A live ‘West Wing,’ ‘Network’

Is TV going back to its roots? NBC’s “Will & Grace” started off its season with a live episode and now the network’s “The West Wing” is going to follow suit. The Nov. 6 episode will be broadcast live, featuring a debate between the fictional presidential candidates played by Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits. It will be performed twice -- once for the East Coast feed, then again for the West Coast.

Meanwhile, CBS and George Clooney are planning a live remake for next season of the 1976 film “Network,” Paddy Chayefsky’s critically acclaimed, scathing satire of the television industry, in which a network’s news division encourages an aging anchor to rave madly on-air for the sake of bigger ratings.

It’s not the first time Clooney has done a live TV movie for CBS. Five years ago, he executive-produced and co-starred in a live remake of the 1964 flick “Fail-Safe,” in which U.S. bombers are mistakenly sent to nuke Moscow.

From wire and staff reports