“What part of scripture do you think they got their inspiration from, when they sent Annie a Raggedy Ann doll … with a knife stuck through its throat?” His face, the eyes, the little rough intake of breath, the firmly contained yet very clear deep anger … The acting is superior. Just subtle perfection. Ah, The West Wing. Unequalled.
@@RandallHallKaizenReiki yes, and she sighs with irritation, frustration and the understanding that she’s lost this one. Her remark “we can find our way out” is actually very disrespectful towards the President. His retort is VERY sharp : “find it now”, dry and calm but oh so angry.
Always love how Al Caldwell rolls his eyes at the 'religious' nut getting the first commandment wrong. such a brilliant little moment for Sorkin to include.
The only reason he gets it wrong is so Bartlett can have that terrific entrance line. I mean, what Christian preacher thinks the first commandment is "Honor thy father and mother?" What Christian anything thinks that? BUT -- it's worth this small improbability to hear Sheen deliver that line.
@jrpipik you'd be surprised how much cherrypicking and rewriting religious people like to do when they need the Bible to support their personal agendas.
@@jrpipik Since most Christian preachers are dumb as dirt and/or conmen, nobody should be surprised at all by one of them not being able to keep track of a list that includes the astounding number of ten (10!) items, much less their order.
@@jrpipik no need to limit it to Christians. The Ten Commandments are in the Torah, the Jewish Bible. Many of us learned those by heart in Jewish school. Not saying we remember it all, a few decades later though. But the 1st Commandment, yeah that one stuck 😇
Hands down the greatest introduction of TV character I've ever seen. They saved him until the end of the episode and boy did Martin Sheen deliver! This was probably where Sorkin and the producers decided that Bartlet needs to be a regular lead character vs. a recurring one.
But when you get an actor like Martin Sheen who has the gravitas when needed and the deep humanity when needed too, well I’m glad they changed their minds.
The brilliance of the show is from the pilot on. The whole episode The President is behind the scenes, not even in the White House, while his staff have 100 and 1 tasks to do. And then he enters with words "“I am the LORD your God..." of all other possibilities
Next up: housing, health care, and food. We call this the greastest country? The one with simultaneous epidemics of obesity and starvation? The place of Megamansions, Superyachts and homelessness? Where the poor are forced to beat a child they can't afford yet the rich fly to Europe for a facelift? Make it make sense.
The irony of this is the first commandment is the only one of the ten that doesn’t get its order impacted by different groups of Christians disagreeing or agreeing about whether no graven images is a commandment.
I wish that were true, but Judaism has a different order that begins with that very first commandment. For the first commandment, Judaism has "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." The second command begins "You shall have no other gods before me." The Christians combine the two into one commandment, and that changes the numbering of everything that follows. Considering that it's the Jew's Bible in the first place, it's pretty ballsy of the Christians to start messing around with it. It's really hilarious that all everybody seems to want is to kill the Jews and take their stuff, and by stuff I mean their religious ideas and moral code, now the basis for the two most influential religions on the planet.
@@nunuvyerbizness Christians have been coming up with dumbed-down plagiarism of our far superior original stuff since the birth of their ridiculous little cult. A guy that barely qualified as an under-employed carpenter in our team achieved "Son of G-d" status in theirs. That alone tells you all you need to know.
The West Wing. Comfortably the best U.S. TV. On a par with the BBC's I Claudius. Even better than Star Trek TNG and Star Gate, which were pretty damned impressive.
It wasn't until after a couple of rewatches that I realised Toby saying to Josh "If I'm going to make you sit through this preposterous exercise..." is actually him giving an indirect apology to Josh for insisting on this meeting and acknowledgement that Josh was right.
This is why the UK need to SERIOUSLY look at refugees and immigration. People who try and arrive on British shores do so by crossing *the* biggest and busiest shipping lane in the world. If they're prepared to risk that then they must need that new life pretty damn bad!
I really loved the West Wing, but I really hated it when the show purposefully made the other side too stupid to be real. It shows a lack of confidence in your argument if you have to misrepresent the other side or only go up against their weakest. Anyone prominent enough within a Christian organization large enough to meet with the President would bloody well know the 10 commandments.
Yeah, it's not as if we don't have an example of a former President who constantly misquotes basic lines from the Bible and yet still receives tremendous support from Christian evangelists.
