Welcome Home, First Lady-Elect | The West Wing 

The expression on Helen‘s face when CJ says, “Which ones do you want to fire?” is priceless!

It's like when Matthew Crowley arrived at Downton Abbey. 😂

The actual White House chief sends a questionnaire packet to the incoming First Family because the experience is so overwhelming. The amazing part is how they do the transition on Innaugration Day, basically prearranging trailer trucks by room. So they start with, say, the main bathroom, taking out all the outgoing linens and supplies like shampoos and then the new bathroom stuff comes off the new trailer where it's all stocked in the rear with the correct towels and brand of toothpaste and type of shampoo (all from the questionairre) while the moving crew starts filling the outbound trailer from the next room. And it continues until all the rooms are done.

Its funny, when this season first aired I was a bit sniffy, didn't care about the Santos family. Now I wish the show had continued with a new first family and West Wing staff.

Teri Polo is a wonderful actor who should have gotten many more roles that’s she has. She did an episode of SVU in the past which was heart-wrenching. And she can do comedy well. And of course she is beautiful of top of her great talent.

25k for tuition - those were the days. Sidwell (where the Obama kids went) has a tuition above 50k now.

It’s similar to when the Heir shows up in Downton Abbey and wants a simple life without grasping its putting people out of work

That phone call at the end is a great example of how in tv or movies no one ever says goodbye, they just hang up.

Curtis is actually Chief scene stealer.

see the female cook on his left, probably just some extra, but the pose plus the smug expression mad me laugh

Helen Santos' hesitation when walking in

I don’t think people realize how the White House is basically a 5-star hotel

I do think you need a lot of staff in a place like the White House. Also, Mrs Santos State Dinnners, travel outside the country for the First Family, and so on. And ofcourse just the daily upkeep... Also Mrs.Santos seems to be the strong woman behind the man almost in charge...

In his book Against All Enemies, Richard Clarke talks about the look on the President-elect's face when he leaves his first intelligence briefing--like he has been hit in the head with a two-by-four. I suspect that it is not that much different from the look on the First Lady's face when she meets the White House staff.

i am sad they didn't try a spinoff with the new president

CJ is one Bad Ass Chick

It's hard for me to believe that anyone moving into the White House wouldn't spend even five minutes researching what's involved in living there.

it seems unsouthern like for Mrs santos to have an issue with being called by mrs santos or being called ma'am even in todays world in the south this is very much a thing and would have been in the time of this show. i remember my academic advisor that i used to have had to get used to me calling her ma'am but than shes from England. My current advisor is also southern but shes also same age as me so calling her ma'am kinda funny

I don’t like how naive she was

It’s Rebecca Wells. Did Dan Rydell become president?

CJ didn't have to do her dirty like that lmao

Strictly speaking I believe she would be the First Lady-*Designate* rather than Elect, right? Since she's not actually elected to any office - insofar as the "office" of First Lady/Gentleman even formally exists at all, the holder is "appointed" to it by virtue of marriage to the President, rather than elected to it by any concrete mechanism.

One thing I've noticed is the green foliage in the background, would there be a lot of green foliage in the winter in Washington DC?

this show rebounded a bit in the last season, but it was not the same after Sorkin. Solid (after a season 5 letdown) but not the same.

At 0.44 Margaret comes into CJ's office to advise her that Helen Santos is in the outer office. To do so she opens the door and closes it behind her before speaking to CJ. Hearing this, Amy excuses herself and between 0.59 and 1.02 you see a shot from her POV as she makes her excuse to CJ for dodging Helen Santos. You see the closed door Margaret was stood next to, in shot eight seconds earlier, but no evidence of Margaret. Amy then exits through the opposite door, opening it and closing it behind her. CJ then turns and opens her door to the outer office and Margaret is stood there with Helen Santos. Every time a door opens and closes in this scene you hear it. Except Margaret somehow slips silently from CJ's office back into the outer office, clearly having to have re-opened the door she just came through and then closed it again, completely silently. I know assistants at that level have to be discreet but unless Margaret can teleport herself, continuity didn't pick up that she just 'vanishes'. 🙂

My only beef was they threw Amy back in there 🤢

Was not impressed with the way they portrayed the new first lady in this scene. Santos and his wife had been involved in Washington politics for years and the idea that she would be that ignorant of the way things were done at the White House, or what being the 'First Lady' would involve.

No chance the Chief of Staff shows the new First Lady around.

The White House staff are there for decades. The blithe dismissal of highly trained and vetted professionals, made me dislike her more

L

Secretary of state becomes president when?

Helen Santos was too high-strung. Not the fault of the actress. I think the script was written to make her unlikable.

Janney always pro trays a BBBBBBBB. Her hair style is always the same. From now on a beehive

I don’t like Terry Polo in this role. I hate how she swings her arms when she walks. She plays a better cop in The Fosters.

I love how the west wing presented the democrats as wise and competent, If only this was true, very sad 😮‍💨

Our taxes used to give them the lives of royalty.