Take out the Trash Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Take out the Trash Day” | |
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| The West Wing episode | |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 13 |
| Written by | Aaron Sorkin |
| Directed by | Ken Olin |
| Guest stars | Timothy Busfield Janel Moloney Suzy Nakamura Dakin Matthews James Handy Ray Baker Liza Weil Linda Gehringer Renee Estevez |
| Production no. | 225912 |
| Original airdate | January 26, 2000 |
| Season 1 episodes | |
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| List of The West Wing episodes | |
"Take out the Trash Day" is the 13th episode of The West Wing.
[edit] Plot
A wide variety of unpleasant issues face the White House staffers on a busy Friday. The main problem comes from increasing calls for Leo McGarry to step down as Chief of Staff. A man named Simon, who Leo says is his friend but the President's thinks is not a good buy, proves the Commander-in-Chief correct when he pens an Op-Ed essay calling for Leo to resign. However, Leo ends up being rescued by two separate twists of fate. The first one comes when Sam and Josh go to Capitol Hill and meet with Republican Congressman Bruno. He offers a deal: if the White House shelves a controversial sex-education report, he'll stop investigating Leo. He lambastes Sam and Josh for behaving like children and reminds them to think about this the next time they're trashing all Republicans. Although C.J. is visibly unhappy at the trade off (and it's not the only thing bothering her on this day, as we'll see in a bit), the President takes it. The other twist comes when an incompetent C-level advance man for the Vice President gets busted for using a Navy helicopter to play golf. The advance man, who formerly worked very badly for the President's staff before getting demoted, is now going to get fired. But he leads Sam to a young staffer who admits she leaked Leo's record to the investigators. Sam fires her, but Leo later talks to her and tells her about his own father's alcoholism and subsequent suicide. He somehow sort of admires her standing up for her beliefs, and un-fires her. C.J. and Mandy are handling the signing of a hate-crimes bill, but both are worried that the father of a murdered Minnesota teen might be against the bill because he was ashamed of his son's homosexuality. To their surprise, the father tells them he's not ashamed of his son at all--he's ashamed of the Bartlet Administration's pathetic position on gay rights. Mandy recognizes he can't be allowed to speak to the press, and while C.J. initially says he should be able to, she knows Mandy's right and the bill is signed into law with the father not in attendance. Elsewhere, Toby has a great day as he convinces Congress to get over its nit-picking issues and appoint members to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Executive Board, and Donna puts together a shared "no comment" rule for the White House assistants before their paltry salaries become part of the public record.
[edit] Title
The title refers to the Friday press briefing wherein the White House releases information about several sensitive stories, thereby preventing discussion and reducing any probable impact in the media.
Donna: What's take out the trash day?
Josh: Friday.
Donna: I mean, what is it?
Josh: Any stories we have to give the press that we're not wild about, we give all in a lump on Friday.
Donna: Why do you do it in a lump?
Josh: Instead of one at a time?
Donna: I'd think you'd want to spread them out.
Josh: They've got X column inches to fill, right? They're going to fill them no matter what.
Donna: Yes.
Josh: So if we give them one story, that story's X column inches.
Donna: And if we give them five stories ...
Josh: They're a fifth the size.
Donna: Why do you do it on Friday?
Josh: Because no one reads the paper on Saturday.
Donna: You guys are real populists, aren't you?
