King Corn - TWW S6E13

Original airdate: January 26, 2005

Written by: John Wells (6) 

Directed by: Alex Graves (25)

Synopsis

• Three different versions of the same day on the Iowa campaign trail play out, with the candidates making decisions over how to address the state's primary issue of corn-based ethanol fuels. The long day ends with some thoughtful discussions and some poignant moments. And an ice cream sandwich.
  

"Telling people what they want to hear is the easiest thing you can do in politics." 

One day. Three candidates. Three varying approaches to an issue critical to success in the early decision state of Iowa. That's what we've got in this involving, well-constructed campaign episode that's probably one of my favorites, certainly of the post-Sorkin era.

The overarching theme of the episode - and hence the title - is ethanol, a fuel additive made from corn, and whether these candidates will "take the pledge" at the Iowa Corn Growers Expo. Will they stand before these farmers and agribusiness owners and promise to support government subsidies for ethanol production, subsidies that are so popular in Iowa that they become almost a requirement for winning support in the caucuses? Or will they tell these farmers what they don't want to hear, that ethanol is a financially and environmentally poor direction to go with the nation's energy policy? The three candidates we follow, as we see the day unfold in three different ways, each find a different direction to go.

We start with Vice President Russell. He's a realist, he's aware of the importance of ethanol to Iowans and the importance of scoring well in the Democratic caucuses. While he discusses with Will the problems he sees with ethanol subsidies, he doesn't hesitate to get up in front of the corn growers and pledge his support. It's a no-brainer for him; the biggest question he and Will have about the subject is whether or not John Hoynes will also promise to support these subsidies.

Matt Santos looks at the subject a little differently. He's even more skeptical of government funds propping up ethanol production, particularly when he can see so many other areas that money could help improve. Helen is right there with him, really snapping back at Josh as Josh insists that Matt has no choice but to appeal to these caucusgoers in Iowa. Even as he takes the stage to speak, we're not sure where Matt will decide to come down - and he bites his tongue and ends up taking that pledge, even though he doesn't believe it at all.

Senator Vinick is our third example. We find out that he's having trouble gaining much traction with his campaign in Iowa (we don't have any idea who the Republican frontrunner is at this point, but it's not Vinick). As a California senator, he's been against ethanol subsidies from the start - but his campaign staff, like Will and Josh on the Democratic side, know his only hope of jump-starting his chances with Iowa voters is to come on board with this most vital of local issues. The speech is written, the excuses for his flip-flop are on the prompter, but as he comes to those words in front of the corn growers, he can't do it. He stays consistent, he rails against these subsidies, and he lectures the Iowans about how they should be ashamed of the policy. Good for his image as a politician committed to his stances; not so good for his chances at doing well in the caucuses.

There's so many other things going on in this first-rate episode. The very structure - starting each act in a hotel room at 5:45 am on this January Wednesday, first with Donna, then with Josh, then with Vinick, and following each campaign on their busy day in Iowa - is a great way to illustrate the non-stop hectic nature of campaigns. We also get the ironic juxtaposition of Josh, as he comes to the Cedar Rapids hotel to get ready for this day of campaigning, finding himself in the room directly across from Donna's.

 

 

We are all aware by now of the past these two share, with Donna spending years as Josh's right-hand assistant, their unspoken deep feelings for one another, and how her desire to get more responsibility and grow in her career led her to quit that job and join on with the Russell campaign. Josh's feelings of abandonment by Donna - even though he didn't really come through on helping her career grow - and his reluctance to talk to her about that, or his real feelings for her, come out as he strides toward her door but then stops himself, afraid to confront her or his true emotions.

 

 

On a more general note, Donna's meetings with the various fringe nutcase candidates are a hoot, and the visual comparisons between the campaigns are so well done. 

