Pilot - TWW S1E1

Pilot

Original airdate: September 22, 1999

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (1)

Directed by: Thomas Schlamme (1)

Synopsis (from NBC)

• The entire White House staff bustles with activity when it's learned that the President injured himself during a bicycle accident, and his absence becomes a factor as chief of staff Leo McGarry must juggle a host of impending crises, including a mass boat lift of Cuban refugees approaching the Florida coast and the reaction of conservative Christians to a controversial televised comment by deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman. Meanwhile, Sam Seaborn, the trouble-prone deputy communications director, unknowingly spends the night with a call girl and then makes another critical error during a children's White House tour.

And now, the adventure begins. Looking back at Pilot from nearly two decades in the future, you can see some of the stuff told as legend about The West Wing. The idea that the show was conceived as a show focusing on the staffers working in the West Wing, with only an occasional appearance from the President, really comes through here. For one, the President's name isn't mentioned one time in this episode. For another, he only appears late in the fourth act (although with one of the great entrances in TV history, bursting through the door leaning on his cane, quoting the First Commandment as "I am the Lord your God, thou shalt worship no other god before me.").

A couple of other things really date the episode, the most obvious one being the use of pagers. I think even by late 1999 pagers were losing out to cell phones as "keep in contact" devices, but you see pagers with CJ, Josh, and of course Sam and Laurie mix up their pagers, which becomes a big plot point. Perhaps the fact that Aaron Sorkin actually came up with this script a couple of years prior to it getting on air helps explain the whole pager thing. Also, a lot of the intended tension built up in the opening scenes (with pagers going off everywhere and calls coming about "POTUS") is dependent on the fact that the non-staffer characters (and the audience) aren't supposed to know what POTUS means. Sam's line "He's not my friend, he's my boss. And it's not his name, it's his title. President of the United States" doesn't have quite the oomph these days when pretty much anybody who has an interest in politics already knows what POTUS stands for.

Anyway, digging in. I think this is a tremendous pilot, well-written and well-crafted in the way it introduces the characters. And our first meeting with each character is so, well, educational, I guess. We first see Sam at a bar talking with a reporter while eyeing a woman across the room. Leo is at home complaining about a mistake in the New York Times crossword. CJ is on the treadmill (the one hour that's hers, 5 to 6 am) chatting up a handsome fellow on the next treadmill over, until she falls off the machine while reading her pager. Josh is asleep in his office after dealing with fallout over his TV gaffe. Toby is on an airplane, feuding with the flight attendants over whether or not his laptop and cell phone (see, he's got a cell phone!) will actually affect the electronics of an L-1011 airliner. We are dropped right in the middle of a bustling White House, dealing with events on multiple fronts (the President's accident, the Cuban refugees, the fallout from Josh's comment to Mary Marsh on Capitol Beat). Sorkin trusts us to catch up on our own, without having to explain everything from the beginning, and things are crafted well enough that it's pretty easy to do so. It feels like a living, breathing White House staff that's been in action for a while.

Now, in The West Wing universe, President Josiah Bartlet was actually elected in November of 1998 (in reality, that was a midterm election between the Presidential elections of 1996 and 2000, so this universe is offset two years from real life. That continues up to Seasons 6 and 7, when the timeline compresses somewhat). So in the fall of 1999, we're seeing an administration that's been in office about nine months, and from the discussion of things, is seen as a bit floundering and unfocused (a New York Times poll is mentioned that says the public increasingly believes the White House has lost energy and focus, with the administration's unfavorables rising to 48 percent). This idea of the Bartlet administration struggling for direction right out of the gate actually continues for a few episodes of the first season, with Let Bartlet Be Bartlet kind of a "reset" for getting things back on track and trying to do the right thing instead of cautiously doing things that look favorable.

