So Long

It’s time to say goodbye. It’s been a wild ride. I’m never going to forget you guys. Promise me you’ll write, okay? I better stop now before I start blubbering. I know just the thing to end this special relationship – Holly had it right, always end on a song:

If you're in trouble, he will save the day,
He's brave and he's fearless, come what may,
Without him the mission would go astray...

He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer,
Without him life would be much grimmer,
He's handsome, trim, and no one's slimmer,
He will never need a zimmer.

He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer,
More reliable than a garden strimmer,
He's never been mistaken for Yul Brynner,
He's not bald and his head doesn't glimmer.

Master of the wit and the repartee,
His command of Space Directives is uncanny,
How come he's such a genius? Don't ask me! Ask...

Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer,
He's also a fantastic swimmer,
And if you play your cards right,
Then he just might come round for dinner.

He's Arnold, Arnold, Arnold Rimmer,
No rhymes left now apart from quimmer,
We hope they fade us out before we get to schwimmer,
Fade out you stupid plimmer...

17 People

Issues
(Josh) If you were in a car accident I wouldn't stop for a beer.
(Donna) If you were in a car accident I wouldn't stop for red lights.
While this is a heartfelt gesture of friendship, it may lead to a large number of further car accidents. 10 for effort, 3 for planning.

Call Backs
(Donna) Knock knock. Who’s there? It’s Sam and his prostitute friend.
This is a call back to the first season where Sam sleeps with and then forms a relationship with Laurie, a “high class call girl.”

Trivia
C.J. (Allison Janney) is not in this episode at all.

The 17 people who know about President Bartlet’s Multiple Sclerosis are:
1. The First Lady, Abigail Bartlet
2. – 4. The President’s Daughters; Elizabeth, Eleanor and Zoey
5. The President’s brother, John
6. Dr. Herman Vickram
7. The Vice President, John Hoynes
8. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Fitzwallace
9. The Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry
10. The anesthesiologist during the operation when the President was shot, Dr. David Lee
11. – 15. Other doctors
16. The Communications Director, Toby Zeigler
17. The President

A Bit of History
(Toby) Maybe, I thought, it was an Eisenhower-Nixon ...
This is referring to the problem the republican’s had to deal with at the end of Eisenhower’s first term in office. He had a heart attack and recovered again in time to run again in ’56. The common fear was that his health problems would give independent voters a reason to vote Democrat because of their dislike of the possibility that the then Vice-President Nixon would take over in the event of Eisenhower’s death. It was suggested that Eisenhower drop Nixon from the ticket and pick someone safer but he refused to.

The Portland Trip

Jokes
(Josh) Did you steal that dress?
(Donna) I bought this dress.
(Josh) But you're returning it tomorrow.
(Donna) Yes, I am.
(Josh) That's stealing!
(Donna) I'm giving it back.
(Josh) After wearing it once.
(Donna) There's a word for this.
(Josh) It's stealing!
(Donna) I'm a girl on a budget, Josh. I'm being thrifty.
(Josh) And felonious.
I know several girls who do this and I don’t know how they keep getting away with it. It makes me mad because I know I could never do it. Jealousy is a dangerous thing to let fester, that’s all I’m gonna say. You just wait. Keep pushing me.

Trivia
Ainsley tries to get a can of Fresca, but they do not keep Fresca in the building. According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson loved the soda Fresca so much he had a fountain installed in the Oval Office that dispensed the beverage, which the president could operate by pushing a button on his desk chair.

Errors
This part gets into the insanely and annoyingly trivial, but I have a friend in the US navy who told me about this error. When the colonel is briefing Leo about the tanker the Navy will board he says they will be using a CH-47 Seahawk. My friend says that this is supposed to be the Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk. I don’t think anyone watching the show noticed except for my fanatical Petty Officer Third Class friend. By the way a Third Class Petty Officer is the counterpart of an army corporal. My buddy would want you, and anyone he is introduced to, to know this.

