Just realized that Leo's so invested in getting the pilot out because he was in the same position as a downed F-105 pilot in Vietnam and had to be rescued from behind PAVN lines.

"If fitz has to call the pilots family i am invading baghdad "is an under rated line

"Give me your parents' number, I never get to make THIS call..." Meaning the call with the good news.

Love the idea of a well educated, open but firm minded president

"All the same, I'm going to check out that thing with the carpet." Brilliant line.😂

Leos reaction to the "diplomatic option" carries more weight when we later learn he was shot down in Vietnam

"That's a job awfully well done Mr. Chairman". That's what I call a compliment.

Points to Admiral Fitzwallace for being able to answer the President’s questions about the pilot without even looking down at piece of paper.

John Amos & Martin Sheen, both American treasures.

Ohh Fitz asked “How are you feeling” and followed up when Bartlet was vague because he was in the know about the MS! Never caught that before.

I love the subtle piece of acting Martin Sheen does without words when he is told that pilot is safe...

How I wish this was real and not fiction.

Fitz's voice has a unique cadence to it, it's very confident and clear

Brilliant little piece of writing: President Bartlet refers to Fitz having to call the pilot’s parents. But he wants to call himself after the pilot is rescued.

This is why we love Bartlett

The way I teared up when Fitz said Captain Hotchkiss was on the line.

From Wikipedia's article "Seal of the President of the United States." _A popular but erroneous myth is that the seal is changed during times of war, so that the eagle faces the arrows in its left talon. This belief may have arisen because major changes to the seal have coincidentally been made before or after wars - specifically, the 1945 change in the seal, and also the 1916 change in the flag (though not the seal) from the right-facing Great Seal to the left-facing presidential seal.[47]_ _This misconception may also have arisen from a comment made by Winston Churchill, who, regarding Truman's redesign of the seal, joked: "Mr. President, with the greatest respect, I would prefer the American eagle's neck to be on a swivel so that it could face the olive branches or the arrows, as the occasion might demand".[53]_ _The belief is perpetuated by a 2000 episode of The West Wing entitled "What Kind of Day Has It Been?". Character Admiral Fitzwallace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, notes that the presidential seal in the center of the Oval Office carpet contains a shield bearing a bald eagle clutching the olive branch in its right talons and arrows in its left. The eagle's head is turned toward the olive branch. Fitzwallace alleges that in times of war the seal is replaced with one in which the eagle's head is turned toward the arrows.[54]_

I've always thought that this program clearly showed the president that Americans liked to think they had, and never in my lifetime have actually had. The nearest probably being Jimmy Carter or Barak Obama. Wouldn't the world be a wonderful place with Jeb Bartlett at America's helm.

Dr Josiah Bartlett is the best President the USA has never had, or ever will anytime soon. Followed thereafter by Andrew Shepard, another great president the USA never had, but should. Both from the mind of Aaron Sorkin.

I wish we had Presidents with this kind of integrity. Wouldn't care which party. Just give me someone with integrity.

That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is a Commander-in-Chief. Ably assisted. 👍

Teh gravitus of Martin Sheen mixed with the writing is just magic, all that bickering at the open and the President did exactly what he should do made it not esoteric , but about a single individual they have a responsibility to.

I am a conservative but this would be a President that you could respect because he cared about America and he was a true leader.

I love Fitz and his eagle question, brought a moment of levity to what could've been a tense situation.

In case anyone was wondering, according to Snopes, it is FASE that the seal is changed during wartime. Possibly made us for the show. Although the seal has changed over the years, notably in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson changed the design slightly so that the eagle's head was modified to face the viewer's right, towards the talon holding the arrows. Then, in 1945, President Harry Truman made more changes, including switching the head to the left.

Love this show, my favorite show of all time. I own them all.

God how I miss this show.

This is one of those awesome West Wing moments that made you feel good and could handle whatever came at you on Thursday

My favorite all time TV show...

Sorkin’ s obsession with military toys and listing them off in every scene

SPOOILERS AHEAD: In a later episode, the staff are brainstorming possible running mates for Bartlett in place of Hoynes and one of them is Admiral Fitzwallace. Of course the character was killedin a car bombing while he was on a fact finding trip in Istael, but if they had kept him alive, I genuinely would have liked to have seen a continuation of the West Wing with Vinnick as President and Fitzwallace as some sort of major character, maybe as a recently Democratic represetnative, or even as a Republian Vice President.

The *GREATEST* show in the _history_ of television.

John Amos as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was brilliant casting; typical of the West Wing.

Martin Sheen for President in 2024.

I love this scene. There are so many great and worthy moments to comment on. But im going to go for the low and subtle joke that foe once, someome else points out and obscure historical fact and this time it's Bartlet that's bored 😂

This President has balls!

IIRC, one deftness in the drama is that we never quite find out what happens next -- that is, you can just HEAR Martin Sheen in character saying something like "this is Jed Barlett, hold for a voice you know...' or something. It's an echo of the original goofier character who called the Turkey Hotline.

Don't let Danny convince you to sell the farm!!!! People will come, Jed!!!

"Get him back." "Yes, Sir." Chef's kiss.

I so much miss The West Wing. I rewatched it all during the Trump years and pretended that Jed Barrett was president.

I love this guy

He wasn't wrong to suggest diplomacy. He gave the President all the options and what a reasonable timeframe would be needed. Even knowing about the bounty it needed to be said and considered.

Their "technical advisors" didn't do their homework on this one. An F-117 is strictly an attack aircraft. There is no way on this planet it would ever be assigned a "patrol" mission. The ONLY circumstance it would ever be over Iraqi territory would be to drop two bombs on preassigned targets. Patrol mission? That's the job of the F-15's, F-18's, F-22's, F-35's and F-16's.

