We blow it on Miguel Sandoval as the U.S. President on “1600 Penn”…but the news is good (in a way)
It’s hard to write about TV shows that nobody outside the studios have seen yet, and we made a wrong assumption (or three) about the midseason replacement comedy 1600 Penn, coming our way in January on NBC.
Miguel Sandoval, late of Medium, is NOT the American President in this series. That’s actually Bill Pullman, with a First Lady played by Jenna Elfman. Sandoval is a President in that pilot…he’s just the President of Brazil. And more: our buddy Jose Yenque plays another South American President–Colombia’s, actually.
How do we know? Jose told us himself. After we made the mistake here, he called us to give us the heads-up. “I guest-starred on that episode with Miguel Sandoval,” he told us. “I played the president of Colombia and he played the president of Brazil. It was very funny. I can’t wait to see the audience reaction, since there were so many Latinos on this episode.” He didn’t want to give away too much, but the writers were very flexible with letting them ad-lib in Spanish. “A lot of Presidents from Latin America!” he said.
1600 Penn is from the same folks who brought us Modern Family and Sofia Vergara. “I was invited by Modern Family producers to see it,” Jose told us. “It’s a funny look at the White House family with Bill Pullman as the President of the USA. Pullman is so funny. I can see why Modern Family is so successful.”
We won’t get to see Yenque, Sandoval or anything else of 1600 Penn until 2013, but at least we’ve set the record straight. Jimmy Smits’ record as TV’s first Latino president played by a Latino (for a few minutes, at least, as The West Wing sailed into the sunset) remains intact…and thanks to Jose Yenque for setting us straight.
Jose Yenque Photo: ©2012 Angela María Ortíz S.