Issues
(Leo McGarry) My divorce papers came today. She thinks I'm going to drink.
(Josh Lyman) Sounds like a good reason to.
(Leo McGarry) I'm an alcoholic. I don't need a good reason to.
If alcoholism is a disease, when will it become acceptable to call in to say you’re too drunk to work and you have a note from your bartender?

(Danny) Are you being punished?
(C.J.) I'm not being punished; I'm going on the trip.
(Danny) If the whole bus goes off the record, will you tell us why you're going on the trip?
(C.J.) I made fun of Notre Dame.
As soon as I get to wield any amount of power, I intend to abuse it in arbitrary ways like this one. Tony Stark said you can be feared and respected, but imagine the feeling of being reviled.

The Midterms

Jokes
When Charlie and Zoey are going out on a late date, they run into Leo
(Charlie) Zoey and I are going out. I'll be on my pager.
(Leo) You're going out?
(Charlie) Yeah.
(Leo) Charlie, you're taking extra protection, right?
(Charlie) Hey, Leo...
(Leo) Secret Service protection, Charlie, but thanks for loading me up with that image.
(Charlie) Yeah, we'll have extra protection.
This has to be one of the more awkward moments this show has ever had.

(C.J.) Holy interruptus, Batman!
I think it’s time that humanity unites together to agree that these Robin jokes aren’t that funny anymore.

Trivia
One of my favorite moments of this show is in this episode where the President has a shouting rant at the very conservative talk show host, Jenna Jacobs. He goes on a long speech showing his detailed knowledge of the bible and its many flaws. What you may not know it that Jenna Jacobs is actually based on the American radio host, author, and conservative commentator, Dr. Laura Schlessinger. The list of faults in the bible were originally from a joke chain letter sent around the internet, supposedly someone actually sent this letter to Dr. Schlessinger.

Immediately after the President finishes publicly humiliating this woman in front of all her peers in the radio business, Sam reaches over and takes a crab puff from her plate. I don’t know it the writers meant this to be but if we look at chapter eleven of the book of Leviticus:

10 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: 11 they shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcasses in abomination. 12 Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.

We see that Sam is actually eating shellfish, an abomination, which continues the President’s argument after he leaves.

Errors
The writers on this show can’t keep up with how many schools Sam is supposed to have gone to. His secret service name is Princeton, because he went to school there. In the pilot episode, when Sam is arguing with Mallory, he tells her that he is a graduate of Harvard and Yale. And again in the fourth season episode “Debate Camp” Sam and some of the other campers sing a Yale song “Gaudeamus Igitur.” In the episode where Ainsley Hayes is hired to be deputy White House counsel, Sam tells the scary lawyer, Lionel Tribbey (John Larroquette), he was the recording secretary for the Gilbert and Sullivan society. In this episode, Sam is reminiscing with his old college friend about a professor they both had at Duke Law School. That’s quite an education.

Sam’s old college friend that he tries to get to run for Congress is said to have been in an all-white fraternity at Oberlin College. In real life, Oberlin hasn’t had fraternities since it was founded in 1833.

Issues
C.J. tells the president to cool him down as he monitors an election with his old rival, “In a democracy often times other people win.” This quote made me think of the fact that America is not a democracy, it is a republic. We don’t vote to make decisions (aside from political propositions) we vote to elect the people who make the decisions for us. Just something that’s always bothered my in any speeches about the “spirit of democracy” we seem to hear more often now that we have an election looming ahead.

20 Hours in L.A.

Plot
The president and his senior staff are on a trip to LA. A new character is introduced, Agent Gina Toscano (played by Jorja Fox) who is the new head of Zoey’s protective detail. A Hollywood party is put to ransom when the host Ted Marcus (Bob Balaban) threatens to cancel if the president doesn’t make a public statement in support of gay rights. But back at the White House, Leo is trying to get Hoynes to fulfill his constitutionally allowed seat in the senate to break a tie on an ethanol gas tax.

