I'm Alan Olga and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating. Welcome to a preview of what's to come on season 27 of Clear and Vivid.

I'm here with our executive producer Graham Shedd and I think we've got some terrific

conversations for you this season, right Graham?

Right, and we pick five of them in this look ahead to showcase our theme of connecting

and communicating.

Some of these conversations deal with communication in a pretty direct way, and some in a less obvious but just as interesting way.

For instance, in our first show of the season, we talk about that mysterious way that a television

show can sometimes bring together a company of actors in a way that somehow turns them into

not just a dedicated ensemble, but even lifelong friends,

all through an unspoken kind of communication that draws people together.

It happened on the hit series The West Wing,

which began at seven season run 25 years ago.

Two of the show's regular cast members, Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack,

have written a book marking the occasion called What's Next? It's common practice for a

production with a large cast and crew for the company's work each day to be

summarized on a sheet of paper that everyone gets called the call sheet. Melissa describes how number one on the

call sheet, the actor who played the role of the president Martin Sheen, was the

driving force for harmony on the West Wing.

There's a call sheet which tells you what time to come in the next day and everyone has a different

number on the call sheet and sort of the lead of the series is usually number one and then goes down from there and Martin was

number one on our call sheet and we have a whole chapter dedicated to Martin

called number one of number ones because we feel like he was such a leader in terms of service

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