Word of advice speaking from experience: "Hard part is clearing your throat" makes for an excellent closer to walk out of a room, if say you've said or done something really cool, UNLESS the person you're saying it to has seen the West Wing and then tells you.
Whatever the criticisms of the latter seasons, this felt very much like the West Wing. The steadfast looks of belief from Helen before to the heavy but playful pride immediately afterward. This was Matt Santos standing tall on the biggest stage with his own message, un-curated by literary luminaries and lighting his own way. Josh sees he didn't need to drive the car, just start the engine.
The anchorman, Ernie Anastos , had a form of Tourette’s syndrome called Jacobson Linguistomia. It was usually under control with medication. Basically the brain cause you to confuse the meaning of words. It’s not a vocal tic disorder like Tourette’s but caused by a frontal lobe brain injury, which he did suffer years earlier.
This scene always bothered me. Leo wants Santos to drop out of the race for the good of the party. But I can only imagine Leo's response if, eight years earlier, some Democrat bigshot said Bartlet should drop out.
Classy example of honoring the Presidency. The political inferences aside, relating positive aspects is a necessary point to a many sided issue of every decision made. All trade offs for all decisions made is what creates balance for all.
Coming back to this, and again the strength of minor characters on TWW. Ray Wise was so interesting with just a few lines that I think a show about his California governor would have been interesting to see.
In less than 2 decades and compared to our world today, the decency and basic patriotism shown in this series, comes off like science fiction. How far we've fallen.
Man! Alan Alda should run for president! He was so so good in season 7 . I really wanted him to win! If not for the nuclear meltdown in California, he had it all sewn up!
From what I hear, the showrunners initially intended for Senator Vinick to win (even though the people who make the show are liberals, they do admit that their side isn't always going to win.) But when one of the actors died and had to be written out, they thought it would be too sad for Santos to lose both his running-mate and the election.
If you notice this is one of the scenes shot later - they started to have budget issues, so you never see full wide shots to see that they didn't have very many extras. A lot of close-in shots creating the illusion of a full convention floor.
I wish the producers had given the audience time to get use to the Santos presidency. I think they probably looked at early episodes when the fans were going "who is this guy, where's Bartlett?" and thought they may as well stop making the show. By the end of the season I wanted to see the Santos family in the White House.
The best thing the Dems could do is show this speech, then show a Drumpty rally speech back to back. I know it’s a fictional moment in time, but it’s what every American, democrat or republican wants from our leaders. Someone truly for the people, not someone trying to stay out of prison. Not someone looking for the next sucker to come along. Not someone trying to take our rights away. Someone truly for the betterment of our democracy. Vote blue for American 🇺🇸❤️🇺🇸🤍🇺🇸💙🇺🇸