Jokes
The president is in on a meeting discussing the constitutional right to burn the American flag. He has been listening to frustratingly similar speeches and he looks very bored. Josh asks Sam:
Josh: How's he doing in there?
To which Sam replies:
Sam: He's got that look in his eyes like he's thinking of ways to kill himself.

CJ is talking to Jay Leno (who guest stars as himself) and she is thanking him for not making fun of Leo after he outed himself as a recovering alcoholic and drug addict (he was addicted to valium):
CJ: The President appreciates you laying off Leo McGarry the last few months. It hasn't gone unnoticed.
Leno: You guys give me monologue material every minute.
CJ: If there's anything I can do.
Leno: You know what would be great? If you could get him to drive his bike into a tree again.
This is a reference to the pilot episode where the President has to come home early from his trip to Jackson Hole because he ran his bike into a tree and sprained his ankle (it was actually Leo’s bike that he leant to the President).

Trivia
Marlee Matlin, who plays the deaf California pollster Joey Lucas and Elizabeth Moss, who plays the president’s third daughter Zoey (at this point in the series she is a college student at Georgetown University) are in both The West Wing together obviously but they are also in the show Picket Fences (a show about an aging sheriff tries to keep the peace in a small town plagued by bizarre and violent crimes). Moss plays Cynthia Parks and Matlin plays Laurie Bey. While this isn’t really odd by itself, what is strange is that they have never been a scene together. In either show.

Errors
There is a scene where Josh speaks to Joey Lucas with her interpreter Kenny. In this scene Kenny signs to help Joey understand what he is saying, but the actor playing him (Bill O'Brien) actually signs some words that Josh hasn’t said yet.

In the scene where the motorcade is heading to LA from the airport, the limo is actually going in the wrong direction. They make a turn that will take then back to the airport.

Continuity
At Ted Marcus’s celebrity filled party, Donna gets excited to see all the famous people. She annoys David Hasselhoff and she eagerly spots and advances on “Matt Perry, right there, goodbye!” Matt Perry actually guest stars in three episodes as Joe Quincy, a republican lawyer taking Ainslie Hayes’ old job working in the “steam-pipe trunk distribution venue”.

When they have arrived at their LA hotel, Josh needs Donna’s help to get his door open with his keycard. Much later when Josh and Donna are both working for different candidates for the democratic nomination for President (Santos and Russell, try to remember who won) Josh and Donna are serendipitously in opposite hotel rooms. Josh has trouble with his keycard again and Donna wordlessly crosses the corridor and helps him.

Take This The Sabbath Day

Plot
This episode is mostly about President Bartlet trying to make a decision about commuting the death sentence of a man who has been convicted of drug-related murders. There are a couple scenes in Toby’s synagogue where Toby’s Rabbi tries to convince him against capital punishment. Joey Lucas is introduced, a deaf pollster from California who is upset about the White House’s level of involvement and support fro her candidate, Bill O’Dwyer.

Music
When Toby is discussing capital punishment with his Rabbi, there is a singer practicing while they speak. The song is called “Hashkiveinu” (arranged by Max Helfman) published by Transcontinental Music Publications, ASCAP. This song is really a Jewish prayer that is usually sung.

Errors
After Father Cavanaugh tells his joke/gives his advice, he tells President Bartlet that God sent him “a priest, a rabbi, and a Quaker.” But he was only in the episode at the very end of the episode, for one scene with no breaks to show any conversation other than the one witnessed by the audience, and in this conversation the President does not mention Toby’s Rabbi (Glassman) or the Quaker, the newly introduced deaf California pollster, Joey Lucas.

When Toby is having the capital punishment discussion with his Rabbi, his (the Rabbi’s) arm repeatedly changes position between shots.

Issues
I really don’t know what to feel about capital punishment. I don’t think I’m informed enough to make a decent decision. I know my own nature, I know that when pushed I can be a real vindictive and spiteful bastard. I can take pleasure in meticulously planned and perfectly carried out piece pf revenge. But this is exactly why I think I should be removed from the equation. Charlie says he would want to kill the man who shot and murdered his mother. I don’t think I would feel any different in that situation *knock wood*. But this is a liberal show, I have to take several clotting medications because of my own bleeding heart and yet I don’t have any major quandaries about the death penalty. Why is this?

