3.16: The U.S. Poet Laureate (with Television Without Pity and David Wade)

The West Wing Weekly

Joshua Malina & Hrishikesh Hirway

Tv & Film

4.9 • 12.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2017

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re joined by two of the co-founders of the website Television Without Pity, Tara Ariano (@TaraAriano) and Sarah D. Bunting (@TomatoNation), to discuss the lemonlyman.com plotline—inspired by Aaron Sorkin’s own posts on TWoP. We’re also joined by David Wade (@davideckelswade) who was national spokesman for then-Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign and who later served as Secretary Kerry’s chief of staff. We compare President Bartlet’s hot mic moment in this episode with a famous one from John Kerry when he was a candidate.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi friends, you're listening to The West Wing Weekly. I'm Joshua Molina.
0:11.4	And I'm Rishi Kei Shereway. Today we're talking about the US Poet Laureate, at Season
0:15.2	3, episode 16. The Teleplay is by Aaron Sorkin, the story by Laura Glasser, and this episode
0:21.8	was directed by Christopher Miziano. It first aired on March 27, 2002.
0:28.2	I wanted to read the synopsis from Warner Brothers because there's a puzzling thing in it.
0:33.4	The Warner Brothers synopsis gets syndicated other places, so it's not a nice-lated thing.
0:39.6	Here it is. Bartlett makes a disparaging comment about a potential Republican nominee after
0:44.1	a television interview, not realizing that he is still being recorded. For days, CJ must
0:49.3	control the scandal, and Sam recalls Republican White House legal counsel Ainsley Hayes from
0:54.1	vacation to help formulate the administration's official response. Meanwhile, Toby tries to
0:59.2	dissuade the newly named US Poet Laureate, Habitha Fortis, from publicly objecting to the government's
1:04.2	lack of support for a treaty on landmines. Bartlett ponders saving a failing computer company,
1:09.6	and Josh is both repulsed and intrigued by the fact that there is a fan-based website devoted to him.
1:14.8	The first thing that hit me was just it's a lie. They're protecting the integrity of the episode,
1:18.8	but they say that Bartlett does not realize that he's still being filmed.
1:23.7	No spoilers. Right, but in the effort not to spoil, they lie. Right. But I guess it was the
1:30.4	computer company thing you're referring to. Yeah. What the hell? Not this episode. And it is
1:37.0	another episode? Yeah, yeah, that's weird. Maybe this synopsis was just binging the show and got mixed up.
1:44.2	One thing I wanted to mention before we get into the episode is a sad note. This is the last
1:50.2	episode in which we will see Ainsley Hayes. That is sad. She'll make an appearance for the episode
1:55.9	Requiem, but this is the last episode where she has a significant part. Huh. Oh, I will miss her.
2:02.6	I should have treasured her appearance as I watched. She walks out with her flip flops and out of our
	...

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