Name: The Midterms
Director: Alex Graves
Genre: Drama
Released: 2000-10-18
Rating: 8.4
Cast: Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney

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Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
	Rob Lowe	...	Sam Seaborn
	Dulé Hill	...	Charlie Young
	Allison Janney	...	C.J. Cregg
	Janel Moloney	...	Donna Moss
	Richard Schiff	...	Toby Ziegler
	John Spencer	...	Leo McGarry
	Bradley Whitford	...	Josh Lyman
	Martin Sheen	...	President Josiah Bartlet
	Elisabeth Moss	...	Zoey Bartlet
	Claire Yarlett	...	Dr. Jenna Jacobs
	Rebecca Creskoff	...	Sarah Jordan
	James Denton	...	Tom Jordan (as Jamie Denton)
	NiCole Robinson	...	Margaret
	Alfonso Freeman	...	Andrew Mackintosh
	Myles Kilpatrick	...	Jeffrey Mackintosh (as Myles Killpatrick)

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Storyline

With the midterm elections coming up, Toby looks for a way to stop hate groups; Charlie and Zoey decide whether to continue their relationship; President Bartlet discovers the egg cream and is concerned about an ultra-right-wing candidate running for school board in his old district in New Hampshire; and Sam is asked to put White House help behind an old friend running for Congress. This episode includes the President's confrontation with a right-wing radio talk show host using a famous list of modern applications of Biblical laws. Oh, yes, and psychics at Cal Tech and the Fermi National Accelerator Lab ... Written by Molly Malloy

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Genres:

Drama

Certificate:

TV-14

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Did You Know?

Trivia

President Bartlet criticizes a religious fundamentalist radio talk show host named Jenna Jacobs with his detailed knowledge of scripture. The segment was adapted from a famous Internet chain letter allegedly sent to Dr. Laura Schlessinger, on whom the Jacobs character was based, and several of Bartlet's questions are identical to the questions posed in the letter. See more »

Goofs

Sam convinces his law school classmate, Tom Jordan, to run for Congress. Later, the White House staff learns that Jordan struck potential jurors merely because they were black. Both Sam and Leo McGarry refer to these as "preemptive" challenges, even though the correct term is "peremptory." While Leo might have made this mistake, an attorney like Sam would never have referred to them as "preemptive" challenges. Furthermore, although the two words sound similar, they are not synonyms; "preemptive" means "intended to preempt or forestall," whereas "peremptory" means "having to be obeyed without question." See more »

Quotes

C.J. Cregg: Oh, Holy Interruptus, Batman!
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Connections

Edited into For the Bible Tells Me So (2007) See more »

Soundtracks

West Wing Main Title
(uncredited)
Written by W.G. Snuffy Walden
Performed by Pete Anthony
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User Reviews

Starts off Good, ends in Anti-Religious diatribe

8 December 2006 | by gglennwill – See all my reviews

The first two episodes of the season started off excellently, but this episode points out the one glaring weakness of West Wing; an anti-conservative religious bigotry. Any religious group that takes the Bible seriously is evidently the enemy in this series. This was also seen in the pilot in the first season, when Bartlett throws out a group of conservative Christians. Bartletts lecture to the "Dr Laura" character, who is Jewish, is ludicrous and embarrassing. Too bad because the episode started well but unravelled. When West Wing is good, it is the best show on TV; it is at it's worst when it lapses into liberal preachiness, as in this episode.

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