OTH: The West Wing- "The Shortlist" / "In Excelsis Deo"
Christmas comes early.
Season 1, Episode 9
Aired November 24, 1999
Directed by Bill D’Elia
Story by Aaron Sorkin & Dee Dee Myers, Teleplay by Aaron Sorkin & Patrick Caddell
Synopsis: It’s Monday and they did it! Josh and C.J. have settled on a candidate to fill up the Supreme Court, and the White House is abuzz. Everyone seems to think that Peyton Cabot Harrison III is a worthy choice, aside from the person who’s retiring the position. Justice Crouch (Mason Adams) is disappointed in both Harrison as a choice and Bartlet as the man in charge, chiding that he waited five years for a Democrat to retire, only to “get” Bartlet. Crouch asks if Roberto Mendoza, the candidate he believed in, was considered, and the President assures him that he was on the shortlist, which Crouch retorts only happened to have a Hispanic name on the list. Before leaving, Crouch asks President Bartlet to give Mendoza more thought about making their decision, before offering one final jab by indicating that he won’t win reelection. The staff won’t have much time to do this, however, as they watch Congressman Lillianfield deliver a hefty speech on television, bemoaning certain staffers being let go from the White House and suggesting that 1/3 of the staff are on drugs. This obviously incenses everyone, but when a drug test is suggested, Josh shoots it down.
It’s Tuesday morning, and after meeting with an anonymous source last night, Sam comes into Toby’s office with damning information about Harrison, as it turns out that he’s the author of a controversial memo on privacy issues. There’s no way to spin this as a good look, and when the President hears about this, he becomes gung-ho on hiring Mendoza. C.J. is quizzed about Lillianfield’s speech and suggests that the White House staff has nothing to worry about, as there are too many staffers to properly find time to drug test everyone, and furthermore, no one on staff has been subpoenaed. Danny, who’s continuing to pursue C.J., lets her know that this is a poor choice of words, as every headline about her recent press statement will have the word subpoena in it. He’s not wrong, but damn dude, back off.
It’s Wednesday morning, and before he meets with the President to interview Harrison, Josh speaks with Leo about Lillianfield’s comments and brings up that Leo is a recovering alcoholic, which is one of the White House’s worst-kept secrets. He asks if Leo has dealt with any other kind of addiction issues, and yes, Leo had a problem with pills, which he went to treatment for six years ago, which he thought was confidential. It doesn’t seem like that’s the case, and now the Chief of staff is worried. After that truth bomb, Josh meets with the President, Toby and Sam to interview Harrison, who proves to have questionable takes on privacy, which shoots down his prospects as a viable candidate. They’ll later meet with Mendoza (Edward James Olmos), who gives basically the right answers to everything, and it’s decided, he will be the President’s nominee for the Supreme Court. On top of that, Bartlet assures Leo that he will protect his friend if the need comes.
While Sam’s history with Laurie the Call Girl is a more frequent source of exasperation, the White House is riddled with more damning controversies than this non-starter. We’ll learn about the other soon enough, but Leo’s struggles with addiction looms large.
And it’s worth talking about- Leo McGarry is on another shortlist than the one he’s compiled with the President, a shortlist for the most powerful people on the planet. Would you have a problem knowing that the White House’s Chief of Staff had an addiction to alcohol and Valium? If you do, would you still have a problem if you learned that they went into treatment and have been considered rehabilitated from their addictions? If you don’t have a problem with this, wouldn’t you still find it suspect that they kept their history a secret from the public?
So far we’ve learned that Leo is a good, but imperfect man. Like a strong percentage of white people, he can appear somewhat hypocritical towards people of color, has a mean streak towards anyone who comes near his daughter, and is by all accounts a mixed-at-best spouse. But he’s nothing but loving and supportive to his staff, friends, and family, or any combination of those three, and is wholly competent at his job.
Leo’s not out of the woods yet, not by a longshot. And this does make the White House’s search for the ideal Supreme Court candidate seem trivial in comparison, but that appears to be the point. Luckily, Harrison appears to be a worthy choice.
Directed by television mainstay Bill D’Elia, “The Shortlist” remains a tightly paced hour of television, like most of what’s come before. The episode also features the first writing contribution from Dee Dee Myers, Press Secretary for part of the Clinton administration and the primary influence for C.J.’s character. Myers adds a personal touch to her story this week, as we continue to focus on C.J. and Danny’s awkward flirtation, a bit he crosses the line on but just barely misses.
It’s good stuff!
