Moss is Boss

Whenever I think of any of the iconic moments from The West Wing, it’s always tangibly connected to Thomas Del Ruth’s gorgeous, shadowy cinematography. As with any compilation I’ve made, it started with befuddlement from a YouTube search that ‘One Second from Every Episode of the West Wing’ didn’t yield results. During the making of this video, it became clear why: 155 episodes of a single television series is A LOT of content to trawl!

I opted to take a different tack than most ‘One Second of Every of BLANK show’ videos, which is dictated by out of context noises and dialogue, instead choosing to go in the direction of Andy Kelly’s Twin Peaks montage from 2018 where he set scenes from the series to an atmospheric Angelo Badalamenti score. Simple yet elegant. And perfectly appropriate for this beautiful show, too.

If you don’t see your favorite shot in there, please know I made every effort to include all the iconic dramatic and comedic scenes. When I assembled this video, it originated with a shot list with four or five alternates from any given episode. There were some painful cuts to reach the final shot compilation that I made. A big thank you is due for the women who run ‘thefinestmuffinsandbagels’ Tumblr site, whose page I constantly used as a reference throughout this project.

Your site was invaluable in sourcing which clip belonged to which episode and provided inspiration when I was stumped otherwise. Without you, I would have been a lonely, stir crazy man scouring my Complete Series Box Set looking for clips. Thank to Hrishi Hirway for keeping the spirit of the West Wing alive!