MR. WILLIS OF OHIO

Descriptions

From TVGuide.com:

A widower (Al Fann) who took over his late wife's seat in Congress reveals his accountability in a census matter; the President asks Josh to help Charlie relax.

From NBC:

Toby (Richard Schiff) and Mandy (Moira Kelly) work to convince some congressmen -- including the nervous Mr. Willis (Al Fann), who assumed his late wife's office -- to approve a commerce bill that includes a vital census-counting provision. The President's daughter, Zoey (Elizabeth Moss) gets into an ugly fracas in a Georgetown bar along with Josh (Bradley Whitford) and Sam (Rob Lowe). Elsewhere, C.J. (Allison Janney) swallows her pride and asks Sam for help to understand the basic components of the administration's stance on random census-taking in 2000, and a peeved President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) scolds Leo (John Spencer) when he learns that Leo's wife has left him.

Credits

Information Links

• Princeton
• IRS
• "Article 1 Section 2 of the Constitution"
• Amazon.com
• National Archives
• Census
• Susan B. Anthony House
• [House] Commerce Committee
• Knute Rockne
• Secret Service
• "Appropriations Bill"
• Fulbright Scholar
• Census Bureau
• The House of Representatives
• Georgetowne Station
• Grasshopper
• Our Town

Media Quotes

Cynthia Mostoller, National History Day teacher of the year in 1998, was enchanted with a character presented as an eighth-grade social studies teacher, Mr. Willis, who becomes a congressman from Ohio and votes his conscience in a battle over a bill.

"I'm an eighth-grade social studies teacher from Ohio. And the show was exactly on target with what we are teaching right now," she says.

"Lessons in entertainment"
By Cathy Lynn Grossman
December 14, 1999
USA Today

These [census] scenes work, says [Thomas] Schlamme, precisely because they're not about teaching. "You're involved with the fact that Sam is the smarter one and C.J. has to be the student at this moment, so you're enjoying that, first and foremost," Schlamme explains. "From a directing point of view...[t]he essence of the scene is not about teaching us about the census; it's about how are these two people going to end up being closer to one another by the end of this episode. So if you start from that, then you can lay on... any dialogue you want and it's fascinating."

"The Real White House"
By Matthew Miller
March 2000
Brill's Content

"Make the Census interesting, who'd have thought?" says (real) White House spokesman Joe Lockhart.

"You Could Call It the Wonk Wing"
By Jay Branegan
May 15, 2000
Time Magazine

Mr. [Scott] Reid [communications director for Paul Martin, the Canadian Finance Minister says, a discussion of tax cuts versus tax rebates was punctuated by one West Wing staffer who said repeatedly: "I want to keep more of my money! I want to buy a DVD!" The line became a favourite among staff in Mr. Martin's office, who now use it themselves.

"Ottawa insiders see selves in TV's idealistic West Wing"
By Francine Dube
May 18, 2000
National Post

"That Aaron can make things like the census as fascinating as he does on the show is a benefit for anyone who watches." - Richard Schiff

"A Taste of 'West Wing's' Nonpartisan Politics"
By Steve Hochman
September 11, 2000
Special to The Los Angeles Times

"You just say the word "census" and people fall asleep. It's a questionnaire; turns out it's terribly important." - Aaron Sorkin

"They did a program where a third of the episode involved a recurring story line, and it was the debate on census and statistical sampling. And they did a better job of framing the issue, the politics on each side, and the passions on each side, than anybody in the broadcast world did throughout this debate. We've been having this debate for two years. It's a very interesting debate. It's got to do with the future, and how we're going to allocate our money. It has to do with the politics of Democrats versus Republicans. It's perfect for the kind of arguments we have here in Washington, and I can't tell you that I ever saw anybody put this story on television." - Joe Lockhart [former press secretary for President Clinton]

"And I thought Aaron was crazy. I read that, and I was like, "Well, this is going to be the most boring thing ever." And then as we did it, we had such a good time, and I learned, right along with C.J., as did my friends who watched the show. And now I can guarantee you everyone who saw that show is going to fill out their census because they saw how, and they learned how important it actually was and what it means." - Allison Janney

"Popular Politics"
By Terence Smith
September 27, 2000
Online NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

"When you do a show on the census, 13 million or 14 million people watch it all the way through," ... "And somebody at the White House was saying, when we want to talk about something, if we get the news cycle, it's maybe a million people, and if we bring up the census, the channel changes." -Bradley Whitford

"Hail to "The West Wing""
By Gail Pennington
October 4, 2000
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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