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about|the episode of The West Wing |the hymn|Gloria in Excelsis DeoInfobox Television episode| Title = In Excelsis Deo | Series = The West Wing (TV series)|The West Wing | Caption = The burial scene, filmed at Arlington National Cemetery | Season = 1| Episode = 10| Airdate = December 15, 1999| Production = 225909| Writer = Aaron Sorkin & Rick Cleveland | Director = Alex Graves | Guests = Lisa Edelstein Timothy Busfield Paul Austin Janel Moloney Tom Quinn (actor)|Tom Quinn Renee Estevez Raynor Scheine Lance Reddick | Episode list = List of The West Wing episodes|List of The West Wing episodes | Season list = Infobox The West Wing season 1 episode list| Prev =| Next =" In Excelsis Deo " is the 10th episode of the first season of The West Wing (TV series)|The West Wing . It originally aired on NBC December 15, 1999, as the show's Christmas in the media#United_States|Christmas special .cite web|url= http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing/episode_guide/10.shtml|title= In Excelsis Deo |accessdate=2007-05-28|publisher=NBC.com |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20080219175217/ http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing/episode_guide/10.shtml |archivedate = February 19, 2008 Events circle around Toby Ziegler|Toby getting involved in the fate of a dead 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 .cite web|url= http://www.westwingepguide.com/S1/Episodes/10_IED.html|title= In Excelsis Deo |accessdate=2007-05-28|publisher=The West Wing Episode Guide It also earned Sorkin and Cleveland an Emmy Award|Emmy , as well as one for Richard Schiff .cite web | url = http://www.tv.com/the-west-wing/in-excelsis-deo/episode/797/summary.html? tag=ep_list;ep_title;9 | title = In Excelsis Deo | publisher = TV.com | accessdate = 2007-05-28
Plot
As the episode begins, Toby Ziegler|Toby gets called by the Washington, D.C.|D.C. Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia|police to identify a dead homeless man. It turns out the man (a Korean War veteran from the 2nd Battalion 7th Marines|2/7 ) was simply wearing one of Toby's old coats donated to Goodwill Industries|Goodwill , but Toby's card is still in it. 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 National Cemetery|Arlington . Josiah Bartlet|President Bartlet is informed about Toby’s transgression, but can only muster limited indignation and jocularly asks is the country is still in Nato. To the president's concern that this could create precedent for other veterans to come forward, Toby replies "I can only hope so, sir." Mrs Landingham , who has just told Charlie Young|Charlie about losing her twin sons in the Vietnam War , joins Toby and the veteran's brother at the funeral.
Meanwhile, Josh Lyman|Josh – who is worried that Lillienfield may come out against Leo McGarry|Leo for his drug related past – approaches Sam Seaborn|Sam and proposes using Sam's prostitute friend to dig up dirt for use as leverage against Lillienfield's allies when the time comes. Leo McGarry|Leo objects strongly to the plan, calling it unethical.
C. J. Cregg|C.J. gets emotionally involved in a story about the deadly assault on a homosexual youth. She sees this as an opportunity to push Hate crime laws in the United States|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 Hampton|Mandy 's chagrin. Donna Moss|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 tearful but happy.cite web|url= http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/content/a2134/|title=In Excelsis Deo|accessdate=2007-05-28|publisher=Television Without Pity
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).
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.
The scene at Arlington was made with the full co-operation of the United States Department of Defense|Pentagon , who liked the message of the script and wanted to do what they could to help. 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 chief executive.cite web|url= http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/May2000/feature1.asp|title=Martin Sheen: Catholic President on Prime Time|accessdate=2007-05-28|author=Greg Heffernan|publisher=St. Anthony Messenger The fourth person attending the funeral is the superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery John C. Metzler, Jr. , appearing as himself.cite web | url = http://westwing.bewarne.com/queries/phonenumber.html#funeral | title = The White House Phone Number | publisher = The West Wing Continuity Guide | accessdate = 2007-05-28
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 .cite web|url= http://b4a.healthyinterest.net/news/archives/2001/02/a_woman_of_infl.html|title=A Woman of Influence|date=2001-02-13|accessdate=2007-05-28|author=Paris Barklay|publisher=The Advocate
Reception
Sorkin and Cleveland won an Emmy Awards|Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, and 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".cite web | url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200276/awards | title = Awards for "The West Wing" | publisher = IMDb | accessdate = 2007-05-28 Cleveland and Sorkin also won the Writers Guild of America Awards|Writers Guild of America Award for best episodic drama at the Writers Guild of America Awards 2000|February 2001 ceremony for "In Excelsis Deo".Cite web|url= http://www.wga.org/awards/awardssub.aspx? id=1517|title=Writers Guild Awards Winners|accessdate=2010-04-15|publisher=WGA|year=2010
References
Reflist
External links
http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing/episode_guide/10.shtml ''In Excelsis Deo' at NBC .com.
http://www.westwingepguide.com/S1/Episodes/10_IED.html In Excelsis Deo at The West Wing Episode Guide.
http://westwing.bewarne.com/10excelsis.html In Excelsis Deo at The West Wing Continuity Guide.
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/content/a2134/ In Excelsis Deo recap at Television Without Pity .
http://www.tv.com/the-west-wing/in-excelsis-deo/episode/797/summary.html? tag=ep_list;ep_title;9 In Excelsis Deo at TV.com .
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0745635/ In Excelsis Deo at the Internet Movie Database .
twwNavbox The West Wing episodes Category:The West Wing (season 1) episodes Category:Christmas television episodes Category:1999 television episodes es:In Excelsis Deo Good article
