LBJ (film) on September 9, 2016. It was theatrically released by Electric Entertainment and Vertical Entertainment on November 3, 2017. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who called it "surface skimming" and criticized Harrelson's makeup, and with some comparing it negatively to the HBO film about Johnson, "All the Way". The story centers around the political upheaval that Vice President Johnson faced when he was thrust into the presidency at the hands of an assassin's bullet in November 1963. After Kennedy's death, Sarah Hughes administers the oath of the office for LBJ. With political battles on both sides of the aisle,
The American President Minnesota senator Howard Stackhouse (George Coe) in the two "West Wing" episodes "The Stackhouse Filibuster" and "The Red Mass". In the same way, the French President attending a state dinner in "The American President" seems to be the same President d'Astier that is often referred to in the "West Wing". Several actors from "The American President" reappear in "The West Wing", including Martin Sheen (whose character in "The American President", A.J., is at one point accused by Shepherd of lacking the courage to run for office himself) as President Josiah Bartlet, Anna Deavere Smith as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy