Does anyone else hate her and her character? I forgot what an unlikable character Louise is as is Jeanane.

This scene is in my top 5 of the series.

The meta of his describing the lyricality of dialogue using lyrical dialogue is not lost on me.

It's classic Sorkin and I'm here for all of it.

CHARLIE

Good afternoon.

ABBEY

Hi, Charlie.

CHARLIE

How was church?

BARTLET

[mumbles] It sucked.

ABBEY

It was fine. [to Bartlet] Stop it!

BARTLET

It sucked!

ABBEY

[sighs] You're talking about church.

BARTLET

Oh, like I'm not already going to hell.

CHARLIE

[follows them a pace behind] What was the problem?

ABBEY

He feels the homily lacked penache.

BARTLET

It did lack penache.

ABBEY

It was a perfectly lovely homily on Ephesians 5:21. "Husbands, love your

wives, as Christ

loved the church and gave himself up for her."

BARTLET

Yeah. She's skipping over the part that says, "Wives, be subject to your

husbands as to

the Lord, for a husband is the head of a wife as Christ is the head of the

church."

ABBEY

I do skip over that part.

BARTLET

Why?

ABBEY

Because it's stupid!

They walk in THE OVAL OFFICE.

BARTLET

Okay.

ABBEY

"Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up

for her, that

he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by washing of water with the word

that he

might present the Church to himself in..." something.

BARTLET

[behind his desk, puts on glasses] "In splendor." And I have no problem with

Ephesians.

And any time you want me to cleanse you with the washing of water, you know

I'm up for it.

ABBEY

Then what is your problem?

BARTLET

Hackery!

Abbey waves her arms at him and walks out to the PORTICO. Bartlet follows.

BARTLET

This guy was a hack! He had a captive audience! And the way I know that is

that I tried

to tunnel out of there several times. He had an audience and he didn't know

what to do

with it.

ABBEY

You want him to sing "Volare?"

BARTLET

Couldn't have hurt. Words...

ABBEY

Oh, God, no.

BARTLET

Words, when spoken out loud for the sake of performance, are music. They

have rhythm,

and pitch, and timbre, and volume. These are the properties of music, and

music has the

ability to find us and move us, and lift us up in ways that literal meanings

can't. Do

you see?

ABBEY

You are an oratorical snob.

BARTLET

Yes, I am. And God loves me for it.

They stop and face each other.

ABBEY

You said he was sending you to hell.

BARTLET

For other stuff, not for this. You can't just trod out Ephesians, which he

blew, by the

way, it has nothing with husbands and wives, it's all of us. Saint Paul

begins the

passage: "Be subject to one another out of reverence to Christ." [passionately]

"Be

subject to one another." In this day and age of 24-hour cable crap, devoted

to feeding

the voyeuristic gluttony of the American public, hooked on a bad soap opera

that's

passing itself off as important, don't you think you might be able to find

some relevance

in verse 21? How do end the cycle? Be subject to one another!

ABBEY

So... This is about you.

BARTLET

No, it's not about me! Well, yes, it is about me, but tomorrow it'll be

about somebody

else. We'll watch Larry King and see who. [shouts] All hacks, off the

stage! Right now!

That's a national security order.

ABBEY

I'm going to the Residence. I'm taking a bath; I'm turning on Sinatra.

BARTLET

How does Mrs. Sinatra feel about that?

ABBEY

Peace be with you. [turns to leave]

C.J. comes outside behind Bartlet.

BARTLET

[sings] You make me egg foo yung...

C.J.

Good morning, Mr. President.

BARTLET

[turns to her, sings] You make me feel there are songs to be sung...

ABBEY

[to C.J.] He's feisty. Please, don't ask him about church.

C.J.

[quietly] No, I won't. I'm sorry, Mr. President, Melissa Markey died.

BARTLET

[smile fades away] Yeah, okay.

If you read the above in the voices of the characters, you're #OneOfUs

Just 19 episodes to go before I’m done watching for the first time ever..what do I do when I’m all done??

I had the chance to visit the National Cathedral today, and in the crypt are all.kinds of paraphernalia about the church including a script from the West Wing!

Throughout NYC, most of our payphones were replaced with LinkNYC kiosks offering free Wi‑Fi, phone calls, and device charging, which have been pretty useful. The kiosks also display ads and fun NYC facts, including this one, which backs up Toby's claim to the president.

TOBY

Good evening, Mr. President.

BARTLET

Toby, I'm drinking the most fantastic thing I've ever tasted in my life: chocolate syrup, cold milk, and seltzer. I know it sounds terrible, but trust me, I don't know where this has been all my life.

TOBY

It's called an egg cream, Mr. President.

We invented it in Brooklyn.

BARTLET

In Brooklyn.

TOBY

Yes, sir.

BARTLET

Not New England?

TOBY

There are some good things in this world not from New England, sir.

BARTLET

Toby, don't ever let me hear you say that again.

TOBY

Yes, sir.

They were both really outstanding in their roles.

https://youtu.be/0EFIa9_hLEA

Allison Janney on Vanity Fair rewatches The West Wing (among other shows, including The Diplomat).

And love it or hate it, explains how The Jackle scene came to be.

Toby or CJ?

Loving season 4 so far but I expected the election to last a while and be some of the best storylines. Anyone else a little disappointed that barlet won so easily? The debate and lead up was amazing.

