Paging West Wing fans

[JayFarrar]

The Onion's AV Club has had a long-running TV Club where they analyze new shows and talk about them like fans.
They recently added old shows, and now is the West Wing.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/pilot,28638/?utm_source=sidebar_tvclub

The reviewer has only seen just a handful of episodes and is going into the project with only the barest of details about the show.

It's strange to write about something many of you know so well, but I have no idea about. Crazy!

Then you have this...

Right now, it seems like most of the central characters are in the communications department. (Josh is Deputy Chief Of Staff, but right now seems like he deals in PR, or at least in this specific crisis.) Wondering if there will be any recurring press people in the fold, would be a nice balance to the world of the Wing itself.

I myself can't wait until he gets to Margaret — was she actually pregnant? Was she gay? Was she the repository for all human knowledge?
The story arc built around Mrs. Landingham should be absolutely fascinating as he reviews it.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Was in Best Buy today and they had West Wing DVD sets on sale for $19.99.

 

[Killick]

Thanks, Hank! I've been needing to replace my worn-out (yes, worn out) copy of Season One.

 

[DanOregon]

Hard to believe The West Wing came from the same network that now gives us Howie Do It and The Biggest Loser.

One scene I would have loved to have seen would have been Bartlett going to SuperMax in Colorado for a face to face with a terrorist, trying to understand why "they" hate us so much, realizing he would never understand terrorism, he lets the suspect know the U.S. was going to be launching a strike on his home village.
One of the few shows that could leave you with a punch in the gut at the end of an episode consistently. I remember the ep when a bunch of Navy ships are in the path of a hurricane and Bartlett is on the radio with some scrub on a cruiser; the "who's hit, who's hit?" season finale...

 

[Killick]

TWW always did holidays very well, too. The first season, it was Mrs. Landingham and "I miss my boys"/Toby helping bury the vagrant veteran; second Christmas was Josh's trauma episode; the Thanksgiving eps, like when Josh, Toby and Sam told the farm guy to put the turkey in CJ's office... ah...

Man, that was a helluva show.

 

[shockey]

TWW always did holidays very well, too. The first season, it was Mrs. Landingham and "I miss my boys"/Toby helping bury the vagrant veteran; second Christmas was Josh's trauma episode; the Thanksgiving eps, like when Josh, Toby and Sam told the farm guy to put the turkey in CJ's office... ah...

Man, that was a helluva show.

stop. you'll make me weepy. :'( :'( :'(

first three seasons: best one-hour network drama ever. 8) 8) 8)

 

[billikens]

About once every year or two, I get bored with whatever is on tv and start the dvds from the beginning, ending with the Sam Seaborn exit. Not my politics, but what an incredible show.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I liked how they took an obscure episode from someone's past and brought it to the future, like when Toby's dad was visiting him in the White House at Christmas and the Wippenpoofs or whatever their name was were singing some Cole Porter song; the same tune that was playing on the car radio when Toby's dad was waiting outside the scene of a hit when he with Murder Inc. right after Toby was born.

Or when Bartlett decided to run for re-election and in the closing scene just before he announces he did the same stuff that Mrs. Landingham noticed he' did when he'd made up his mind to do something during the prep school flashbacks.

 

[lisa_simpson]

the "who's hit, who's hit?" season finale...

Parts one and two of In the Shadow of Two Gunmen may be two of the best hours of television I've ever seen.

My favorite holiday sequence is in one of the Thanksgiving episodes (I looked it up: it's Shibboleth, from season two) when Bartlet sends Charlie running hither and yon to find the appropriate carving knife for the Thanksgiving turkey, and it's revealed at the end why the President needs a new one: because he's giving Charlie the family carving knife, fired by one Paul Revere.

 

[DanOregon]

Yep, the little moments were what made that show - learning that they bring in two turkeys for T-day, that Congress has to give a formal invite to the Prez for the State of the Union, seeing Josh handle a press briefing. That stuff was gold.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I looked it up: it's Shibboleth, from season two)

The Chinese Christian refugee, who earns asylum for his group by correctly defining Shibboleth, is one of the great character actors of all time.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I've been Tivoing reruns on Bravo in the morning. Such a great show.

 

[Just_An_SID]

One of the best shows ever.

I miss it terribly.

"Leo will know what to do."

Oh so many great lines. . . just go to Youtube and search West Wing.