@@Vesperitis The President you are thinking of, was he the head of any church or segregation within the religion he misquoted? Because if you can't see the difference between a leader of an organized religion being unable to quote the basics versus a politician who has worked in either the private sector or public office all his life, then it's no wonder you like the obvious pandering to the lowest common denominator the show sometimes engaged in.
That is utter horseshit. All it takes to be "prominent enough within a Christian organization" is the ability to con gullible rubes and spout hateful rhetoric.
"Find it now." is translation for "You don't get the last word. The _President_ gets the last word."
The writing. The acting. Everything. Everyone. It was pure gold.
“What part of scripture do you think they got their inspiration from, when they sent Annie a Raggedy Ann doll … with a knife stuck through its throat?”
His face, the eyes, the little rough intake of breath, the firmly contained yet very clear deep anger …
The acting is superior. Just subtle perfection.
Ah, The West Wing. Unequalled.
Watch the actress playing Mary. Her expression as all of her political capital from Josh's error evaporates in those words is priceless.
@@RandallHallKaizenReiki yes, and she sighs with irritation, frustration and the understanding that she’s lost this one.
Her remark “we can find our way out” is actually very disrespectful towards the President.
His retort is VERY sharp : “find it now”, dry and calm but oh so angry.
Aaron Sorkin is a writing genius.
that's a bit much. Incredibly talented.
The first episode of one of the great television shows of all time. Nice upload date, too.
Always love how Al Caldwell rolls his eyes at the 'religious' nut getting the first commandment wrong. such a brilliant little moment for Sorkin to include.
The only reason he gets it wrong is so Bartlett can have that terrific entrance line. I mean, what Christian preacher thinks the first commandment is "Honor thy father and mother?" What Christian anything thinks that? BUT -- it's worth this small improbability to hear Sheen deliver that line.
@jrpipik you'd be surprised how much cherrypicking and rewriting religious people like to do when they need the Bible to support their personal agendas.
@@jrpipik Since most Christian preachers are dumb as dirt and/or conmen, nobody should be surprised at all by one of them not being able to keep track of a list that includes the astounding number of ten (10!) items, much less their order.
@@jrpipik no need to limit it to Christians. The Ten Commandments are in the Torah, the Jewish Bible. Many of us learned those by heart in Jewish school.
Not saying we remember it all, a few decades later though. But the 1st Commandment, yeah that one stuck 😇
@@jrpipikTo be fair, a lot of "Christians" quote the Bible wrong ALL the time.
Hands down the greatest introduction of TV character I've ever seen. They saved him until the end of the episode and boy did Martin Sheen deliver! This was probably where Sorkin and the producers decided that Bartlet needs to be a regular lead character vs. a recurring one.
"If I am going to make you sit through this preposterous exercise we're going to get the names of the damn commandments right" Damn right.
Amazing to me now that Bartlett wasn’t supposed to be a full time character. The focus was going to be almost solely on the staff.
But when you get an actor like Martin Sheen who has the gravitas when needed and the deep humanity when needed too, well I’m glad they changed their minds.
still one of the best character intros in TV history
One of the best character entrances in television history.
The brilliance of the show is from the pilot on. The whole episode The President is behind the scenes, not even in the White House, while his staff have 100 and 1 tasks to do. And then he enters with words "“I am the LORD your God..." of all other possibilities
Martin sheen owned this role at every chance his character showed itself.
Toby and the damn commandments was when I fell in love with him.
The timeline that sane Americans wish we'd had.
And this ladies and gentlemen, is only the first episode. Damn I wish I got to watch this live back in it's day. I was too young to understand it.
"I believe we can find the door"
"Find it NOW."
Bet she thought that bit of passive aggressive snark would win her points.
Oh how wrong she was.
All debates aside, Bartlett predicted free pornography. Prescient.
Next up: housing, health care, and food.
We call this the greastest country? The one with simultaneous epidemics of obesity and starvation? The place of Megamansions, Superyachts and homelessness? Where the poor are forced to beat a child they can't afford yet the rich fly to Europe for a facelift?
Make it make sense.
The irony of this is the first commandment is the only one of the ten that doesn’t get its order impacted by different groups of Christians disagreeing or agreeing about whether no graven images is a commandment.
I wish that were true, but Judaism has a different order that begins with that very first commandment. For the first commandment, Judaism has "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." The second command begins "You shall have no other gods before me." The Christians combine the two into one commandment, and that changes the numbering of everything that follows.
