"West Wing" vs "Commander-in-Chief"

From Hispanic Business Week:

"I don't want to get bogged down with the minutiae of lawmaking," Lurie said. " 'The West Wing' is rather arcane and deals with a lot of issues. We're going to deal a lot with how the president gets her kids to school and goes trick-or-treating. We'll have East Wing stuff and some West Wing stuff."

Arkansas Democrat

Creator Rod Lurie, Davis and most of the cast admitted to us they were Democrats (no surprise), but Lurie insists the show is "not a personal soapbox." He says this will not be a clone of The West Wing and that the show’s "family values will resonate with viewers."

Rocky Mountain News

While calling NBC's The West Wing "one of the great shows in network television history," Lurie claims Commander in Chief is going in a different direction.
"Episodes won't be nearly as much 'West Wing' oriented. The West Wing often deals with the president and his communications staff," Lurie reminds.
"We're primarily going to deal with what goes over the transom of the Oval Office. And we're concentrating more on 'East Wing' stuff - Mackenzie Allen's family life."

Sun Sentinel

Davis said she is a big fan of The West Wing, although she no longer sees it as much as she used to now that she is a mother of three.
Except for their settings, the two series do not have that much in common. The West Wing is more the meat and potatoes of politics; Commander in Chief, by comparison, is a political souffle.
Lurie, a bigger fan of the NBC drama than Davis is, explained, "What The West Wing does is show you how bills are made and how the White House works with the Congress. They're a very political show, which is great. I can watch it forever. We're going to devote a lot of time to East Wing residence stuff."

Toledo Blade

"If I was just throwing on the air another middle-aged white man as president of the United States and he was a Democrat, then, no, there would be no reason to do it," Lurie said.

While West Wing deals with the minutiae of politics, Comm-ander will focus more heavily on The East Wing. "Because the family is so involved in our show, we're going to deal a lot with how you get the kids to school, how do you take the little kids trick-or-treating? How are state dinners run from A to Z? We're going to deal with the functioning of the White House."