Simply Me

Some West Wing goodness

No, I'm not renewing my West Wing Wednesdays...still can't take the risk of Warner Brother's chasing me down!  I am though sharing this excerpt from Rob Lowe's new autobiography "Stories I Only Tell My Friends."

I shied away from this book for the first few weeks after it was initially released. I have had a big crush on him for a some time and I didn't want to learn from his own mouth that he was a complete jerk or something. Obviously, even if he was a jerk, he wasn't likely admit to it, right? Well, suprisingly enough, he hid nothing. He made no excuses. He wrote a tell all book with out being too invasive of the lives who meshed with his along the way. At the same time, he really wrote from the heart about his early life and his early acting life...the good, the bad and the very ugly. 

I found this book to be a great read...an easy read even. I am very happy I picked it up after all.  One of my favorite sections was obviously the one where he talked about being on "The West Wing." It confirmed some things I already thought I knew and gave me insight (from his perspective) on things I did not. The absolute best part for me was where he described listening to the show's opening theme music. I find that music to be utterly amazing and nearly perfection. I couldn't explain to anyone why though. I could not explain why that particular bit of music moved my heart and soul the way it did. 

Mr. Lowe, though, wrote it for me:

Excerpt from "Stories I Only Tell My Friends" by Rob Lowe

Well, folks, that's the end of that....

Warner Brothers doesn't like free advertising of their products. I just got a threatening notice from YouTube about my West Wing clips. Obviously, I can't continue with this in hand. 

It was fun while it lasted...

West Wing Wednesday: Babies come with hats

For those of you who may be new to The West Wing, you may not understand that the character, Toby, is just this side of being a curmudgeon.  We rarely see a soft side to Toby, but when we do? It is pure magic.

This clip is from the season finale (Twenty-five) of Season Four. Zoey has been kidnapped. One of her secret service agents have been shot. The President is contemplating invoking the 25th Amendment and temporarily handing over the reins to someone else. 

During this insanity, Toby's exwife gives birth to their twins 10 days early. In this scene, Toby is having a very special conversation with his new children. I love how this conversation turns into something quite poignant later on in the episode. It's so wonderful that I'm sharing not one but two clips with you today.

Video removed due to threatening notice from YouTube and Warner Bros.

 

West Wing Wednesday: Marion Cotesworth-Haye

In the 18th episode of Season 4, titled "Privateers," there are multiple story lines happening. Among the many, we find Amy Gardner (Mary-Louise Parker) on her first day as the new Chief of Staff for the First Lady. She's been given an impossible task by the First Lady and she knows it. You can tell she's not 100% sure this is the job for her. The episode brings lots of funny around Amy's first day, including pictures falling off walls and whole office doors falling off their hinges.

As part of what she believes is her very own hazing for her first day, Amy has to help CJ manage a problem with that evening's DAR (Daughters of the Revolution) dinner. It is learned that one Marion Cotesworth Hay is threatening to boycott the dinner because Dr. Bartlett's entry into the DAR was based on a relative who was a privateer. Also known as a professional pirate. Mrs. Cotesworth-Haye is very offended and has to be handled carefully. In this scene we watch (with glee!) as CJ loses her composure and leaves Amy floundering to make the problem go away.

Video removed due to threatening notice from
YouTube and Warner Bros.

 

West Wing Wednesday: Special Clip for a special situation

After the horrific events in Tuscon, Arizona became widely known this past weekend, several people on the NSBR at TwoPeas brought up this particular episode/scene from West Wing. We all agreed it was fitting to the current situation. I thought that made it the obvious choice for this week's featured clip.

Video removed due to threatening notice from
YouTube and Warner Bros. 

West Wing Wednesday: More C.J.

In this scene, C.J. takes a report to task for trying to embarrass her earlier in the episode.  I love these scenes!

 

Merry Christmas Eve! - Entry #3

Pumpkin pies in the oven...picture of finished product coming soon!

While we wait, I found this great article about my favorite TV show producer, Aaron Sorkin.

I knew he used a lot of the actors from show to show, but I did not know that "Donna" (Janel Maloney) was on Sports Night too? I'm here to admit I've never watched Sports Night. I'm going to fix that after watching the clip included in this article.

So, Merry Christmas my fellow West Wing fans! Here's a little something for you!

Christmas Lessons From Aaron Sorkin

West Wing Wednesday: Holy Night

Unlike the Thanksgiving episodes, the Christmas episodes on West Wing generally had a more serious tone. The episode "Noel", likely my favorite episode of the whole series, deals with Josh's post traumatic stress from the shooting that almost killed him at the end of Season 1. Going with a piece of "Noel" would be the easy call today. So, obviously, that's not what I'm going to share. :P

Today, I thought I'd share this scene from "Holy Night" which was the 11th episode from Season 4. In this episode, we learn about Toby's father who apparently was involved in criminal activity when Toby was born. As a result, Toby had long since distanced himself from anything to do with his father. Now that Toby is about to have twins, his father was desperate to reconnect with Toby in order to have a relationship with his new grandchildren. Toby is less than thrilled. Especially when he discovers that Josh is the one who got his father into the building. You'll have to watch for yourself to see how it ends.

For today's clip, I thought I'd share on of my favorite scenes with C.J. as played by Allison Janney. One of my happiest moments was during the final season when we learn that C.J. and Danny do end up together. After Donna and Josh, the C.J. and Danny relationship  will always be a favorite part of this series for me.

Enjoy! and Merry Christmas!

 

 

West Wing Wednesday: How did I miss *this*?

I love the internet. You never know what you might find when you type something into a search box! (P.S. Click on the video (double click?) to go to youtube to watch as it doesn't fit my current blog design and you're missing the right area of the video).

 

Must find a copy of this Entertainment Weekly edition!

West Wing Wednesday: Happy Thanksgiving Day :)