Thomas Schlamme (born May 22, 1950) is one of the leading directors of television. In 1973 he moved from his native Houston to New York. After serving in several low level positions for production companies, he founded his own company, Schlamme Productions, in 1980. From there, he produced campaigns for a number of musicals, including Cats. Throughout the 1980s, he produced a number of specials on various entertainers ranging from Whoopi Goldberg to Rowan Atkinson. He directed his first movie, Miss Firecracker, in 1989. He also directed the hit comedy movie, So I Married An Axe Murderer in 1993 with Mike Myers. Beginning in the late 1990s, he served as producer for shows such as Tracey Takes On and Sports Night, and has directed shows such as Ally McBeal, Friends and ER (for which he was nominated for an Emmy). His biggest break was in 1999, teaming up with Aaron Sorkin on the hit TV show The West Wing. He directed the pilot episode and from then on served as the executive producer until 2003. Currently, he continues his work with Schlamme Productions and is involved in producing a number of network TV series. He is married to actress Christine Lahti and has three children.
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IMDB Thomas Schlamme (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0772095/)
The goal of the show, Schlamme said, is to show the viewers that politicians and their staffers, even the ones working in the White House, are human beings who have lives outside of work and outside of the political arena.
Schlamme said that the inclusion of Georgetown Station was not finalized and that there was the possibility that the choice of bar could change before the episode airs on Wednesday night.
Schlamme explained why the show chose to come to a school like Georgetown, aside from the obvious reason of its close proximity and connection to the very subject that the show is tackling.