Netflix – “The Golf Club” – coming Wednesday Eastern time

Netflix premieres its successor to the wildly popular “The West Wing” (popular at least amongst people who shop at Whole Foods, read the New York Times, don’t own a gun and haven’t been to a NASCAR race).

It is a misconception (fake news) that “The West Wing” was only popular as a temporary fictional relief from a real Bush presidency.

But “The West Wing” was first shown on September 22, 1999. And was therefore really a fictional West Wing where the President didn’t have sex with interns in the Oval Office, the Lincoln bedroom wasn’t rented out to political supporters, there was no tough on crime and being a campaign contributor meant you didn’t get a Presidential pardon for a non violent drug offence.

In other words, a liberal fantasy of a perfect Democratic President.

“The Golf Club” aims to do the same for Republicans. A perfect Republican presidency.

The initial pitch to studio executives involved a former entrepreneur who had gifted his entire company to a charity, had been a Goldman Sachs partner at 29, with a PhD in science from MIT, five years in the Marines, former Governor of a swing state who had balanced the budget, with an attractive wife who bakes cookies and who was a primary school teacher in a charter school. His children all work for non-profits.

And wanted to govern for all Americans.

But audience surveys showed that potential viewers didn’t believe that a smart, public spirited, non partisan, well educated, self made, former Governor with relevant experience and a stable home life was a Republican fantasy.

And so the show was rewritten.

In “The Golf Club”, the President is an ill informed bigot, who has inherited his fortune, with no relevant experience and no interest in any of the details of government.

However, he is attractive to the Republican leadership as he is easily manipulated, and is content to allow them to respond to party donors by lowering taxes and repealing any Government regulation that hinders business – particularly environmental, consumer and fair work laws.

Production costs were lowered as the President spends all of his time at golf clubs. And all of the key scenes take place in a either a restaurant or a locker room. While the Presidential character also spends a lot of time in his bedroom in his pyjamas, it was felt that including such scenes may turn off female viewers. And so that action is represented by a tweet across the screen.

So far, the show has split viewers. There were initial attempts to can the show, which went back as far as the Pilot in 2016.

But the audience support seems to have steadied at a pretty constant low 40s. A recent story line of the President kowtowing to a foreign leader was too much for some viewers and may lead to a temporary dip in audience share.

However, to maintain Republican interest, the producers have now introduced another favourite storyline under which the Democrats will select a socialist as their candidate. This will limit any audience loss.

All of which means that the general view is that “The Golf Club” will run for another six seasons through January 2025.

Although some in the entertainment industry have pointed out that the inclusion of the North Korea story line means the entire series could be cancelled at any time, without any warning.

Rumoured fallbacks include “The Kremlin”, “Nuclear Winter” and “Lake Manhattan”.

Stay tuned…