West Wing Finale Shot Down By TYLER McLEOD - Calgary Sun Saturday, July 15, 2000 PASADENA, Calif. -- He's talented, verbose and brave. Aaron Sorkin faced lunch with a group of critics on the Warner Bros. lot yesterday, but made no apologies for the soap operatic "Moldavia Massacre" on The West Wing's season finale. "I know that many of you were troubled by it. That the cliffhanger-ness of it all seemed a step down from what you expected," the writer/producer told some members of the Television Critics Association. "I'll not try to talk you out of your opinion of the show. I will tell you that I think the season opener, which begins just moments after the season finale, may go somewhat towards helping you a little bit with the last two minutes of the season finale." President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) and many regular White House characters were fired upon by extremists after an emotional town hall meeting in Virginia, ending the NBC hit's rookie season in a hail of bullets and summer of suspense. "I promise you that moment in the show happened for the exact same reason every moment on every show happened: I thought people would like it," Sorkin said. "You write something and you hope everyone likes it. Sometimes that doesn't happen." Sometimes TV critics take it personally. "I've read plenty of negative reaction to it -- my guess is most of you reacted negatively to it. That response wasn't universal. There are lots of people who were gripped by it, who are going around all summer going: 'Who got hit? Who got hit?' " Sorkin confirmed Moira Kelly is not returning to The West Wing this fall but denies she is a casualty of the assassination attempt. "The character wasn't involved in the shooting. She is a fantastic actress and it didn't click on the show," Sorkin said. "(It's) much more my fault than hers if blame is to be assigned anywhere." Janel Moloney, who appeared regularly as Bradley Whitford's assistant Donna, is a joining the featured cast. "There remains great chemistry between Brad and Janel and we want to exploit that at every opportunity." The season premiere starts filming Tuesday with co-producer Thomas Schlamme directing. Sorkin plans to include recurring guest stars Stockard Channing, Tim Matheson, Timothy Busfield and John Amos in the two-part storyline. Marlee Matlin will resurface later. "She's very pregnant right now -- 14, 15 months pregnant -- so if you see her it won't be for a few episodes," Sorkin says. Schlamme acknowledges West Wing's great ratings and critical acclaim are making it easy to cast the series. "There's no shortage of wonderful actors who, if you give them a small arc, would love to do the show," Schlamme told the Sun. "When Richard Dreyfuss was doing Fail-Safe (on the WB lot), he kept walking by the set going, 'You can write a part for me in here!' And he'd be perfect."