Let's go to plotlines. The staff is on edge about dealing with news of the President riding his bike into a tree, mainly because this plays into the current media story of the administration being directionless and unfocused. Josh is in danger of being fired because on the TV show Capitol Beat he told conservative Christian spokesperson Mary Marsh "Lady, the God you pray to is too busy being indicted for tax fraud," and conservative Christians are calling for his head. These two stories come together at the end, when the President barges into a meeting where the conservatives (led by Reverend Al Caldwell and Marsh) are demanding concessions on pornography or school prayer in response to Josh's remark. The President relates a story about why he had his bike accident - he was upset because he had just learned a somewhat radical Christian group (the Lambs of God) had sent his 12-year-old granddaughter a doll with a knife through its throat, because she had been quoted in a magazine interview about her feelings on a woman's right to choose. He then sternly tells Rev. Caldwell to denounce this group and basically throws them out of the White House.

Meanwhile, the episode began with Sam hooking up with a woman (Laurie) he meets at a bar. After their pagers get accidentally switched, he discovers that in addition to being a law student Laurie is also a high-priced call girl. This of course would be a serious complication for a high-level White House staffer, so it kind of appears he drops things with her by the end of the episode (spoiler alert: this plotline continues for a while yet). Also, Sam gets into a little hot water when he's told to take over a White House tour for Leo's daughter's fourth-grade class (because he had earlier tried to hit on Leo's wife at a party, not knowing it was Leo's wife). Not only does he not know much about White House history, he also doesn't realize Leo's daughter (Mallory) is the teacher and not one of the kids until after he spills his guts about the rough day he's had, including how he "accidentally slept with a prostitute." Not exactly a meet-cute.

Then there's the Cuban refugees, trying to reach Florida in a flotilla of rafts and "fruit baskets," as Josh describes them. While this is a background plotline, it emphasizes the real-world power and responsibility the administration holds. The President keys on this with his staff in the final scene, describing how many of the Cubans turned back, more than 300 were missing and presumed dead, and just over a hundred made it to Florida and were requesting asylum. By contrasting the sacrifice and struggle of those trying to make it to the dream of America with the rather petty personal distractions we saw during the episode, the President makes it clear to the staff that "break's over" and the real work of governing and making this nation better must continue (although again, we don't see a real turn towards progress until later in Season 1).

It's a real gem of a pilot. We get to meet and really "get" these West Wing staffers, get a real feel for the moral strength of the President, see the press as a somewhat antagonistic force holding them all accountable, and understand how the flow of events really can't be contained or controlled, but how finding the path to deal with them is going to be the crux of the series going forward.

And then there's Mandy. Yeah, Mandy ... first seen driving recklessly through DC while yakking on her phone, then having a somewhat pointless conversation with Josh in a diner. Pointless conversations are going to kind of be her forte in the rest of Season 1. After that ...

A few other observations:

• We don't get the drum riff over the opening visual of the flag and the White House. Instead, the sound is piano bar music, which rolls right into the first scene of Sam in the bar discussing Josh's fate with a reporter while Laurie eyes him from across the room. Some of those drums are heard over the closing scene, however, as the President goes over his schedule with Mrs. Landingham.
• Also, there is no traditional West Wing theme opening. The bright, sprightly music we are used to hearing over the closing credits actually gets things rolling here, as it plays under the early scene of Leo coming into the White House, greeting folks left and right, talking with Donna and Josh, and going through the Oval Office on the way to his office.The opening credits also appear over this scene.
• There's a lot less clutter around than we see later in the series. Mrs. Landingham's office is wide open (of course, Charlie's desk will go in there once he is hired). And Josh's office is almost neat and tidy compared to how it looks most of the time. Maybe this is an indication of only being in their offices nine months?
• Background TVs are an important part of the series, both for atmosphere and for exposition. While later on a fictional news network is created (for when the story needs information from a news broadcast), here you can see C-SPAN 2 and CNN on the screens (the CNN broadcast appears to be about Bosnia peace talks).

Let's go over the characters here, since we're just meeting them all.

