The West Wing: "Tell your friend POTUS he's got a funny name."

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The West Wing: "Tell your friend POTUS he's got a funny name."

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shelper: Nov 10, 2005; Something's still wrong with this code

quote:

Referring to one of the stories in the pilot that was about Cuban refugees fleeing to America on inner tubes and should we or should we not send the Coast Guard out to help them, one of the execs suggested that it might be better if [Bradley Whitford's character] Josh Lyman went out and saved them himself. I tried not to make it an awkward pause before I said, "You mean actually swim?"

Not gonna lie, I would watch Baywatch starring Bradley Whitford.

# ? May 15, 2014 08:41

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 14:32

withak: Jan 15, 2003; Fun Shoe

It appears that this guy is a really, really big fan of "Seventeen People".

http://seventeenpeople.com/

# ? May 21, 2014 16:33

FrozenVent: May 1, 2009; The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.

withak posted:

It appears that this guy is a really, really big fan of "Seventeen People".

http://seventeenpeople.com/

Well that's... Passion.

# ? May 21, 2014 16:39

Asiina: Apr 26, 2011; No going back; Grimey Drawer

I'm kinda hoping that was for a school project or something, because goddamn.

Although, looking at the end it doesn't seem that way.

# ? May 21, 2014 16:47

pokeyman: Nov 26, 2006; That elephant ate my entire platoon.

withak posted:

It appears that this guy is a really, really big fan of "Seventeen People".

http://seventeenpeople.com/

The character drawings are absolutely bizarre. I could not identify most of them without nearby quotes.

Otherwise that's a really nice presentation.

edit: Not all that carefully written though.

# ? May 21, 2014 16:50

shelper: Nov 10, 2005; Something's still wrong with this code

I can't stop laughing at "It's a Spanish kind of Latin".

# ? May 21, 2014 19:29

king of no pants: Mar 10, 2007; i'm watchin'
you post

Oh my god. Seventeen People has my favorite opening ever, but... wow.

# ? May 21, 2014 20:41

Victor Vermis: Dec 21, 2004; WOKE UP IN THE DESERT AGAIN

That is incredible- but if any episode of any show deserves that kind of a salute, its Seventeen People. Bartlett vs Toby in the oval office from that episode is peak West Wing.

# ? May 21, 2014 20:48

X-O: Apr 28, 2002; Long Live The King!

Every time this thread is bumped I'm hopeful for a blu-ray release. Every time I'm sad.

# ? May 21, 2014 20:50

FrozenVent: May 1, 2009; The Boeing 737-200QC is the undisputed workhorse of the skies.

Victor Vermis posted:

That is incredible- but if any episode of any show deserves that kind of a salute, its Seventeen People. Bartlett vs Toby in the oval office from that episode is peak West Wing.

Those infographics are something else; I mean I'm glad to finally see a top down view of the set, but the itinerary and dialogue of the Josh / Donna walk-and-talk is... A thing that exists I guess.

# ? May 21, 2014 20:55

Ochowie: Nov 9, 2007

It's very strange that he does this incredibly exhaustive site about this episode and misses the best part of the episode which is the exchange between Toby and Bartlet.

# ? May 22, 2014 00:04

Eikre: May 2, 2009

I would be super proud to have that site in my portfolio and ur dumb if you think the significant drive for its creation wasn't the desire to demonstrate skill without just using lorum ipsum filler text, instead of a self-sufficient maniacal love for an hour of television.

# ? May 22, 2014 00:50

Basticle: Sep 12, 2011

shelper posted:

Not gonna lie, I would watch Baywatch starring Bradley Whitford.

you left off the even more insane part

quote:

Referring to one of the stories in the pilot that was about Cuban refugees fleeing to America on inner tubes and should we or should we not send the Coast Guard out to help them, one of the execs suggested that it might be better if [Bradley Whitford's character] Josh Lyman went out and saved them himself. I tried not to make it an awkward pause before I said, "You mean actually swim?" He said, "No, that would be ridiculous. I mean he rents a boat. A motor boat, a skiff, but the boat's too small to get all the refugees on board and he has a moment like Oskar Schindler where he's saying, 'I could have rented a bigger boat! I could have saved that guy over there and those kids over there!" It was hard to avoid the awkward pause then because I honestly didn't know if I was being messed with or not, and I didn't want to insult the executive or appear to be difficult to work with (even though I badly needed the network to pass because by this point ABC had ordered 13 episodes of Sports Night) so I said, "That's worth thinking about."

