The West Wing: "What Kind of Day Has It Been"

In The West Wing’s first season finale, the President’s preparations for a town hall meeting with Virginian college students is interrupted when a United States fighter jet is shot down in Iraq’s no-fly zone. Toby is concerned when the space shuttle Columbia – whose crew includes his payload specialist brother – fails to return to Earth on time, Josh meets with the Vice-President to persuade him to back the President’s agenda on campaign finance reform, and a shocking cliffhanger brings an end to our first year alongside the Bartlet administration.

The episode’s title is identical to the first season finale of Sorkin’s Sports Night, and he re-used it as a small in-joke. ‘There was just something that felt right about doing that,’ Sorkin told an online forum.(1) The title was used a third time for the series finale of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and a fourth time in the series finale of The Newsroom.

It is difficult to think of “What Kind of Day Has It Been” without thinking of its divisive cliffhanger ending, which some viewers loved and others actively hated. For now we shall put the closing moments aside, and focus on the bulk of the episode.

The West Wing: "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics"

In “Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics”, the Bartlet administration get the first taste of how the public will respond to their new “Let Bartlet be Bartlet” policy while the President and Leo continue their efforts to kick-start finance reform. Laurie finally graduates from law school, leading to a crisis for Sam when a British tabloid photographs him with her. Meanwhile C.J. faces up to her own personal crisis in confidence. The episode’s title comes from a Benjamin Disraeli quote: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.’

This is a strong episode for C.J., who has undergone the most pronounced character development of any of the regular cast so far. We started the series with her a little under-confident and overwhelmed, and we recently saw her finally stand up to the President over the media’s coverage of his daughter. Here she admits that she feels she let her workmates down over Mandy’s leaked strategy memo, and worries that Leo is marginalising her as a result. By the episode’s end she seems to have recovered her confidence – and her expectations for the President’s new opinion poll, already much higher than anyone else’s, are satisfied.

The West Wing: "Mandatory Minimums"

In “Mandatory Minimums” Bartlet throws down his gauntlet to the Republican majority leader by nominating his own picks for the Federal Election Commission. The White House staff work on a new drug enforcement policy, Josh feels awkward when Joey Lucas arrives to consult for the President, and Toby is set up for an important meeting – with his ex-wife, Congresswoman Andy Wyatt.

“Mandatory Minimums”, while continuing the storyline of Bartlet’s renewed vigour in pushing his own agenda, is focused primarily on the problem of drug enforcement. Through its characters, The West Wing questions the merits of incarcerating drug offenders over providing them with medical treatment. It also directly targets the issue of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences, and the vast disparity of sentences issued between powdered cocaine-related offences and those based around crack cocaine.

The episode’s discussions over drug enforcement gained it praise from former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Robert Stutman. Speaking on a “Drug Wars” special for PBS series Frontline, Stutman noted ‘the most intelligent discussion I’ve heard among politicians concerning the drug issue was on The West Wing’.(1)

The West Wing: "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet"

In “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet”: a hard-hitting memo is leaked that outlines all of Bartlet and his staff’s weaknesses; Sam meets with representatives of the military to discuss changing the long-standing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy; Josh sees an opportunity when two members of the Federal Election Commission resign; and Leo finally confronts Bartlet over the President’s “middle of the road” tactics.

It is an episode that seems to pull together the entire series into a single, driven narrative: for all of their idealism and small victories, the truth remains that the Bartlet administration is stuck in a rut. After more than a year in office, the President has little to show for it. He shies away from his own agendas, leaving his staff dispirited and increasingly despondent. By the episode’s climax Bartlet and his staff are renewed and invigorated, eager to make a difference with the remaining two-and-a-half years of the Bartlet Presidency. This is what the series is about for the rest of the year: Aaron Sorkin takes the momentum of this week’s events and uses it to power through the remaining three episodes.

Leo confronting Bartlet over how he’s played it safe since becoming President is yet another bit of The West Wing that seems to have its origins in The American President. In the film, President Shepherd’s Chief of Staff A.J. chastises him for shying away from a character debate with his election rival. In The West Wing, Leo chastises Bartlet from shying away from everything. It’s a wonderful scene in both the film and this episode: the Chief of Staff dropping his role, and speaking to the President as a lifelong friend.