 

[Starman]

I've been Tivoing reruns on Bravo in the morning. Such a great show.

If you can manage to slam the TV off within one second of the end of the show, to prevent your senses from being assaulted by that ****ing reprehensible nauseating horse-woman hosting that ****-shower "Millionaire Matchmaker" afterward, or any of the other extravaganzas for estrogen-deranged mental deficients which fill BRAVO from morning till night.

I like watching the "WW" reruns, but I slam it off the second the closing credits start to roll, to avoid being subjected to that spewing ****rain of television.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

If you replace "Millionnaire Matchmaker" with "The Real Housewives Of (Name A Town)", I agree with Starman on the Bravo lineup.
And I go to this meeting.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

TWW always did holidays very well, too. The first season, it was Mrs. Landingham and "I miss my boys"/Toby helping bury the vagrant veteran; second Christmas was Josh's trauma episode; the Thanksgiving eps, like when Josh, Toby and Sam told the farm guy to put the turkey in CJ's office... ah...

Man, that was a helluva show.

I always liked the one where the elderly senator is fillerbusting a spending bill to insert funding for autism research. Everyone at the WW is wondering why, until they see a newscast with the senator and his grandchildren, one of whom has autism.

Then Josh (I think) says, "He's never going to leave that floor. We have to do something." They figure out that a fillibuster can be stopped only if another senator asks a question.

So the first senator comes to the floor, and says that he has a question, and will be taking a long time, so why doesn't the elderly senator have a seat and get a drink of water. The show ends with a line of senators waiting to ask a question while the autism research funding gets inserted.

 

[Steak Snabler]

One of my favorite scenes is when Bartlet lays the smack down on a Dr. Laura-esque radio host by reciting chapter and verse all the ridiculous Old Testament passages aside from Leviticus 18:22:



Also, the "guy falls down a hole" story that Leo tells Josh:

 

[zeke12]

Joy cometh in the morning, sir.

...

'Joy cometh in the morning,' scripture tells us. I hope so. I don't know if life would be worth living if it didn't. And I don't yet know who set off the bomb at Kennison State. I don't know if it's one person or ten, and I don't know what they want. All I know for sure, all I know for certain, is that they weren't born wanting to do this. There's evil in the world, there'll always be, and we can't do anything about that. But there's violence in our schools, too much mayhem in our culture, and we can do something about that. There's not enough character, discipline, and depth in our classrooms; there aren't enough teachers in our classrooms. There isn't nearly enough, not nearly enough, not nearly enough money in our classrooms, and we can do something about that. We're not doing nearly enough, not nearly enough to teach our children well, and we can do better, and we must do better, and we will do better, and we will start this moment today! They weren't born wanting to do this.

...

When did you write that?

In the car. On the way over.

Freak.

 

[PopeDirkBenedict]

I have a secret plan to fight inflation?

 

[zeke12]

TWW always did holidays very well, too. The first season, it was Mrs. Landingham and "I miss my boys"/Toby helping bury the vagrant veteran; second Christmas was Josh's trauma episode; the Thanksgiving eps, like when Josh, Toby and Sam told the farm guy to put the turkey in CJ's office... ah...

Man, that was a helluva show.

I always liked the one where the elderly senator is fillerbusting a spending bill to insert funding for autism research. Everyone at the WW is wondering why, until they see a newscast with the senator and his grandchildren, one of whom has autism.

Then Josh (I think) says, "He's never going to leave that floor. We have to do something." They figure out that a fillibuster can be stopped only if another senator asks a question.

So the first senator comes to the floor, and says that he has a question, and will be taking a long time, so why doesn't the elderly senator have a seat and get a drink of water. The show ends with a line of senators waiting to ask a question while the autism research funding gets inserted.

It was Donna that figured it out.
And Josiah who broke it down:

C.J., let me tell you something, don't ever ever underestimate the will of a grandfather. We're madmen, we don't give a damn, we got here before you and they'll be here after. We'll make enemies, we'll break laws, we'll break bones, but you will not mess with the grandchildren.

And, later, C.J.:

Yes, Hoynes had us nervous with his admonishment of big oil and, yes, the president was making us nervous too. But that's for tomorrow. Tonight, I've seen a man with no legs stay standing, Dad, and a guy with no voice keep shouting. And if politics brings out the worst in people, maybe people bring out the best. Because I'm looking at the TV right now, and damn if 28 U.S. senators haven't just walked onto the floor to help.