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The West Wing Weekly

2.18: 17 People (with Richard Schiff, Emily Procter, Rebecca Walker)

The West Wing Weekly

Joshua Malina & Hrishikesh Hirway

Tv & Film

4.912.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2017

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We've got 7 people for "17 People." Richard Schiff (@Richard_Schiff) talks to us about Toby's journey, and the origins of the Spalding ball. Emily Procter (@emilyprocter) talks to us about Ainsley "spilling coffee" with Sam. Rebecca Walker (@rebeccawalker), one of the actual ERA panelists set to debate Ainsley at Smith, responds to her arguments, along with the President of the ERA Coalition, Jessica Neuwirth. And we get a little insight into a fantastic website dedicated to this episode, seventeenpeople.com, from its creator, Jon White (@jonwhitebriefly).

thewestwingweekly.com/episodes/218

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to the West Wing Weekly. I'm Rashique Sherway. And I'm Joshua Molina.

0:10.4

Today we're talking about 17 people. It's episode 18 from season two.

0:14.8

It was written by Aaron Sorkin, one of the best West Wing writers. And it was directed by Alex

0:21.0

Graves, one of the best West Wing directors. It first aired on April 4th, 2001.

0:26.7

And here's a synopsis from TV Guide. Toby puts two and two together and finds out about

0:31.2

the president's quote-unquote thing, his multiple sclerosis in this episode. Toby is the

0:35.6

17th person to find out, but only the second, after the first lady, to challenge him on it.

0:39.8

And he does so forcefully. Also, challenging Bartlett is a terrorist threat, and he must decide

0:44.2

whether to beef up security at U.S. airports. Meanwhile, Josh and Donna Bicker over their

0:48.8

quote-unquote anniversary. Lots of quote-unquotes. It's very Trumpian. Simon Ainsley swabble over the

0:55.9

ERA and staffers struggle to punch up a speech. The president is set to give at the White House

1:00.4

correspondence dinner. And with us, back by popular demand, Richard Schiff. Woo-hoo. Yay.

1:06.8

I'm already crying. Yeah, might as well just get it out of the way. Just do it.

1:12.0

I haven't stopped until last time I was here. That's a big fan favorite that episode.

1:17.6

That last episode was in Excelsis Dale. And that was directed by Alex Graves, I think, as well.

1:23.1

Yeah. And that ended up getting nominated for Emmy. And this episode also ended up getting

1:28.3

nominated for an Emmy. I have to say, the last time I was here and you asked, I think you asked

1:33.4

me about Alex. And how was it working with him? And I think the first thing I said was he's really

1:38.2

good with the camera. And then I felt bad afterwards because he's a, you know, clearly an excellent

1:44.0

director. And I don't think I gave him the props that he deserved. Yeah. But actually, I'm glad

1:48.3

that he brought that up again because while the camera work is very good in this episode as well,

1:53.0

this is a major acting episode. And it's, if I'm not wrong, this is a bottle episode, right? This

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