The West Wing: Trivia, Questions (Here Be Spoilers)

[Fiderer]

Also admiration and swooning. If you haven't watched all 7 seasons, read no further!

Two Cathedrals - have watched it several times and only just realised last night that Mrs Landingham was driving back to the WH as Bartlet wanted to tell her about the MS.

I love the scenes with young Mrs L and Jed.

Why "two" cathedrals though?

Oh yes, definitely watch the Social Network, I resisted for a long time as am very not arsed about FB and couldn't imagine a film about it. I caved after hearing someone say it wasn't really a film about FB it was a courtroom drama with Sorkin dialogue - it summed it up perfectly I thought. One of those fims where time just flies by and you suddenly realise you're at the end and hadn't looked at your watch once!

RedHotPokers I think the Jordan storyline got contrived as the actress was pregnant as soon as they started filming and they wrote it in (presumably after realising 3 episodes of huge bags and baggy shirts wasn't really plausible 'youngest-president-of-a-network-chic). The Harriet/Matt thing was basically Sorkin's therapy/revenge/wishfulthinking wasn't it.

I did love the Nevada Day episodes - I'm a sucker for a good 'start at the ending and then explain how we got there in little chunks' structure if it's well done.

ooooh

Apologies if this has been mentioned before, I did search this thread but couldn't see any reference to it.

I had heard of The Newsroom but then promptly forgotten all about it so thanks for the reminder - looks good.

Re appropriate gaps between rounds of WW - dunno. It takes us a long time to get through the lot (probably 2 episodes a fortnight max, so ages altogether), so by the time we're done we could reasonably start again straightaway - this 6 months' break was deliberate, on the basis that there is lots of other good telly out there we were missing. But WW resistance is futile, we now realise.

I loved the Nevada Day episodes as well, John Goodman once again hitting it out of the park. Lucy Davies just seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever, except to be 'her out of The Office' (for those Americans who watched the original) and bizarre non-love-interest for Tom, given she was nowhere to be seen during his major crisis in the final three episodes.

Let me commit Sorkin-heresy and say I did not like The Social Network. I suspect this is because I'm a techie though and the [blah blah blah] bits sounded awful in parts. Like a more extreme version of having Lord John Marbury refer to the Queen as 'Her Royal Majesty Elizabeth Windsor' - which I would imagine would lead to a diplomat being sent to the Tower even now.

Sceptical about The Newsroom - yet another behind-the-scenes thing from Sorkin, I don't think he does his best work when he's writing about stuff he knows inside out.

Just getting caught up.

I agree about Studio 60. It's a watch it once show.

Did anyone here ever watch Sports Night? I am not even sure it was ever shown in the UK (I'm from the US, live in Belfast now) but it was behind the scenes at a nightly sports show on a sports network. Really was fine Sorkin but due to bad scheduling no one ever watched it.

Due to that I am also sceptical about The Newsroom. Sounds like Sports Night redux, or even Studio 60. He needs to do something new with his writing talent.

Yup, Tee - I've seen Sports Night (on DVD I think) and thought it was great, but I agree, The Newsroom sounds like Sports Night Part 3.

ooh archers and WW. My flashy red WW widget isn't working atm as I have my OliviaLMumsnet nickname on.

Better get that fixed, Olivia! You might miss something!!!!!

Just trust me and click the link.

You all will love it...promise]]

Ahhhhhhh so lovely.

That was fab Tee, I particularly liked the gag about the way Martin Sheen puts his jacket on...it made my teeth itch every time he did it.

All that was missing was an Ed/Larry gag perhaps?

I'm sorry it wasn't more of the actors. Or at least more of the senior staff actors. But it was pretty cool.

I was at my clients the other day and the CEO said to one of his staff 'come, let's walk and talk about it.' I had to say 'we in West Wing now?'

I am new to this thread and am a huge WW fan. It is indeed the refuge of the nerds but I like to think a superior class of nerd. The earlier series are great, middle a bit dodgy and the end great again

I also think it invokes a nostalgia for the Clinton era when I was in school and college and despite his shennanigans to me he and Hillary seemed quite noble. I also spent 2 months of college interning on Congress. It was great fun and I really did think I was in the WW although all I did was photocopy and make coffee.

One of my favourite WW lines was when Josh was telling Toby about Santos
Josh : I have a 9 point plan
Toby : Does one involve a military junta

Acekicker - Martin Sheen does that in Wall Street too = he has to put his jacket on that way, it's a leftover from a polio injury IIRC (hope you enjoyed that trivia fans)
Will's glasses are god awful
Worried about Martin though, think Charlie's antics have aged him :-(

He does seem worried about Charlie all right but by all means on the set of Apocolypse Now he wasnt much better himself.
I recently watched him in The Way with Emilio - its actually quite moving

thanks Tee -

Tee - thanks for that. I had to watch it twice as the first time I was at CJ's horrible glasses, Will's were bad but hers are awful. Was it a joke?

Martin Sheen has aged so much. I like the jacket thing, and the "In the age of Socrates..." and their reaction

Snappysnappy - one of my favourite Toby lines was when he was on the phone to Josh as Leo was prepping for the VP debate.

"Leo McGarry didn't accept his party's nomination to the Vice Presidency of
the United States because he thought it might make your socks roll up and down."

Also the pandas: "Then get us two regular bears, a bucket of black paint, a bucket of white paint, bam, bam, next case."

Love that link!

Have to agree on Toby's best lines, the bear thing always cracks me up.

The 'In the age of Socrates...' 'oh Lord' part of the video was extremely amusing. God, I wish they could do a follow-up to TWW, even though it would be wrong (on so many levels) - not least because it could never match up to the show itself.

I forgot the bear one. Oh how I wish I had that wit.

Also love CJ's rant to Leo about waiting by the phone 'panting like an exquisite puppy' when she has been labelled a lesbian by the right wing press.

The bears awesomness was increased because he was stropping at Mandy wasn't he?

what happens if I correct Olivia? apparently it was forceps not polio...

Gah apostrophe fail!

Bears' awesomness...

Ace you are brave!

Testing...