Did you know you can purchase single episodes at amazon-dot-com? $1.99 a pop, I just bought 17-19 (White House Pro-Am, Six Meetings Before Lunch, and Let Bartlet Be Bartlet), restoring my Season One collection at a fraction of the cost!

Oh, and Let B Be B may have just moved to the top of the leader board in the My Favorite WW Episode contest. John Spencer is a ****ing man.

If you've got TWW DVDs sitting on a shelf somewhere, and like me you haven't watched them for a while, do yourself a favor and dust them off. I always lump this show in with the list of my favorite shows, but the time spent since my last viewing has eroded the high regard in which I once held it.

OK, so now I'm trying to write like Sorkin and failing epically. I'm trying to say that this latest viewing is reminding me how much I loved this show, something I had somehow lost a full appreciation of.

What Kind of Day Has It Been. Just finished. Just one iconic moment after another in this ep:

--Leo trusting CJ to lie to the press for the first time, and she does it flawlessly;
--Josh boasting to Hoynes, during a jog along the river, about the jump in the approval ratings if they successfully rescue the shot-down pilot in Iraq, ending with this exchange:

HOYNES: Sometimes I wonder if I had listened to you two years ago, would I be President right now? You ever wonder that?
JOSH: No sir. I know it for sure.

--Leo taking Josh to task for the pilot crack, ending with this great exchange:

LEO: What the hell are you doing?
JOSH: (confused) You looked like you wanted to hug me there.
LEO: Boy, did you ever read that wrong!

--Toby never saying a word about his space-bound astronaut brother, while his face and body language are speaking volumes;
--Fitzwallace wondering if they have an alternate carpet in the basement;
--Bartlett telling the just-rescued pilot, "Before you say another word, tell me your parents' phone number. I never get to make THAT call."
--Cliffhanger ending with bullets flying everywhere, and as the camera fades to black, all you hear is an agitated voice on a radio screaming, "Who's been hit? Who's been hit?"

It's 4 AM now, I'm supposed to go to bed, but how can I NOT watch the two-parter that opens Season Two right now?

Good eps those first two.

Toby: Come join the campaign. C.J.: How much does it pay? Toby: How much were you making before? C.J.: $550,000 a year. Toby: This pays $600 a week. C.J.: So, this is less. Toby: Yes.

West Wing is one of the very few pieces of pop culture that is a dividing line for me. If you dont love it we basically could never be friends.

For me it is the best TV show ever made by such a wide margin that nothing will likely ever surpass it (although The Wire came close and Breaking Bad is biting at its heals).

There are so many great moments it's hard to list them but I will try;

-Bartlett's speech in Two Cathedrals

-Josh's scenes with the trauma expert after breaking his window and "I know the way out"

-Bartlett's tear down of the right wing radio host

-the assassination

-Vinick's religion episode

-Let Bartlett be Bartlett

-Paul Revere's knife

-The Presidential Pardons

-Toby buys a house

-every scene ever with Lord John Marbury

-"Hey! You want a piece of me! I’m right here! I’m standing right here! Come on! Come on"

-Santos refuses to back out at the convention

-The proper map of the world "This is where you have been living all this time"

-"The Streets of Heaven are crowded with angles"

-Toby persuading Congressman Willis the Census is racist

-African president talking about Norman Borlog

and so so many more.

Was just browsing through WW youtube clips after the one before was posted and re stumbled upon this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21UEL...eature=related One of my favourite sequences by far

Yep


The scene where Donna calls her teacher and the fight between Toby and Josh stand out as well.

Oh, by the way, when I did watch "In the Shadows of Two Gunmen", I wept.

I don't mean at the sad parts, nor the happy parts. I was just moved by how GOOD it was, like a piece of opera, or something. It's so GOOD, it's just beautiful.

It also features my favorite scene in the show's run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h8OnuZbTOg

every scene involving donna in that ep is fantastic. so touching.

haha I did that at the end of Two Cathedrals.

Can't ****ing wait for Sorkin's show on HBO.

I was never brought to tears, but I did have my breath taken away a few times. Even in Studio 60. The end of the 2nd episode was exceptional.

OMGGGGGGGGGG this. I don't even have TV and I want to get HBO.

it's not tv, it's hbo

just read the synopsis of his new show.

Calling it now, best show on TV.

OMG.

Watching "Shibboleth" tonight (s2e8), where Toby is trying to get Leo's sister a sub-cabinet post while Congress is not in session. Some Congressional aides confront him in the Mural Room, furious about Toby's attempt to "slip her in". Toby, who of course is guilty as charged, starts by running down her credentials, capped off by:

In light of the recent OOT thread about the ATL schools cheating like mad on standardized tests, I had to LOL. Lucky for me, if you keep that recent story in mind, the fun gets funner.

TOBY: What in particular troubles the Senators you work for about her resume?

ME: They cheated!

AID 1: I think you know!

TOBY: I do. But I'd like you to say it.

ME: Tell him she cheated!

AID 2: She's anti-religion.

ME: AWWWWwwwwww.

yeah, I think I need to rewatch the whole series. Again.

I'm in the middle of yet another "Sleep Show Marathon" of this show and this is the first time I've added seasons 5-7. I do, for example, eps 1, 2, 3, 4 one night, then 2, 3, 4, 5 the next night and so on.

