Welcome Home, First Lady-Elect | The West Wing

“I have no idea, I’m just the messenger.”
Season 7 Episode 20: The Last Hurrah
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[@bettygorman4545]

The expression on Helen‘s face when CJ says, “Which ones do you want to fire?” is priceless!

[@louisehine1]

I always liked that. She finally realised that she couldn’t run the entire house herself and that she’d be making people unemployed

[@buckflessner3023]

I know it is a TV show and I am sure you need a big White House staff.... but that is so government. We can do this job just as well with half the staff. Oh no! We can't let anybody go.

[@kanderson-oo7us]

​@@buckflessner3023 And people who have no idea what the work entails thinking they can cut half the staff is how uninformed people *think* they can change government.

[@SomeRandomPerson]

The Whitehouse staff don't just wait on the president and first family hand and foot. They also run all the official functions and myriad other things that they need for a functioning Whitehouse. Also, it's not like the first family gets this stuff for free... They pay for all the meals and service. So yeah, you could run it on half the staff... If you also tell the various Official Visitors to make sure they remember to pack a sandwich for the next visit.

[@dirdib69]

CJ is having a bit of fun there, too. She knows what it looks like when someone is just overwhelmed by it all.

[@pigs18]

The actual White House chief sends a questionnaire packet to the incoming First Family because the experience is so overwhelming. The amazing part is how they do the transition on Innaugration Day, basically prearranging trailer trucks by room. So they start with, say, the main bathroom, taking out all the outgoing linens and supplies like shampoos and then the new bathroom stuff comes off the new trailer where it's all stocked in the rear with the correct towels and brand of toothpaste and type of shampoo (all from the questionairre) while the moving crew starts filling the outbound trailer from the next room. And it continues until all the rooms are done.

[@kaitlynrowena5463]

How do you know?

[@pigs18]

@@kaitlynrowena5463 I watch a lot of documentaries.

[@alexturner8104]

​@@kaitlynrowena5463What he said is mostly correct. Things like the nuclear launch codes are sent to you by mail disguised as an advertisement from Publishers Clearing House. How do I know? I served 4 terms as your President .

[@CindersVale]

@@kaitlynrowena5463 There is an autobiography called 'My Thirty Years Backstairs At The White House' by Lillian Rogers Parks. She and her mother worked as maids and seamstress for many presidents and their families. Her book was later adapted into a novel, 'Backstairs At The White House,' and was made in 1979 into an NBC mini-series. I don't remember for which transition, but I seem to remember a scene that showed all the White House servants charging into action to get everything changed in time. You can watch the episodes here on KZbin.

[@patrickgomes2213]

Something very similar happens to Number 10 when one prime minister leaves and another comes in. I haven't read anything about how other countries with official residences manage it, but I imagine approximations of the same transition takes place.

[@AnntheTheatreFan]

It's like when Matthew Crowley arrived at Downton Abbey. 😂

[@danivarius]

Crawley, not Crowley.

[@juanpablogonzalezlacava]

good one😀

[@GBTCO2b]

Curtis is actually Chief scene stealer.

[@cz2165]

Teri Polo is a wonderful actor who should have gotten many more roles that’s she has. She did an episode of SVU in the past which was heart-wrenching. And she can do comedy well. And of course she is beautiful of top of her great talent.

[@Beachdudeca]

It’s similar to when the Heir shows up in Downton Abbey and wants a simple life without grasping its putting people out of work

[@andyh4518]

25k for tuition - those were the days. Sidwell (where the Obama kids went) has a tuition above 50k now.

[@cboy0394]

Still expensive back in 2005 (when this episode came out). 25k =40k today accounting for inflation.

[@gene8172]

If you have to ask, you can't afford it!

[@Danny-ks1pb]

Where did Baron go?...heard that was very expensive.

