#freedonia

Duck Soup

Episode:

• oh this is when Santos goes to that studio and does that live TV ad

• they’re only letting Hoynes and Russell debate?? lmao that’s not good for Santos or Russell cause he’ll look like a dumbass next to Hoynes

• I remember Santos and Russell going to the newspaper guy and demanding they be in the debate and then Santos brings up the format or something and Russell’s like 😐😑

• “Do we want the seven dwarfs to be able to take direct shots at me?”

“You realize you’re one of the dwarves. There are only seven candidates.”

Wow Russell is dumb.

• Santos just put Russell on the spot.

• doesn’t Santos just start his own debate?

• yep he does

• I’m confused on the Will/Donna thing. When he first asked her “do you wanna have dinner later?” she thought he was hinting at something but I don’t think he was. But then he stares at her while she’s talking to someone else and then asks her again, he’s either confirming her answer or is asking her on a date....

• oh yeah the chicken suits

• Amy?!

• also I love Bradley Whitford’s expression when he’s looking at her

• “I embrace the cold.”

“Okay.”

• oh yeah Amy was writing the same stuff for Hoynes and Santos. But I don’t understand cause didn’t Amy not start working for Santos until she got there?

• oh yeah Donna yells at the chicken suit and it ends up on the news lol

• honestly how did she not see/hear all the news people??

• I mean I like Santos’s ad and all, it’s different and real and whatnot, but I didn’t think it was that great, or powerful or influential enough to gain all that noise or new support.

• oh I had this weird memory of someone tying someone else to a chair and Amy just did that to Josh. I’m thinking of a different episode tho.

• “Where have you been?”

“I got tied up” ha I see what you did there Josh

• Donna asked Will if he wanted to grab dinner but she asked it so quietly I thought something was wrong with my audio

• lol Hoynes isn’t even on the debate stage. It’s some random dude

Podcast:

• guest star: Eli Attie

• Eli got the idea for the episode title from a 90s magazine called Spy Magazine. One time they called congressional offices and asked “What’s the congressmen’s position on the situation in Freedonia?” Almost no one got the reference and would say I'll have to call you back” or, “I'll have to talk to a policy person”.

• The joke russel keeps telling about the seal of the President (“If you close your left eye and squint really hard and tilt your head just so it reads a lot like President of the United States) was something Al Gore used to say.

• The politics and eggs forum Russell is going to is a real thing. They give out wooden eggs and people sign them

• the wooden egg thing is a real event

• Eli and Mary Louise Parker are friends in real life, although they weren’t friends during the shows run. She officiated his wedding ceremony.

• MLP ate a lot of ice cream during the takes of the scene. After Eli asked her if she was okay, she said she felt a little bit sick. He said maybe she should take smaller bites and she replied “No that’s not what Amy would do.”

• That scene is her dads favorite scene and he quotes it a lot.

• After filming the scene, her and Bradley Whitford went and got a steak because they felt they needed something dripping with blood.

• Eli thought about making a mole in the Santos campaign, which is why Santos and Hoynes have the same answer, but the idea fell through.

• Eli was trying to start a flirtation between Donna and Will?! ahhh aldjsjsb no ooo

“I thought maybe that was something that would kind of evolve from there potentially. They’re working closely together, Donna – he's treating her like an adult, as Josh Lyman never did. And two things: one is, watching it, it didn't feel like you guys played the romance of it particularly, and then no one really picked up on it on the writing staff. So it was just I think two episodes later Josh Malina and Mary McCormack’s character were flirting and that became more of a thing. So this was just me planting a seed that never blossomed.”

Josh sensed their was a seed, but approached it like Will just wanted to have dinner.

• It wasn’t until he talked to Ned that Santos figures out what he was going to do with the ad. Josh had to leave after their argument and Ned had to enter to have a conversation with Santos, someone who he has a personal history with.

• When Jimmy Smits was cast, the expectation was that he would succeed Bartlet if the show continued. Then after Alan Alda was cast, John Wells said to the writers “What if we opened this thing up? And what if we don't presume that it's going to be one candidate or another, but we just see where the story takes us? And we’ll be in as much suspense as everybody else.”

It was reported and written in some places that there was a period where Vinick going to win for sure, but Eli doesn’t remember it like that. In his memory, it was going to be Santos, then they opened it up. They were still debating and arguing who it would be up until the last second.

• On Donna voicing her opinion to Russell about the attack ads:

Freedonia - Conciencia - soul/r&b with horns, from Madrid

Through Crowdfunding, Freedonia released their fourth album, Conciencia, influenced by Nobel Prize Jose Saramago’s speech in which he reflects on the society we live in. The songs talk about freedom of speech, change of mindset, equality, respect, xenophobia, justice, progress…

• was Will was hitting on Donna? that’s how she took it but idk if he actually was

• is this the chicken episode?

• it’s the chicken episode

• ... FUCK Amy’s in this ep? I wasnt paying attention to the opening credits noooooo

• I hate this ep already

• oh is that who Santos called? Amy? agh god.

• I have a feeling those 2 chicken volunteers did not offer to volunteer lmao

• oh god Amy’s been advising Hoynes as well

• oh yeah and then Donna’s on tv yelling at the chicken lmao

• oh wait Santos knew Amy was advising Hoynes?

• CJ!!!