The West Wing: "Six Meetings Before Lunch"

In “Six Meetings Before Lunch”: Mendoza is finally confirmed as Associate Chief Justice, Zoey is ambushed by a tabloid journalist, Sam and Mallory debate private school vouchers, Josh meets with an assistant attorney general candidate who favours financial reparations for slavery, C.J. must summon up the courage to stand up against the President, and Mandy is on the hunt for two pandas for the National Zoo.

In a delightful contrast to “The White House Pro-Am”, “Six Meetings Before Lunch” is an outstanding success, delivering an interwoven series of storylines that combine comedy and drama and successfully utilise the entire cast of the series – something that, until now, has been a relatively rare occurrence.

While writing this episode, Aaron Sorkin was trailed by journalist Sharon Waxman, who wrote an article – “Art Meets Politics” – about the production process of The West Wing. When discussing how his storylines came together, Sorkin used research made by the writing team on slavery reparations as an example. ‘I’ll look at the research,’ Sorkin said, ‘and start talking out loud: “That looks like a steal to me?”, “Where would we get the cash?” Once you get two people to disagree about something, you have a scene.’(1)

The West Wing: "The White House Pro Am"

In “The White House Pro-Am”, the Chair of the Federal Reserve dies of a heart attack – putting the President at odds with his own wife when she pre-emptively suggests his choice of successor. Meanwhile the First Lady’s social agenda forces a congresswoman’s hand in amending an important trade bill.

This is an unexpectedly lacklustre episode, which makes the mistake of drawing its drama out of a conflict between Jed and Abbey Bartlet. Jed is snippy because his administration’s best choice to replace the Federal Reserve Chair is Abbey’s ex-boyfriend of three decades ago. This kind of behaviour doesn't sit well with what we’ve previously seen the character say and do. It feels cheap and unusually domestic. With Jed’s 30 year-old jealousy as a very shaky foundation for the episode, it’s no surprise that the rest of the action it inspires is so weak.

The tragedy is that there’s a lot of dramatic potential in exploring the relationship between the offices of the President and of the First Lady. Sadly it’s not Sorkin who fully exploits this idea, but rather it’s Eli Attie in Season 5’s “Constituency of One”.

The West Wing: "20 Hours in L.A."

In “20 Hours in L.A.”, the President flies to Los Angeles for a Hollywood fundraiser and to discuss amendments to the Constitution banning burning the American flag. Back in Washington, Leo presses the Vice President to vote in favour of an ethanol tax credit – a credit that Hoynes has always opposed.

For the first time The West Wing stretches its legs, moving out of Washington D.C. for a week and allowing the series to explore some new angles on the American political system. The episode is based around a Democratic Party fundraiser hosted by Hollywood film producer Ted Marcus (Bob Balaban), and it goes a long way to demonstrate how valuable these money-gathering exercises are. Politics is an expensive business, and requires all politicians – even the President of the United States – to do a little negotiation and hand-holding with America’s super-rich.

The West Wing: "Celestial Navigation"

While Sam and Toby head cross-country to rescue a Supreme Court Justice nominee, Josh speaks to a group of political studies students and recounts a day that features root canals, a Cabinet Secretary flying off the handle and a non-existent secret plan to fight inflation.

Far and away the most interesting part of “Celestial Navigation” is its structure. The episode employs a slightly complex non-linear narrative. Josh is appearing at a university political science lecture, where to give the students an idea of life in the West Wing he recounts the last 36 hours of his job.

The episode could have very simply flashed back and forwards between Josh describing his day, and then those scenes playing out. Instead Sorkin, Myers and O’Donnell add another plot line, contemporaneous to Josh’s lecture, in which Sam and Toby head out to Connecticut in the middle of the night to free Judge Roberto Mendoza from a police station lock-up. If you imagine a typical story structure as a short, wide rectangle, with a number of plots occurring alongside each other, and a flashback-heavy non-linear story structure as a narrow, long rectangle, with a number of plots occurring one after the other, then “Celestial Navigation” is in the odd position of having an “L”-shaped plot. Things flash back and forth, but they’re happening at the same time as well. It’s clever stuff, and Sorkin will return to this kind of non-linear storytelling several times as the series progresses (notably in “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen”, “Noël”, “Two Cathedrals”, “Manchester” and “Bartlet for America”).