 

Right from the start we see how a well-funded, professional, yet still frantic campaign setup like Russell's has a conference room to gather in at the hotel and a wide range of young, energetic staffers. Will has done small-scale campaigns before, he gets how to motivate his people, and having the money available from a sitting Vice President and Democratic front-runner makes a difference. Compare that with the underdog Santos campaign, which has to meet in Matt's hotel suite with the kids watching cartoons in the next room, and most of the staff being Matt's congressional staffers. Both those Democratic campaign scenes are shot with shaky hand-held cameras, jammed into tight spaces and giving us a sense of urgency and impulsiveness. Then director Alex Graves gives us a completely different look with Senator Vinick - no more hand-held shots, the camera is smooth and steady. Arnie wakes up in a much more luxurious hotel room than we see from the other campaigns. While the staffers are still busy and fast-moving, they seem on top of things as they have a campaign headquarters room with plenty of TVs and laptops. Sheila and Bob, the leaders of the staff, are competent, self-assured political types (and being played by the excellent Patricia Richardson and Stephen Root, we can't wait to see more of what they have in store).

Not only do we get little things like the Santos campaign team all using random differently decorated umbrellas at the Hamburg Inn stop (just grabbing whatever umbrellas the staffers had access to) compared to Vinick's team all with identical black no-nonsense umbrellas, I really liked the contrast of each campaign's travel methods. First off, Russell in a well-decked-out tour bus:

(In the DVD commentary we find out that very bus was used by Britney Spears during her 2004 Onyx Hotel Tour immediately before The West Wing rented it, and it had more TVs and video players installed than they could ever use.)

 

Compare that to the shoestring Santos campaign, tooling around Iowa in a shabby RV (although Matt gets to fly some of them around in a rented aircraft, which is pretty cool):

And then Senator Vinick, longtime national political figure from California, with his motorcade of black SUVs:

 

There's other background tidbits - the pending execution of a woman in Turkey, the train derailment and explosion in Louisiana - but mostly those serve as signposts to remind us, the audience, that these three separate acts of the story are actually taking place at the same time. The real meat of the episode rests with the Santos campaign, I think, with a bit of a tie-in with Vinick in the final act. It's that Helen-Josh dynamic that I find truly compelling. While Matt and Josh push back-and-forth on the ethanol pledge, it's Helen that's truly unwilling to bend, even up to those moments just before Matt takes the stage at the expo. Helen really, really doesn't appreciate Josh's pushing to get Matt to give up his principles on this one.

Then there's the little scene between the two of them in the hotel bar at the end of the day. Helen is still upset about why they're giving in on what they believe just to try to get a minuscule bit of support in the Iowa caucuses, but Josh has an answer - he's thought a lot more about this than Helen realizes (and this planning multiple steps ahead reminds us of that scene in the Bartlet New Hampshire campaign headquarters back in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II, with the grand plan to leave New Hampshire early all to set up Illinois eventually).

Josh: "We're letting people know there's an alternative to Hoynes and Russell. Matt Santos - making sense, talking about ideas."

Helen: "Making sense about ethanol?"

Josh: "Makes sense in Iowa, yeah. Russell's a house of cards. His support's a mile wide and an inch deep. We can't compete with him on endorsements or institutional support, but we don't have to worry about Russell. Hoynes'll find a way to take him down."

Helen: "This the famous Josh Lyman nine-point plan?"

Josh: "Hoynes is smart, he has access to money, plenty of chits he can call in. Once Russell crumbles, his support'll flow to Hoynes - unless someone has established himself as not-Hoynes."

Helen: "Not-Hoynes?"

Josh: "So you need lots of primary activists who are very uncomfortable with an adulterous moderate DLC candidate --"

Helen (chuckling): "Oh my God, you actually stay up nights thinking this stuff up?"

Josh: "It's a living."

Then, as Matt returns to the Cedar Rapids Holiday Inn, regretting his caving on his ethanol stance, in walks Arnie Vinick. He stood firm on his ethanol opinion, but he knows it'll cost him the state in the caucuses. Matt and Arnie settle in at a table, talking over ethics and education plans and sticking to your guns even when it costs you votes ... and for those of us who know how things wrap up at the end of Season 7, this is kind of a neat moment.

The episode wraps up with poignancy and emotion and longing and a tinge of sadness, in yet another excellently constructed montage. As Ryan Adam's song Desire plays over the soundtrack, we see some of our characters dealing with their desires, desires of a more personal than political nature. Vinick, alone in his hotel room, gazes wistfully at a portrait of him with his wife, a wife who has passed away and left him to face the world by himself.

