“We Just Weren't the Right Thing for Her.” Here's Why Mandy Suddenly Disappeared from The West Wing and Was Never Heard from Again
Mandy's sudden disappearance from The West Wing has puzzled fans to this day, as the TV series does not explain it. In turn, the reason was behind the scenes.
Fans of The West Wing TV series, who are or were involved in the fandom of this production, certainly know what Mandyville is. Fans of the political TV show used the term every time they explained where a significant character suddenly and without any explanation disappeared, which in this production, unfortunately, was quite a problem. The term Mandyville took its name from Mandy Hampton, played by Moira Kelly, who started this negative trend when she was the first to disappear in this way after season 1 of The West Wing.
In the first half of the 1st season of The West Wing it's hard to overlook Mandy, however, the situation changes in the second half, where the character slowly has a less and less significant role, until suddenly in the 2nd season she is no longer there at all. It turned out that the matter looked that way because the creators of The West Wing noticed quite early on that Mandy as a character was not working, so they knew that with the end of the season they would say goodbye to her. Consequently, they did not invest in her storyline in the second half of season 1.
Aaron Sorkin, during an interview for the book Inside The West Wing: An Unauthorized Look At Television's Smartest Show by Paul Challen, talked about how he and the other creators and Moira Kelly collectively came to the conclusion that Mandy should go (via ScreenRant).
Moira is a terrific actress, but we just weren't the right thing for her. She expressed that she felt the same way, and as a result, story lines hadn't been invested in that character, because we knew that at the end of the year, we'd be shaking hands and parting company.
After leaving The West Wing, Kelly appeared in six seasons of One Tree Hill, so she didn't fare badly at all when she parted ways with the political hit, as she quickly found long-term employment in another hit in which she played Karen Roe, the single mother of Lucas Scott.