September 27, 2005 (2005-09-27)– June 14, 2006 (2006-06-14)
Commander in Chiefis an American political drama television series that focused on the fictional administration and family of Mackenzie Allen (portrayed by Geena Davis), the first female president of the United States, who ascends to the post from the vice presidency after the death of the sitting president from a sudden cerebral aneurysm.
The series began broadcasting on ABC on Tuesday, September 27, 2005, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, although most countries outside North America began screening the series in mid-2006.
The show was ranked No. 1 on Tuesday nights until Fox's American Idol started in January. The show was also the No. 1 new show of the season until CBS' Criminal Minds surpassed it. Its major competitor in the 9:00p.m. timeslot was Fox's House, which aired after American Idol.
The network replaced Lurie with Steven Bochco as show runner.[1][2] After ratings continued declining, Bochco was replaced by Dee Johnson. Further declining ratings brought about a hiatus, a timeslot change and ultimately cancellation announced in May 2006, with the final episodes airing the following month.[2]
During the Thanksgiving holiday, Mackenzie's mother, Kate (Polly Bergen),[12] comes to spend the holiday and is invited to remain permanently. Mac decides to invite Nathan Templeton and his wife to join them for dinner, which Kate insists on cooking herself much to the chagrin of White House tradition. When an independent commission proposes the closing of a major naval base in Mac's home state of Connecticut, which could devastate the local economy, Rod brings in Richard "Dickie" McDonald (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), a media consultant, to help build her image and lagging poll numbers. Mac also weighs her opinion on the fate of a woman on death row.
Templeton and Mac travel to California for the dedication of former President Bridges' Presidential Library. As Air Force One lands, the plane is held hostage by a man who demands to speak with the President or he will blow up the plane. Meanwhile, Kate watches the children while the first couple is out of town, and allows Horace and Rebecca to throw a party for their friends. One of the original texts of the Gettysburg Address is supposedly stolen but six-year-old first daughter Amy Calloway was hiding it to get back at her older siblings. Grandma Kate told them that if it never happened again, she wouldn't say anything.
Mac works on her upcoming State of the Union Address. Rod ends up in an odd position with an intern, after he trips on the way out of a restaurant as paparazzi take pictures of the incident. The following morning, a humiliating photo ends up on the front page of the papers, embarrassing Mac which threatens to politically deteriorate her image. Meanwhile, Templeton sets out to destroy Mac's Homeless Initiative Bill, in return for her to play "political hardball".
Mac stands by her longtime friend and nominee for Attorney General, Carl Brantley (Adam Arkin), who suffers during his first Senate confirmation hearings after his background is checked. A cargo plane in Pakistan carrying sensitive military weapons goes missing and the Vice President uses his military skill to resolve the situation. Kate leaves for a date which troubles Mac and Rod who mistake her for being lost.
Mac asks the Attorney General to research the growing urban unrest in nearby Prince George's County, Maryland, the home of Chief of Staff Jim Gardner. Meanwhile, a friend from Jim's past pays him a visit at the White House to deliver a first-hand account of the situation. Mac is then informed on the situation of the missing surface-to-air missiles that went down during a military plane crash in Pakistan and are now available on the black market. Mac must use all of her necessary means to determine that the weapons do not fall into the wrong hands. Templeton champions the Templeton Act targeting domestic crime, which Mac threatens to veto, instead supporting more law enforcement and education over the bill's calls for harsher jail sentences. The Bill passes in the House and is expected to tie in the Senate. Templeton-reminding Keaton of the favor he received at his vice presidential confirmation hearings-asks Keaton for a political favor. As his ex officio role as President of the Senate, Keaton has the power to break tied votes. Keaton, seeing no other options proceeds to the Capitol Building, but upon arrival votes down the Templeton Act, and later tenders his resignation to Mac. When Dickie learns of Vince's plans for a commitment ceremony with his partner, he urges him not to invite Mac since it may hurt her in the polls.
On Mac's birthday, she faces American hostages being taken in Turkey by a militant Kurdish group. Mac is also interviewing candidates to be her new Vice President which Dickie is very opinionated about. Rebecca's new IM buddy is shown to be a very unlikely friend.