Trivia
Karl Malden plays President Bartlet’s childhood priest, Father Thomas Cavanaugh, uses a pocket bible to take the President’s Confession. This bible was the same one Malden used when he played Father Barry in On the Waterfront

Sam states that the United States of America is one of the only 5 countries that executes people younger than 18, the others are Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. How proud I am to be an American right now and have my country in this list.

Quiz Question Answer:
The answer is: Jet Airliner by Steve Miller Band

Gone Fishin'

There will be no posts this or next week. I am on midsemester break and I am determined to enjoy it without any responsibilities. Have a nice day.

Enemies

Catching Up
The President and the Vice President’s relationship is rockier than desired, with both parties harboring resentment toward the other. Malory, Leo’s daughter, has a crush on Sam. C.J. and Danny Concannon, senior White House correspondent have a relationship than is seen as unethical.

Plot
Leo stretches to find work to keep Sam from the date with his daughter. The President is unnecessarily rude and pedantic to the Vice President during a Cabinet meeting and C.J. tries to track down and contain the leak that told Danny about it, while she dodges his consistent attempts to date her. Josh finds a creative way to pass the banking bill that’s being held hostage by a land-use rider.

Jokes
At the beginning of the episode Josh and the President are talking National Parks, but the president is doing the “lion’s share of the talking” as Mrs. Landingham. Josh is getting frustrated because he’s at the office very late and he can’t leave until the President gives him permission: (Bartlet) “Shenandoah National Park. Right here in Virginia. We should organize a staff field trip to Shenandoah. I can even act as the guide. What do you think?” (Josh) “Good a place as any to dump your body.” (Said under his breath but heard by the President) (Bartlet) “What was that? (Josh pauses just long enough to understand the magnitude of his gaff) (Josh) “Did I say that out loud?” (Bartlet) “See? And I was going to let you go home.” (Josh) “But instead?” (Bartlet) “We're going to talk about Yosemite.”
All the regular power of a corporate boss with all the power of your Commander-in-Chief means you can wield any arbitrary punishments to your staff without fear reprisal. As a side note, I went to Yosemite National; Park with my family when I was very young and was very disappointed when it turned out that everybody wasn’t a two-foot-tall cowboy with ginger mustaches and bad tempers. Seriously, it ruined the whole trip for me.

Mandy is passionately trying to convince Toby to swallow his pride and allow the banking bill to pass with the land-use rider attached. When C.J. enters she gets caught in the crossfire: (Mandy) “Would you tell him that signing the bill and, thus, swallowing the bitter pill of strip mining would not foreclose a P.R. approach that would truncate banking reforms while at the same time excoriating the special interests’ strip mining scam which, by the way, is what I am happy to call it. Tell him that.”(C.J.) “Toby, Mandy wants you to recommend to the President that we do it her way.” (Toby) “Did you understand what she said?” (C.J.) “No, but she seemed pretty confident.”
C.J.’s response to Mandy’s enthusiasm makes me think of the sheep in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, in the scenes where different pigs are giving speeches they tend to be in agreement with whoever is speaking at the time. C.J. seems reluctant to make any commitments in this argument and she’s just agreeing with Mandy because she’s afraid of her. They all are. I am.

Errors
There is an error in continuity in this episode. When Sam is writing the birthday message in his office there is a cap on his desk (although it’s not in focus) with the ATF logo. When Malory comes back to offer Sam coffee and dessert, the cap has changed to one with the DEA logo (this time completely in-focus).

Call-Backs
A call-back, in an entertainment context, is when an issue or a joke or an argument etc. from a show or movie or play or book is referenced again. In season four episode 21 “Life on Mars,” the Vice President resigns in disgrace after leaking classified information to the woman he was having an affair with (Helen Baldwin). In this episode when he is confronted by C.J. about the leak in the Cabinet meeting he tells her: “…the implication that I leaked privileged information is as stupid as it is insulting”.

