(at the shooting range)
CJ: Put three in the middle.
Simon Donovan: Three?
CJ: Three out of five. You want to back out?
Donovan: No, I'm just worried about what I'm going to do with the other two. I'll be working
against muscle memory.


Another WW fan poll: Mrs. Landingham vs. Debbie Fiderer
I loved Mrs. Landingham and was sad they killed her off so early. And at first, Debbie was nowhere near believable as the President's personal secretary. There's no way could an alpaca-farming, gambling druggie get the job. But as more info came out about her history (specifically with Charlie), it fit. She ended up having some great comedic scenes and was good for a funny one-liner in most episodes.

[This message has been edited by Spicy McHaggis (edited 2/15/2010 11:43a).]

Absolutely my favorite show of all time.

Two Cathedrals is the best episode, and I think one of the best episodes of any TV drama in general.

I really like the way they did In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, part 2 (Season 2 opener), with the homage to the Reagan assasination attempt. The flashbacks of how it all got started were very interesting from the perspective of someone who is involved in politics and campaigns.

I was deeply saddened when John Spencer died. They had to rewrite the entire rest of the season to deal with it, but at least they didn't try to explain away the flash forward that had already aired with Leo at the inauguration.

Originally, Vinick (Alan Alda) was supposed to win the presidency, but they felt writing in Santos as the winner was a fitting tribute to Spencer and would resonate better with fans of the show (i.e. don't kick them while they're down).

Ryan, what flash forward. Iv never caught that. And I currently have most of season 7 sitting on my TiVo waiting to be deleted.

There was a flash forward to all of the primary cast arriving at the inauguration. IIRC, it was early on in the Sanots/Vinick presidential race.

Greatest pilot episode of all time. Before the opening credits, you meet all the main characters and are introduced to the pace of the show. You get a pretty typical (for WW) plot to introduce some deeper characterizations, and it all comes to a head with the meeting with John Van Dyken, Mary Marsh, and Al Caldwell.

The arguments start quickly, and Toby just can't back down. He corrects the numbering of the commandments, and Mary Marsh asks "Then what's the first commandment?"





"I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND THOU SHALT WORSHIP NO GODS BEFORE ME"

Martin Sheen, from offscreen, after being the center of attention but never seen for 40 minutes. At that minute he was no longer an occasional character.

There are so many other parts of the episode that I love. Leo's first walk into the west wing in the morning that is one shot. Toby and his cell phone on the plane. And this conversation:

"Is there anything I can say other than the President rode his bicycle into a tree?"
"He hopes to never do it again."
"Seriously, they're laughing pretty hard."
"He rode his bicycle into a tree, C.J., what do you want me --- The President, while riding his bicycle on his vacation in Jackson Hole, came to a sudden arboreal stop. What do you want from me?"
"A little love, Leo."

I believe the flash forward was at the opening of Bartlett's presidential library.

Leo isn't in that flash forward. Danny and CJ are living in California with a baby (which I always thought she was too old to be having a kid, but I digress), Toby is teaching at Columbia, Kate wrote a book, Will got elected to Congress in Oregon, and Charlie is in law school somewhere.

I always thought it was weird that they said they didn't decide that Santos was going to win the election until after John Spencer's death, but if so and they were being intentionally coy at the Bartlet Library opening (not showing who was stepping out of the car) but they had Josh announcing the new President's arrival. That seemed to me to be a clear indicator that Santos won.

Hooray for the series starting over today and the return of Sorkin, Sam, Hot Mallory, and the real Leo.

I thought it was interesting when Mallory introduces herself to Sam before he knows she's the boss' daughter, she refers to herself as Mallory O'Brien. I guess she was married before. Weird that they never mention it again. I think it would have been easier to just not mention a last name than to imply a previous marriage.

Did they ever wrap up the story between Charlie and Zoe?

Not really. They had their moment in the park with the dug-up champagnem then she was kidnapped and Charlie sort of looked out for her for a while, but after that Zoey faded out of the picture.

Which is good because she's terrible.

I had notcied a while back that Hoynes has a very prominent gold class ring on his right hand. I made a comment to a friend that I wondered if John Hoynes from Texas was an Aggie. I noticed it again the other day in a different episode and made the comment again, and she reminded me that Hoyens went to SMU (he mentions it when talking to some team that won the NCAA championship "When I was at SMU my roommate played basketball..."

Now its just a weird thing that bothers me because I've never seen a SMUer with a class ring.

quote:

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Did they ever wrap up the story between Charlie and Zoe?

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they did have that scene in the last season i think where President Bartlett catches Charlie coming out of Zoeys room late one night. bartlett says something to the extent that "lets pretend that you're not coming out of my youngest daughters bedroom at 2am."

but no, they never really wrapped up the story line like many were expecting them to.

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America's destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people's strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arrive.

Charlie kind of faded out in general the last couple of seasons. Once he stopped working for the President he'd only pop in every couple of episodes. Granted they had expanded the storylines and cast of characters so wide at that point in time that a lot of people got left out.

I wonder if there was ever any serious thought about continuing the show with a new administration?

quote:

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he mentions it when talking to some team that won the NCAA championship "When I was at SMU my roommate played basketball..."

---

In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II (Season 2 opener)

quote:

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There are so many other parts of the episode that I love.

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From the pilot, Sam is supposed to giving a tour to his boss' "kid's" class.

Sam: The White House, as you know, was built several years ago. Mostly, if I'm not mistaken, out of cement. The room we're in right now, the Roosevelt Room, is very famous. It is named after our 18th president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The chairs that you're sitting on today are fashioned from the lumber of a pirate ship captured during the Spanish-American...