[@sandranorman5469]

When my younger daughter enrolled in private school in 1987 we thought it an exorbitant amount at $4000/yr. Now the older daughter enrolled at college it cost us $10k/year-including room and board. Now the local public college is costing $100k/year. WTF is happening?

[@cboy0394]

@@sandranorman5469 So $4,000 in 1987 is worth $11,000 in today's dollars. I went to university at a top public school and it was $13,000 a year in 2016 (when I graduated). I'm very curious to know what "local public college" is costing $100 k/per year. Harvard is not even that expensive (tuition is $57k per year), the top public university in the country is UC Berkeley and their tuition is only $16 k per year for instate students.

[@TSKseattle]

That phone call at the end is a great example of how in tv or movies no one ever says goodbye, they just hang up.

[@purpurina5663]

I once read they do t write it in because they feel it interrupts the flow. Plus takes precious seconds of production.

[@yevgeniyaleshchenko849]

Not in modern shows/films...

[@mc76]

In his book Against All Enemies, Richard Clarke talks about the look on the President-elect's face when he leaves his first intelligence briefing--like he has been hit in the head with a two-by-four. I suspect that it is not that much different from the look on the First Lady's face when she meets the White House staff.

[@dec9164]

Helen Santos' hesitation when walking in

[@fayesouthall6604]

Great acting

[@ktwashere5637]

Its funny, when this season first aired I was a bit sniffy, didn't care about the Santos family. Now I wish the show had continued with a new first family and West Wing staff.

[@apok1980]

Me too. I bet they considered a spinoff, but the show was on too long I guess. I sometimes wonder, but doubt this show would work anymore. Everybody is too cynical and factionalism overtakes doing the right thing. I imagine the show would get canceled for all its fake ideology 😢

[@michaelhayden725]

What I wanted was for Josh and Donna to marry just after the mid-term elections. Donna will have converted to Jewdaism and thus it could have been a traditional outdoor Jewish wedding.

[@Silver_Owl]

Why should Donna convert? (Or Josh for that matter.) Have a secular wedding. 🙂

[@michaelhayden725]

@@Silver_Owl Hey, it’s just an idea for the show. Josh, whilst acknowledging his Jewish heritage rarely goes to Temple on Saturdays. Of course we know Toby does. But I just thought that the White House Rose Garden would have been the perfect setting for a traditional outdoors Jewish Wedding ceremony, and for this I am sure Donna would have converted. But we will never know!

[@Silver_Owl]

@@michaelhayden725 No worries sorry, I know it's just an idea. 🙂But I'm not so sure Donna would convert to a religion she didn't believe in, just for a wedding. As you say, we'll never know.

[@claudine1928]

I do think you need a lot of staff in a place like the White House. Also, Mrs Santos State Dinnners, travel outside the country for the First Family, and so on. And ofcourse just the daily upkeep... Also Mrs.Santos seems to be the strong woman behind the man almost in charge...

[@mistybethune9116]

i think mrs santos just didnt realize how much staff she needed or maybe didnt at the time realize how busy she would be prob assumed she was going to still have time to do her own cleaning, cooking, laundry etc.

[@untexan]

Also the staff serves all the people who work at the White House. It’s more like running a corporate headquarters or a resort hotel. Helen didn’t understand that part.

[@mistybethune9116]

@@untexan i get the feeling helen would still do alot stuff than normal first lady would for her family. You see it often the president's family has a kitchen in the residence. she prob cooked herself when she had time. sometimes i wish theyd carried on the show through least some of santos presidency been interesting

[@michaelvidal1971]

The look Helen gave Matt when they were in the back of the car talking about a third school. I thoiught he was not going to be alive by inauguration

[@Mark-ke1rj]

nasty, pushy woman.

[@maxmustermann-zx9yq]

see the female cook on his left, probably just some extra, but the pose plus the smug expression mad me laugh

[@columbiakid7897]

Am I the only one expecting the White House staff to break out into "I Think I'm Going to Like It Here" from Annie when Helen enters the room?

