Abbey Bartlet
Encyclopedia
Dr. Abigail Anne "Abbey" Barrington Bartlet, MD
, is a fictional character
played by Stockard Channing
on the television
serial
drama
, The West Wing. In the show, she is the First Lady of the United States
, the wife of President
Josiah Bartlet
.
" (in her husband's words) and wife of more than thirty years to President Bartlet
. In the first season episode "Five Votes Down," President Bartlet mentions to Charlie that they had been married 32 years, meaning they were married in 1967. Her maiden name is Barrington. The location of her undergraduate education is unknown. However, President Bartlet once confided in C.J. Cregg (his then press secretary) that he'd changed his mind about becoming a priest during his undergraduate years at Notre Dame after meeting Abbey. It is unlikely that Abbey attended Notre Dame because the University did not admit female students before 1972; however, Notre Dame's sister school, Saint Mary's College, was established in 1844, so the young Abbey Barrington could easily have attended there.
She received her M.D.
from Harvard Medical School
. Although we are told that her specializations are in internal medicine
and thoracic surgery
, this is very unlikely since those are two distinct specialties and would require entirely different residencies. If she was board-certified in both, she would have spent nearly 15 years just in residency after medical school which is not only unlikely but almost impossible because the funding for residency programs makes this extremely difficult. She began practicing medicine some twenty-five years before the start of the series, and is on the staff of both Boston Mercy Hospital (fictitious) and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. She is Adjunct Professor
of Thoracic Surgery at Harvard Medical School
.
She and her husband have three daughters: Elizabeth, Ellie, and Zoey. At the beginning of the series, Zoey is said to be 19 but this was retconned at the end of season 2 to being closer to 17. In season 2, Ellie is in medical school at Johns Hopkins University
. Elizabeth is probably quite a bit older than Ellie because she's the only one who is married with a 12-year-old daughter in the pilot. Ellie was only 24 in season two, making her 23 in season one and only 11 years older than Liz's daughter. Ellie eventually marries "the fruit fly guy" (Abbey once said in "Isaac and Ishmael" that she had Liz very young). In the Season 2 episode "Ellie", President Bartlet wistfully says that his middle daughter is "all Abbey's" and hasn't been close to him. In the fourth season episode "Inauguration: Over There", it is established that Abbey never let the children have sugar (specifically candy) growing up, but that Jed gave it to them all the time behind her back.
To protect the secret of her husband's multiple sclerosis
, Abbey gives the President doses of betaseron, which help keep his MS in check. It is only after he collapses and is confronted by Leo
that she reveals their secret to a member of the White House
senior staff. Her decision to medicate her husband, in violation of several American Medical Association
rules, leads her to voluntarily give up her medical license
for the duration of her stay in the White House. However, she later begins doing some volunteer work at a clinic in a rough part of Washington, D.C. When Leo McGarry questions her about this, she firmly tells him that she plans to continue this work and that any political issues it creates are not part of the discussion.
Abbey had a "deal" with her husband that he would only run for one term because of his MS. She is distraught and very angry with Jed when he breaks this promise and proceeds to run for reelection anyway. Things are tense between the two for the latter half of the second season, but as the third season progresses they worked through it. When she discovers that Jed had ordered the assassination of a foreign diplomat who was also a terrorist, and this eventually led his followers to kidnap Zoey, she is so angry that she leaves the White House and returns to New Hampshire with Zoey after her daughter is rescued. She eventually returns to help out during a Federal government shutdown, and when Jed asks bluntly if she will be by his side as his MS progressively worsens, she becomes noticeably upset and says she will be. In Season 6, Abbey is devoted to her husband when he is stricken with a horrifying MS episode during a summit trip to China, but later argues with him because he wasn't getting enough sleep in the course of his duties.
Abbey is a recurring character during the first two seasons, and the seventh and last season. She appears as a regular during the third through sixth seasons, despite the fact that there are many episodes in which she does not appear, a fact consistent with real life, where the First Lady must perform official duties all over the country and therefore cannot stay constantly with her husband at the White House
. Various episodes mention that she is away in such locations as Pakistan and Argentina.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
, is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
played by Stockard Channing
Stockard Channing
Stockard Channing is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role as Ouisa Kittredge in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its...
on the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
serial
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, The West Wing. In the show, she is the First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States
First Lady of the United States is the title of the hostess of the White House. Because this position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, the title is most often applied to the wife of a sitting president. The current first lady is Michelle Obama.-Current:The...
, the wife of President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Josiah Bartlet
Josiah Bartlet
Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet is a fictional character played by Martin Sheen on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is President of the United States for the entire series until the last episode, when his successor is inaugurated...
