The Crackpots and These Women

"The Crackpots and These Women"
The West Wing episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 5
Directed by Anthony Drazan
Written by Aaron Sorkin
Production code 225904
Original air date October 20, 1999
Guest appearance(s)
Season 1 episodes

"The Crackpots and These Women" is the 5th episode from Season 1 of The West Wing.

Plot

The staff participates in "Big Block of Cheese Day", a fictional workday on which White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry encourages his staff to meet with fringe special interest groups that normally would not get attention from the White House. Big Block of Cheese Day also is mentioned in "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail."

The rationale for the day, as recounted by McGarry (much to the consternation of the Senior Staff), is that America's seventh president, Andrew Jackson, had a two-ton block of cheese in the White House foyer from which everyone was welcome to eat. This symbolized the openness of the White House to the American people. White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler derisively refers to the day as "Throw Open Our Office Doors To People Who Want To Discuss Things That We Could (sic) Care Less About Day", and Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman refers to it as "Total Crackpot Day".

White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg meets with a group about building a highway for wolves, while Sam Seaborn meets with a citizen, played by Sam Lloyd, concerned about UFOs.

Josh is given a card from the U.S. National Security Council with information about where he is to go in the event of a nuclear attack and becomes riddled with guilt after realizing that nobody else on the staff was given one. He visits his therapist and reveals that his older sister died in a house fire while babysitting for him, and that he survived by running out of the house.

Later, President Bartlet hosts a reception in the Residence for his youngest daughter, Zoey, who is scouting colleges in the D.C. area. (Earlier in the day, upon learning of her visit, the President announces to everyone that he will make chili for them all.) In a private conversation, the President, Leo and Josh marvel at the extraordinary strength and integrity of the women in their lives. During the party, Josh returns his NSC card to the President, explaining that he just wants to be with his friends through everything and to be able to look them in the eye in the meantime.

Real-life inspiration

The Cheshire Mammoth Cheese

The Cheshire Mammoth Cheese was first made by John Leland and presented to President Thomas Jefferson on January 1, 1802. Leland considered the cheese an act of "profound respect...to the popular ratification of his election." The book Real Life at the White House[1] confirms that this story draws on actual events. Supporters of Andrew Jackson, not wanting Jefferson to outshine him, sent him in 1837 a 1,400-pound (640 kg), 4-foot-diameter (1.2 m), 2-foot-thick (0.61 m) block of cheese as a gift.[2] After two years of aging, he held a public "cheese tasting". The event was heavily attended, and the cheese was consumed in two hours.

Animals on highways

In one of his earliest roles, Nick Offerman played an animal rights activist in this episode that proposed the construction of an "1800 mile wolves-only roadway." There have actually been efforts to construct wildlife crossings and wildlife corridors to allow animals to cross highways without being struck by passing vehicles.[3] In fact, the entire program proposed has been implemented as the Y2Y initiative (Yellowstone to Yukon) which links the Yukon with Yellowstone National Park using a series of corridors and highway crossings. The story of "Pluie" the wolf is true and served as the inspiration for the program.[4]

NSC card

Josh's dilemma with the card given to him was inspired by George Stephanopoulos showing Aaron Sorkin his card issued by the NSC showing him where he was to go in the event of an attack. In the script book, Sorkin reveals that former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers pulled him to one side and said that the cards didn't exist, not realizing that she had simply not been issued one.

Cameo

In the pre-credit sequence, members of the staff are shown playing a pickup basketball game on Pennsylvania Avenue. President Bartlet calls for a substitute, Rodney Grant. Grant is identified by Bartlet as a "associate director of the President's Council on Physical Fitness." Upon further questioning, Grant says that he played basketball at Duke University. Grant was played by Juwan Howard, who in real life played at the University of Michigan. At the time of the episode, Howard was a member of the Washington Wizards.

Inaccuracy

Bartlet mentions that his daughter Zoey will be starting at Georgetown University soon and "is scouting for off-campus housing". Georgetown requires all first- and second-year undergraduates to live on-campus, providing an exception only if the student is married, over the age of 21, has dependents, or is living with his/her parents. However, it's possible that a further exception might be made for the daughter of the president, as on-campus housing may provide insufficient protection, or that the scouting trip was in vain, since Zoey ultimately moved into a dormitory (as seen in episode 17, "The White House Pro Am)."

The shot of the psychotherapist's office exterior is actually of a building at the intersection of Park and Beacon Streets in front of the State House in Boston, Massachusetts.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Real Life at the White House (ISBN 0-415-92320-4), by John Whitcomb and Claire Whitcomb
  2. ↑ Leo McGarry profile, Bartlet4America.org
  3. ↑ Was there really a Big Block of Cheese in the Jackson White House Accessed on March 24, 2008.
  4. ↑ http://www.y2y.net/
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