Hello and welcome to a very special episode of The West Wing Weekly.

I've always wanted to be part of a very special episode.

On this memorial day, when we honor those who have died while serving in our country's armed forces,

we welcome to our show Melissa Fitzgerald, whom you all know for her work as Carol for seven seasons

on the West Wing, but we're also going to talk to her about her career in public service.

Melissa Fitzgerald, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Well, thank you for having me.

I am so enjoying listening to the podcast.

So you've been actually been rewatching the show and listening to the podcast?

I have been.

I haven't watched every episode fully because I have this, you know, I've grown up job now, so I

spending a lot of time doing that.

So I haven't had time to watch all of them, but I have watched several of them and I've listened

to every podcast.

That is so awesome. I've known you for a long time. We're old friends,

but can you tell us how you wound up on the show?

Well, my then boyfriend, now ex-husband who you know quite well, Josh, Noah,

and Rick is a wonderful actor and great person.

It was the year before West Wing went on the air when Sports Night was going to be on the air,

and he had, I guess his agent had given him both the scripts for Sports Night and the West Wing,

and he asked me what I thought of them and gave them to me and I read them and I came back to him

...