This is a time for heroes and we reach for the stars
Via Daisy, o mirifica selectie a motivelor pentru care iubim serialul The West Wing:
Two Cathedrals [2.22]
Bartlet: You’re a son-of-a-bitch, you know that? She bought her first new car and you hit her with a drunk driver. What, was that supposed to be funny? “You can’t conceive, nor can I, the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God,” says Graham Greene. I don’t know whose ass he was kissing there ’cause I think you’re just vindictive. What was Josh Lyman? A warning shot? That was my son. What did I ever do to yours except praise his glory and praise his name? There’s a tropical storm that gaining speed and power. They say we haven’t had a storm this bad since you took out that tender ship of mine in the north Atlantic last year, 68 crew. Do you know what a tender ship does? Fixes the other ships. Doesn’t even carry guns, just goes around, fixes the other ships and delivers the mail, that’s all it can do. Gratias tibi ago, domine. Yes, I lied. It was a sin. I’ve committed many sins. Have I displeased you, you feckless thug? 3.8 million new jobs, that wasn’t good? Bailed out Mexico, increased foreign trade, 30 million new acres of land for conservation, put Mendoza on the bench, we’re not fighting a war, I’ve raised three children… that’s not enough to buy me out of the doghouse? Haec credam a deo pio? A deo iusto? A deo scito? Cruciatus in crucem! Tuus in terra servus nuntius fui officium perfeci. Cruciatus in crucem. Eas in crucem!
[Translation from the Latin: I give thanks to you, O Lord. Am I to believe those were the acts of a loving God? A just God? A wise God? To hell with your punishments! I was your servant on Earth - I spread Your word and did Your work. To hell with your punishments. To hell with you.]
Manchester Part 1 (3.01)
Sandy: Can you tell us right now if you’ll be seeking a second term?
Bartlet: Yeah. And I’m gonna win.
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part One (2.01)
Toby: Josh was hit.
Donna: Hit with what? I don’t understand.
What Kind of Day Has It Been [1.22]
Gina: Get down!
Six Meetings Before Lunch [1.18]
Sam: Believe me, if you haven’t seen C.J. do “The Jackal”, then you haven’t seen Shakespeare the way it’s meant to be done.
Noël [2.10]
Josh struggles with disguising his post traumatic stress.
Stanley: What happened three weeks ago?
Josh: I don’t know what you’re referring to.
Stanley: I don’t know what I’m referring to either, but some of the people you work with became concerned with your behavior three weeks ago.
Josh: Well, I’ve been concerned with their behavior since long before that.
Game On [4.06]
This was something of a return to form that became, for me, one of my favourite moments. Leading up to the live debates, panic ensues last minute. All highly charged and full of nervous apprehension they rush to the stage, for Bartlet to completely kick ass and blow everyone away with his awesomeness. Hehe.
Bartlet: “Unfunded mandate” is two words, not one big word.
The Women of Qumar [3.08]
CJ: How about instead of suggesting that we sell the guns to them, suggesting that we shoot the guns at them. And by the way, not to change the subject, but how are we supposed to have any moral credibility when we talk about gun control and making sure guns don’t get into the hands of the wrong people? God, Nancy, what the hell are we defining as the right people?
20 Hours in America, Part One [4.01]
Josh, Toby and Donna get accidentally left behind on the campaign.
Bartlet: (on Josh and Toby) Three hundred IQ points between them, they can’t find their way home. I swear to God, if Donna wasn’t there, they’d have to buy a house.
Manchester, Part One [3.01]
CJ messes things up in the briefing and considers resigning. Allison is awesome and the moment is painful.
17 People [2.18]
Josh: I’m just sayin’ – if you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for a beer.
Donna: If you were in an accident, I wouldn’t stop for red lights.
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part Two [2.02]
Toby: CJ, you fell into the pool there.
Let Bartlet Be Bartlet [1.19]
I think Bartlet and Leo had the most beautiful relationship ever portrayed on television. And I loved the idea of two guys that truly believe speaking now should be more important than re-election.