# ? May 22, 2014 01:29

Joementum: May 23, 2004; jesus christ

Victor Vermis posted:

That is incredible- but if any episode of any show deserves that kind of a salute, its Seventeen People. Bartlett vs Toby in the oval office from that episode is peak West Wing.

Agreed. It's a problem America has had to deal with a few times now, but never completely acknowledge. It will come out one day in reality as it did in the West Wing and we'll find out which side we're really on.

# ? May 22, 2014 01:48

Caufman: May 7, 2007

Victor Vermis posted:

That is incredible- but if any episode of any show deserves that kind of a salute, its Seventeen People.

Whoa whoa whoa, are we not counting Privateers, the episode that gave us Helena Hogworth Hooter Tooter of Braintree?

# ? May 22, 2014 03:22

Victor Vermis: Dec 21, 2004; WOKE UP IN THE DESERT AGAIN

Joementum posted:

Agreed. It's a problem America has had to deal with a few times now, but never completely acknowledge. It will come out one day in reality as it did in the West Wing and we'll find out which side we're really on.

I don't get it.

Eikre posted:

I would be super proud to have that site in my portfolio and ur dumb if you think the significant drive for its creation wasn't the desire to demonstrate skill without just using lorum ipsum filler text, instead of a self-sufficient maniacal love for an hour of television.

Well sure that's why it exists, but if you can't see the love dripping off of that thing you should probably invest in one of those CSI blacklights cuz I'm tellin' ya its slathered in the stuff.

Caufman posted:

Whoa whoa whoa, are we not counting Privateers, the episode that gave us Helena Hogworth Hooter Tooter of Braintree?

Does anything after season 3 count? :colbert:

Victor Vermis fucked around with this message at 04:59 on May 22, 2014

# ? May 22, 2014 04:54

TheBigBad: Feb 28, 2004; Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, parties, nations and ages it is the rule.

This page is why we can't have nice things.

# ? May 22, 2014 05:14

Caufman: May 7, 2007

Victor Vermis posted:

Does anything after season 3 count?

Do you know what a blood enemy is?

Because you just made one.

# ? May 22, 2014 06:37

Eikre: May 2, 2009

Victor Vermis posted:

I don't get it.

The post you're referring to is, itself, referring to this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQoGfOBTx6E

It's the line of succession he's talking about, and the problem Joementum is talking about is that that it poises a significant problem, in terms of aggravating destabilization, if it's not secured zealously.

The West Wing displays two crises of leadership. The first is the one that Leo's talking about; Although recently they've been very high-profile (Dick Cheney was arguably the actual man of substance in the GWB administration), the Vice President is historically a very weak figure who the president ropes into his campaign to diversify his ticket, not assure a strong successor. LBJ, for example, was dogshit and had to make appointments if he wanted to have a word with JFK, who preferred the council of his brother bobby. So let's say JFK didn't get killed in the attack on his motorcade; let's say he was put into a coma, instead. LBJ is his successor by statute, but that's not the power structure of the administration; everyone who works in the whitehouse looks to anybody but LBJ for their marching orders. So whose side are you on? Whose side is the cabinet on? Whose side the millitary on?

The other big deal goes down when Bartlet recuses himself of executive power after Zoe gets kidnapped and the Speaker of the House takes the post. If some tea party fucks show up at the Shake Shack while Biden and Obama are making an appearance and detonate a bomb that manages to kill both of them, then John Boner (R) is King America and there's gently caress all you get to do about it. Which is probably exactly what a non-trivial number of people who talk about killing the president would actually prefer. Is a line of succession that sanctions the turnover of government to the opposition party in the wake of an assassination that may or may not have been engineered by members of the opposition party one that you want to stand behind?

The line of succession, if you care to look at it, is a band of total unworthies, split between officials with no connection to the mandate that elected the president (Such as the Speaker of the House) and holders of appointed posts for which there was never any election at all (like the loving Secretary of Agriculture). Those are two different, and in fact, mutually exclusive types of heir.

But the problems poised by succession, to me, are not very difficult to answer. For all of Toby's outrage that Leo, an unelected official, was nonetheless permitted to exert de facto sovereign power during the 100-minute crisis after the shooting, the truth of the matter is that the President has always been capable and allowed to turn over the decision-making responsibility to whichever advisers (or even just adviser) he wants. There is nothing that textually prevents him from assuming the role of a figurehead and do whatever his Chief of Staff (or whoever) tells him to do. And this state of affairs has arguably been the actual case on many decisions of monumental importance and even entire administrations! So it's perfectly reasonable that everybody in the line of succession be persons that the President is allowed to appoint or fire, because those people (in the event of succession) will ultimately derive their legitimacy from the electoral mandate that selected the person who chose them.

