"The West Wing" In Excelsis Deo (1999)

Director:

Alex Graves

Writers:

Aaron Sorkin (creator)
Aaron Sorkin (writer) ...

TV Series:

"The West Wing" (1999)

Original Air Date:

15 December 1999 (Season 1, Episode 10)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

When a homeless veteran dies on the National Mall and his body remains uncollected for hours, Toby becomes fixated on getting him a proper burial. |

Plot Keywords:

Homeless | National Mall | Veteran | Drug Abuse | Military Funeral

Cast

Rob Lowe	...	Sam Seaborn
Moira Kelly	...	Mandy Hampton
Dulé Hill	...	Charlie Young
Allison Janney	...	Claudia Jean 'C.J.' Cregg
Richard Schiff	...	Toby Ziegler
John Spencer	...	Leo McGarry
Bradley Whitford	...	Josh Lyman
Martin Sheen	...	President Josiah 'Jed' Bartlet
Lisa Edelstein	...	Brittany 'Laurie' Rollins
Timothy Busfield	...	Danny Concannon
Paul Austin	...	George Huffnagle
Janel Moloney	...	Donna Moss
Tom Quinn	...	John Noonan
Renée Estevez	...	Nancy
Raynor Scheine	...	Homeless Man

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

thinkfilm

Trivia:

After Aaron Sorkin and Rick Cleveland won an Emmy for writing the episode "In Excelsis Deo," only Sorkin spoke at the awards ceremony. Cleveland published an article in Writers Guild Magazine expressing his disappointment at not being allowed to speak because the homeless veteran aspect of the episode's plot was based on Cleveland's own father, who was a veteran who died a homeless alcoholic. Sorkin (writing under the user name "Benjamin," his real-life middle name) posted on the TV message board mightybigtv.com (later renamed televisionwithoutpity.com) that he had written most of the episode and had only given Cleveland a co-writing credit as a courtesy because Cleveland had worked on a previous draft that, according to Sorkin, bore no resemblance to the final shooting script. Sorkin also said that this was true of almost all of the "The West Wing" (1999) scripts written up to that point (mid-2001), that he was the true and only writer of nearly all West Wing episodes, and the rest of the writing staff only helped him with research and "kick[ing] ideas around" - so he gave "them each a Story by credit on a rotating basis...by way of a gratuity." This internet posting attracted a great deal of mainstream press attention, which lead Sorkin to post again, this time retracting his claim of exclusive writing credit. The "LemonLymon.com" subplot in the season 3 episode "The U.S. Poet Laureate" (in which Josh posts on a website dedicated to his fans and sees it come back to haunt him) is based on this series of events.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Dolores Landingham, the President's secretary, mentions that her twin sons had a low draft number in the lottery. Her sons died in Vietnam on December 24, 1970. The first lottery drawing was held December 1, 1969; with a low lottery number, they would easily be in the field by December 1970.

Quotes:

President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: [Toby has just arranged for an honor guard at the funeral of a homeless vet] Toby, If we start pulling strings like this don't you think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork?
Toby Ziegler: I can only hope so, sir.

Soundtrack:

Little Drummer Boy

I agree with the previous poster.

I am a very conservative guy, and not a big fan of West Wing, BUT I happened to catch this episode in a hospital waiting room one day. I think this episode is the best thing I have ever seen on TV, period. The montage between the Arlington funeral and the children's choir in the White House was some of the best production I have ever seen anywhere. Pure genius! If it weren't for the show's generally liberal bias I would have become a big fan based on this episode alone. I have to give my props to the creative writers. I wish they had left out the political commentary and had been more balanced (over the entirety of the series). It wouldn't have hurt the quality of the series and this episode shows what they were capable of, if they would just entertain and not try to preach.