The West Wing: "Take This Sabbath Day"

“Take This Sabbath Day” is unlike most West Wing episodes in that it concerns itself with only two storylines. In the smaller of the two, Josh meets with political campaign manager Joey Lucas after her Democratic candidate has been deliberately under-funded by the party. In the larger of the two, President Bartlet has two days to determine whether or not to commute the death sentence of a man convicted of drug-related murders.

This is, like “Mr Willis of Ohio”, very much an issues-based episode. In that episode the focus was in part on explaining the importance of the United States census to the viewers. In this episode the focus is far more direct and dynamic: it is almost entirely concerned with the issue of capital punishment. A Federal prisoner, Simon Cruz, fails on a Friday night to have his death penalty overturned by the US Supreme Court. As the state does not execute its prisoners on the Sabbath, his execution is scheduled for midnight on Monday morning. That gives his legal team two days to convince the President to commute the sentence by executive privilege.

The West Wing: "Take Out the Trash Day"

In “Take Out the Trash Day”: the West Wing staff debate how to best respond to a controversial sex education study, the long-gestating hate crimes legislation is about to be signed, Josh and Sam meet with an appropriations subcommittee intended to expose Leo’s drug abuse history, and Toby battles a group of congressman over the Public Broadcasting Service.

This is an odd episode, which feels partly recycled and at the same time partly redundant. The sex education study only really serves two purposes: firstly, it adds some easy comedy moments, and secondly it puts something on the table with which the characters can bargain with to avoid a lengthy and messy hearing about Leo’s alcoholism and drug addiction.

James Handy played Congressman Joseph Bruno, who meets with Sam and Josh to discuss the possible hearing into Leo’s scandal. He returns in Season 3’s “Bartlet for America”. Handy had previously played Estevez in Bird (1988), Milton Briggs in Arachnophobia (1990), and guest starred in multi-episode arcs on NYPD Blue, Alias, Melrose Place and Profiler (1997-98). Bruno’s conversation with Sam and Josh is a highlight of the episode. Sharp, intelligent, and sensible, he not only gives both of them a well-earned piece of his mind, but also reminds the audience that not every Republican in the series is going to be a moustache-twirling villain.

The West Wing: "He Shall, From Time to Time..."

In “He Shall, From Time to Time...” the preparations for Bartlet’s second State of the Union address are thrown into disarray when the President collapses in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Leo faces the press over his past abuse of prescription drugs and alcohol. On top of everything else, the India-Pakistan conflict continues to develop.

‘I worried over the episode,’ said Aaron Sorkin, ‘when Bartlet collapsed and was diagnosed with MS. That wasn’t a particularly strong show.’(1) Sorkin shouldn’t have worried. Without warning, “He Shall, From Time to Time...” rushes up to its audience and rips the rug right out from under its feet. This is a game-changing episode that comes to redefine The West Wing’s central character, and forge a new direction for seasons to come.

The episode’s title, “He Shall, From Time to Time...”, comprises the opening words of the passage in the executive powers section of the Constitution which deals with the State of the Union address. The State of the Union is an annual address given by the President to a joint session of the United States Congress. It exists for the President to report on the state of the American nation, but is generally used by the President to outline his or her administration’s legislative agenda for the coming year. The address is derived from the United Kingdom’s annual Speech from the Throne (as Leo notes, it dates back to Parliament), and is required by the United States Constitution. As a part of the traditional process, the President must be officially invited by Congress to enter the House of Representatives Chamber.

The West Wing: "Lord John Marbury"

Comedy and drama mix in their usual fashion in this 11th episode of The West Wing, as India invades Kashmir, Josh learns the real target of Claypool's investigation into White House drug abuse, and the United Kingdom gets a new ambassador to the USA.

