"The West Wing" Transition (2006)

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Director:

Nelson McCormick

Writers:

Aaron Sorkin (creator) and
Peter Noah (writer)

TV Series:

"The West Wing" (1999)

Original Air Date:

23 April 2006 (Season 7, Episode 19)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

THE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT-ELECT SEE FOREIGN POLICY DIFFERENTLY - Eyebrows are raised when the President-elect places a call to the president of China and offers a different position than that of Bartlet. Meanwhile, Josh picks his deputy chief of staff. |

Plot Keywords:

President | Political | Secretary | White House | First Lady

Cast

Alan Alda	...	Senator Arnold Vinick (credit only)
Kristin Chenoweth	...	Annabeth Schott (credit only)
Allison Janney	...	Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg
Joshua Malina	...	Will Bailey (credit only)
Mary McCormack	...	Kate Harper (credit only)
Janel Moloney	...	Donna Moss
John Spencer	...	Leo McGarry (credit only)
Bradley Whitford	...	Josh Lyman
Jimmy Smits	...	President Elect Matthew Santos
Martin Sheen	...	President Josiah 'Jed' Bartlet
Janeane Garofalo	...	Louise Thornton
Teri Polo	...	Helen Santos
Lily Tomlin	...	Deborah Fiderer
Steve Ryan	...	Secretary of Defense Miles Hutchinson
Anna Deavere Smith	...	Nancy McNally

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

John Wells Productions

Trivia:

An aide tells President-elect Santos (Jimmy Smits), overwhelmed with the calls he needs to make to foreign heads of state, that the "Surinames of the world" can be handled by his chief foreign policy adviser. In real life, Smits' father was from Suriname.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Josh asks Sam to quit private practice and serve as deputy chief of staff, among the reasons Sam cites for his reluctance to return to the White House is that his fiancée, also an attorney, would have to retake the bar exam to practice law in D.C. The D.C. Bar admits already-practicing attorneys from other states without requiring them to take a new bar exam, provided that they graduated from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association and that when they took their original bar exam, they received a high enough score on the Multistate Bar Examination and multi-state legal ethics exam (multiple-choice tests used by many states as part of their bar exams). DC's admission requirements are common knowledge among lawyers on the East Coast, and both Sam and Josh should have known better.

Quotes:

Helen Santos: Time for a little incursion?
President Elect Matthew Santos: [looks at his watch] Not even for a surgical strike.
Helen Santos: I had in mind more of shock and awe.
President Elect Matthew Santos: Oh, yeah? After 15 years of marriage I'd be shocked if you were awed.