Samuel Norman "Sam" Seaborn is a fictional character portrayed by Rob Lowe on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is best known for being Deputy White House Communications Director in the Josiah Bartlet administration throughout the first four seasons of the series.

The role of Sam Seaborn was initially offered to actor Bradley Whitford, who had auditioned for the part of Josh Lyman. However, Whitford wanted and was eventually given Josh, and the part of Sam went to Rob Lowe whose audition, says show creator Aaron Sorkin, "left our jaws on the floor."

Sam's inept performance as a White House tour guide in the pilot episode may have been inspired by former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart, who told the Chicago Tribune that despite having to give tours on a regular basis, he did not know whether the Roosevelt Room was named after Franklin or Teddy Roosevelt, saying, "I haven't gotten caught yet, but I've made up a few things." (It is actually named after both Presidents Roosevelt.)

Dr. Abigail Anne "Abbey" Barrington Bartlet, MD, is a fictional character played by Stockard Channing on the television serial drama, The West Wing. In the show, she is the First Lady of the United States, the wife of President Josiah Bartlet.

Abbey is a "world-class physician" (in her husband's words) and wife of more than thirty years to President Bartlet. In the first season episode "Five Votes Down," President Bartlet mentions to Charlie that they had been married 32 years, meaning they were married in 1967. Her maiden name is Barrington. The location of her undergraduate education is unknown. However, President Bartlet once confided in C.J. Cregg (his then press secretary) that he'd changed his mind about becoming a priest during his undergraduate years at Notre Dame after meeting Abbey.

She received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Although we are told that her specializations are in internal medicine and thoracic surgery, this is very unlikely since those are two distinct specialties and would require entirely different residencies. If she was board-certified in both, she would have spent nearly 15 years just in residency after medical school which is not only unlikely but almost impossible because the funding for residency programs makes this extremely difficult. She began practicing medicine some twenty-five years before the start of the series, and is on the staff of both Boston Mercy Hospital (fictitious) and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. She is Adjunct Professor of Thoracic Surgery at Harvard Medical School.