In Order Of Appearance   

• Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), Deputy Communications Director
• Leo McGarry (John Spencer), Chief of Staff
• C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney), Press Secretary
• Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), Deputy Chief of Staff
• Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), Communications Director
• Donnatella Moss (Janel Maloney), Assistant to Deputy Chief of Staff
• Mrs. Landingham (Kathryn Joosten), President's secretary
• Mandy Hampton (Moira Kelly), currently media advisor for Sen. Lloyd Russell
• Mallory O'Brian (Allison Smith), Leo's daughter and fourth-grade teacher
• President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen), not addressed by name in this episode

Where This Episode Fits In The West Wing Timeline

Mid-September, 1999

• Donna says she's worked for Josh for a "year and a half"; in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen and 17 People we discover that means February, 1998
• In the next episode, "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" - which occurs about a week after this episode -  Vice President Hoynes mentions the "late-September heat." 

Quotes    

• Sam (after explaining his bad day, including sleeping with a prostitute, and then finding out he just said all this to Leo's daughter): "Well, this is bad on so many levels."
• Leo, to CJ: "He rode his bicycle into a tree, C.J., what do you want me - the President, while riding his bicycle, came to a sudden arboreal stop."
• President Bartlet: "With the clothes on their backs, they came through a storm. And those that didn't die want a better life. And they want it here. Talk about impressive. My point is this: break's over."
• President Bartlet: "Mrs. Landingham, what's next?" (The first appearance of "What's next?" which becomes a hallmark of the series)

Bread crumbs and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

• Laurie is played by Lisa Edelstein (House, Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce). This is the beginning of a multi-episode arc.
• First appearance of Carol (credited as White House Staffer), played by Melissa Fitzgerald
• First appearance of Ed and Larry (credited as Congressional Liason #1 and #2), played by Peter James Smith and Bill Duffy
• First appearance of reporter Chris, played by Mindy Seeger (she shows up a lot in the future)
• Obviously this is just the pilot, and the upcoming plot line of the President's health is far in the future: but in retrospect could his MS have been a factor in his bike accident?
• Rev. Caldwell will appear again, when a conservative Christian leader is required for a story
• Senator Lloyd Russell is talked about (as a possible challenger for the Presidency in 2002), but does not actually appear. Yet.

 

More Stuff I Forgot To Put In This Post

 

Top 6 Things To Expect From Trump In The Hall Of Presidents

We knew this day was coming. We knew it back in November once the votes were counted. Donald Trump will have his animatronic figure added to the Hall of Presidents in Disney World.

(There will eventually be a Trump Presidential library, too, although I imagine that will mostly consist of multiple video screens scrolling through his tweets.)

I just saw this photo tweeted out today, March 27, although a bit of research shows Disney World actually closed the Hall of Presidents on inauguration day in January and doesn't expect it to open again until summer. Lots to do to get the newest President added to the stage, you know. Here's some things we can expect from the Trump robot:

- Calls out FDR for being "weak" because he didn't "stand up" for things more often.

- Requests the Obama mannequin's clothing be changed to traditional Kenyan garb, except on the weekends, when it will sport golf attire.

- Slaps Lincoln on the back saying, "Hey, you were a Republican! A lot of people don't know that, you know."

- Asks Washington how he could stand working with "that bastard immigrant Hamilton," exclaiming "He's still saying bad, untrue things about me. Sad!"

- Complains about the wi-fi inside the hall, as he can't get a strong enough signal to send out tweets.

- Goes around to all the one-term presidents, pointing at each and saying, "Loser. Loser."

Meanwhile, spokespeople for Disney World say the long delay in getting Trump added to the display is mainly due to problems finding a tie long enough to be historically accurate, and plan to have Trump's mannequin located next to William Henry Harrison in the "Temporary Presidents" section of the stage.

