1x10 In Excelsis Deo - The West Wing Episode Guide

The West Wing

- Episode 01x10

Episode: 01x10
Title: In Excelsis Deo
Type: Regular Episode
Production Code: 225909
First Aired: Dec. 15, 1999

Season 1 » Episode #10 - In Excelsis Deo

Summary: As Christmas quickly approaches, President Bartlet sneaks out to finish some last minute shopping. Toby, after learning more about a forgotten Korean War veteran, arranges a funeral for him. C.J. tries to get the staff to focus on the hate crime issue again while continuing to fend off the reporter who keeps asking her out. Sam and Josh plan a strike against Congressman Lillenfield who’s been hinting at Leo’s past involving drug and alcohol abuse.

Who appeared in this episode?

Guest Stars:

Mandy Hampton	played by Moira Kelly
President Josiah 'Jed' Bartlet	played by Martin Sheen
Brittany 'Laurie' Rollins	played by Lisa Edelstein
Danny Concannon	played by Timothy Busfield
George Huffnagle	played by Paul Austin
John Noonan	played by Tom Quinn (II)
Nancy	played by Ren�e Estevez
Homeless Man	played by Raynor Scheine
Mrs. Landingham	played by Kathryn Joosten

	Season 1 / Episode 10: - In Excelsis Deo President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: [Toby has just arranged for an honor guard at the funeral of a homeless vet] Toby, If we start pulling strings like this don't you think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork? Toby Ziegler: I can only hope so, sir.
	Season 1 / Episode 10: - In Excelsis Deo Josh Lyman: Here's one. Mandy Hampton: One what? Josh Lyman: A book which, if I was stuck with it on a desert island, I still wouldn't read it. "The Adventures of James Capen Adams, Mountaineer and Grizzly Bear Hunter of California." I believe I would eat this book before I read it.

[More Quotes]

MISTAKES/GOOFS

FAIR: Dolores Landingham, the President's secretary, mentions that her twin sons had a low draft number in the lottery. Her sons died in Vietnam on December 24, 1970. The first lottery drawing was held December 1, 1969; with a low lottery number, they would easily be in the field by December 1970.

TRIVIA

In the first season episode "In Excelsis Deo", after reading through the script, the Pentagon was very touched by the handling of the story line dealing with the death of a homeless veteran of the Korean conflict. In fact, they were so impressed that they gave the show access to film at Arlington National Cemetery, (ANC is administered by the U.S. Army Military District of Washington). The Department of Defense then supplied the Marine Honor Guard and chaplain, and set up the whole funeral. During the funeral scene, all persons in uniform are members of the U.S. Armed Forces, performing their actual roles in a military funeral. Richard Schiff, (Toby Zeigler) has said that it was such a powerful and moving story, that after every take, he broke down and cried.
The decorations in C.J.'s goldfish bowl change depending on the theme of the episode. For example, in the first season's Christmas episode "In Excelsis Deo", the bowl contains a Christmas tree. In "He Shall, From Time to Time", which features the State of the Union, the bowl contains a podium and two flags. In the season finale "What Kind of Day Has it Been", in which a subplot concerns trouble aboard the space shuttle, a shuttle appears in the bowl.
The teaser aired was the 28th take of that scene.
The story line for Lowell Lydell was taken from real life. A gay college student named Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, was beaten, pistol whipped and hung on a fence post and left overnight. He died and the country cried out for more Hate Crime Legislation. (see also the Laramie Project)
After Aaron Sorkin and Rick Cleveland won an Emmy for writing the episode "In Excelsis Deo," only Sorkin spoke at the awards ceremony. Cleveland published an article in Writers Guild Magazine expressing his disappointment at not being allowed to speak because the homeless veteran aspect of the episode's plot was based on Cleveland's own father, who was a veteran who died a homeless alcoholic. Sorkin (writing under the user name "Benjamin," his real-life middle name) posted on the TV message board mightybigtv.com (later renamed televisionwithoutpity.com) that he had written most of the episode and had only given Cleveland a co-writing credit as a courtesy because Cleveland had worked on a previous draft that, according to Sorkin, bore no resemblance to the final shooting script. Sorkin also said that this was true of almost all of the "The West Wing" (1999) scripts written up to that point (mid-2001), that he was the true and only writer of nearly all West Wing episodes, and the rest of the writing staff only helped him with research and "kick[ing] ideas around" - so he gave "them each a Story by credit on a rotating basis...by way of a gratuity." This internet posting attracted a great deal of mainstream press attention, which lead Sorkin to post again, this time retracting his claim of exclusive writing credit. The "LemonLymon.com" subplot in the season 3 episode "The U.S. Poet Laureate" (in which Josh posts on a website dedicated to his fans and sees it come back to haunt him) is based on this series of events.