Considering that it's the Jew's Bible in the first place, it's pretty ballsy of the Christians to start messing around with it.
It's really hilarious that all everybody seems to want is to kill the Jews and take their stuff, and by stuff I mean their religious ideas and moral code, now the basis for the two most influential religions on the planet.
@@nunuvyerbizness Christians have been coming up with dumbed-down plagiarism of our far superior original stuff since the birth of their ridiculous little cult. A guy that barely qualified as an under-employed carpenter in our team achieved "Son of G-d" status in theirs. That alone tells you all you need to know.
Mary's expression at 2:15 implies she already knows what happened, even though it's not public. She was in on it, no question.
I read her express and the Reverend's as she knew about it because she probably had a hand in it and he didn't think she would go that far.
The West Wing. Comfortably the best U.S. TV. On a par with the BBC's I Claudius.
Even better than Star Trek TNG and Star Gate, which were pretty damned impressive.
Please remember Tinker soldier spy but you got it lol👍😆
"She was calling us New York Jews, Josh"
"Yeah, but being from Connecticut I didn't mind so much"
💀
It wasn't until after a couple of rewatches that I realised Toby saying to Josh "If I'm going to make you sit through this preposterous exercise..." is actually him giving an indirect apology to Josh for insisting on this meeting and acknowledgement that Josh was right.
That look on Toby's face...!! 5$ is too high a price to pay for pornography...!!
Love the show, but how in the world would a Reverend confuse the 10 Commandments that much?
Most Christians don’t know shit about the commandments or the bible
Mostly cause he a lousy Reverend but also he is more political then religious.
I agree. Silly. But it's worth it to set up Bartlett's entrance.
Most of them don't study the Bible. They just wave it while they screech at the people they hate, you know, the way Jesus would do.
The more reverends you meet, the more you realize they are dumb as dirt, conmen or both.
This is why the UK need to SERIOUSLY look at refugees and immigration. People who try and arrive on British shores do so by crossing *the* biggest and busiest shipping lane in the world.
If they're prepared to risk that then they must need that new life pretty damn bad!
That's it, that's the right take.
If a religious zealot has to ask you what the first Commandment is, they are full of crap.
Have you ever met any religious zealot who was not full of crap? I haven't.
@@Dan210871 - atheism is a religion of it's own.....and they're plenty full of crap, too.
Funnily enough, Toby is wrong, too: it's the Fifth 😂
It depends who you ask actually, there's disputing theories on that
That’s honour mother and father. King James is the first wide release Bible in English. You are wrong.
@@lizziebkennedy7505 That's what I said it was.
Considering the commandments have been used to justify so many atrocities in history is there order really the important aspect here?
@@develynseether4426 maybe if the first were: "Thou shalt not kill" it'd make a difference.
Religion. You all alike.
I really loved the West Wing, but I really hated it when the show purposefully made the other side too stupid to be real. It shows a lack of confidence in your argument if you have to misrepresent the other side or only go up against their weakest. Anyone prominent enough within a Christian organization large enough to meet with the President would bloody well know the 10 commandments.
Yeah, it's not as if we don't have an example of a former President who constantly misquotes basic lines from the Bible and yet still receives tremendous support from Christian evangelists.
@@Vesperitis That seems like the kind of guy that Christian evangelists might, say, build a golden calf to.
@@Vesperitis The President you are thinking of, was he the head of any church or segregation within the religion he misquoted? Because if you can't see the difference between a leader of an organized religion being unable to quote the basics versus a politician who has worked in either the private sector or public office all his life, then it's no wonder you like the obvious pandering to the lowest common denominator the show sometimes engaged in.
That is utter horseshit. All it takes to be "prominent enough within a Christian organization" is the ability to con gullible rubes and spout hateful rhetoric.
Evangelicals really are this stupid.
That first part is a great scene, but it's so very unlike the Bartlet we know and love.
No, it’s not. He knows his faith and his Bible backwards. As he proved in season 2 with the shock jock.
@@lizziebkennedy7505 But it's also a respect thing. It's hard to imagine Bartlet as we know him later telling them to get their fat asses out.
@@glenndallas7171I don’t know- it feels similar to when he lays out the radio host in season 2 - he just seems a bit more blunt in this scene
He was angry, and had every right to be. Respect is shown when it is deserved.
@@glenndallas7171 Since Bartlet is Aaron Sorkin's creation, only Sorkin gets to decide what's like and unlike Barlet.