Politics is rooted in the best TV. Politics is dramatic, timely and often sexier than plausible — but somehow it works in TV land. Barring good ole former President Bill Clinton, I doubt many politicians get a lot of play time.

We’ve seen great political television come and go, including “The West Wing,” written by Syracuse University 2012 commencement speaker Aaron Sorkin. But few recent series can stack up against the HBO hit series, “Game of Thrones.” With whip-smart plotlines and sex positions to spare, there’s little wonder why it’s one of the most popular shows on television.

Popularity and power often lend themselves to surprising difficulties, whether in the field of politics or popular culture.

In pitch-perfect political observation, Queen Cersei growls, “When you play the game of thrones, you either win or you die.” And in the home of “Thrones,” all those dead losers share one fate: the medieval classic of their heads on a pike. Petrified mugs even line castle walls to remind everyone of a traitor’s destiny.

“Thrones” is all about believability, despite its fantasy background. And to make a convincing row of severed heads, the set designer needs heads. The set designer needs lots and lots of cheap noggins, considering everyone’s costuming looks expensive. The creators of the HBO hit, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, explained that to cut down on costs, the show often rents prosthetic body parts.

The two had to explain where their severed heads came from because of one very large problem: one of them was our 43rd president.

During the season one finale, the last severed head on the left of one scene is none other than former President George W. Bush adorned with a bad wig. In Benioff and Weiss’s DVD commentary, they point out Bush and mention he has been featured in other beheading scenes. I’m sure a conservative politician with a strong concern over liberal Hollywood loved hearing that one.

Before you could say “Seven Hells!” HBO pulled the episode from HBO Go and iTunes, and they froze DVD shipments featuring the commentary and scene.

Thankfully, the season one final episode is back on HBO Go as well as iTunes, sans the severed head of a president, of course. Basically, HBO would like it if we could all pretended this never happened.

This gigantic debacle over a barely viewable prosthetic head proved very little is out of the reach of politics. Even an HBO series featuring naked women for little to no good reason needs to heed political correctness.

Clearly, the creators didn’t see much of an issue at first — they made sure to point it out for loyal fans.

But, Benioff and Weiss had to swear creative fealty to American politics, Bush and the Republican Party. In their heavyhearted apology statement, the “Thrones” creators said, “We meant no disrespect to the former president and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise.” They also had to promise there were no political underpinnings to their use of Bush’s head on a spike.

If the two didn’t apologize, their careers at HBO would probably be toast. If, and that’s a pretty big “if,” they did use the president’s head even slightly on purpose, Benioff and Weiss have found themselves in a very “Thrones”-esque predicament.

Either save themselves and their livelihoods, or keep their artistic honor. When in doubt, ask what your lord father would do, or just consider mortgage payments.

But this definitely won’t be the last time you see politics and the small screen blur together.

The newest villain on “True Blood,” Chistopher Meloni’s religion-fueled vampire named Roman, was reportedly inspired by Republican Rick Santorum. USA’s “Political Animals” premieres July 15 and reads like a re-imagined Hillary Clinton biography. “Animals” is filled with cheating husbands, lost presidential races and a Secretary of State position.

Who said that politics was boring?
Ariana Romero is a junior magazine journalism and political science major. Her column appears every week. She can be reached at akromero@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @ArianaRomero17.

Published on June 22, 2012 at 2:08 pm