 

Matt returns to his hotel room following his talk with Arnie, following Helen's discussion with Josh, finding Helen asleep in bed with their kids. As Matt looks lovingly at his family, Helen opens her eye and gives the faintest little smile.

And then Josh and Donna ... coincidentally thrown in hotel rooms literally across the corridor from one another, with their unsaid personal longings over the past six seasons, Josh comes to his door and pauses, looking over his shoulder thinking of Donna - as Donna, hidden behind her door, watches him through the peephole.

Just a masterful example of visual TV drama, elevated by the soundtrack and the song.

Then there's Will, who's apparently just longing for an ice cream treat from a vending machine.

We think the episode has wrapped up, but then -- a figure in bed, a phone ringing, another 5:45 am wake up call, and we realize it never ends on the campaign trail. Every day starts early, every day is grueling, every day is another step on an unending march toward that political goal. And there's just hardly a moment left for those personal, emotional, human yearnings that all have.

It's really a great episode.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- This episode was not filmed in Iowa, but as part of the December, 2004, production trip to Dundas, Ontario that also include filming of Opposition Research. The Plainsman Country Buffet was located in Hamilton, Ontario (that's also where the interior scenes of the senior living home were filmed for that earlier episode). The opening establishing shots of all the hotel marquees welcoming the Iowa Corn Growers were probably shot in California: The Carlton Motor Lodge and Best Western Carriage Inn are located in Studio City and Sherman Oaks, respectively. 

 

- What's also strange is the "Welcome Iowa Corn Growers" signs are all over Cedar Rapids, apparently, yet the Corn Growers' Expo with all the candidates' speeches is in Council Bluffs ... almost four hours away from Cedar Rapids. And our candidates make that trip back and forth in this one day (over seven hours of pure road trip) in addition to several other side trips we're told about.

- Both Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits get spots in the opening credits. Smits has been in the credits for episodes he's appeared in since Liftoff. Alda was previously only listed as a "Special Appearance By" in In The Room, but now he gets his own time to shine in the credits, too.

- There's waaaay too much light in those hotel rooms for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 5:45 am in January. In the last couple of weeks of the month, sunrise is between 7:30 and 7:20 am ... there'd be absolutely no light in the sky before 6:45 or so. I suppose you could explain it by outside parking lot/artificial lights, but how annoying is that?

- Will says it's five days to the Iowa caucuses and 19 days to the New Hampshire primary. While The West Wing universe is two years off the actual election calendar, in the most recent cycle of 2004 the Iowa caucuses were on Monday, January 19, and the New Hampshire primary was eight days later, on January 27. While the previous episode, 365 Days, took place on January 20 (exactly a year before the inauguration), it's not exactly necessary that this episode takes place after the events of that one - so we're somewhere in mid-January (if the fictional 2006 caucuses were on Monday, January 23, this would be Wednesday, January 18, and the New Hampshire primary would be Monday, February 6).

 

- Also, Iowa's pheasant-hunting season ends on January 10 each year. Josh tells Matt he's got a photo op set up for him to go pheasant hunting with a county supervisor, so given that, this would have to be no later than January 10 (which would make the caucuses no later than January 15 and the New Hampshire primary no later than January 29).

- The actual geography of the day makes this grueling for everyone. The Russell plan - Cedar Rapids/Centerville/Des Moines/Council Bluffs - is almost seven hours of just travel time; then it's almost another four hours just to get back to the Cedar Rapids Holiday Inn so Will can get his ice cream sandwich. The Santos travel plan - Iowa City, Ames, the big bull in Audubon, hunting in Osceola County, then Council Bluffs for the speech - is a longer travel time with that trip up to the Minnesota border, but at least Matt is going to fly some of it, so that'll help. Still, the motor home/campaign mobile unit with Helen goes from CR to Council Bluffs and back during the day, and that's over seven hours just to go back and forth. 

 

- When Matt takes the stage at the Corn Growers Expo, Josh calls out to him, "Take the pledge." The audio for this line sounds odd, as if it was looped/rerecorded later ... and the closed captioning actually reads, "Take the oath." I wonder if the line was spoken as "oath" and later it was decided to stick with "pledge" as it was used throughout the episode.