[@ScootsFromNewCastle]

I don’t think people realize how the White House is basically a 5-star hotel

[@jameswilliams3581]

That’s a great analogy for it. 👍

[@MichaelTavares]

It’s a palace

[@yhmlco]

@@MichaelTavares It's a residence and an office and hotel for foreign guests and restaurant for state dinners and a reception hall for formal events... not to mention that it's a high-security gilded cage.

[@itsjustme8947]

It's not nearly as nice as you think it is. The West Wing is a bunch of cramped, outdated and dingy offices and the East Wing (with certain exceptions) feels more like a museum. It's NOT a hotel by any means.

[@ScootsFromNewCastle]

@@itsjustme8947 yeah I was referring to the Executive Residence not the East or West Wings where the office space is.

[@samb8996]

So many young, attractive people in the White House in this series. Definitely art not replicating real life !

[@Netty7787]

CJ is one Bad Ass Chick

[@RR-pz3bl]

CJ, doing ‘The Jackal’: some of the best American television ever made.

[@lisasharf1442]

@@RR-pz3blthat was actually something that Allison Janney did at parties and get-togethers. They adopted it for CJ.

[@Serai3]

It's hard for me to believe that anyone moving into the White House wouldn't spend even five minutes researching what's involved in living there.

[@pigs18]

It's dramatized. But she would have already sat down with Abby and got the details.

[@Serai3]

@@pigs18 Of course it's dramatized. It's fiction. That's the point. It's' BAD fiction. Drama based on something that would never happen in real life is self-indulgent.

[@thomthom6268]

After Tfg? My understanding is that he ordered staff to throw out everything Obama left them and then left nothing for Biden. Lucky thing about Biden having been there before.

[@Boomer2304]

You think that Melania Trump did it ? Na .....

[@itsjustme8947]

They literally do NOT have time. This is what is called 'captured by the system', hence CJ's comment "Ok, which ones do you want to fire?" All the staff require are details and the rest is on autopilot. Most of these staffers have been there for their entire careers (with the exception being the chefs...those change regularly).

[@moogie42069]

As much as I loved The West Wing, I thought this story line was stupid. Helen was a smart lady and wouldn't have been so ignorant that she didn't realize the magnitude of responsibilities that the First Lady takes care of!

[@airdriver]

I agree with you on that one. Matt was a congressman for a couple of terms which meant he, and his family, would have been used to the ways of D.C. life. This “fish out of water” story arc would have played better if he were a state governor.

[@JP-lu9ed]

Agree. She would have known the term usher for that job.

[@AndyVillegas-fk3kg]

I think you good people are forgetting "it's a television show "

[@fireball0762]

i am sad they didn't try a spinoff with the new president

[@fayesouthall6604]

Agreed 😊

[@vbscordinatortlc9378]

this show rebounded a bit in the last season, but it was not the same after Sorkin. Solid (after a season 5 letdown) but not the same.

[@avolto4822]

CJ didn't have to do her dirty like that lmao

[@jkornfeld]

I don’t like how naive she was

[@Dream0Asylum]

I don't think it's all naivete - but she did probably have some fantasy where if she just dug in and insisted hard enough that their lives wouldn't have to change that much. First days often have a great power of disillusioning people of their fantasies.

[@keynesianeconomics4113]

I think we all would be. Most people's expectations would be a kitchen staff and cleaners, not a flower guy or a pastry chef coordinating the tiniest of details. For an upper middle class family like this where despite a high standard of living you still wipe your own behind, it would be a culture shock.

[@JP-lu9ed]

Because it’s not credible. She would have known more.

[@geoffreyrichardson8738]

The look on Mats face when Helen says there is a third school to check out, just before he picks up the phone to call Arnold to apologize for not being there for the meeting. Guess we know who ware’s the trousers in that family, lucky guy.

[@edtrine8692]

A staff of 40 or 50?