The rules of succession are muddled by federalist difficulties that have been largely put to bed at this point. The office of Vice President, for example is, an office invented as a way to get electors to keep from all voting for the guy from their own state. That's arguably stupid as gently caress, even in the context of the 18th century, but I guess it's a testament to the kind of anxieties some of those assholes were wringing their hands about two and a half centuries ago.

# ? May 22, 2014 07:38

Victor Vermis: Dec 21, 2004; WOKE UP IN THE DESERT AGAIN

Eikre posted:

The post you're referring to is, itself, referring to this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQoGfOBTx6E

It's the line of succession he's talking about, and the problem Joementum is talking about is that that it poises a significant problem, in terms of aggravating destabilization, if it's not secured zealously.

The West Wing displays two crises of leadership. The first is the one that Leo's talking about; Although recently they've been very high-profile (Dick Cheney was arguably the actual man of substance in the GWB administration), the Vice President is historically a very weak figure who the president ropes into his campaign to diversify his ticket, not assure a strong successor. LBJ, for example, was dogshit and had to make appointments if he wanted to have a word with JFK, who preferred the council of his brother bobby. So let's say JFK didn't get killed in the attack on his motorcade; let's say he was put into a coma, instead. LBJ is his successor by statute, but that's not the power structure of the administration; everyone who works in the whitehouse looks to anybody but LBJ for their marching orders. So whose side are you on? Whose side is the cabinet on? Whose side the millitary on?

The other big deal goes down when Bartlet recuses himself of executive power after Zoe gets kidnapped and the Speaker of the House takes the post. If some tea party fucks show up at the Shake Shack while Biden and Obama are making an appearance and detonate a bomb that manages to kill both of them, then John Boner (R) is King America and there's gently caress all you get to do about it. Which is probably exactly what a non-trivial number of people who talk about killing the president would actually prefer. Is a line of succession that sanctions the turnover of government to the opposition party in the wake of an assassination that may or may not have been engineered by members of the opposition party one that you want to stand behind?

The line of succession, if you care to look at it, is a band of total unworthies, split between officials with no connection to the mandate that elected the president (Such as the Speaker of the House) and holders of appointed posts for which there was never any election at all (like the loving Secretary of Agriculture). Those are two different, and in fact, mutually exclusive types of heir.

But the problems poised by succession, to me, are not very difficult to answer. For all of Toby's outrage that Leo, an unelected official, was nonetheless permitted to exert de facto sovereign power during the 100-minute crisis after the shooting, the truth of the matter is that the President has always been capable and allowed to turn over the decision-making responsibility to whichever advisers (or even just adviser) he wants. There is nothing that textually prevents him from assuming the role of a figurehead and do whatever his Chief of Staff (or whoever) tells him to do. And this state of affairs has arguably been the actual case on many decisions of monumental importance and even entire administrations! So it's perfectly reasonable that everybody in the line of succession be persons that the President is allowed to appoint or fire, because those people (in the event of succession) will ultimately derive their legitimacy from the electoral mandate that selected the person who chose them.

The rules of succession are muddled by federalist difficulties that have been largely put to bed at this point. The office of Vice President, for example is, an office invented as a way to get electors to keep from all voting for the guy from their own state. That's arguably stupid as gently caress, even in the context of the 18th century, but I guess it's a testament to the kind of anxieties some of those assholes were wringing their hands about two and a half centuries ago.

All that from this?

Victor Vermis posted:

That is incredible- but if any episode of any show deserves that kind of a salute, its Seventeen People. Bartlett vs Toby in the oval office from that episode is peak West Wing.

Sometimes the constitutional plasma coils are there just to put Captain Bartlett, father of daughters, in the arena vs Lieutenant Toby, son of [redacted]. People. Not plasma coils, nerds.

# ? May 22, 2014 15:25

Joementum: May 23, 2004; jesus christ

Yesterday, Obama used the Antiquities Act to block Congressional action on a border protection bill moving through the House, in another moment of The West Wing becoming real.