I think the quality of season 5, as far as what they're doing in general, to be just a small step below the quality of the Sorkin years, but every episode is so f*cking somber. It's like the joy in the content went away for a season and change. It's great, regardless, but it takes until towards the end of the season before there's is an arc that is fun. Intriguing and very watchable, yes, but every episode is such a downer.

Really love it once Josh first meets with Santos and Vinnick first announces his intentions to Josh and then on.

I'm watching this show for the first time. I absolutely burned through the first 4 seasons. I'm struggling to get through season five though. The episodes just aren't as captivating. I'm not sure if it's entirely because of the lack of Sorkin, or I'm just getting burnt out on the show, but the episodes are really dragging along.

That's what I was saying. Obviously the Sorkin flare is missing, but it's a lot more then that. There was a joy to watching the show that was lacking in season 5. In 1-4 Even in some of the shows sadder moments, there was still something more then just the sad situation. I explained that badly, but in the finale for season 4, this exchange:

President: So, what do you know now that you didn't know before?
Toby Ziegler: Babies come with hats.

Things like that are missing from season 5. Each episode was either mod or another.

Stick with it though. In 6x04, it starts to get good again and season 7 is really great.

Yea, season 7 was really good and by then I was ready for S8, 9 etc. I didn't dislike 5 and 6, it was just that the bar was so high from S1-4 it was too tough of an act to follow and had to lull out somewhere. Fairly sure it couldn't have gone on without watering down it's legacy, but my selfish self wish it would have at least tried.

I bailed midway through Season 5, I've never seen an episode that came after that. I was told to give it a chance, and again couldn't get through 5. Now that you guys tell me that it gets better after 5, I'll give it another shot.

i like the 'sleep-show' suggestion. i always have to have pop in a DVD/blu-ray to fall asleep to and TWW is good for this.

youtalkfunny, ty for really bringing out a lot of what was so great about the show. i recently went through the whole show through netflix DVD(took about 2-3 months) and i absolutely loved it. loved Pres. Bartlett, loved Sam, LOVED CJ. the scene where she does "The Jackal" is freakin great. the story behind it is pretty cool too. also, really, really, hated "Access" Was trying to will the timer over to 42:00

i have a couple of shows i need to get through before i go back and re-watch TWW but I am definitely buying the entire series just so I have it for whenever i feel like watching.

few random thoughts:

- i was so into the show at one point that when i got to "Isaac and Ishmael" and was told that this episode is NOT part of the storyline I just skipped it and cursed the heavens that i had one less episode to watch on that disc. Is that episode worth the watch?

- Bruno was amazing.

-20 Hours In America I & II were phenomenal. About as good as it gets for me. Sam's (written in the limo on the way) speech for the pipe bombing of a college swim meet. Bruno calling him a "freak" after the fact. The scenes in the bar with Toby, Josh and the heavyset father talking about making things "a little easier" Charlie trying to get Debra Fiderrer hired. Her interviewing for the job while high on Vicodin. The re-opening by the Qumaris of the investigation into Shareefs murder....Just soo many things going on and it all fit in and worked beautifully.

-Election Night. I felt so ****ing giddy after they won. Not just that they were re-elected but how it was done. Everything felt so good in that episode. CJ getting pissed off about some analyst or something taking credit for Bruno's strategy and the President's win. And Bruno not caring about it or anything but getting laid at the party.

Charlie/Zoey/French kid love triangle.

-The staff prepares for a new poll C.J. is running to find out how the American public is responding to the new initiatives the White House has been announcing. Toby has trouble with the grammar of one of the questions. C.J. tells him the language is right. But Toby feels he is the language expert and asks:
"Since when are you an expert in language?"
"In polling models?"
"Ok."
"Since 1993. Since when are you an uptight pain in the ass?"
"Since long before that."

- Danny Concannon buying mistakenly thinking CJ likes live goldfish as opposed to the actual snack.

Flashbacks to Leo's alcohol and pill fueled antics. The scene where he gets smashed and passes out during a crucial moment in Bartlett's campaign.

Tobey's (over)reaction to the President's revelation to him that he has MS, which in turn brings animosity from president ("I'm fine, by the way, thanks for asking")

"Shutdown" speaker of the house Haffley was really good in this role. i loved the march up to the Hill to meet with the speaker and the president being told to wait. then when the speaker and the repubs finally come out ready to face the president theyre seen down the hall walking away.

-"The Supremes" with glenn close and William Fichtner(brilliant, btw). the debate and arguments in this one were awesome to watch.

i'm just going to stop because this would be endless if I wanted it to be. The show is just full of so much win. I'm just really happy to have watched it. I also found to be looking up at least 1 word every other episode. My vocab expanded by about 30 words.

To those who seem to have difficulty with S5 onwards. This is a 7 season series to you, the ability to have ALL of the story to watch is superior to when it was broadcast on a network schedule. In hindsight, and after as much analysis and reflection as you choose, to decide to over look some of the detail in the 'boring times' will be a negative to your appreciation for the series. So sack up and at least watch them once.

Danny buying CJ the goldfish and then CJ's reaction was so classic.

i was so into the show at one point that when i got to "Isaac and Ishmael" and was told that this episode is NOT part of the storyline I just skipped it and cursed the heavens that i had one less episode to watch on that disc. Is that episode worth the watch?

-----------

Yes it's great IMO.

As Sam Seaborne would say (and he does, at 1:17), "You tell me."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDsY8qCxLHQ

(The gang, and the group of visiting kids, are waiting out a security shutdown in the mess. Remember, this was written in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and aired October 3rd.)