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

August 22, 2014 11:22 AM - Season 1, Episode 16

During a quick trip to L.A., Bartlet meets his daughter's new Secret Service agent and attends a fund-raiser at the home of a movie executive.

President Bartlet and several of his staff head to Los Angeles for a whirlwind visit that is topped off by a star-studded fundraiser hosted by a wealthy film honcho who threatens to cancel the bash unless Bartlet announces his opposition to a congressional bill banning gays in the military. Back in Washington, Leo tries to convince a stubborn Vice President Hoynes to break the Senate voting deadlock over an ethanol tax credit favored by the White House. Elsewhere, Josh learns that feisty campaign manager Joey Lucas is staying in his Los Angeles hotel and he eagerly anticipates seeing her again. The President takes a meeting where he is warned about not supporting an amendment banning flag-burning and checks up on Secret Service security for his daughter Zoey -- and is unafraid to close down a restaurant where she's lunching.

Airdate: Februrary 23, 2000
Director: Alan Taylor
Writer: Sorkin
Yeah Count: 28
And here begins the Mandy wind-down, as she doesn't speak or even appear in this episode, which is all about the president and the media. You'd think the media consultant would be in on that.

posted by ApathyGirl (4 comments total)

"The character that had most training [was probably] Gina Toscano – she was one of 200 people on the planet that knew how to do what she did. So that was really cool to play her.
...
It was amazing. The year was 2000 -- there was a presidential election. We had the Democratic National Convention in LA that year, and there was a warm, sort of friendly relationship between the Clinton administration and The West Wing. So we were invited to go every night, we were invited to the White House Correspondents dinner in Clinton's last year. I got to go places and meet people that I would have never been able to meet and I felt so honored to be part of all that.

I've always had a naïve sense of romance about politics. I think it's interesting and what politicians do is really cool – the idea of it, going to Washington to serve your area or state, your country. That's a very noble pursuit. It was really wonderful for me to be a part of all that, to hear Gore speak on the floor that year. At the time of the Democratic National Convention – he was ahead by so much that everybody thought that we were seeing the future. It was a big shock to a lot of people when his numbers started to fall and there was that big debacle.

When I left The West Wing, I really thought I'd be back there because I thought that CSI would fall flat on its face. A show about death on a Friday night would never fly -- people wouldn’t be interested in it. Aaron Sorkin never wrote off any of his characters. With the amount of characters on the show, and the amount of people coming and going – he felt that's all he'd ever do was try to explain somebody's arrival and somebody's departure so for the most part characters would disappear into thin air."
- Jorja Fox

"PopGurls Interview: CSI's Jorja Fox"
by Amy
April 4, 2007
PopGurls
posted by ApathyGirl at 1:46 PM on August 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

Ah the Continuity Klein Bottle: at the fundraiser, Donna spots (offscreen) Matthew Perry and moves toward him. In about three seasons, Joe Quincy, played by Matthew Perry, arrives on TWW. Whom does Donna see at the fundraiser?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:59 AM on August 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

The Al Kiefer/Joey Lucas awkwardness in the hotel room was pretty perfect Josh, especially with the fact that Donna more or less forced him to go down. But actually there was a lot of great stuff in this.
posted by ambrosen at 2:45 PM on August 26, 2014

I love Charlie. So many great lines, often just throwaways or afterthoughts.

CHARLIE
Sir, wouldn't it be easier back at the hotel?

BARTLET
Yeah, but the hotel wouldn't make the guacamole right in front of me.

CHARLIE
How much do you want to bet they would?
posted by terilou at 10:50 AM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]