In Excelsis Deo

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This article is about the episode of The West Wing. For the hymn, see Gloria in Excelsis Deo.

“In Excelsis Deo”
The West Wing episode

Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 10
Written by	Aaron Sorkin & Rick Cleveland
Directed by	Alex Graves
Guest stars	Lisa Edelstein Timothy Busfield Paul Austin Janel Moloney Tom Quinn Renee Estevez Raynor Scheine
Production no.	225909
Original airdate	December 15, 1999
Season 1 episodes
Pilot Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc A Proportional Response Five Votes Down The Crackpots and These Women Mr. Willis of Ohio The State Dinner Enemies The Short List In Excelsis Deo Lord John Marbury He Shall, from Time To Time... Take out the Trash Day Take This Sabbath Day Celestial Navigation 20 Hours in L. A. The White House Pro-Am Six Meetings Before Lunch Let Bartlet Be Bartlet Mandatory Minimums Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics What Kind of Day Has It Been
List of The West Wing episodes

"In Excelsis Deo" is the 10th episode of the first season of The West Wing. It originally aired on NBC December 15, 1999, as the show's Christmas special.^[1] Events circle around Toby getting involved in the fate of a deceased Korean War veteran, reactions to a severe hate crime, and the ongoing controversy surrounding Leo's pill abuse. Written by Aaron Sorkin and Rick Cleveland and directed by Alex Graves, the episode contains guest appearances by Paul Austin and Raynor Scheine.^[2] It also earned Sorkin and Cleveland an Emmy, as well as one for Richard Schiff.^[3]

1 Plot
2 Production and real-life issues
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

As the episode begins, Toby gets called on by the D.C. police to identify a dead homeless man. It turns out the man (a Korean War veteran from the 2/7) was simply wearing one of Toby's old coats donated to Goodwill, with Toby's card still in it. But the event stays with him, and he decides to trace down the man's next of kin. The only relative he can find is a brother, also homeless. Using the influence of the president's office, he arranges a military funeral at Arlington. President Bartlet is informed about Toby’s transgression, but can only muster limited indignation. To the president's concern that this could create precedent for other veterans, Toby replies "I can only hope so". Mrs. Landingham, who has just told Charlie about losing her twin sons in the Vietnam War, joins Toby and the veteran's brother at the funeral.

Meanwhile, Josh – who is worried that Lillienfield may come out against Leo for his drug related past – approaches Sam and proposes using Sam's call-girl friend to dig up dirt for use as leverage against Lillienfield's allies when the time comes. Leo objects strongly to the plan, calling it unethical.

The president goes book shopping.

C.J. gets emotionally involved in a story about the deadly assault on a young homosexual man. She sees this as an opportunity to push hate crime legislation, but the suggestion finds little support among the others. Reporter Danny Concannon also disagrees, but this encourages her to finally accept his offer of a date, to have him convince her.

President Bartlet sneaks out to go shopping at a rare book store and refuses to take photographers along, much to Mandy's chagrin. Donna has at this point been pestering Josh about her Christmas gift all day. While he doesn't follow the list submitted, he picks up a book for her at the shop and writes a message in it that leaves her pleasantly surprised.^[1]^[2]^[4]

[edit] Production and real-life issues

The episode's title is taken from the angels' song to the shepherds in Luke 2:14, announcing the birth of Jesus, and is in reference to the show's Christmas theme. The words also make up the beginning of the Great Doxology: Gloria in Excelsis Deo (Glory to God in the highest).^[3]

It was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, credited to Aaron Sorkin and Rick Cleveland. In the summer of 2001, a public argument broke out between the two on the Internet forum mightybigtv.com (now called Television Without Pity). Cleveland claimed to have had the original idea, based on the experiences of his father who was a Korean War veteran, and felt offended that Sorkin had not given him a chance to honor his father’s memory at the award ceremony. Sorkin responded that Cleveland had not contributed significantly, and that writing credits were simply rotated among the staff writers. The argument ended amicably, with Sorkin apologizing for belittling Cleveland's effort and the two writers expressing their admiration for each other.^[2]

A scene from the military funeral at Arlington National Cemetary.

The scene at Arlington was made with the full co-operation of the Pentagon, who liked the message of the script and wanted to do what they could to help.^[2] Originally the president was to have been in the scene as well, but this was changed because it "took away the power of Mrs. Landingham and Ziegler"; it was felt that the scene would be more powerful without the looming presence of the president.^[5] The fourth person attending the funeral is superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery John C. Metzler, Jr., appearing as himself.^[6]

The story about the hate crime against the young homosexual man is based on the real-life case of Matthew Shepard. This was confirmed by Allison Janney in an interview with the gay magazine "The Advocate".^[7]

[edit] Reception

The episode is among the most popular in the series; TV.com gives it a rating of 9.4;^[3] placing it in a shared eleventh with nine other West Wing episode.^[8] On Television Without Pity it has been given a user grade of "A-".^[4] As of May 28, 2007, IMDb rates the episode at 9.4.^[9] While Sorkin and Cleveland won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, actor Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler) was awarded the prize for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. The episode was also nominated for "Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Series" and "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series".^[10]