John de Lancie- Al Kiefer (Q from Star Trek, for the fellow nerds reading this blog)
Marlee Matlin- Joey Lucas is back- hooray! Along with Kenny, who gets some romantic dialogue, and I've got to say, he pulls it off well.
Jorja Fox- Zoey's new Secret Service agent, who talks to the President about threats that are being made against Zoey for dating Charlie. She's not as believable as Ron Butterfield, but who is?!
Bob Balaban- Ted Marcus, film studio boss. Interestingly, Bob's Uncle was the head of Paramount Pictures for 28 years (Mr. Balaban also portrays my favorite character in Waiting for Guffman).
Jay Leno- playing himself, he makes it clear to CJ that he'd like more bicycles into trees (a reference to the pilot episode)
David Hasslehoff- Playing what I can only assume is a more scholarly version of himself, Hasslehoff is shown quoting Brennan's majority decision in Texas v. Johnson- finding that Johnson was within his 1st Amendment right. Donna is more interested in Hassle-ing the Hoff than she is hearing his nuanced opinion on flag-burning. Until she sees Matthew Perry.
and finally, the biggest guest star of them all:
Air Force One- we get to see the inside and outside, and watch the President start the engines.
There is a lot of policy talk going on among all the glitz and glamour of L.A.- gays in the military, an ethanol tax, flag burning, and the subtleties of polling data. The merits of the ethanol tax is presented in an argument between Leo and the suddenly sympathetic Vice-President Hoynes, and flag burning is spoken about in a town hall, and by Joey Lucas, who reminds Josh that many people feel that burning a flag is a form of expression that people find very hurtful. She reminds him of the phrase "Vox populi, Vox dei," which means the voice of the people is the voice of god (or dog, depending on your latin translation skills). Joey also scores some major points by pointing out that there's a difference between supporting an idea in a poll, and indicating how strongly they support the idea. Here's the math of what they're talking about:
80% Support an amendment outlawing burning the American flag.
37% of those who said they'd favor the amendment, rated the issue fairly or very important.
12% said that the issue would swing their vote.
This is interesting, because the 80% presents a compelling amount of support, which erodes when you ask more specific questions aimed at assessing the strength of those beliefs. This makes me question all polling data given by politicians- we never hear the the strength of the feelings expressed in the statistic, just the most impactful number. Do any of these numbers really mean anything???
Sorry, I'm back from my irrational fear of numbers.
Back on the episode, Josh is clearly smitten with Joey Lucas, but needs some encouragement. Thankfully, Donna is there to give a gentle push.
Yes, that's Donna Moss, clucking like a chicken, to make it clear to Josh that she feels he is lacking in confidence and initiative (this blog is being read internationally, I wasn't sure how self-explanatory that was).
Towards the end of the episode, President Bartlet and Ted Marcus get into a little bit of a spat, during which we learn that the President is having trouble sleeping, which is why he arranged for such hectic travel. Unfortunately, the last shot of the episode is of the President trying unsuccessfully to sleep. This continues the trend of ending episodes with feelings of trouble for President Bartlet; it all seems to be mounting up, but to what?
What's Next? S1e17- The White House Pro-Am
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