Written by Aaron Sorkin
Directed by Thomas Schlamme

My mother, rest her soul, could never expand her mind enough to imagine a fictional White House. This was my favorite show for seven seasons, and she could never watch it. I think the rapid dialogue intimidated her as well, although she wouldn’t admit it.

The idea, initially, was to show the staff who surrounded the President and how they worked. Martin Sheen portrays President Bartlet. His role was supposed to be a small one, and just for a couple of days, as the focus was on the staff. It’s pretty obvious in the Pilot episode how the plan was to handle this. This episode is meant to introduce viewers to the characters the series will be following.

Pilot opens with Sam Seabourn (Rob Lowe) in a bar with a reporter trying to pick his brain. We don’t know who he is right away, except that he’s somehow connected to the President. It then jumps to Leo McGarry (John Spencer) at home, getting ready for work, who gets a phone call from POTUS. At the time, that abbreviation wasn’t too familiar to people.

C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) is working out on a treadmill when her beeper goes off, and she falls. Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) is asleep at his desk whent he same thing happens. Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) is on a flight when he gets an emergency message from the cockpit. Sam is in bed with Laurie (Lisa Edelstein), the woman he was looking at in the bar the night before, when he gets the same message on his pager.

All race to the White House. The President was apparently in a bicycle accident. He rode his bicycle into a tree.

Josh is fielding calls about Cubans on rafts trying to reach Florida. The staff meet and try to brainstorm what to do when they reach American waters. Meanwhile, apparently Josh also alienated someone on the Christian right during a television appearance. He was less than tactful with a Christian activist. There are rumors that Josh will be fired to placate the Christian right. Toby doesn’t want that to happen, but Josh is reluctant to make nice.

Mandy Hampton (Moira Kelly) is on her way to work when she is pulled over for running a red light. Josh has learned that she left her job to work on an exploratory committee for Senator Russell, who may challenge the president for re-election. He meets with her at a local restaurant and pieces together that she and Russell are an item.

Sam realizes that he and Laurie accidentally swapped pagers and that she is a paid escort. Sam really likes her, but she understands that his job means he can get in trouble if he keeps seeing her. Sam is then sent to give Leo’s daughter’s fourth-grade class a historic tour of the White House. He thinks Leo’s daughter is one of the kids, but it turns out it’s the teacher that he has just unburdened himself to. Sam has a history of not judging ages correctly.

As there is an argument between representatives of the Christian Right, Toby, Josh, and Leo, the President enters. President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) corrects a basic tenet of faith that they have gotten wrong. He then counters their alleged offense at what Josh did with his granddaughter being sent a doll with a knife in its neck by a right-wing Christian hate group that he has asked them to denounce in the past. When they leave, President Barltet holds Josh aside. He’s forgiven, but Bartlet warns him not to do it again.

Historical context will be important for the run of this show. When this series first aired in 1999, the Christian Right weren’t quite the Christo-Fascists that they are today. They brought a morality debate to politics, but weren’t intent on making this a “Christian nation” the way they are now. It would seem like the extremists that are alluded to in the incident with Bartlet’s granddaughter are the ones who have taken over the movement. The character of Rev. Caldwell (F. William Parker) is a stand-in for Jerry Falwell. There were issues then that seem trite now, such as condoms in schools, although the right-wing would like to roll back all of the societal advances beyond what we see in this time period. Things that felt normalized are now under attack.

Pilot is meant to introduce the main characters. It does a good job in this regard. It makes it appear that Sam Seabourn will likely be the big focus of the series, as he is given a great deal of screen time and story as opposed to many of the others. Other than Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe was the most recognizable name on the show. He seems to be a ladies’ man as he manages to score with Laurie, and we learn he hit on Leo’s wife during the campaign. This implies that Leo’s wife either looks very good for her age or is quite younger than him. When Sam encounters Leo’s daughter, the third possibility is that it’s a second marriage, seeing how Sam expects the daughter to be around ten years old. There are historians at the White House who would have been tapped to give this tour before it landed on Sam to do so, despite his attempts at history that fly in the face of what anyone who completed a high school American History course should know.

The one who feels like the odd one out right now is Mandy. Not only does she not work in the West Wing, but she seems to be doing her own thing in preparation for the next Presidential election, which is a number of years off still. The character was dropped after a while, as they were still seeing what worked and what didn’t.

I liked how there is a sense of trying to find a balance between believers and non-believers in the Christian Right storyline. Josh’s background is Jewish, but he comes off as more of an Atheist at this point. President Bartlet is a man of faith who studied Economics before going into government, yet he is very well-educated about his religion. Toby Ziegler is a practicing Jew who jumps on an intimated slight. None of them are perfect in practicing their faith or non-faith.

The one character who really grows from this episode is C.J. We really don’t see much of her here, but we will in the future. Allison Janney was more of a comedic actor, and her falling on the treadmill is a hint at that. Most of her role in this episode is supportive, as she is one of the staff being very vocal, sticking up for Josh, whether he deserves it or not.

As someone of faith who is also liberal, I have encountered people like Josh all over the place. His character resonates even now. They think anyone who has faith is an idiot, and it shows in how they treat them. He views Mary Marsh (Annie Corley), whom he insulted on a news show, with contempt, as well as the other who are there to meet with him. Even as he’s trying to be conciliatory, it’s hard because his contempt for them because of their beliefs comes through. It will be an ongoing part of his personality, and it humanizes the staff. They won’t be perfect throughout the series, and it makes the series all the more relatable. It’s also amazing how, after all of the arguing and debate between the staff, as soon as Bartlet enters the picture, they are all subdued. They know that no matter what they think, they serve the President, and what he says goes.

This was a first glimpse at life inside the White House for many people. I had never thought of it as a place with office cubicles. I don’t remember what I thought all these years later, but I know that I was surprised by the setting. It also set the tone for how the series was to be filmed. This was one of the first series to use hand-carried cameras to film the actors walking through sets. I found it dizzying at first, but now I have become used to seeing it. Watching this episode again with fresh eyes, I was reminded of that, though. As pilots for a series go, this is one of the best. It introduces the characters in a meaningful way and sets the tone that it will be a show to make a person think a bit.