Tell us how you really feel about your time on The West Wing, Rob Lowe.
Lowe played deputy communications director Sam Seaborn for the first four seasons of the NBC political drama. But he surprisingly left after Season 4, even though the show was a smash hit having won four consecutive Outstanding Drama Series Emmys during that stretch.
At the time, Lowe’s exit was crafted as a professional decision based on the character having less to do. But there apparently may have been more to it.
In a podcast interview with Stitcher Studios’ Podcrushed, Lowe had a few choice words about his time on the show. He said leaving was “the best thing I ever did” and called it “a super unhealthy relationship.”
He added that he “felt very undervalued” and said, “I did not have a good experience.” He tried to make it work, he claims, but “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.”
No reason was given during the podcast, but rumors around his departure suggested a salary dispute was at its core.
The official goodbye message from Lowe was quite different in tone.
“As much as it hurts to admit it, it has been increasingly clear, for quite a while, that there was no longer a place for Sam Seaborn on The West Wing. Warners had allowed me an opportunity to leave the show as I arrived — grateful for it, happy to have been on it and proud of it. We were a part of television history and I will never forget it.”
An official statement from Warner Brothers Television and John Wells Productions said the move was made “amicably.”
Lowe landed on his feet since leaving. He has appeared on Brothers & Sisters, Parks and Recreation, The Grinder and Code Black, and currently stars on the Netflix comedy Unstable and as firefighter Owen Strand on the Fox drama 9-1-1: Lone Star.
But proving once again that bad memories die faster than good ones, Lowe did return to The West Wing for its final episode in 2006.
