TWW - Things that you are only spotting now

[WhatchaMaCalllit]

In relation to The West Wing - are there things that you're only spotting now in the box sets/Sky Atlantic showings that you'd like an answer to?

For me, it is when Leo McGarry has his heart attack and is recuperating in the hotel. Why is he recovering there and not in his own apartment? Or was that his apartment?

I think when he and his wife split up he moved into a hotel. She moved out of the house initially but a while after he had breakfast with his daughter in a hotel. And said something at one point about wanting his wife to have the house when Mallory asked about helping him to find an apartment.

So, Fiderer (love the name btw), when Leo is recovering from his heart attack after the Israeli Peace talks that took place in Camp David, and he has a private nurse looking after him, is that a hotel or an apartment that he is living in?

I also would love to know what happened to certain characters - Joe from the Council's Office and Mandy, who seemed to vanish after her 'memo' became public.

I think he was in a hotel.

As for Mandy and Joe - neither were mentioned again. Sorkin said that he talked to Mandy/Moira Kelly and they both agreed the character wasn't working so she left. Perhaps because the Donna/Josh relationship was working better than expected. Donna did end up playing a bigger role than initially planned.

Ainsley Hayes also disappeared only to reappear briefly much later.

Perhaps it reflects the TWW / Washington work pattern of in/out.

Couldn't stand Mandy so am glad she disappeared into 'MandyLand' - which I believe was a cast saying.

I only learned this very week that the reason Martin Sheen puts his jacket on in that way is because his arm was damaged at birth.

One thing I've only recently realised is that the ages of the Bartlet daughters don't really make sense. In Season One, Zoey is starting college at Georgetown so she's around 18. And we know from the very first episode that the President's granddaughter Annie, Liz's daughter, is 12. Even if Liz had had Annie right after college, say at 22, that would still make her 34 at the start of the series and therefore at the very least she is 16 years older than Zoey. They wouldn't have grown up together at all. And I know that age-gap isn't impossible, but there's just no sense of it in later episodes when the family are shown together, or when they're talking about their childhood.