 

- We already know the campaign for President is pretty wide open, in both parties. We've known for a while that the Democrats have Vice President Russell as the frontrunner, and former Vice President Hoynes making a strong run as well, and of course we know about the guerrilla campaign of Matt Santos. On the Republican side we've already been introduced to Senator Vinick announcing his candidacy, but even though in this episode we hear he's struggling to gain traction in the Iowa polls we haven't really heard of any other GOP candidates yet. Finally we get to hear names of some other presidential candidates, including Clarkson and Atkins on the Democratic side (with Atkins being referred to as a minority, with Russell saying, "Atkins and Santos get to stand up there, holier-than-thou, rail against racial injustice, while the rest of us loiter around looking like those two albino twins from The Matrix") and Allard on the Republican side. The coffee-bean caucus jars at the Hamburg Inn also include names like Johnson and Walken (for Glenallen Walken, the Republican Speaker of the House who served as President for two days during Zoey's kidnapping). I just hope that "Johnson" isn't the same Mr. Johnson that Donna talked to while he was feeding his pigs ("Are you sure you're a Democrat?").

- The cable TV news screen showing Toby (probably talking about the peacekeeping troops in the Middle East, considering the chyron) also shows Omaha with a high temperature of 67 degrees. In January. It has been that warm there in January at least five times since 1981, but considering the chill and the snowflakes seen at the Jefferson Cattle Barn in Council Bluffs (literally across the Missouri River from Omaha) that seems doubtful.

 

Also this onscreen shot of Toby is all we see of anybody in the Bartlet White House in this episode - no President, no CJ, no Leo, no Kate, no Charlie. As John Wells and Alex Graves say in the DVD commentary, this is where they realize they're actually producing two separate West Wing series for a while, the usual administration episodes in the White House that we've been used to for six years alternating with a completely different story on the campaign trail.

- Let me take a moment, as an Iowa resident and native, to address the downright egregious Iowa disrespect shown here in John Wells' teleplay. First, it's valid to criticize Iowa's place in the presidential nomination process (or at least its place prior to 2024, when both the Democratic and Republican caucuses were the first contest in the nation; disastrous Democratic fumbling of the process in both 2016 and 2020 may have ended that for that party). It's more of an oddity than anything else, when the 1976 Iowa caucuses unexpectedly boosted the campaign of an unknown governor from Georgia, Jimmy Carter, who went on to win the election and thereby hyped the importance of Iowa on the political scene. But the caucus bashing going on here is just being done for bashing's sake:

Christine: "Don't you think it's weird your out-of-the-way, nickel-and-dime, penny-ante state gets to go first?"

Trevor: "Well, we ... we always go first."

Christine: "Yeah, and why is that?"

Donna: "Iowa's first because it's first."

Christine: "Says who?"

And then:

Vinick (to Sheila): "You know, if Iowa weren't first, but were third, you know what it would be? The South Dakota primary."

This isn't nuanced debate about the nomination process; it's just slamming Iowa for being rural and too big for its britches.

Then there's all the nutty fringe candidates Donna goes to talk to. I won't deny Iowa has folks holding the positions held by these nuts, but they don't generally announce their candidacy for President, and the range of nutcases running for President aren't exclusively from Iowa. Donna talks to all these guys in the same morning while driving around the state, which makes West Wing viewers think Iowa is full of raging lunatics. 

Then there's the whole ethanol thing. Ethanol is a bigger subject than I want to get into here - as the son and grandson and brother of Iowa corn farmers, I admit I have some implicit bias, but I do acknowledge subsidies for its use as an alternative fuel are open to debate and its value as a more environmentally advantageous fuel than fossil fuels can be argued. But very little of that is really done here (Matt and Helen make some good points, Vinick's are a little less sound). For one thing, the attacks on ethanol as using almost as much fuel to produce as it replaces are a little unfair, given those critics don't apply the same production-cost standards to gasoline. I get that ethanol may not overall be as great as Iowa farmers think, given they're making money off government subsidies, but it's also not as bad as Hollywood screenwriters like John Wells make it out to be - and despite what Wells and other west-coasters might want to focus on, there's absolutely some value in the fact that ethanol fuel is renewable, unlike fossil fuels. There's a more substantive, nuanced argument to be made here - but then again, viewers would fall asleep from boredom in the middle of that episode, so we get this one instead.