# ? May 23, 2014 02:28

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

What can I say, I'm pretty loving smart. :smug:

# ? May 23, 2014 02:32

isk: Oct 3, 2007; You don't want me owing you

Joementum posted:

Yesterday, Obama used the Antiquities Act to block Congressional action on a border protection bill moving through the House, in another moment of The West Wing becoming real.

When I first heard about this, Josh coming into the Oval Office and saying "the Antiquities Act" was the exact moment that came to mind. Unreal.

# ? May 23, 2014 03:00

The Lord Bude: May 23, 2007; ASK ME ABOUT MY SHITTY, BOUGIE INTERIOR DECORATING ADVICE

Josh Lyman posted:

What can I say, I'm pretty loving smart.

Somebody fetch me a motherboard.

# ? May 23, 2014 03:05

Slashrat: Jun 6, 2011; YOSPOS

Which episode was that from?

# ? May 23, 2014 06:11

FISHMANPET: Mar 3, 2007; Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams

Here's an interview with the guy that made that thing: http://www.vox.com/2014/5/21/5737478/meet-the-man-who-spent-a-year-and-a-half-of-his-life-explaining-the
He's kind of tired of The West Wing now.

# ? May 23, 2014 06:16

Captain Geech: Mar 14, 2008; I've made a huge mistake.

Slashrat posted:

Which episode was that from?

"Enemies"

# ? May 23, 2014 09:16

Tuna_Fish_Odyssey: May 15, 2013

Just found this today, from 2008:

Aaron Sorkin writes a conversation between Bartlett and Obama

One excerpt:
OBAMA: I�m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I�m � wait for it � the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET: Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn�t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

Tuna_Fish_Odyssey fucked around with this message at 18:13 on May 28, 2014

# ? May 28, 2014 18:08

The Lord Bude: May 23, 2007; ASK ME ABOUT MY SHITTY, BOUGIE INTERIOR DECORATING ADVICE

Tuna_Fish_Odyssey posted:

Just found this today, from 2008:

Aaron Sorkin writes a conversation between Bartlett and Obama

One excerpt:
OBAMA: I�m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I�m � wait for it � the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET: Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn�t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

So very true.

# ? May 29, 2014 06:39

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

edit n/m misread

# ? May 30, 2014 01:03

James R: Dec 22, 2006; I hear they're still eating paper. Is that true?

shelper posted:

I can't stop laughing at "It's a Spanish kind of Latin".

�Knock knock.� �Who�s there?� �Sam and his prostitute friend.� Gold!

# ? May 31, 2014 16:14

Billy the Mountain: Feb 3, 2005; I used to be TheRealLuquado

I was just thinking...of this funny thing that just happened....with the deficiBWAHAHAHAHA.

CJ kills me everyfucking time

# ? Jun 1, 2014 21:39

James R: Dec 22, 2006; I hear they're still eating paper. Is that true?

Billy the Mountain posted:

I was just thinking...of this funny thing that just happened....with the deficiBWAHAHAHAHA.

CJ kills me everyfucking time

The Francis Scott Key... Key..?

I'm doing my annual re-watch right now and just hit the first two episodes of season two. Absolutely breathtaking television.

The moment Ron spots the blood coming out of the President's mouth and that massive drat limo spins 180 degrees at high speed heading for the hospital still gives me chills.

# ? Jun 28, 2014 15:25

willie_dee: Jun 21, 2010; I obtain sexual gratification from observing people being inflicted with violent head injuries

James R posted:

The Francis Scott Key... Key..?

I'm doing my annual re-watch right now and just hit the first two episodes of season two. Absolutely breathtaking television.

The moment Ron spots the blood coming out of the President's mouth and that massive drat limo spins 180 degrees at high speed heading for the hospital still gives me chills.

I find it astonishing that I still get upset and thrills from watching it and I have been through the show 10 or so times.

# ? Jun 28, 2014 17:59

Sanguinia: Jan 1, 2012; ~Everybody wants to be a cat~
~Because a cat's the only cat~
~Who knows where its at~

FISHMANPET posted:

Here's an interview with the guy that made that thing: http://www.vox.com/2014/5/21/5737478/meet-the-man-who-spent-a-year-and-a-half-of-his-life-explaining-the
He's kind of tired of The West Wing now.

It's kind of amazing how someone so enamored and passionate about that one hour of television can come across as so cynical. Between talking about how he can't watch the show anymore because Obama ruined American and how Ainsley always gets "Quasi-Manic Pixie Dream Girl Quirk Traits," it hard to believe he put a year and a half into a love letter to anything.

# ? Jun 28, 2014 18:27