Inside Bartlet's White House

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Martin Sheen admits he had no idea who Laura Innes was during the first day of shooting. 'But my wife knew, and boy, did I get a beating for that,' he told TV Guide Online. 'She asked me who was directing, and I said, "She looked at the call sheets and said, "She's the best thing on ER. Behave yourself."'

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Martin Sheen, John Spencer, Allison Janney and Dulé Hill were filmed on a tarmac at Dulles Airport. However, the plane they emerge from wasn't Air Force One but Virgin Atlantic complete with a painting on its side that was digitally removed in the editing room and replaced by a presidential seal. So, if they couldn't get Air Force One, why drag the cast from California to Washington? 'The actors' teeth wouldn't chatter as convincingly,' Thomas Schlamme told Entertainment Weekly.

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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Martin Sheen's coffee cup is a white Think TV mug from Dayton's WPTD-TV (Channel 16). Martin was sent the cup by his brother John Estevez, Channel 16's corporate development manager.

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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'It rips on a lot of levels,' John Spencer added, particularly 'the disappointment and the hurt that my best friend didn't share something so great with me, and fear because there's a duality now' - and a devotion and love for Bartlet and a desire to protect the presidency and the administration.

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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'It wasn't there because I wanted to explore MS, or medicine,' Sorkin told Ellen Gray. 'Now it's part of the show's bible, and we'll live with it.' The plot started because Sorkin wanted the president to be in bed watching a soap opera, he told Tom Feran. 'I also wanted us to discover that the first lady is a doctor. Bartlet's particular course of MS is not severe. He can lead a normal life for the most part. When I wrote the pilot, I didn't have any idea what was going to happen in Episode 2, much less 12.'

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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'The Pentagon has been phenomenally friendly to us and very supportive of this show and what it has to say,' John Wells told the Globe and Mail. 'They gave us the Arlington location and the Marines and set up the whole funeral for us because they read Aaron's script and felt touched by it.'

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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The original ending of the script, according to Martin Sheen in St Anthony Messenger, was to feature the president attending the funeral. 'It was changed because it took away the power of Mrs Landingham and Ziegler, who were deeply affected by the incident: a woman who has lost two sons and a man who gave this guy clothes to keep warm. Had the president been there, it would have [reduced] the poignancy of the scene. That's why I like this show. We try to play honest moments with real characters.'

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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'It was such a powerful and moving story,' Richard Schiff told Michele Sponagle. 'After every take, I cried.' In another interview, with the Bergen Record, Schiff noted, I don't watch the show very often, because I get too upset at the editing choices, but Aaron made me watch that one. It was too hard to be my favourite episode, but it was certainly the most challenging. I was moved by every aspect of it.'

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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There's a picture on her desk of a young girl and two boys, possibly of CJ and her brothers (14, 'Take This Sabbath Day').

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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Donna has a sticker on her filing cabinet that says, IF YOU THINK EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE, TRY IGNORANCE.

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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Stockard Channing's appearance was originally a one-off, so she came in during a hiatus on a film shoot. After the episode aired, Aaron Sorkin took her to lunch. 'He said, "Everybody thought that was great. Also our ratings went up a lot when you were on,"' she told Brill Bundy on zap2it.com. 'Then, he said, "Do you want to be a doctor? I have this thing. [Bartlet] has a bad cold in the teaser and I'm thinking he might have MS."'

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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'When we were kids, [Martin Sheen] whipped us on the basketball court every day,' Rob Lowe told Smoke magazine. 'He was proud of that. We have a court here on the lot, and we had a rematch for the first time in 12 years. It took me back to when I was 15. I won't say who won this time.'

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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The re-creation of the White House on soundstage 28 at Warner Bros' studios in Burbank is, according to observers, uncannily accurate. 'When I got to see the real Oval Office,' says Richard Schiff, 'I almost jumped on the couch and put my feet up because it's so similar to ours.' Highlight of the day for Schiff? 'I got to meet Bill Clinton's dog, Buddy. That was cool!'

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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He's something of a klutz, stumbling over boxes in 9, 'The Short List' while references are made to his having once fallen overboard (Hold on to a rope,' Leo suggests when Sam does boating in 14, 'Take This Sabbath Day'). Congresswoman Reeseman meets Sam in the gym and says, 'I heard the clang and the "ow". I figured it must be Sam Seaborn' (17, 'The White House Pro-Am').

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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Owing to management nervousness about the leftish leanings of the pilot, Sorkin was stuck at NBC headquarters being grilled by petrified executives and missed much of the first day's filming of this episode. He was, however, there in spirit - in the form of a three-man mariachi band he fitted to sense the cast when they returned from lunch. 'Did Aaron do this?' asked Bradley Whitford grabbing Allison Janney for an impromptu dance.

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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The inspiration for Sam's hopeless performance on White House history too the children may have been Joe Lockhart who told the Chicago Tribune: 'Having to [give tours] on a regular basis, and frankly not knowing is that room was banned after Teddy Roosevelt or Franklin Roosevelt, I'm pathetic. I haven't gotten caught yet, but I've made up a few things.' Asked, subsequently, about the series, Lockhart noted, 'In the premiere I saw a little bit of myself in the absolute look of disdain on CJ's face when a dumb question was asked. You can't learn that: you have it naturally.'

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping

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Thomas Schlamme recalled haggling with Sorkin over the ending in Entertainment Today. The writer wanted to close the door on the Oval Office after the staff walked out; the director preferred to focus on the president alone with a shot that proclaimed, 'This is the arena we're going to be playing in from now on. My reason wasn't "Isn't that a cool shot?" It's that I think we can tell the story even better this way.'

Excerpt from Inside Bartlet's White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing by Keith Topping