The State Dinner

Infobox Television episode
Title = The State Dinner
Series = The West Wing


Caption =
Season = 1
Episode = 7
Airdate = November 101999
Production = 225906
Writer = Aaron Sorkin and Paul Redford
Director = Thomas Schlamme
Guests = Stockard Channing
Lisa Edelstein
Timothy Busfield
Janel Moloney
David Rasche
Dennis Cockrum
John Kapelos
Peter Kors
Sal Landi
William Lucking
Steve Rankin
Jeff Williams
Episode list = List of "The West Wing" episodes
Season list = Infobox The West Wing season 1 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"The State Dinner" is the 7th episode of "The West Wing". It is the first time that First Lady Abigail Bartlet (Stockard Channing) appears.

Plot

The President tries to focus on key problems—a hostage standoff, a hurricane, and an impending truckers' union strike—all while trying to prepare for an important state dinner with the Indonesian President. While the dinner is going on, Toby and Josh attempt to work out a deal with one of the Indonesian President's aides to release a friend of Toby's from custody, a French national who was working for democratic reforms. The Indonesian President's aide is angry and insulted because Toby's welcoming speech was critical of Indonesian non-democracy, and tells Toby to go to hell. Mandy Hampton argues for a negotiating stance in the hostage standoff in Idaho, because she thinks the FBI entrapped the white separatist suspects on gun charges before it began, but the negotiating plan has devastating results. Leo tries to bridge the labor-management differences with the truckers, which center around a "two-tiered" plan that withholds pay and benefits from truckers who end up working nearly full-time hours at a significant deficit to their colleagues. The two sides make no headway, but President Bartlet has some choice words that might change their tune. The hurricane is bearing down on Georgia, and Josh helps Charlie get his relatives out of harm's way, but then changes course and is going to slam into a group of Navy ships that were recalled from a port for protective reasons only to end up in a catastrophic situation. Sam is hurt personally when his sort-of girlfriend who is a call girl turns up at the reception on the arm of a huge Democratic Party backer. President Bartlet ends the busy day by talking to a young sailor who is in the middle of the hurricane.

Emmy Awards

;Nominated:
* Outstanding Costumes for a Series (nominees: Lyn Elizabeth Paolo, Alice Daniels)
* Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (nominee: Stockard Channing) (submitted along with He Shall, From Time To Time...)

Trivia

* It is stated in this episode that Indonesia does not have one formal national language, but instead is established from 583 different local languages like Bataknese and Javanese. In reality, the latter languages do exist, Indonesians use Bahasa Indonesia or Indonesian Language to communicate with Indonesians from other provinces.
* It is also stated that a character named "Rahmadi Bambang" is Bataknese. "Rahmadi Bambang" is a popular Javanese name and is typically used only by Javanese people.
* The local language spoken by Rahmadi Bambang in this episode is not Bataknese, but Indonesian language.

External links

* [http://epguides.com/WestWing/ The West Wing Episode Guide]