According to Patrick Caddell, who is co-credited for both the story and teleplay of “Lord John Marbury”, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said this episode was one of the best expositions on foreign policy on television that she had ever seen.(1)

The episode is based on a very real tension that exists in the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan. Once again The West Wing draws a real-life issue from the headlines and presents it in a digestible manner for a mass audience. If you didn’t know about military tensions between India and Pakistan before, after “Lord John Marbury” you’re working from a very solid foundation. In fact, in a rare case of a television drama being a little too much on the money, India actually invaded Kashmir two weeks after this episode went to air in the USA.

The West Wing: "In Excelsis Deo"

In the lead-up to Christmas: Sam and Josh try dragging Laurie into an attack plan to save Leo’s career, the President sneaks out of the White House to buy antique books, the violent murder of a young gay man pushes hate crime legislation back onto the agenda, and the random discovery of a business card leads Toby to a dead homeless Korean veteran – and a mission to give him a proper burial.

‘It was such a powerful and moving story,’ Richard Schiff noted. ‘After every take, I broke down and cried.’(1)

“In Excelsis Deo” is the best episode of The West Wing’s first season. It does everything that the series has been doing so far, only it does it better and with such surgical precision that it rises head and shoulders above what’s been aired before. From hereon in, this is the new standard for excellence in the series. It juggles numerous storylines, but it also juggles comedy and drama. It provokes genuine laughs, and follows them up with poignant and serious moments. It fools around with the audience in a light-hearted manner – this is the Christmas episode after all – and then spontaneously punctures that light-heartedness with something heartbreaking.

The West Wing: "The Short List"

In “The Short List”, President Bartlet has the chance to make a mark in history by nominating a Supreme Court Justice, and an ambitious Republican congressman on the House Government Oversight Committee makes a shocking allegation against the White House staff – with severe repercussions for Leo.

First, a note of explanation. The United States Supreme Court is the highest judicial body in the USA, and consists of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. All nine positions are nominated by the President and confirmed with a majority vote of the Senate. Once appointed, Justices hold their positions for life: which means opportunities to nominate a new Justice come few and far between, and partisan politics being what it is it is a monumental struggle for an Administration to get the Justice appointed that they want. So the opportunity for the Bartlet Administration to nominate a new Associate Justice is a big deal. It is, in fact, the single most significant act Bartlet will perform in his first year in office.

The West Wing: "Enemies"

In “Enemies”: Danny Concannon chases a story that the President gave the Vice President a dressing down in a cabinet meeting, a last minute rider threatens to kill an important banking bill, and Leo’s daughter Mallory asks Sam out to the opera.

Aaron Sorkin’s lateness with scripts was apparent pretty much as soon as production on The West Wing began. He was, at the time, writing or co-writing every episode of both The West Wing and Sports Night, and with his late scripts came late call-outs for actors, late shoots and large cost over-runs. As Sorkin noted to Charlie Rose in 2003: ‘'Out of the 88 episodes I did, we were on time at at budget... never. Not once.’(1)

Eventually something was going to give way, and it gave way here: eight episodes in The West Wing has its first episode written without Sorkin’s involvement. In the first four seasons of the series, only two other episodes would be written without the show’s creator: “Swiss Diplomacy” and “The Long Goodbye”.

The West Wing: "The State Dinner"

In “The State Dinner”: the FBI has a survivalist compound under siege, a Class-4 hurricane is bearing down on a naval carrier group, a national trucker’s union is threatening to go on strike, and the President and First Lady must host the titular state dinner with the President of Indonesia.

“The State Dinner” is an episode about failure. We watch over 42 minutes as the President fails, Toby fails, Mandy fails and Sam fails. For this viewer it is ultimately a story about powerlessness. The President begins the episode as the most powerful man in the developed world. He ends it helpless, sitting by a telephone talking to a young man with minutes to live.

The episode is the first to feature the First Lady, Dr Abigail “Abbey” Bartlet M.D. The character was mentioned in the pilot, but did not appear until now. The role is performed by Stockard Channing.