Mac's determination to pass the Equal Rights Amendment divides her staff and family over the issue of women's rights. Jim continues to ponder Mac's vice president offer. He tells Mac that he "would be honored to be considered for the Vice-Presidency." Kelly's ex-husband, a journalist, pitches a story to the First Family which Kelly vouches for him on a professional level however is stunned to learn about his new family. Mac fires Dickie because he sabotaged her attempts to get the ERA passed. He then joins Templeton's team. Rebecca is charmed by a new boy she chats with online, who is revealed to be an intern working for Templeton. Templeton announces his presidential bid. The President and Templeton "debate" in a town hall style meeting, and the press and audience widely declare Mac as the winner.
"Little Shop of Horace"
This episode was scheduled to air on February 21, 2006, after "Wind Beneath My Wings", and a promo was released.[21]
Mac weighs her options on how to deal with a situation in Africa when she learns genocide is taking place in a country there, and it becomes clear there are no easy solutions. Meanwhile, at Dickie's suggestion, Mac considers firing her current Cabinet - many of them holdovers from Teddy Bridges' administration - and bringing in her own in order to start with a clean slate going into her re-election campaign. At the same time, Rod makes a scheduled appearance at a joint U.S.-Cuban children's gymnastics convention, where a freak accident sparks an international situation, and Horace asks Rebecca's friend, Stacey, for help with his homework—but the two end up doing more than just studying.
The episode was written by Tom Szentgyörgyi and directed by Carol Banker.[21]
Critical reception
Commander in Chief received generally positive reviews (Davis's performance was largely praised as being a "successful comeback vehicle"), with an aggregate score of 56/100 (26 reviews) on Metacritic.[22] Critics in major U.S. media, cited on the review site Rotten Tomatoes were generally enthusiastic. Some critics described the series as lacking "credibility," approaching "fantasy," and being less about the presidency than about "gender politics."[23]
Reason magazine charged that the series glorified the "Imperial Presidency"[24] and that it favored using government force to impose the personal values of some Americans on others who disagreed with them and to impose the values of those Americans on the rest of the world.[24]
Negative comparisons were drawn[25] with 24's black president David Palmer, as while in that show a black president was depicted as having been voted into office under normal circumstances, Commander in Chief's storyline showed a female president only coming into the presidency because the existing president dies in office.
On the day the series premiered, Davis was reported to have said in an interview, "This is a show about every aspect of the life of a person who is president, the personal side and the public side."[26] A November 2005 review in USA Today noted the show's focus was more on Allen's family than world or national political events; in the same review, Allen's leadership style was compared and contrasted favorably with that of Josiah Bartlet of The West Wing.[27] A reviewer for United Features Syndicate wrote that "While 'Commander' avoids the overt wonkery of 'West Wing,' it also fails to give its audience much credit for knowing history or current events."[28]
Ratings
The series had good ratings initially, but they waned in subsequent weeks.
The series went on hiatus after its January 24, 2006 episode. In its place, ABC promoted a new Arrested Development-type show titled Sons & Daughters. Commander in Chief was scheduled to return on April 18. However, on March 29, ABC announced that it would instead return on April 13 and move from its Tuesday 9 p.m. slot to a 10 p.m. slot on Thursdays, directly competing with CBS hit Without a Trace and longtime NBC standby ER. Some media experts thought that ABC was hoping the show could be saved by gaining viewers from the surprise reality hit American Inventor aired right before Commander in Chief.[29]
ABC pulled the series from its lineup on May 2, 2006, and on May 13 announced that the show had been cancelled. The remaining three episodes of the season were broadcast after the ratings year had ended.[2]
On April 28, 2006, Buena Vista Home Video formally announced the release of Commander in Chief: The Complete First Season.[31] However, following the show's cancellation, it was decided that it should be split into two volumes.[32]
In Italy, the 5 DVD boxset was released on December 1, 2006 and it contains all original episodes dubbed in Italian plus voice tracks in English and Spanish and also special features the Pilot episode with comments by Rod Lurie and deleted scenes.[33]
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