Season 1, Episode 10
Aired December 15, 1999
Directed by Alex Graves
Written by Aaron Sorkin & Rick Cleveland
Synopsis: It’s almost Christmas time, but before the White House can close down for vacation, its staff has a few pressing issues they’d like to take care of. Toby is called to the National Mall’s Korean War Memorial, where a homeless man died while wearing a suit he donated to Goodwill which had his business card left inside. Upon inspection, Toby discovers that this man was a Korean War vet and is now attempting to find his family to insure that he receives a proper burial. Back at the White House, Leo is in panic mode for two reasons, one that Lillianfield is supposedly going to go public with the information he has about Leo’s stay in rehab, which coincided with his time running the Labor Department. Josh wants to fight back, but Leo tells him to lay low for the time being. Additionally, they intend to expand upon the White House’s policy on hate crimes when a gay teenager was brutally beat by younger kids, and it turns out that said teenage boy died, which the President discovers during a silly meeting with children. Not good news, and things don’t look much better when Josh comes into Sam’s office and tries to convince him to have Laurie the Call Girl name the Republican senators who have enlisted her services. Sam doesn’t like the idea, but after learning about Leo’s situation, he agrees to do what he can. President Bartlet, meanwhile, isn’t all that concerned or interested in coming up with an exit strategy for Leo, insisting that it will blow over, which Leo severely doubts. Toby finds the brother of the homeless veteran under a bridge, a man with some sort of learning disability, and initially struggles to understand everything Toby is telling him, but this very important person is offering this homeless man’s brother a proper service that he will be invited and escorted to. At the same time, Sam and Josh arrive at Laurie the Call Girl’s house and ask if she would be willing to namedrop some of the Republican candidates that she has serviced. Not only does she reject the idea, but Laurie the Call Girl reminds the two of them that she was escorting a Democrat at the state dinner she saw both men at last week, so they should back off. The next morning, Leo reveals that he had the two trailed and is upset that they went through with this hairbrained scheme, but he does appreciate that they would go to this level for their boss and friend. Before the homeless veteran’s service, the President calls Toby in, learning that he used Bartlet’s name to set up a military funeral and wants to know why. Toby tells him, and while he pretends to be upset, the President can’t fault Toby for his actions. On his way to pick up the brother, Miss Landingham, who we discovered lost both of her boys in Vietnam on Christmas Eve, asks to be a part of the service.
A popular holiday episode, the title is taken from Luke 2:14, particularly from the song introducing the newborn Jesus.
“In Excelsis Deo” is the first episode directed by TV legend Alex Graves, who would become a regular director for the rest of the show’s run, and he gets the hang of things right away, offering plenty of walk n talk moments (new name for that device? We’ll see) while also sticking to specific limitations, particularly that the crew wasn’t allowed to shoot footage of the monument at the Korean War Memorial. It looks so good that you don’t even notice.
The direction is nice, but it’s the story that brings people back, particularly Toby’s. While we as a nation love and honor our soldiers, there’s often a double standard forced upon veterans, particularly those who had less fortunate lives like Walter Hufnagle, who dies out in the cold, whose only surviving family member is an (also homeless) brother who’s considered “slow” and struggles to retain information. The homeless are traditionally considered a burden, to be avoid due to potential drug and/or mental health issues, never mind the turmoil that they may have suffered from, including triggering war experience. It’s not uncommon to find veterans of various wars out in the streets, and it’s unfortunate to see people who have risked their lives for us be treated as less than human.
That may be why “In Excelsis Deo” resonates with so many people. Seeing someone as influential and well-off as Toby Ziegler take time out of his incredibly busy schedule to guarantee someone like Hufnagle earns the bare minimum of respect that he deserves feels good. It reminds the audience that not everyone has a lovely Christmas, death can come at any time, but that’s a real enough message to cut through any kind of bullshit. What’s more, Toby’s change is portrayed as genuine and inspired, the kind of feel good storytelling many hope for during this time of year. I think it works for the show without condescending.
And yes, the cross-cutting between the children’s choir performing “The Little Drummer Boy” and Hufnagle’s funeral is damn-near perfect, as resonate as you can hope for. Great stuff.
The rest of the episode is worthwhile too, although dammit, I’m tired of Laurie the Call Girl already… although I love the image of her being startled when Sam and Josh arriving at her house when she’s in just a bathrobe, like she’s about to have the world’s weirdest and most politically controversial threeway. I tend to prefer the material about the hate crime, as I side with C.J., hoping to see more legislature cracking down on them, which we came close to in the Obama era before Trump stripped that prospect away. Reportedly, this was inspired by the real attacks on Matthew Shepard, which feels all too prescient today given what almost feels like an increase in hate crimes and discrimination.
I believe after the pilot, this is the most awarded episode of the season, giving Aaron Sorkin and Rick Cleveland the Emmy and WGA Award for Screenwriting, as well as being Richard Schiff’s submission to win that year’s Best Supporting Actor Emmy. I agree with Schiff, who does incredible, empathetic work, but I would have personally gone for Buffy’s “Hush” that year for writing, although both of The Sopranos episodes nominated were also quite good.
Presidential Records:
“I’ll explain in a way a girl can appreciate.” Yeah, okay, Danny’s an asshole. I’d take the goldfish, though.
Welcome to 1999, where being in favor of same-sex marriage makes you a lousy Supreme Court nominee. Ha. Hahaha. Uh…
I won’t lie, I love Toby arguing that the new millennium won’t start until 2001. He is right, after all.
I really want to go book shopping with the President.
“Who is this?” “Elizabeth.” “Who’s Elizabeth?” “Your sister.”
Interesting, “In Excelsis Deo” is The West Wing’s only Emmy win for writing, as The Sopranos will take over the award for most of its run, winning in six different instances, with 24 and House also winning the award during this tenure. You’d think that this would have been the Aaron Sorkin Award for a period.
Next Week: The President must deal with conflict between India and Pakistan, and then he gets sick. Well, there’s more to it then that, but I won’t spoil it for first-timers.