.
Overview
Abbey is a "world-class physicianPhysician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
" (in her husband's words) and wife of more than thirty years to President Bartlet
Josiah Bartlet
Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet is a fictional character played by Martin Sheen on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is President of the United States for the entire series until the last episode, when his successor is inaugurated...
. In the first season episode "Five Votes Down," President Bartlet mentions to Charlie that they had been married 32 years, meaning they were married in 1967. Her maiden name is Barrington. The location of her undergraduate education is unknown. However, President Bartlet once confided in C.J. Cregg (his then press secretary) that he'd changed his mind about becoming a priest during his undergraduate years at Notre Dame after meeting Abbey. It is unlikely that Abbey attended Notre Dame because the University did not admit female students before 1972; however, Notre Dame's sister school, Saint Mary's College, was established in 1844, so the young Abbey Barrington could easily have attended there.
She received her M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
from Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
. Although we are told that her specializations are in internal medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...
and thoracic surgery
Thoracic surgery
Thoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in the surgical treatment of diseases affecting organs inside the thorax . Generally treatment of conditions of the lungs, chest wall, and diaphragm....
, this is very unlikely since those are two distinct specialties and would require entirely different residencies. If she was board-certified in both, she would have spent nearly 15 years just in residency after medical school which is not only unlikely but almost impossible because the funding for residency programs makes this extremely difficult. She began practicing medicine some twenty-five years before the start of the series, and is on the staff of both Boston Mercy Hospital (fictitious) and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. She is Adjunct Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Thoracic Surgery at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
.
She and her husband have three daughters: Elizabeth, Ellie, and Zoey. At the beginning of the series, Zoey is said to be 19 but this was retconned at the end of season 2 to being closer to 17. In season 2, Ellie is in medical school at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. Elizabeth is probably quite a bit older than Ellie because she's the only one who is married with a 12-year-old daughter in the pilot. Ellie was only 24 in season two, making her 23 in season one and only 11 years older than Liz's daughter. Ellie eventually marries "the fruit fly guy" (Abbey once said in "Isaac and Ishmael" that she had Liz very young). In the Season 2 episode "Ellie", President Bartlet wistfully says that his middle daughter is "all Abbey's" and hasn't been close to him. In the fourth season episode "Inauguration: Over There", it is established that Abbey never let the children have sugar (specifically candy) growing up, but that Jed gave it to them all the time behind her back.
To protect the secret of her husband's multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
, Abbey gives the President doses of betaseron, which help keep his MS in check. It is only after he collapses and is confronted by Leo
Leo McGarry
Leo Thomas McGarry is a fictional character played by John Spencer on the television serial drama The West Wing. The role earned Spencer the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. McGarry's character, the former United States Secretary of Labor, begins the series as the White...
that she reveals their secret to a member of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
senior staff. Her decision to medicate her husband, in violation of several American Medical Association
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...
rules, leads her to voluntarily give up her medical license
Medical license
In most countries, only persons with a medical license bestowed either by a specified government-approved professional association or a government agency are authorized to practice medicine. Licenses are not granted automatically to all people with medical degrees...
for the duration of her stay in the White House. However, she later begins doing some volunteer work at a clinic in a rough part of Washington, D.C. When Leo McGarry questions her about this, she firmly tells him that she plans to continue this work and that any political issues it creates are not part of the discussion.
Abbey had a "deal" with her husband that he would only run for one term because of his MS. She is distraught and very angry with Jed when he breaks this promise and proceeds to run for reelection anyway. Things are tense between the two for the latter half of the second season, but as the third season progresses they worked through it. When she discovers that Jed had ordered the assassination of a foreign diplomat who was also a terrorist, and this eventually led his followers to kidnap Zoey, she is so angry that she leaves the White House and returns to New Hampshire with Zoey after her daughter is rescued. She eventually returns to help out during a Federal government shutdown, and when Jed asks bluntly if she will be by his side as his MS progressively worsens, she becomes noticeably upset and says she will be. In Season 6, Abbey is devoted to her husband when he is stricken with a horrifying MS episode during a summit trip to China, but later argues with him because he wasn't getting enough sleep in the course of his duties.
Abbey is a recurring character during the first two seasons, and the seventh and last season. She appears as a regular during the third through sixth seasons, despite the fact that there are many episodes in which she does not appear, a fact consistent with real life, where the First Lady must perform official duties all over the country and therefore cannot stay constantly with her husband at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. Various episodes mention that she is away in such locations as Pakistan and Argentina.