Leo: If we’re going to walk into walls, I want us running into them at full speed. We’re going to lose some of these battles, and we may lose the White House, but we’re not going to be threatened by issues. We’re going to bring ‘em front and center. We’re going to raise the level of public debate in this country and let that be our legacy.
Twenty-Five [4.23]
Walken: Relax everybody. Breathe regular.
The Crackpots and These Women [1.05]
Toby: It’s not so much that you cheat sir, its how brazenly bad you are it.
Bartlet: Give me an example.
Toby: In Florida, playing mixed doubles with me and C.J., you tried to tell us your partner worked at the American Consulate in Vienna.
Bartlet: She did.
Toby: It was Steffi Graf.
Bartlet: I’ll admit the woman bore a striking resemblance to her.
Toby: You crazy lunatic, you think I’m not going to recognize Steffi Graf when she’s serving a tennis ball at me?
Inauguration, Over There [4.15]
Shamed to attend the Inaugural ball after covering for her boyfriend’s slip-up Donna stays home, but on discovering her innocence Josh drags Danny, Toby, Will and Charlie into a limo to go throw snow at her window and bring her to the ball. She looks gorgeous and it is all fairytale perfect when he tells her she looks fantastic. She smiles and fan-girls the world over melt.
Danny: Where’s Donna?
Josh: She’s sitting in her apartment in a ball gown.
Danny: Waiting for a ball to come over?
The Midterms [2.03]
Bartlet: Good. I like your show. I like how you call homosexuality an abomination.
Dr. Jenna Jacobs: I don’t say homosexuality is an abomination, Mr. President. The Bible does.
Bartlet: Yes it does. Leviticus.
Dr. Jenna Jacobs: 18:22.
Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I have you here. I’m interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She’s a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of Staff Leo McGarry insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police? Here’s one that’s really important because we’ve got a lot of sports fans in this town: touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those questions, would you? One last thing: while you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, in this building, when the President stands, nobody sits.
The Cold [7.13]
Ultimately I think I had imagined it happening in a slightly more romantic way, but given their history it was always going to be accidental and awkward, which on reflection, I love even more than any way I could have imagined it.
Donna: [on who's been seeing who?] I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.
Will: Yours is Josh. You’re not cryptic.
Shibboleth [2.08]
So funny I almost cannot take it. Donna turns up with Turkeys and the guys direct her to put them in CJ’s office simultaneously and completely dead-pan.
CJ: Every time we come up on a holiday, you guys check out like seniors who are done with finals.
Toby: We are writing a very important Thanksgiving proclamation.
Sam: And possibly a new action-adventure series.
Institutional Memory [7.21]
Forgive me. But I cried.
Danny: I want us to talk like we’re gonna figure it out together. I want us to talk…because I like the sound of your voice.
Gaza [5.21]
Donna explodes. Dude. You just cannot. It’s Donna damn it.
In this White House [2.04]
Josh: Toby, come quick, Sam’s getting his ass kicked by a girl.
Toby: Ginger, get the popcorn.
18th and Potomac [2.21]
Mrs Landingham departs.
Impact Winter [6.09]
Crippled by an M.S. attack the President breaks down emotionally. How awesome is Martin Sheen? I mean, really, everyone says so…but so consistently and always and so SO much.
Bartlet: I can’t do the job Abbey.
17 People [2.18]
The President tells Toby about his MS. This was a completely awesome episode. Toby at his darkest and best.
Toby: The Vice President’s authority was murky at best. The National Security Advisor and the Secretary of State didn’t know who they were taking their orders from. I wasn’t in the situation room that night but I’ll bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that it was Leo, who no one elected! For 90 minutes that night there was a coup d’etat in this country.
Commencement [4.22]
Leo: What happened?
Butterfield: Zoey Bartlet’s missing, and there’s a dead agent at the scene.
Process Stories [4.08]
Sam accidentally gets nominated for the candidacy in California.
Sam: It was an Aristotelian confluence of events that could only happen to me.
We Killed Yamamoto [3.20]
I believe a lot of people felt the CJ/Simon storyline was a little contrived, but call me whatever you like, I loved him and her and cried lots.
CJ: I like that you are tall.
