You're listening to The West Wing Weekly. I'm Rashique Sherway.

And I'm Joshua Molina.

Today we're talking about season two, episode 10 of The West Wing. It's called No Well.

It first aired on December 20th in the year 2000. It was directed by friend of the podcast,

Tommy Schlame. It was written by Aaron Sorkin, teleplay by Aaron, and story by Peter Parnell.

Here's the synopsis from TV Guide. It's the Christmas season at the White House,

but Josh is anything but Mary. For one thing, the holiday music that Toby insists fill the halls

sounds to Josh as though it belongs in a shopping mall. Beyond that, he's being rude to everyone,

even raising his voice to the president, something that just isn't done.

So Leo orders therapy. Meanwhile, CJ takes interest when an elderly woman on a tour of the White House

loses her composure at the sight of a painting. And the president decides that he wants to

sign all his Christmas cards. Well, maybe just 100,000 of them personally.

Coming up later, we're going to discuss the episode in depth. And later still, we'll talk to Bradley

Whitford who won an Emmy. What? How? For his performance for this episode. But first,

we're going to start off with the conversation with Ellen Totelayben.

My name is Ellen Totelayben, and I'm the set decorator. I decorated the pilot and then all seven seasons.

You won an Emmy for the pilot?

Yes, I did.

Today, we're talking about Noel, and you were nominated for another Emmy for this episode.

Does this episode stand out for you? Do you remember it well?

Yes, yes, because all of the Christmas episodes were all very moving.

But this one was the one where Josh had the PTSD, you know, so it was pretty intense that way.

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