You're listening to The West Wing Weekly. I'm Rishi Keishirui.

And I'm Joshua Molina.

And today we're talking about season 7, episode 7, the debate.

It was written by LOD, Lorenzo Donald. It was directed by A.G. Alex Graves and first

aired on November 6th, 2005.

And this is the first episode of two that we're going to spend talking about this episode.

Look at us super sizing it.

There's a lot to talk about. This episode aired live. They did an East Coast feed and a West

Coast feed. And it's just an extraordinary and unique episode in the West Wing canon.

And we thought it merited something more. Next week we're going to have a special discussion

with two debate prep experts. Actually it's the two sides who prepared the presidential

candidates for the 2012 presidential debate. On the Obama team we have Ronald Claim returning

to the podcast, citizen Claim.

And on the Romney team we have Beth Myers coming to give her perspective as well.

In the meantime we're joined by a very special guest, Lorenzo Donald himself.

Hazaa, great to be here.

Thanks for joining us again. Lorenzo, I heard you say that this was the hardest writing assignment

you've ever had. Do you still stand by that?

Yes, no question about it. Obviously broke the mold of what we were doing at the West Wing.

It broke the mold of episodic TV generally. And it was one of those things that I didn't

know if it could be done. That's stage one of doubt. Stage two of doubt is I didn't know

if it could be done by me. And no one did. And this is kind of the brilliance and bravery

...