Simon: You do?
CJ: It makes me feel more feminine.
2162 Votes [6.22]
Santos:We’re all broken — every single one of us — and yet we pretend that we’re not. We all live lives of imperfection and yet we cling to the fantasy that there’s a perfect life and that our leaders should embody it, but if we expect our leaders to live on some higher moral plane than the rest of us, well, we’re just asking to be deceived. Now, it’s been suggested to me this week that I should try to try to buy your support with jobs and the promise of access’ it has been suggested to me that party unity is more important than your democratic rights as delegates. That’s right, it’s not and you have a decision to make. Don’t vote for us because you think we’re perfect. Don’t vote for us because of what we might be able to do for you only. Vote for the person who shares your ideals, your hopes, your dreams. Vote for the person who most embodies what you believe we need to keep our nation strong and free. And when you have done that you can go back … with your head held high and say, ‘I am a member of the Democratic Party.’
Dead Irish Writers [3.15]
Abbey, CJ, Amy and Donna drink too much and say funny, dark, upsetting and profound things.
Abbey: Claudia Jean.
CJ: Yes, ma’am.
Abbey: Let’s get drunk.
CJ: Uh, okay.
And It’s Surely to Their Credit [2.05]
Ainsley’s surprise welcome party.
Ainsley: I just want to die.
Leo: It’s the White House. You’ll get used to that feeling.
The Short List [1.09]
CJ: What are you holding?
Danny: It’s a goldfish.
CJ: Why?
Danny: It’s for you.
CJ: Really?
Danny: Josh said you like goldfish.
CJ: The crackers, Danny. The cheese thing that you have at a party?
Danny: Oh. You know what, I’m not 100% sure I was supposed to know that.
Election Night [4.07]
Will: Now! (There is a flash of lightening and it starts to rain)
Elsie: Wow! What else can you do?
Will: I didn’t know I could do that.
Drought Conditions [6.16]
Will: Do you mind if I stand here and pretend like we’re talking?
Pilot [1.01]
Laurie: Tell your friend POTUS he’s got a funny name, and he should learn how to ride a bicycle.
Sam: I would, but he’s not my friend, he’s my boss. And it’s not his name, it’s his title.
Laurie: POTUS?
Sam: President of the United States.
In Excelsis Deo [1.10]
Donna: You see? You spend most of our time being, you know … you. Then you write something like this to me … thank you.
Josh: I meant it.
Donna: Skis would have killed you?
The White House Pro-Am [1.17]
Abbey: I concede I was wrong about the thing.
Bartlet: Good.
Abbey:However….
Bartlet: No, ‘however’, just be wrong. Just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong. And get used to it.
Take this Sabbath Day [1.14]
Joey: You idiot. I’m. Joey. Lucas.
Josh: Ah. Ah, okay. I’m Josh Lyman.
The Ticket [7.01]
Josh: I’ve got an airplane hanger out there filled with 500 strangers looking to me for direction. I’ve got a candidate who doesn’t trust any of them. And frankly neither do I. And if you don’t think I miss you every day…
Debate Camp [4.05]
Josh: Why don’t you just do your job as a man and get that nice girl pregnant?
Toby: I did.
Josh: Wait, what?
C.J.: What?
Toby: Andy’s pregnant.
Josh: Toby, Andy’s pregnant?
Toby: With twins.
Sam: This is incredible.
Josh: And they’re yours?
Toby: Yeah.
Josh: Both of them?
Arctic Radar [4.10]
Toby: All right. All right. Chances are you have certain qualities that are gonna annoy me. I don’t know what they are yet, but you have a certain quality about you.
Eppur Si Muove [5.16]
Charlie: I’m crazy for Muppets, I’m just trying to act cool.
Faith-Based Initiative [6.10]
Santos: Josh wants me to run for president.
Helen: Of the United States?
And just for kicks, because it really was a highlight of the series…
The West Wing Cast on Ellen:
Allison and Richard look at each other like they are about to cry. Martin and Dulé do their secret handshake. Everyone admits to loving Allison the most and she looks all awkward and flattered and cute. Brad and Janel are all goofy and sweet. Everyone gets stickers, looks like the best friends in the whole world, and then the cake fight commences. :)
Bless you Aaron Sorkin and The West Wing cast and crew. I shall enjoy you many times over on DVD for all eternity. It was so much fun and I loved you to pieces.