- And speaking of candidates with nutty positions, Donna's line to Will about "a fascist who was arrested for brandishing a rifle calling for overthrow of the Republic" hits a little bit too close to home considering the events of January 6, 2021. In 2005 the idea of a fascist running for President calling for the overthrow of democracy was a joke; in 2023 there's a real danger that guy could actually get elected by his Republican cultist fans.

- Alan Alda was nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy for this episode and the upcoming In God We Trust. The award went to William Shatner for his work on Boston Legal.

- Why'd They Come Up With King Corn?

The power of ethanol (and therefore agreeing with its support in order to court corn growers in Iowa) and its influence on the caucus and political viability in the state is the main theme of this episode.

Quotes    

Russell staffer: "We're sure Hoynes is going to flip?"

Will: "Believe me, Hoynes is taking the ethanol pledge. This is a guy who if he was speaking to a group of cannibals would offer them missionaries."

-----

Donna: "Mr. Johnson, your platform would include paying the President, the Cabinet, and all members of Congress a salary of one dollar a year?"

Johnson: "Hell, yeah. Make 'em get a real job."

Donna: "And you want to ban motorcycle helmets, color television, drop out of the UN, and abolish Medicare and totally privatize Social Security."

Johnson: "We gotta get the government out of our damn pockets!"

Donna: "Sir, are you ... sure you're a Democrat?"  

-----

Donna (to Will): "We can't put these fringe candidates on a stage with serious candidates. We've got a fascist who was arrested for brandishing a rifle calling for overthrow of the Republic, a delusional preacher, a guy who just needs a job, and a refugee from The New Christy Minstrels."

-----

Josh: "We wrangled you an invitation to go pheasant hunting with one of the Osceola County supervisors. Get into camo gear, sling a 12 gauge over your shoulder, get a few photos for the AP."

Matt: "With a gun?"

Josh: "You were in the Marines, you know how to shoot, right?"

Matt: "Yeah, a 20 millimeter chain gun, but it might be a little hard on the pheasant."

-----

Vinick (to the corn growers): "I know what you want to hear. Telling people what they want to hear is the easiest thing you can do in politics. But that's not why I'm here. That's not why I'm running for President. Now, I know that the ethanol subsidies have been good for some of you. But mostly, it's a windfall for huge conglomerates. I'm embarrassed by it, and I think you should be, too."

 

 

Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

• The familiar TV news anchor Ivan Allen returns, for the first time since A Change Is Gonna Come. Usually billed as "Roger Salier," Allen's first appearance as a news anchor on the show came all the way back in A Proportional Response, and this is his 18th credit on the series. He's been seen as a local news reporter, a network cable news anchor (including with MSNBC), and now he's on the generic logo-less TV news channel that The West Wing is using these days.

• Our first meetings with the Vinick campaign staffers, including the wonderful Patricia Richardson (Home Improvement) as Sheila.

• And Stephen Root (Office Space, NewsRadio, Barry, O Brother, Where Art Thou, the list is long and legendary) as Bob. Root elevates everything he's a part of, I really do like his work.

• Trevor, the volunteer who's driving Donna around, is played by Aaron Ashmore (Smallville, Warehouse 13).

• Christine, one of the Russell staffers, is played by Miriam Shor (Younger, The Americans, The Good Wife).

• Will and Russell talking about Hoynes taking the ethanol pledge takes us back to 20 Hours In L.A. and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part I - in both episodes we see Vice President Hoynes standing against an ethanol tax credit. 
  

• Helen's debate with Josh over the Turkish woman facing execution for adultery has a flashback to Season 3:

Helen: "They're executing her because she slept with her fiancé, thank God she didn't cook him breakfast."

Josh: "Hey, we execute minors. The rest of the world thinks that's barbaric."

Helen: "I'm with the world."

That reminds us of The Indians In The Lobby, where Italy was refusing to extradite an American minor accused of murdering his teacher because he could face the death penalty. Josh was able to talk the Georgia DA out of using the death penalty to fix the situation.

