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.