March 4th, 2009 at 05:44
Well done. I watch the DVD’s incessantly, and I never ever get tired of them. Good food, good drink, and The West Wing in my face. Nothing better. Have you looked at the interview that was done a few years ago with Aaron, Martin, Allison, Brad and John Spencer? It’s on Youtube somewhere, I believe. Good stuff.
Roger Reese’s Lord John Marbury deserves mention here as well. He always gets me in the mood to party.
More than anything else, it is the intelligence and humanity that went into this show that keeps me coming back over and over. The actors were perfectly cast and their performances were the best television I’m likely to ever see, but it indeed boils down to Aaron Sorkin’s writing. John Spencer once said that he was flattered that Leo McGarry was so highly regarded by real politicians, but he also said that he’d make a great Chief of Staff as long as he had Aaron Sorkin to tell him what to say and when to say it. That says it all.
Who do you think was the glue that held this show together, or do you think(I do)that any one of them missing would take too much away from the show?
March 4th, 2009 at 07:05
hello. they’re not my screencaps, daisy is the amazing artist who created them.
i saw all the extras on the dvds, they’re great, a nice bonus on a truly outstanding series. i had to backup the discs twice because they keep scratching from all the rewatching.
about the cast, anyone of them missing would destroy the show. which is what happened when Rob Lowe and Aaron Sorkin left after season four. the show died in great, great pains. the characters were cardboard after that, mean, selfish and bitchy all the time, no development, nothing funny, as if watching c-span :-(
March 5th, 2009 at 00:38
Indeed, and that seems to be the consensus regarding the show: The first four seasons were fantastic, the rest were “ehhhhh…”
Whoa, your disks scratched? Wow, looks like I’ve got a ways to go before I replace mine, then. :)
Though I absolutely agree with you on any one of the cast leaving destroying the show, if someone held a gun to my head and said “ok, pick the glue who held everything together, OR ELSE..” I’d have to say it would be a real toss-up between Leo and Donna. Leo obviously with the relationship he has with Jed (as mentioned above)and his fatherly influence over everyone else. Donna, because Janel Maloney did so many little things so well, from her smallest gestures to her facial expressions. Plus the sexual chemistry between her and Josh was incendiary right from the beginning, though it took years for them to do anything about it. Tough choices, though.
March 5th, 2009 at 08:15
indeed. and what makes sorkin fantastic is that your paragraph about Leo and Donna can be summed in the season two episode Noël [2.10], the one with Josh’s mental breakdown.
[after Josh Lyman has been in therapy]
Leo McGarry: How’d it go?
Josh Lyman: He thinks I may have an eating disorder. And a fear of rectangles – that’s not unusual, is it?
to put it simply: Leo and Jed are the dads i always wanted and Sam is i who i want to be. a truly genius character drama. it’s nice to know i’m not the only one obsessed with it.
March 9th, 2009 at 04:52
To say that I’m obsessed might be stretching things a bit, but still, certainly I view these episodes with a real longing, i.e., I look at Jed Bartlet and wish we’d had HIM for the last eight years, and I delight that Barack Obama appears to have certain parallels with President Bartlet. A couple of those parallels would be a real compassion for the little man and woman who have been the basis of any prosperity my country has had over the years, and an active, involved intelligence to apply to the problems it’s facing. It’s always naive, I suppose, to compare and contrast a real person to a fictional character who is really too good to be true, but so far, in President Obama, I like what I see.
To return to The West Wing: Toby’s leaking of the presence of the secret military space shuttle. Actor Richard Schiff has said that he had issues with that. He felt that no way would Toby Ziegler have done something like that to his president; at least not without agonizing over it for quite some time (while the astronauts were running out of oxygen? Not much time to agonize, it seems to me).
Your comments?
March 9th, 2009 at 08:54
after sorkin left, there were only morons on the writing team…