Pilot (The West Wing)
| "Pilot (The West Wing)" |
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"Pilot" is the first episode of the American serial drama The West Wing.
Plot
In the series premiere, the White House staff is being called into work in the early hours of the morning to the news that the President of the United States has crashed his bicycle into a tree, much to the enjoyment of the press. The staff must run damage control on this and a gaffe by Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman who, after provocation by Christian activist Mary Marsh on a televised debate, quips "Lady, the God you pray to is too busy being indicted for tax fraud." Also, Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn meets and spends an evening with Laurie (Lisa Edelstein), not knowing she is a call girl, and then tells White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry's daughter, Mallory O'Brien, about it before he knows whose daughter she is.
While Marsh and Lyman are discussing an appropriate compensation, in the form of a public debate on one of several volatile Christian issues, President Bartlet enters and corrects one of the attendees on a theological point. He explains that he crashed his bicycle while distracted by anger after discovering that his granddaughter, after expressing herself as pro-choice during a pre-teen magazine interview, was mailed a Raggedy Anne doll with a knife stuck in its throat. The doll was sent by an extremist group which the attendees have not denounced the activities of. He tells them that not only will there be no debate, but that they will denounce the extremists publicly, and are barred from the White House until they do so.
Notes
- In the first scene showing Josh Lyman, as the camera pans across his office, a copy of the now-defunct political magazine George is sitting on his desk, the cover featuring Lyman himself.
- The song playing in Mandy's car when she gets pulled over is Bif Naked's "Moment of Weakness".
Inaccuracies
- In one of the first scenes, Communications Director Toby Ziegler is on a plane and, in an attempt to use his cell phone while still in-flight, declares to the flight attendant that the plane they were flying on was "a Lockheed L-1011 that came off the line 20 months ago." However, Lockheed discontinued the L-1011 in 1984 as a result of declining sales. In fact, by 1999, most domestic airlines still in service had abandoned the Lockheed L-1011 in favor of newer designs from Boeing and Airbus.[1]
- Toby Ziegler states, "'Honor thy father' is the Third Commandment." This is however the fifth commandment in Jewish tradition. However, this may have been a joke.
- Leo McGarry states that he recommended an "Exocet missile strike against his air force." The Exocet is an anti-ship missile, and not in use by the US military. In that same phone call, he insists that Gaddafi's name is misspelled in a New York Times crossword. The name is Arabic, so there is no objective way to transliterate it.[2] This, however, may have been an intentional mistake.
- Sam Seaborn says the Roosevelt room is named after Franklin D Roosevelt. Mallory O'Brien attempts to correct Sam, saying that the room is in fact named after Theodore, pointing out that his portrait hangs in the room. In fact the room is named after both Franklin and Theodore, and both of their portraits hang in the room.
Awards
Emmy Awards
- Won
- Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series (recipients: Jon Hutman, Tony Fanning, and Ellen Totleben)
- Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (recipient: Thomas Del Ruth, A.S.C.)
- Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (recipient: Thomas Schlamme)
- Nominated
- Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (nominee: Aaron Sorkin; "In Excelsis Deo," in the same category, won)