[@mistybethune9116]

it seems unsouthern like for Mrs santos to have an issue with being called by mrs santos or being called ma'am even in todays world in the south this is very much a thing and would have been in the time of this show. i remember my academic advisor that i used to have had to get used to me calling her ma'am but than shes from England. My current advisor is also southern but shes also same age as me so calling her ma'am kinda funny

[@robertredmon5409]

Yep I've lived all of my life in the south And one thing was made very clear from a very early age . As a child when you are addressing an adult it is always yes ma'am and yes sir. Even now at 49 i address anyone i do not know as ma'am or sir. When I've traveled for work it always seems to catch people off guard. The reactions i got in California were downright hilarious.

[@JWRogersPS]

If I recall correctly, while Matt Santos was from Texas, Helen was not originally.

[@mistybethune9116]

@@robertredmon5409 yes funny thing about my advisors they act work on the same advising team (the majors are very similar i pretty much swithced ot my concentration as my major about 6 months ago now). my old advisor would told my new one this the only person who regular call her ma'am lol. but than that advisor was old enough to be my mom and my new advisor and me are the saem age. We act live only a few hours from each other too

[@mistybethune9116]

@@JWRogersPS that makes sense than

[@annemarsh353]

​@@robertredmon5409 We moved from Houston to PA when I was a toddler, and our parents put me (age three) and later my younger sister in a private school. The headmistress called Mom one day to inform her that we were saying "yes, ma'am" and "no, sir" to the teachers and staff, to which my Mom replied, "They'd BETTER be!" Apparently the Yankees thought we were smarting off! 😂

[@billcook4768]

It’s Rebecca Wells. Did Dan Rydell become president?

[@Wolf6119]

Strictly speaking I believe she would be the First Lady-*Designate* rather than Elect, right? Since she's not actually elected to any office - insofar as the "office" of First Lady/Gentleman even formally exists at all, the holder is "appointed" to it by virtue of marriage to the President, rather than elected to it by any concrete mechanism.

[@michaelhayden725]

@@Wolf6119 so is Ms Harris husband going to get the “treatment” from Dr Biden?

[@Wolf6119]

@@michaelhayden725 Well, fingers crossed…

[@doberski6855]

Was not impressed with the way they portrayed the new first lady in this scene. Santos and his wife had been involved in Washington politics for years and the idea that she would be that ignorant of the way things were done at the White House, or what being the 'First Lady' would involve.

[@TheBroz]

You don’t understand how to write story and interesting television do you? These things are explained for the audience’s purpose, Helen and Matt are acting as audience proxies.

[@doberski6855]

@@TheBroz I understand story and television writing very well thanks. This just felt more like a dumbing down because the writers did not respect the intelligence of the viewers watching The West Wing.

[@TheBroz]

@@doberski6855 I don’t think you understand at all. It’s a network television show from the 2000s. It needs to be as accessible as possible. There’s thousands of instances in the history of TWW where character A will explain something to character B for the benefit of the audience. Even though most of the time character B should already know. It’s not ‘dumbing down’ at all.

[@doberski6855]

@@TheBroz Agree to disagree on this one. One of the things that made The West Wing special was how much it did differently from the average network tv show from that time. It expected more from it's viewers and gave them more as a result. At least most of the time it did.

[@blue387]

One thing I've noticed is the green foliage in the background, would there be a lot of green foliage in the winter in Washington DC?

[@Reinamour]

The answer is “it depends.” Generally, the trees lose all their leaves, but I have photos from different January snows that show bushes with leaves and some trees with leaves.

[@scotthartman8993]

Actually yes.. THey don;t get a lot of snow and the Hedges and such useually were green all year at Ft Belvior when I was there.. just 12-15 miles south of the WHite House

[@FulfillYourDestiny]

"This television show is responsible for all of the negative aspects of the modern world!!🇺🇸" 🤣🤣🤣

[@Mark-ke1rj]

Santos' wife was such an annoying character.