In the same confrontation he reminds C.J. “…that whatever you may old for me personally, you are addressing the office of the Vice President.” We do not know it at this spot in the show, but C.J. slept with the Vice President. I’m not sure if the writers were thinking that far ahead, especially at this early point in the show’s life. More likely this statement is regarding the rocky relationship between the Vice President and the President and his staff.

Trivia
This is the first episode of the series that was not written by Aaron Sorkin, at least entirely, and it’s the only one in season one.

During the cabinet meeting, President Bartlet tells the room that he thinks they are a “mind-numbing experience” but Leo assures him that they are “constitutionally required.” Really the President is under no constitutional requirement to hold the meetings at all, they are for his benefit and he can hold them whenever he wants.

The most recent proclamation under the antiquities act was by George W Bush, who used it for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument (June 15th, 2006).

Quiz Question:
At the beginning of season seven, what’s the name of the song playing during the Santos campaign montage?
The answer next week

Five Votes Down

Catching up
Reviewing the relationship between the Vice President and the President (and his staff) has problems. Mandy has started working for the White House. Charlie has started his job as the President’s “body man.”

Plot
Most of the episode is spent trying to ascertain and fix the five votes needed to pass a gun control bill. Leo’s marriage is in jeopardy because he’s spending too much time at work. Toby is in some financial trouble because of an innocent mistake and he’s being teased by everyone. The Vice President’s help has a hidden cost.

Jokes
On the way to the limo after the President’s speech at the beginning of the episode:
(Bartlet to Toby) “You know what Toby; you’re what my mother calls ‘a pain in the ass.’” (Toby to Bartlet) “Well that’s what my mother calls it to, sir.”
This is especially funny to me because that’s what my grand mother calls me.

(Leo to senior staff) “There are two things in the world you never want to let people see how you make them; laws and sausages”
Speaking as someone who has made a sausage, you don’t want to experience it for yourself. It’ll give you the full understanding for this expression, but it’ll put you off your barbeques for a year.

(CJ to Toby) “Excuse me, Toby. I'm heading out to lunch and I'm a little short. You wouldn't happen to have $125,000 I could borrow?”
CJ is poking fun at Toby because he has just come into a large amount of money innocently that makes Toby appear suspect, and that is making him both nervous and aggrieved: “I’m so ― completely screwed.” “There’s literally no-one in the world that I don’t hate, right now.”

Issues
In this episode we see the opposite to the issue I brought up in the last blog, the issue of staff members personal lives affecting their work and the administration. In this episode, Leo misses his anniversary because he was busy trying to track down the votes that went missing n the gun bill. Here we see that Leo’s personal life is being eaten up by his work and it causes him his marriage. This later leads to Leo looking vulnerable in front of the Vice President and he, the Vice President, offers Leo a place in his AA meeting.

The other issue that comes to my attention is the power the White House gives to the individual behind the desk. When Josh threatens a congressman by using the Presidential presence to edge in out of a race he only narrowly won in the first place, it makes me nervous as to what this position can really do. I certainly don’t want to imagine the power that is held by the current President.

Music
The Barbara Streisand song "Happy Days Are Here Again" (Jack Yellen and Milton Ager) is played at the end of the pPresident’s speech at the beginning of the episode. While not in itself a remarkable song, it warrants mention because of the small argument between Sam and Mandy it provokes.

The opening theme is not quite at its punchy and moving version yet but it’s getting closer as the season progresses to the theme we all know and love.

Errors
In continuing a line of jokes on the public liking the fact that White House staff isn’t rich, Toby says “Women can't get enough of my 1993 Dodge Dart.” Dodge actually stopped making the Dart in 1976. I guess this was just a car that one of the writers always thought was ugly.

