Slow News Day

Descriptions

From TVGuide.com:

A late-night brainstorm sets Toby on a hush-hush mission to "save" Social Security. But touching that "political third rail" is always risky, particularly on a slow news day, when reporters are scrounging for stories. Meanwhile, Ryan hits on a method to wrangle initiatives from the policy staff.

From NBC:

Toby (Richard Schiff) convinces the President (Martin Sheen) to secretly sanction his solo effort to make history by reforming Social Security but his efforts to recruit a Republican Senator and a Democratic cohort are leaked -- forcing the administration to back-pedal while Josh (Bradley Whitford) and Leo (John Spencer) are left clueless and stewing. Meanwhile, an equally ignorant C.J. (Alison Janney) parries with a reporter who is ready to print all the backstage details. In addition, the female staffers complain to Josh about the new hire -- a mysterious, seductively dressed woman assigned to Toby.

From Warner Bros.:

Toby convinces Bartlet to secretly sanction his solo attempt to make history by reforming Social Security, but Toby's efforts to recruit a Republican senator and a Democratic cohort are publicly divulged--forcing the administration to back down while Josh and Leo are left clueless and furious. Meanwhile, an equally unaware C.J. parries with a reporter who is ready to print all the backstage details. Also, the female staffers complain to Josh about a new employee--a mysterious, seductively dressed woman assigned to Toby.

Credits

• Written by
• Eli Attie
• Directed by
• Julie Hébert

• Created by
• Aaron Sorkin
• Music by
• W.G. Snuffy Walden
• Edited by
• Janet Ashikaga A.C.E.
• Production Designer
• Kenneth Hardy
• Director of Photography
• Thomas Del Ruth, A.S.C.
• Co-Producers
• Mindy Kanaskie
• Patrick Ward
• Producer
• Eli Attie
• Producers
• Kristin Harms
• Andrew Stearn
• Consulting Producer
• Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr.
• Supervising Producers
• Alexa Junge
• Peter Noah
• Supervising Producers
• John Sacret Young
• Carol Flint
• Supervising Producer
• Paul Redford
• Co-Executive Producer
• Alex Graves
• Co-Executive Producer
• Christopher Misiano
• Produced by
• Llewellyn Wells
• Executive Producer
• John Wells
• Story Editor
• Debora Cahn
• Story Editor
• Mark Goffman
• Staff Writer
• Josh Singer
• Executive Consultant
• Thomas Schlamme
• Consultants
• Dee Dee Meyers
• Gene Sperling
• John Podhoretz
• Ken Duberstein
• Unit Production Manager
• Dylan K. Massin
• First Assistant Director
• Douglas S. Ornstein
• Second Assistant Director
• Catherine Bond
• Costume Designer
• Lyn Elizabeth Paolo
• Casting by
• Laura Schiff
• Original Casting by
• John Frank Levey, C.S.A.
• and
• Kevin Scott, C.S.A.
• Set Decorator
• Ellen Totleben
• Property Master
• Blanche Sindelar
• Key Make-up
• John Damiani
• Key Hairstylist
• Jill Crosby
• Costume Supervisors
• Debra Beebe
• Philip Hayman
• Camera Operator
• Chad Persons
• Sound Mixer
• Patrick Hanson, C.A.S.
• Assistant Editor
• Mark Pitner
• Script Supervisor
• Monica Ochoa
• Music Supervisor
• Ann Kline
• Music Editor
• Troy Hardy
• Supervising Sound Editors
• Walter Newman
• Thomas A. Harris
• Re-Recording Mixers
• Dan Hiland
• Gary D. Rogers
• Production
• 176062

Information Links

• FEC
• Social Security
• State of the Union
• AFL - CIO
• GOP
• "Senate Social Security Subcommittee"
• Krazy Glue
• Third Rail
• Federal Adoption Law
• DPC
• OMB
• the Speaker
• NEC
• "simonize the Hoover Dam
• Detroit Economic Club
• Sierra Club
• Wall Street Journal
• bulldog edition - A newspaper that is sold the day before the date on the newspaper.
• Freedom of Information Request
• International Date Line
• FDR
• History of Social Security
• Dalai Lama
• Senate Finance
• CBO
• AARP
• Superfund
• C-SPAN
• Presidential Potraits
• Kojak
• "The lash of the dictator will be felt and 25 million free American citizens will for the first time submit themselves to a fingerprint test." - Republican Congressman Daniel Reed
• "Never in the history of the world has any measure been brought in here so insidiously designed as to prevent business recovery, enslave workers, and to prevent any possibility of the employers providing work for the people." - Republican Congressman John Taber
• Never Never Land from Peter Pan
• The Smithsonian
• "Let thy discontents be thy secrets ..." - Benjamin Franklin
• English Channel
• DNC
• New Deal
• Tsunami
• Medicare

Media Quotes

TVG: How did you meet?

Jane Kaczmarek: On a blind date in New York City.

TVG: Did you bond over your Wisconsin roots?

Jane Kaczmarek: When we finally went out we did.

TVG: You didn't want to go out?

Bradley Whitford: I was doing a play at Lincoln Center, a Shakespearean play ("Measure for Measure") with Kate Burton, Richard Burton's daughter.

Jane Kaczmarek: She's my best friend. We went to Yale together.

Bradley Whitford: So I'm doing a play with [Kate] and she has this friend, and...I didn't want to go out with an actress.

Jane Kaczmarek: I didn't want to go out with an actor. Conventional wisdom is that actors are very self-involved.

by Janet Weeks
February 2002
TV Guide (American edition)

Michael [Nouri]: Just before this, I was playing Senator Turner on "The West Wing."
Reporter: Is that a recurring role?
Michael [Nouri]: I hope so.

"'It's a Living,' a Play in One Act"
by Joyce Wadler
February 12, 2004
New York Times

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. John McHugh are picking a fight with the fictional "West Wing" White House over a scene aired Wednesday where an aide discussed closing a upstate military base.

...

... before adding a bit of levity in their postscript, thanking another fictional person on the show for "trying to save Social Security" in a PREVIOUS

"Clinton lobbies 'West Wing' aide"
by Devlin Barrett
February 26, 2004
Associated Press

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