The Debate
Season 7 Episode 7 Written By Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. Director Alex Graves Original Airdate November 6, 2005 Guest Stars: Janeane Garofalo Ron Silver Teri Polo Patricia Richardson Forrest Sawyer

In a first for NBC's "The West Wing," the Emmy Award-winning series was broadcast a live episode featuring a debate between presidential candidates Congressman Matt Santos and Senator Arnold Vinick. Two live versions were telecast, one for the East Coast and another for the West Coast. The West Coast version is on the DVDs.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Cast 2.1 Starring 2.2 Special Guest Stars 3 Trivia 4 Goofs 5 Quotes 6 References

Summary Edit

Senator Vinick and Congressman Santos hold their one "live" debate, moderated loosely by Forrest Sawyer. They decide to abandon the traditional format and hold an open debate.

Cast Edit

StarringEdit

• Alan Alda as Senator Arnold Vinick
• with Jimmy Smits as Matthew Santos

Special Guest StarsEdit

• Janeane Garofalo as Louise Thornton
• Ron Silver as Bruno Gianelli
• Teri Polo as Helen Santos
• Patricia Richardson as Sheila Brooks
• Forrest Sawyer as Himself

Trivia Edit

This episode advertised as a "live presidential debate" and was actually telecast live twice, once for the East and West coasts, with limited commercial interruption. It was also one of the few times actors were allowed to go "off script."

This is the first episode where no original cast members appeared.

This episode contains the fewest main cast members of any episode at two. Before this episode, The Long Goodbye and Message of the Week has been tied with three. It also has the smallest overall cast for any episode at seven.

The episode was shot "live" so the TV-debate would have the same live debate "flavor" that the real debates have. This is most notable in the quality of the image on screen, which is more crisp than the image of the other episodes and was actually shot on 35mm film.

Goofs Edit

This epsiode mentions the real world Enron scandal, but until this point it had never been mentioned on the show.

Quotes Edit

Santos: It's true, Republicans have tried to turn 'liberal' into a bad word. Well, liberals ended slavery in this country.
Vinick: A Republican president ended slavery.
Santos: Yes, a liberal Republican. What happened to them? They got run out of your party. What did liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican party? I'll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created social security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed every one of those programs. Every one. So when you try to hurl the word 'liberal' at my feet, as if it were dirty, something to run away from, something that I should be ashamed of, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and wear it as a badge of honor.

References Edit

"The West Wing" The Debate (2005)