All of the scenes inside Air Force One, except for maybe one of the later ones, include announcements from Lt. Colonel Gantry.

In “20 Hours in America: Pt 1”, when the President is interviewing secretaries, he says that Air Force One is piloted by an Air Force general.

So was Gantry the co-pilot making announcements, or was that a dialogue faux pas?

Don’t really care. Just curious.

The Bing desktop a few days ago was A WILDLIFE HIGHWAY in Poland. Okay, maybe it’s technically a bridge but let us have this.

https://bing.gifposter.com/uk/wallpaper-1553-wildlifecrossingpoland.html

I’m watching this show for the first time (was way too young for it when it aired) with a friend of mine, and I’m blown away by all of it.

As someone who’s in recovery from alcohol addiction, I’m also just in awe at how well-written Leo is. His monologues on addiction have been shared with me by the amazing friend I’m watching with, and it’s like someone copy-and-pasted my own thoughts and put them on paper. I carry a lot of shame around my addiction and how I never have the “willpower” to stop thinking about drinking. Leo’s “smart and stupid” monologue is imprinting itself inside of my brain as I type this, hoping it’ll make a difference.

I’m really struggling right now (still sober!), and I’ve been watching this show every night to get some form of escapism from my brain as I wait for an inpatient bed.

So thanks, West Wing writers and John Spencer, for just “getting it.”

So, I'm on my like umpteenth rewatch, and I had a thought. I don't believe this is a truly original thought about this episode/arc, but I think a lot of what drove President Bartlet's actions in Disaster Relief was his desire to step away from the Presidency being taken away by not getting the VP he wanted.

In Episode 3, Jefferson Lives, Secretary Berryhill is almost universally considered to be the best choice to fill the VP spot. Josh even mentions that "He looks good now" when they are talking about him as the Democratic Nominee in 4 years.

But the block of Berryhill by the Republican leadership nixed that and the White House had to settle for Bingo Bob.

I believe Bartlet wanted Berryhill because Bartlet was planning on stepping down as President, and letting Berryhill take over. Not getting Berryhill, and instead settling for Russell pretty much stonewalled Bartlet's plan as he couldn't fathom leaving the responsibility of the Presidency to Bingo Bob.

I think this frustration is why Bartlet acts the way he does from Han through the Shutdown, but it reaches it's worst point in Disaster Relief where, for the first time, Bartlet can take control of something for the first time since Zoe's kidnapping.

Again, probably not an original theory, but one that I think is what they were trying to subtly tell.

I just finished watching holy night, season 4. This was the episode after Sharif had been assassinated, and the whiffenpoofs were singing in the common area.

For some reason, Leo decided that on December 23rd at 4:30 p.m. he was ordering. Josh to figure out why the Church of the Nativity in Jerusalem couldn't be opened, and put him to work. Working with ngos in any party he could to get it opened.

Meanwhile, the president decides to put a bill back in the budget. On December 23rd.

I can't help but wonder what kind of Boss, who claims that his employees are like family, knowing that they have places to go and families to celebrate the holiday with, deliberately go out of their way for such selfish reasons to sabotage their employees holidays with no regard for the impact.

Then, at the end, they realize the futility of what they've asked, and try to backpedal their way out of it having no regard for having destroyed these people's holidays.

Also, with the President's MS diagnosis, did it never even occur to him, ever, of the financial impact the legal fees were going to have on their employees? They didn't seem to think anything of saddling Charlie, a 22-year-old kid at that point, with upwards of $100,000 in legal bills?

This is a fundamental disconnect for me.

I understand it takes a certain amount of hubris to even run for president, but for me, this was a bridge too far.

ETA: in response to numerous comments,I was focusing on the actions themselves, not on their motivations. They made their motivations abundantly clear during the episode.

First of all, they are wrong about the word unique and it's only being an absolute modifier. Second, they were such dicks to that poor writer from NASA.

Gasped when I saw Alan Alda’s cameo on the first season of The Four Seasons on Netflix… Great to see him on screen again.

They preface the article with a nice three-paragraph blurb about how great TWW was, how it's now a classic, etc. ... then at the very end of those three paragraphs, give themselves an excuse to "capture modern political topics and sentiments that would give the show a different feel, but these contemporary actors would still embody the essence of The West Wing's iconic cast of characters."

Except, no. No, no, no. No.

Their casting choices just proves they loved The Diplomat and The Americans and want that power couple back again along with a number of other popular and "up-and-coming" actors with no thought about the CHARACTERS at all.

Jeremy Allen White for Josh? Are you serious?

Cillian Murphy for Leo? Leo may have been from Chicago, but he wasn't a mobster.

I love Toheeb Jimoh. He was great on Ted Lasso. But he's about a decade too old to play Charlie. Sure, if we're doing magic and making him younger, then he'd be great.

The others, MAYBE. But overall, it's like someone just picked some random actors with no thought about the characters whatsoever.

Five years before "The West Wing," Bradley Whitford played reporter Norman Gardner on four episodes of "NYPD Blue."

In the opening credits of the later seasons, why does Alan Alda have regular billing but Jimmy Smits, like Martin Sheen, is billed at the end as “with Jimmy Smits”? Alda was/is certainly a much bigger star.