid actor. But over time, creator Aaron Sorkin decided to shift the show’s focus to a full ensemble cast. The series also spent more time than originally anticipated on storylines around President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen. Lowe received one Emmy nomination for his time on the series, which also starred Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, the late John Spencer and Dulé Hill.
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Rob Lowe in ‘The West Wing’
By the time season 4 began in 2022, Lowe was upset. The “Christmas episode” he referenced was the eleventh of that season, titled “Holy Night.” He ultimately left the series, with his last installment being season 4, episode 17, “Red Haven’s on Fire,” which aired in February 2003. Lowe did return for several episodes of the show’s seventh and final season, which aired from 2005 to 2006. Sam Seaborn became Deputy Chief of Staff to the new president portrayed by Jimmy Smits.
Lowe reflected on why he left The West Wing in a 2023 episode of the podcast Podcrushed, hosted by Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari. He said he “tried to make it work,” but “did not have a good experience,” and compared it to the relationships he saw his kids have when they began dating.
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Rob Lowe in May
“My kids were getting to a certain age where I could see them having first girlfriends and being in a relationship that was abusive and taking it,” he said. “ ‘She’s the popular girl, everybody likes her, she’s beautiful, it must be great’ — all the things that people would say about making The West Wing to me. ‘It’s so popular, it’s so amazing, it must be amazing.’ But I know what it’s like, and if I couldn’t walk away from it, then how could I empower my kids to walk away from it?”
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“I walked away from the most popular girl at school, but I also knew that it was a super-unhealthy relationship, and it was the best thing I ever did,” he said.
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