In NBC's fall drama, The Lyon's Den, Rob Lowe plays good guy attorney Jack Turner, a senator's son who works at a shady Washington, D.C. law firm. One of Jack's first lines in the pilot — "I don't like politics" — suggests that star/executive producer Lowe is taking a crack at his ex-employer, The West Wing. Is he?

"Not a crack against it at all," Lowe, 39, insisted at the Television Critics Assoc. press tour in Hollywood. "That was an amazing, wonderful chapter that I'm really, really proud of. It was more of a knowing wink to the audience that there's a new sheriff in town."

For an actor who claimed to "love Aaron Sorkin," calling him "a genius" during the TCA session, Lowe sure did lots of moaning about the former WW headwriter's scripts. Specifically, he addressed how he felt Sam Seaborn, his White House speechwriter character, was underserved by them.

"I just want to be involved in stories with some teeth," he said. "It was never about screen time for me. Every week on [Lyon's Den], I'm going to be involved in a story with some real heft to it.

"Sam was just getting less and less and less and less and less to do," Lowe added. "Again, I want to be really clear; it wasn't about screen time. I had a storyline once where I was trying to get people to wear seatbelts. It was hilarious, but at the end of the day, I wanted Sam to have the president's ear. I wanted Sam to be involved in the big storylines, not just shuffled in and out for relief."

Shying away from comparisons to Tom Cruise's role in The Firm, Lowe preferred to liken Lyon's Den to All The President's Men, because of its high-stakes political mystery plots. "You're not going to see any agriculture bill stuff on this show," he smirked. "They got that covered somewhere else."