• Another flashback involving Josh and Donna comes when Josh is trying to convince Matt to take the ethanol pledge, with Josh saying, "What is this, the insult and injury tour? We going to North Dakota next, tell them South Dakota has a cooler sounding name?" In We Killed Yamamoto Donna went to a Democratic meeting in North Dakota on Josh's behalf, during which some North Dakotans lobbied to change the state's name because, well, they thought South Dakota's name was cooler (or at least brought in more tourism).

•  I mentioned the Walken coffee-bean jar at the Hamburg Inn; of course that reminds us of the events of Twenty Five through The Dogs Of War when Glenallen Walken, the Republican Speaker of the House, served as President when Bartlet stepped away during Zoey's kidnapping.

• When Vinick and Santos meet in the hotel restaurant, Vinick talks about Matt's education plan he introduced in New Hampshire. We saw that happen in Opposition Research.
  

• The chyron on the cable news screen with Toby's press conference addresses the United States peacekeeping force in Gaza and the West Bank, part of the peace plan that was introduced in The Birnam Wood.
  

• Helen references Josh's "famous nine-point plan" that he used to try to convince Matt to run for President in Impact Winter (and Matt mentioned to Helen in Faith Based Initiative).
  

DC location shots    

• None in DC, but lots of Canada location spots. I actually pinpointed the turnoff where Donna and the other staffers meet the first nutty candidate, with the long lane and all the guns. We see a road sign denoting the turn to Sydenham Road and Dundas:

Notice also the Iowa license plate, nice detail

• That's Highway 5 north of Dundas and Hamilton, Ontario. Just east of the Sydenham Road turnoff is a long driveway to a farm. That's where this was filmed.

• The Hamburg Inn No. 2 exteriors (a restaurant which actually exists in Iowa City, Iowa) were filmed at a restaurant in Pasadena (complete with fake snow), but they did bring in a copy of the real Hamburg Inn No. 2 sign to put on the outside wall.

Actual Iowa City Hamburg sign

Pasadena restaurant with Hamburg sign

• The airport scenes were filmed at the Hamilton International Airport in Ontario. The huge sign for "Glanford" on the hangar is for Glanford Aviation Services, a fixed-base operator/fuel supplier at the airport. 

• If you notice the registration numbers of some of the aircraft in the background begin with "C," which indicates Canadian registration (United States-registered aircraft begin with "N"). Interestingly, the first character of the registration number of the airplane Matt is flying is covered up with white tape.
  

Canadian registration C-FSAL

Canadian registration with the "C" covered up

•  The DVD commentary gives us some more insight about where parts of this episode were filmed. Of course, the rural exteriors, Donna's car trip (and her meetings with most of the fringe candidates), and the airport scenes were filmed in Canada during the show's production trip to Dundas in December 2004. As I mentioned above the Hamburg Inn exteriors were shot at a restaurant in Pasadena, during a California rainstorm.

- The Josh/Donna Russell/Santos hotel scenes were filmed at a Holiday Inn in Burbank.

- The scenes inside the Russell bus and the Santos RV were filmed in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Zoo on a 90-degree day (with everyone wearing coats pretending to be cold).

- The Iowa Corn Growers Expo speeches were filmed in the Forum, previously home of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kings, and Sparks. At the time of production, the venue was owned by Faithful Central Bible Church. In more recent years, the facility is generally used for large-scale concerts and events like WWE or UFC competitions.

- The scene in the barbershop with Vinick and the farmers was filmed in an old disused set on the Warner Brothers backlot.

They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    

• The restaurant/hotel marquee shots at the beginning show us some actual hotel chains, including Ramada Inn, Best Western, and Holiday Inn. Donna also says she stayed at the Marriott in Charleston, South Carolina. As mentioned above the Plainsman Country Buffet and the Carlton Motor Lodge actually existed, as well.

