Galileo (The West Wing)

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“Galileo”
The West Wing episode
^{Martin Sheen as Bartlet, left, and Allison Janney as C.J.}
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 31
Written by	Kevin Falls and Aaron Sorkin
Directed by	Alex Graves
Guest stars	Allison Smith Troy Ruptash John Carroll Lynch Charlotte Cornwell Colm Feore Kathryn Joosten NiCole Robinson
Production no.	226209
Original airdate	November 29, 2000
Season 2 episodes
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II The Midterms In this White House And It's Surely to Their Credit The Lame Duck Congress The Portland Trip Shibboleth Galileo Noël The Leadership Breakfast The Drop-In Bartlet's Third State of the Union The War at Home Ellie Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail The Stackhouse Filibuster 17 People Bad Moon Rising The Fall's Gonna Kill You 18th and Potomac Two Cathedrals
List of The West Wing episodes

"Galileo" is the 31st episode of The West Wing.

1 Plot
2 Notes
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Plot

The President is excited about the chance to watch images from an unmanned spacecraft's voyage to Mars with school children across the country, and challenges the staff to come up with a bigger idea for the day's event. Although the event is somewhat truncated by a technical fiasco, C.J. finally has an idea that the President embraces. President Bartlet and Leo face a terrestrial problem when a fire erupts at a Russian missile silo, and they quickly are enraged by the Russian Ambassador's untruthful approach, then are horrified when they learn why the fire started, and finally sympathetic to Russia's myriad problems. C.J. has to do damage control when a interview saying the President doesn't like green beans pops out in Oregon, a state that produces a lot of said beans. She also is reluctant to attend a Kennedy Center event for an Icelandic orchestral group because she just promoted an in-house assistant to Deputy Press Secretary and many people she rejected for the post--including a State Department spokesman whom she used to date--are going to be at the concert. Toby forces Josh to deal with a tricky issue of stamp-issuing on a case of a war hero who advocates statehood for Puerto Rico, so Josh makes Donna deal with it. Sam runs in Mallory, daughter of Leo, at the concert.

[edit] Notes

President Clinton allowed the production use of the presidential box at the Kennedy Center.

[edit] Trivia

A very rare slip from Aaron Sorkin and his writing team occurs in the dialogue of this episode. Leo is talking to President Bartlet about the Icelandic Ambassador named "Vigdis Olafsdottir". McGarry then goes on to say that "…he is looking forward to meeting you." In Iceland, Vigdis is a female first name. And unlike other Scandinavian countries, Iceland still follows its traditional naming system in which the letters "-dottir" at the end of one's surname can only mean that she is female.