Dangerous Buffoonery

The Trump administration continues to be the gift that never stops giving, if by "gift" you mean "semicomic horrorshow of epic proportions that we can't look away from while desperately praying he doesn't do something to end civilization as we know it." Not only that, but he and his minions have apparently found a way to adjust the time-space continuum so that history now moves at lightning speed and pretty much everything happens all the time.

The big news for now, of course, is the collapse of the American Health Care Act, or the Republicans' efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, or, as a reasonable person might call the AHCA, "Wealthcare." But let's look back, shall we, all the way back to that history-making Congressional hearing with FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers. Remember that? The one where Comey verified there is an ongoing FBI investigation into possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign? The one where Rogers and Comey both actually fact-checked a Trump tweet that was sent during the hearing, telling Congresspersons that what Trump claimed was not, in fact, what they were telling Congress? Seems like so long ago, right?

That was Monday. It took five days to get from that to Friday's epic Trumpcare debacle. Five. Days.

Remember back during the transition and the early days of his Presidency, when Trump was telling us all that his crew was running like a "fine-tuned machine" and that we needed to ignore any media reports to the contrary? This fine-tuned machine is not so fine-tuned after all, it seems.

(Remember the "early days of his Presidency"? Heck, he's been in office for barely two months!!!)

This brings me to my pertinent notion about the AHCA. It was an insanely flawed piece of legislation, something thrown together by GOP hacks and Paul Ryan's assistants (there's a lot of overlap there, true) that the Republicans were desperate to whip together and put up for a vote on March 23, because that was the 7th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act and there's nothing more important to Republicans than symbolism (nothing except tax cuts for the rich, I mean). So they threw together this mess of a bill, figuring their Republican majority in the House would vote for anything that got rid of Obamacare, and tried to ram it through without giving time for an official CBO score or to let people realize this bill would take health insurance away from tens of millions of Americans while at the same time giving a huge tax break to the wealthiest Americans. No time for that! What was important was:    This bill is better than Obamacare because it uses less paper.

Seriously. That was the main selling point, at least at the March 7 press conference. Not that 14 million or more Americans would lose health insurance. Not that those with incomes over $200,000 per year would receive huge tax breaks. Not that health services for the poor and elderly would become less available and more expensive. Nope - "it's better because it's smaller. See?"

Another point: One of the hallmark complaints about Obamacare from Republicans is that it was "rammed down our throats," that Democrats put together this terrible law in a tremendous rush, without proper vetting or study, and voted it through in the dead of night in a short window during which the patriotic GOP didn't have enough members in the House and Senate to stop it. Except the entire process of getting the ACA through took about 15 months, with multiple public speeches by the President to urge support, with months of debate and consideration of things like a public option, eventually resulting in a bill that should have been the health insurance industry's best buddy. Fifteen months. While the Republicans were hoping to have the AHCA put together and voted through Congress in about two months - something they threw together at the last minute even though they had the past seven years to actually develop a reasonable, thoughtful replacement. Contrast and compare, folks, and you decide which one would have been "rammed" down anybody's throat.

The rest of the AHCA saga is pretty well known by now. Hardcore House Republicans weren't happy because the bill kept too many features of the hated Obamacare. When Trump and Ryan worked to remove even more options from the bill, moderate Republicans began to waver, even as these concessions weren't enough to make the conservative side happy. So, eventually, by March 24 the whole thing fell apart without even coming to a vote in the House.

So naturally, Trump blamed Democrats for the bill's demise. Because if anyone should have stepped up to save an unpopular bill that would hurt tens of millions of Americans while putting more dollars in the pockets of the rich, while at the same time ending the landmark Obamacare legislation carried through while the Democrats held Congress ... why, of course, it should have been the Democrats, right? Pay no attention to the 237-193 GOP lead in the House, which means they could pass bills with zero Democratic votes even if 20 GOP Congress members were out of town, or avoiding town halls, or policing public bathrooms, or anything other than casting a vote in the House.