The West Wing: "Mr Willis of Ohio"

In “Mr Willis of Ohio”: Toby and Mandy must sell an important commerce bill to a group of congressman – including Mr Joe Willis of Ohio, who has assumed his late wife’s office, C.J. needs Sam to explain the census to her, and President Bartlet learns that Leo’s wife has left him.

Former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart was a big fan of the episode: ‘They did a program where a third of the episode involved a recurring story line, and it was the debate on census and statistical sampling. And they did a better job of framing the issue, the politics on each side, and the passions on each side, than anybody in the broadcast world did throughout this debate.’(1)

‘I thought Aaron was crazy,’ said Allison Janney, ‘I read that, and I was like, “Well this is going to be the most boring thing ever.” And then as we did it, we had such a good time, and I learned, right along with C.J., as did my friends who watched the show. And now I can guarantee you everyone who saw the show is going to fill out their census because they saw how, and they learned how, important it actually was and what it means.’(2)

Richard Schiff said: ‘That Aaron can make things like the census as fascinating as he does on the show is a benefit for anyone who watches.’(3)

The West Wing: "The Crackpots and These Women"

In “The Crackpots and These Women”, Leo McGarry’s pet project sees C.J. talking about wolves and Sam talking about UFOs. Meanwhile, Josh receives a security card with big implications for his future – and his peace of mind. Finally the President’s youngest daughter Zoey arrives at the White House.

At the episode’s opening we are introduced to “Big Block of Cheese Day”, Leo’s appointed day where groups and organisations usually unable to get an audience with Presidential staff are invited into the White House, and their proposals, issues and grievances are heard. It's named, according to a speech already mocked by Leo's staff, after a day when President Andrew Jackson received an enormous block of cheese and chose to share it with the people of Washington.

Believe it or not, Andrew Jackson really did have a big block of cheese. It weighed two tons and sat in the White House foyer for two years between 1837 and 1839 before Jackson cut it open for a well-attended public cheese tasting. This is one of the reasons I love The West Wing. You're never going to learn a weird moment of history like that watching Stargate Atlantis.

The West Wing: "Five Votes Down"

A critical bill to ban a range of automatic firearms unexpectedly stalls, forcing the White House staff to work around the clock to claw back the five crucial votes needed for the bill to pass the House of Representatives. Toby finds himself in hot water over his share investments, and Leo’s marriage crumbles in the face of his duty to the President.

“Five Votes Down” is a significant episode because it is The West Wing’s first proper attempt at basing a story around the American political process. Five votes are needed to get an anti-gun bill passed through Congress, and the episode actually goes some length to show the means by which an Administration will go about securing those votes – and ensuring the bill is passed.

As with “A Proportional Response”, the episode is derived in part from material developed by Sorkin for The American President. The film included an extremely similar anti-gun bill, and depicted a similar race to secure congressional votes to get it passed.

The West Wing: "A Proportional Response"

A journalist has discovered Sam has befriended a call girl. Josh interviews a candidate to be the President’s new personal aide. Meanwhile Bartlet threatens to fly off the rails with the Joint Chiefs when a Syrian attack takes down a United States military aircraft – an attack Bartlet has taken personally.

“A Proportional Response” has its origins in The American President, where Aaron Sorkin had President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) ask the exact same question as President Bartlet – what is the value of a proportional response? With so much of The West Wing derived from that film, and with so many scenes of the American President screenplay cut before production, it's not surprising to see Sorkin pick parts of it up and re-purpose them.

It is an episode in which all three central plot threads – Bartlet and the Joint Chiefs, Sam and CJ, and Josh and Charlie – concern themselves with perception versus reality. For Bartlet, the retaliatory strikes offered to him seem meaningless and insufficient until he is presented with a scenario for what the US military could actually do. For Sam, the difference between the reality of his friendship with Laurie and the perception it will create in the media is intolerable. For Josh, the concern is how Charlie Young – an Africian American – will look holding the President’s bag and opening the door for him. Three separate plot strands, all with a single core problem – whether to care about how things look over what they actually are.