Located in Studio City, California

Located in Sherman Oaks, California

If this is the same Holiday Inn used for interiors, it's in Burbank

• The songs Walkin' After Midnight by Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash's version of Green, Green Grass of Home are heard as music audible to the characters, or diegetic music. One of the fringe candidates Donna talks to also sings his version of Peace Train by Cat Stevens. In the DVD commentary writer John Wells and director Alex Graves talk about how they were unable to get the broadcast rights to the folk song they used while filming the scene in Canada, so they had to reshoot an actor strumming Peace Train only three days before the episode aired. The reaction shots of Donna, Trevor and Christine were from a different performance by a different actor in a different country. Crazy, huh? Ryan Adams' Desire, which plays at the end of the episode, isn't actually diegetic, so it doesn't necessarily exist in the universe of these characters.
  

• The acrobatic group the Flying Wallendas get a mention from Will.
  

• A couple of references to the farm implement maker John Deere, including some tractors on display at the expo.

• Turkey's application for membership in the European Union (mentioned in TV coverage of the woman sentenced to death for adultery) is still ongoing. Turkey was recognized as a candidate for membership in 1999, and negotiations for full membership started in the fall of 2005 (several months after this episode aired). Those negotiations stalled in 2016.
  

• The Dairy Queen chain gets mentioned a couple of times, including supposedly the "nation's oldest" one somewhere in Iowa. While there is a Dairy Queen in Cedar Rapids that's been continuously operating since 1947, only seven years after the chain started in Joliet, Illinois, I wasn't able to confirm that's the oldest one still in operation. Best as I can determine, though, it might be ... there's apparently one in Roseville, Minnesota, that's also been operating since 1947, and a Springfield, Missouri, DQ has been in business since 1946 (but changed locations in 1968).

First Avenue Dairy Queen in Cedar Rapids, since 1947

• Russell brings up the albino twins from The Matrix (although those characters didn't appear until the sequel, The Matrix Reloaded), so that movie franchise exists in this universe.
  

• Donna describes one of the fringe candidates as a refugee from The New Christy Minstrels.
  

• Russell drinks from a bottle of Dasani water.

• Josh is wearing a "Cure Autism Now" T-shirt. Bradley Whitford has been a longtime supporter of autism research and awareness efforts, and was one of the drivers helping to develop the autism subplot in The Stackhouse Filibuster.
  

• The Santos children are watching Looney Tunes cartoons, a Warner Brothers property (as is The West Wing).

• Matt and Helen are looking at a copy of the Des Moines Register, helping set the scene in Iowa. Helen also mentions a Register poll putting them at 3 percent.
  

• There actually is a statue of Albert, the world's largest bull, in Audubon, Iowa.
  

• The Hamburg Inn No. 2 is a real restaurant in Iowa City, and it was famous in the early 2000s for being a political campaign spot (and really did have a coffee-bean caucus). Unfortunately, at this writing the restaurant is closed and its reopening is uncertain.
  

• Matt complains to Josh about ethanol subsidies going to Chevron and the John Hancock Insurance Company.

• Matt also references the Oxford English Dictionary and its definition of "pandering."
  

• There's talk of "C-SPAN viewers" as well as the Spanish-language cable network Telemundo.
  

• At the airport Josh and Ned talk about Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. As Ned says, both those musicians (along with Richie Valens and the pilot) were killed in a 1959 plane crash in Iowa, near Clear Lake.
  

• Those are actual Iowa State Patrol uniforms seen on some of the patrolmen at the corn expo.

• There really is a General Mills plant in Cedar Rapids. Sheila tells Vinick that he's got a meeting with managers there to talk about tax reform.
  

• Bob tells Vinick that General George Patton would have pandered on ethanol.
  

• The NAFTA deal (North American Free Trade Agreement) is criticized by the farmers talking to Vinick. 
  

• WalMart gets brought up by Vinick when he's speaking at the Hamburg Inn.
  

• Vinick tells his granddaughter he's no Mantovani after singing Happy Birthday to her on the phone, which is a little weird since Mantovani was a conductor, not a singer.
  

• The MSNBC logo is seen. 

• Will gazes longingly at a Nestlé Carnation brand ice cream sandwich at the Holiday Inn in Cedar Rapids. On the DVD commentary it's mentioned that a funky vending machine like this was spotted in a California Holiday Inn Express when the producers were scouting for locations, and they insisted they had to add a scene with this machine somewhere in the episode.
  

End credits freeze frame: Donna and Josh meeting in the Holiday Inn elevator.

Previous episode: 365 Days

Next episode: The Wake Up Call