John Amos is an exceptional actor.

Best show ever

Fitz is so giddy here 😅

I believe both the President and father was running the show here. Especially towards the end

I can see these two on a presidential ticket

Leo was a POW in Vietnam after his plane was shot down.

Bartlett was the goat. We could use him nowadays.

"i swear to god im invading baghdad."

If only we would do it.

Could you imagine being Hotchkiss’ parents right after this scene? “Hello?” “Hi, is this Mrs. Hotchkiss?” “Yes…?” “This is Jed Bartlett, your son’s boss. We got him. He’s on his way home. Got a sprained ankle but is otherwise fine.”

"He had an ACES II 0-0 ejection seat..." No general is going to waste the president's time mentioning the ejection seat brand. This is either product placement or script writers getting carried away with their research.

Strong leaders. Protecting our troops. Communicating with the public. This is less realistic than LOTR

Interesting detail, a surface combatant named after a state. Closest we have today is an LPD USS NEW YORK, with steel salvaged from the WTC making up it's bow.

The seal DOES NOT CHANGE during war time. Total myth.

The writers killing Fitz off was criminal...I know they needed a dramatic storyline but goddamn it.

A democratic president making a very republican decision. This is what leaders need to be about, when it comes down to things like this you dont make decisions based on your parties preferences, you do what has to be done.

Man, the best political TV show that ever was...

Yes people would vote for Bartlett because he speaks the truth and he has integrity. Unfortunately that's rare in a real president

Is that thing about the carpet true, and if it is then how do they do it? Little details like that in regalia and heraldry absolutely fascinate me!

What episode was this? I've watched all and I totally don't remember this scene.

CJ says “Eye-Rak”, just like Sarah Palin.

I wonder, did Jed ever get an answer for Fitz before Gaza... Im sure he did but it makes me wonder.

I love Fitzwallace

We need to go back to when the president sneezed you looked to see which country disappeared.

Bartlett 2024!

F117 “just patrolling the no fly zone”. Sure, and we also like to use the USS Ford to check fishing licences.

the more i watch the west wing, even on repeat, I get sad that we are so far from respectable. ugh.. so annoying

A certain former guy wouldn’t have done a rescue because people who get shot down over enemy territory are “losers”

I seriously doubt a F-117 fighter would be assigned to fly a routine patrol enforcing a no-fly zone. It was designed as a stealth bomber and carried no defensive armament...no missiles, no guns, no cannon.

Admiral Sissy Mary

Rob Lowe was supposed to be the centerpiece, and Sheen was just supposed to appear in a few scenes early on and then become invisible. But Sheen had so much fun in that pilot episode that he asked for more scenes, and next thing you know he's the focal point. No disrespect to Lowe, but that show doesn't get past season 2 without Sheen, in my opinion.

26 year old captain of a stealth fighter...

No one is asking why he was headed to Tel Aviv? Do we think a phone call was made to Moosad for a favor?

Please always put the original airing date in the description.

An empathetic president with heart, class, dignity, intelligence, and morals? In this day and age, that would be the equivalent of finding Bigfoot at Leprechaun Larry's Golden Hoof & Tow getting re-shoe service on his unicorn before attending a cheese & wine mixer in Middle Earth that's being hosted by the tooth fairy and her fiance, Willy Wonka.

"This one white man's life is worth more to me than the lives of thousands, if not millions, of brown Iraqis." - A *totally* not racist US president.

Anyone else wondering why this is getting uploaded now?

Ok but let’s all be honest here - how many of us would actually remember our parents phone numbers off the tops of our heads? Especially in a situation like that.

What saddens me, just kills me is the reality of today

I know it's a myth, but in this episode, did they ever explain how the carpet is changed in their fictional universe where it actually gets changed?

I’m a far right Republican and I’d vote for him over either of the two choices I will have in November.

Love it when americans go.. us f117a nighthawk stealth fighter attack aircraft... and then hit you with "flying routine patrol", on the other side of the world.😮

I just realized that they have a stealth fighter shot down. No way they would have been able to do that to one outside of their airspace and no way they would use an aircraft designed for stealth bombing on a patrol

And then the mission meant 100 innocents diedby a JDAM or Hellfire.

why would a stealth ground attack aircraft be flying a patrol for a no fly zone?

Wow! How bad was this show??? An F-117 flying a "routine patrol" over a no-fly zone... Even when I was a teenager I knew F-117s didn't do combat air patrols. smh The jet did cost ~$45 million to make but that was in ~1982 dollars, not in the year 2000... Great attention to detail Aaron Sorkin

An intelligent, well educated, empathetic man, everything a President should be! It is so scary to think that Trump was even allowed in the situation room, let alone in charge 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

…how DO they do that with the carpet?

This is why we support Israel. It’s the only mid eastern country that supports us.

Notice they are flying the pilot to Israel.

He would be considered a right wing radical today

Well you show me another person on the ballot with a realistic chance of winning and I’ll be unconvinced. I voted in the primary and my guy lost. If you think there’s someone else who might win let’s put some cash on it.

Ask yourselves honestly, would you see trump doing this??? Would he even remember the Pilots name?? Or do you think Biden would be more likely to do this.?

Please don't post anything from season 7.

Imagine what we would do if an Iraqi pilot crashed in the US and they tried to come get them. We are an arrogant evil country

Trump in real life will never be remotely as sharp as Bartlett on TV. I bet Trump has never even watched this show. He's certainly never read the Constitution.

Now, do Trump.