Premiere

Welcome to Bartlet’s Ghost, where nostalgic fans of The West Wing can gather and reminisce fondly over the greatest show to grace the airwaves. Here you can find a weekly review of an episode of The West wing, as well as extraordinary jokes, music issues or anything that takes my fancy. Readers of this blog will rarely find any criticisms, but anything I don’t like will be written up. All this being said, the first episode to be reviewed is episode 1 of season 1, “Premiere.”

Plot
The episode starts with a discussion of Josh’s future in the White House between Sam and a political reporter. He made a blunder on national TV when he insulted some powerful people, a Christian group, after being provoked by Mary Marsh, a Christian political lobbyist. We see Josh has not dealt with this well because he has slept in his office.

The other major characters are introduced; Leo is seen in his home complaining about the crossword he is doing, CJ is seen trying to chat up a man in the gym, we see Josh waking in his office and we see Toby harassing a flight attendant on an airplane.

The President’s bicycle accident is an issue that recurs in the form of jokes at his expense, and we see he is in crutches at the end of the episode.

Sam finds out that the girl he spent the night with is actually a call girl and that he revealed this in a fit of emotion and frustration to Malory O’Brien, Leo’s daughter. The call girl is played by Lisa Edelstein who most of us will recognize as Lisa Cuddy, the Chief Hospital Administrator and Dean of Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital from House M.D.

The Cubans illegally coming to America on poorly built boats, and what should be done about them is a minor issue that only comes up a few times in the episode.

The show ends with the President swooping in at the end of the episode to save the day. In this Deus Ex Machina feat of situation resolution, President Bartlet enters the episode with an air of fearful power and awesome presence. I have few fictional role models, but President Bartlet and Indiana Jones are two people I aspire to be like.

Jokes
There is a funny little joke between Leo and his secretary, Margret, where Leo asks her to tell the New York Times that they made a spelling mistake in their crossword (a callback to Leo’s introduction to the show). Margret asks, “Is this for real or is this just funny?” Leo answers, “Apparently it’s neither.” I like this joke because of the light is shows on Leo and Margret’s relationship even as she’s first introduced.

Leo is speaking with a group of economists and he says “The President's going to look at the W.B.O. revenue analysis and say that economists were put on this planet to make astrologers look good.” This joke is continued when he asks two economists the same question and they give opposite answers. This points out how the President pokes fun at his own specialty (although because this is so early I the show, the addition of President Bartlet’s Nobel Laureate in Economics may have made this joke seem out of character).

Issues
The separation of church and state is a big issue in this episode. The first amendment to the United States constitution is this: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Yet in this day and age we are seeing more and more religion in politics. Abortion is a defining characteristic in any politician’s campaign. This issue is brought up in this episode with Josh’s gaffe and the political consequences from it.

Another issue brought up in this episode is the issue of the personal lives of White House Staff coming into play. Anyone who works for the White House, particularly at such a high position like the Deputy Communications Director, represents the administration and the President himself, and they should be aware that they are setting an example for the nation. Sam’s relationship with Laurie reminds me how the people who work for the government are the face of the government.

Music
The music in this episode is not of the caliber of the shows to come. This is because, as the first episode, the producers were still experimenting with the show. The episode opens, not with a brisk drum beat, but with soft piano music, which we later see is coming from the bar in which we see Sam and reporter discussing Josh’s gaffe and the ramifications that will come.

The music usually found in the end credits is use in the show’s first “walk-and-talk” where Leo walks t his office greeting staff along the way. The walk-and-talk became a signature of the show that inspired many other shows to do the same (Scrubs for example). This music is also used for the end credits in this episode.

Errors
In the meeting with the Christian lobbyists at the end of the episode, Toby says that “honor thy father” is the third commandant and this is blatantly wrong. In Christianity it is the fourth commandant and in Judaism it is the fifth. This mistake is even bigger because the character Toby Zeigler is a dedicated Jew and would definitely know his commandments.

Leo tells someone at the New York Times about the mistake in their crossword and he says he recommended an “Exocet missile strike against his air force.” The error here is that The Exocet is an anti-ship missile, not used on any air force.