[@hazeleyees]

My only beef was they threw Amy back in there 🤢

[@bobcat081754]

Helen Santos was too high-strung. Not the fault of the actress. I think the script was written to make her unlikable.

[@11nitrox]

At 0.44 Margaret comes into CJ's office to advise her that Helen Santos is in the outer office. To do so she opens the door and closes it behind her before speaking to CJ. Hearing this, Amy excuses herself and between 0.59 and 1.02 you see a shot from her POV as she makes her excuse to CJ for dodging Helen Santos. You see the closed door Margaret was stood next to, in shot eight seconds earlier, but no evidence of Margaret. Amy then exits through the opposite door, opening it and closing it behind her. CJ then turns and opens her door to the outer office and Margaret is stood there with Helen Santos. Every time a door opens and closes in this scene you hear it. Except Margaret somehow slips silently from CJ's office back into the outer office, clearly having to have re-opened the door she just came through and then closed it again, completely silently. I know assistants at that level have to be discreet but unless Margaret can teleport herself, continuity didn't pick up that she just 'vanishes'. 🙂

[@SB_McCollum]

I despise all those blather scenes that are done entirely for the viewer, no first lady has been that ignorant since Mrs. Wilson. (See also the entirety of The Crown.)

[@kmbarnett1200]

The White House staff are there for decades. The blithe dismissal of highly trained and vetted professionals, made me dislike her more

[@Ben2bwild]

You lack intelligence. Obviously, she wasn't dismissing them. She was just so overwhelmed by so many people working at her behest, given her humble background.

[@edl617]

Janney always pro trays a BBBBBBBB. Her hair style is always the same. From now on a beehive

[@BrianCGimmicks2025]

Secretary of state becomes president when?

[@jbrhel]

1. VP 2. House Speaker 3.President pro tempore of the Senate. 4. Secretary of State.

[@EtoileLion]

The Secretary of State is 4th in line behind the VP, Speaker of the House, and President Pro Tempore of the Senate. Vinnicks got a lot of people to advise before doing the job himself.

[@BrianCGimmicks2025]

@@jbrhel close but incorrect

[@BrianCGimmicks2025]

Window closes in 23 hours

[@MatthewKearney69]

@@jbrhelso true. We remember Air Force one movie . Is it vp or sec of defense??… plus in 24 day 4 when president keeler shot down in Air Force one and vp Logan wasn’t confident. Supposed to be speaker of the house yet they bring in David Palmer. Great scene in 24 w speaker talking to Mike Novek about David Palmer 😪

[@marcokite]

Santos is so boring.

[@deannestock2651]

L

[@survivor648]

I don’t like Terry Polo in this role. I hate how she swings her arms when she walks. She plays a better cop in The Fosters.

[@yevgeniyaleshchenko849]

How she swings her arms? I mean, maybe she just walks this way in general...

[@billybuttons4298]

I like her boobies from the issue of Playboy that she posed for.

[@manlydaily123]

I love how the west wing presented the democrats as wise and competent, If only this was true, very sad 😮‍💨

[@Ben2bwild]

They're definitely more competent than Trump that's for sure 😂😂

[@billh5663]

historically the republicans screw up the economy and the democrats fix it.......recent examples are trump and bush #1 and #2 and regan

[@dauferm]

Our taxes used to give them the lives of royalty.

[@prodge58]

It's a big, old place from the 1800's filled with all of the secrets and pressures and stresses of running the largest economy, military, and coalition of forces the world has ever seen. I think we can afford some fucking cakes, you nimrod.

[@JWRogersPS]

Hardly. Most of the staff are there to take care of the building and its contents, and to cook and serve at official functions. The two Valets are the only real servants that just serve the first family. Despite the name, they are basically personal assistants, and perform a multitude of jobs that the President and First Lady can't do due to time and security issues. Any other service staff, such as a nanny or other personal servant, have to be hired and paid by the FF directly.

[@carlybabes100]

Helen was insufferable.