Of course, Trump was pulling out all the stops, working tirelessly to create a Deal (because he's good at those, you know), and never taking a break in the struggle ...

The total buffoonery of this administration would be pretty darn hilarious ... if only this ineptness wasn't hurting the lives of millions of Americans, making this country a laughing stock around the world, and raising the possibility of a misguided comment, tweet, or action starting some kind of armed conflict. Yeah, except for that, it would be pretty funny.

(And I'm not discounting the fact that Trump associates like Steve Bannon aren't actually inept, but truly have nefarious intentions towards progressivism and our American democracy as it's developed over the past two centuries. But as for Trump and his top appointees? Yeah, inept buffoons is pretty much on the nose.)

The GOP's 6-Step Plan To "Fix" Voting

Here's the Iowa GOP/Paul Pate/Ken Rizer approach to maintaining Republican control in the statehouse, disguised as concern about voting procedures in the state. This is not unique to Iowa, oh, no sir ... this process is a familiar one in the GOP/ALEC playbook that's been used in many states. We're just seeing it about to come to fruition here.

1) Realize demographics are against you, as the future population of Iowa will contain more groups that tend to vote Democratic instead of Republican.

2) Start planting nonsense about electoral fraud and questionable votes ("I would have won the popular vote if it wasn't for those three to five million illegal votes" "busloads of voters were brought in from out of state, ask anybody").

3) Once this has sunk in, quote polls of voters that show there's concerns about the validity of the electoral process (why, wherever might they have gotten that idea from?).

4) Come up with a Voter ID law that sounds simple to the general public ("I have to show my drivers license to buy beer, why not show it to vote?") but not-so-coincidentally puts additional hurdles in the way of certain (usually Democratic) voters - the poor, the elderly, those who don't drive. But hey! People are concerned about voter fraud! We're helping! Pay no attention to the fact this law fixes a problem that doesn't exist! Look, over there! That woman voted for Trump twice (never mind she was caught with our current laws and procedures, by the way)!

5) Claim this new process would make voting "as easy as going through the express line at the supermarket" but be sure not to appropriate any money to help the poor and elderly to obtain these magical voter ID cards.

6) Profit!

Voila! We've prevented more voters who tend to vote against us from going to the polls, while voters get deluded into a false sense of security because we fixed a nonexistent problem! Yay, Republicans!

Let's be very, very clear here. This Voter ID proposal does absolutely nothing to improve the validity of voting in Iowa. Voter impersonation - which is the only form of fraud this bill would have an effect on - is next to nonexistent. Our system of voting is not perfect, mistakes happen, things get screwed up ... but every single investigation of voter fraud in this country has found a vanishingly small amount of it.

So why are Republicans so anxious to ram through Voter ID laws, laws that would increase state and county spending, laws that fix problems that don't even exist? Is it to assuage voter fears of massive illegal voting (fears stoked by the Republicans themselves)? Well, it may do that, but the GOP wouldn't be spending tax dollars simply to make voters feel better.

What is the effect? That's what you need to look at. Voter ID laws raise the voting bar for citizens who may not have a drivers license, forcing them to jump through additional hoops just to vote. They have to make special trips to get that ID (and remember, they don't have a drivers license), perhaps produce copies of their birth certificate (do you know where your birth certificate is right now?). That tends to be the poor, the elderly, the populations that are struggling to just get by ... and oh, by the way, these groups often tend to vote Democratic. Funny how that's the case, right?

These laws are cynical, hateful, and counterproductive to democracy. Don't be misled by the hypocritical stoking of fears about voter fraud ... it practically doesn't exist, and GOP investigations have proven that fact. These laws are about one thing and one thing only - suppression of voters that tend to support your opponents.

Which problem would you rather have? Ten non-proper voters casting votes, or fifty eligible voters being prevented from voting? That's the choice the GOP is giving us, and they're banking on us taking the latter. Unfortunately, since most of those fifty voters aren't "like us," they're probably right.