The first ever episode of the west wing gives us nice introductions to the characters we later grow to love.
main stories of the episode:
Josh arguing with Mary Marsh on a TV show [Capital beat?] telling her that the 'God she believes in is too busy being indicted for tax fraud' this leads to the President telling Leo to fire him
Sam meets and sleeps with Laurie, he mixes up pagers with him and Sam eventually discovers Laurie is a call girl
Jed crashes Leo's bike into a tree spraining his ankle and causing yet another PR nightmare.
Nice parts of the episode
Leo walking thru the White house to his office and the fantastic way it is shot, giving us a real indication that this show is going to be something special
The Presidents entrance, perhaps the best introduction of any character - it is when Toby, Josh and CJ are with Mary Marsh and Al Caldwell arguing over Josh's previous comments
| QUOTE |
"The First Commandment says, "Honor Thy Father."
"No, it doesn't," Toby states.... "Honor thy Father is the Third Commandment."
"Then what's the First Commandment?"
A voice answers from off screen, sounding like's it's from 'on high',
"I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt worship no other God before me. Boy those were the days, huh?"
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Turns out the answer came from the President who limps in.
Sam is great in this episode, he has real difficulty trying to talk to the 4th graders, and chatting to Mallory outside
| QUOTE |
Ms. O’Brian, I understand your feelings, but please believe me when I tell you that I’m a nice guy having a bad day. I just found out the Times is publishing a poll that says a considerable portion of Americans feel that the White House has lost energy and focus. A perception that’s not likely to be altered by the video footage of the President riding his bicycle into a tree. As we speak, the Coast Guard are fishing Cubans out of the Atlantic Ocean while the Governor of Florida wants to blockade the Port of Miami. A good friend of mine’s about to get fired for going on television and making sense, and it turns out I accidentally slept with a prostitute last night. Now. Would you please, in the name of compassion, tell me which one of those kids is my boss’s daughter.
MALLORY: That would be me.
SAM: You.
MALLORY: Yes.
SAM: Leo’s daughter’s fourth grade class.
MALLORY: Yes.
SAM[pause] Well, this is bad on so many levels.
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Things that don’t make sense;
Sam mispronounces Toby’s surname when talking to the 4th Graders
Leo tells Josh that the President wants to fire him, yet in 2 Cathedrals Jed refers to him as ‘my son’
Sam would surely know that Mallory is a teacher, and not a 4th grader, wouldn’t he have met her on he campaign trail or at least seen a picture of her?
Useless facts time.....
The hotel that Sam meets Laurie is the four seasons hotel, where Sorkin lived whilst writing the American President
What did Sam say to the 4th graders? I played my DVD over and over again and I'm sure he didn't mispronounce. He said "Toby Ziegler".
It's just the way he says it, sounds wrong! But I stand corrected
This is a great episode - I watched it again the other day and really enjoyed it. You get to see the people who work behind the President and not just the outward face of the administration, which I think was the point of the show in the first place. There are so many great moments in this episode:
Sam's conversation with Laurie when he reveals who POTUS really is
Leo walking through the front of the White House
Sam and Mallory as well as Sam's funny dialogue with the fourth graders
Josh and Donna and the coffee
And, of course, Toby not getting his peanuts