As a practicing attorney, I use the "do you know what time it is?" line on every client, when preparing them for cross-examination at trial. It's amazing how often people don't get it.
@@charlesnathansmithI think what people are getting at here is that it’s not reasonable to expect that people would be able to answer questions that way when it’s a skill they’ve never been conditioned to in an environment they’ve never encountered before. OP says it is “amazing” how many people get it wrong, but why would that be amazing?
Whom ever was the head writer for this show TOTALLY missed out on developing the character of Oliver Babish. This was a person with depth, someone who knew the good, the bad and the ugly of The WEST WING and never flinched. "Bring it on" Oliver Babish I appreciated you when ever you appeared.
What's great about this shot is up to the 1:22 mark, the conversation is cut between over-the-shoulder shots to quickly "move" the conversation along as if CJ just wants to rush through it but then when Babish asks her the question the 2nd time, the camera instead pans over, emphasizing CJ's realization of Babish's point.
As much as I liked the senior staff, a lot of them had some attitude and it was nice to see them get deflated. Babbish didn't have the time, inclination, or need to listen to anyone being cute.
She's one of the smartest people on the entire show, probably second only to Sam for straight brilliance... She doesn't need things spelled out for her more than once.
Strictly speaking, this is about _not_ reading between the lines But then I guess she had to read between the lines to realise that the advice was to stop reading between the lines? Confusing
CJ and everyone else is so hostile towards Oliver Babish and I never realised until recently that the reason they seems so pissed at Oliver and because they are so incredibly pissed off at the president but they don't think they can be angry at him so they are angry at everyone else even connected to it.
@@retroguy9494 of course it's the MS. He implicated them in a potential fraud to the entire country which could get them in a ton of legal trouble, they could have been hounded by the news and haters for the rest of their lives, and on a personal level, their colleague, friend, and mentor didn't trust them enough to talk about this to let them make their own decision on how to deal with it. If he lied to them about this, what else could he have been lying about?
@@Vesperitis I'm sorry but you're wrong. Until these congressional hearings were held, the only people to know about his MS before he was elected president other than his personal physicians were his wife and Vice President Hoynes. Even his own daughters did not know. The only way a person can be LEGALLY implicated in anything is if they at any time KNEW about it BEFOREHAND. You don't know anything about how politics works. These "people" were not Jed's friends nor was he a mentor to them. Leo was Jed's best friend and got him to run for president and even HE didn't know until the night Jed collapsed in the Oval Office and was justifiably angry with him. It was Leo who put the team together. In fact, if you know the series, it was Toby who flew to California and asked CJ to put her half million dollar a year ad exec career on hold to join the campaign and become press secretary. CJ didn't even KNOW Jed. She said to Toby "is Jed Bartlett a good man?" These people were serving their country and the ideals they believed in more than serving the man. Also, Jed never lied to them. He simply did not tell them he had MS. Do you know the difference between a lie and an omission? CJ told the press he had the flu that night because its what the White House physician told her because its what he believed before Abbey sent him out of the room to give Jed injections for the MS. Finally, a White House staff can NEVER make their own decisions on how to deal with a matter such as this concerning the president. They are instructed, guided, coached if not outright TOLD what to say!
Yup, the president's cabinet fought Babish every single step of the way...because this was one situation they didn't want to be in and it was all thanks to one little lie by their boss.
One of the interesting pieces within Sorkin's production is his use of pacing and attention to detail. This scene sets up a lesson quickly to show a sense of urgency and build a lesson for CJ using time. And, if you listen closely, you'll also hear the ticking of a clock in the background, supporting the quickening pace of the scene.
The biggest problem The West Wing had was the enormous number of well written, interesting supporting characters, played by superb actors, that never got enough screen time. Case in point... Oliver Babbitt
I am a gun toting Republican, and I love this show. It was so well written. These exchanges are exquisite and take true talent and acting. I love Oliver Platts acting ability.
I completely understand. It was a fictional show, and the writing and acting was superb. It was deliberately written so the "left" argument of that day won a debate with the "right" 99% of the time. But agree or disagree with their point of view, it was a wonderfully entertaining show.
@@avae5343 You mean John Amos who played Admiral Percy: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Yeah, I guess Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is something to sneeze at... 😒
@@avae5343 Sometimes, yes. But you also have Ainsley Hayes saying "A new amendment we vote on declaring that I am equal under the law to a man, I am mortified to discover there's reason to believe I wasn't before." I always found that to be a positive example of right wing small government ideals. And the Republican judge they put up on the supreme court was hardly shown in a negative light. I also recall the right railing against all the pork barrel deals this democratic white house was throwing around. I'd have loved to see the next term with Vinick and his staff in the white house.
Oliver is the code key in a world Of encryptions. I like how he lowered the boom on CJ as ALL of the staff have that little habit: mixing wit with statements, causes, questions, debate, and more. Oliver is very binary: Correct answer or incorrect
“Get out of the habit -- of answering more than is asked.” Interesting thematic. Subbed. And here I am, 3 years later, remembering that 2 line moment of dialogue … as someone I haven’t from in years has suddenly emailed me and wants to meet up … Meanwhile, it really has demonstrably forged a niche in my brain-mind pathways…
The number of times I have used the “getting out of the habit of answering more than was asked.” With my students is staggering. Such a great way of saying stop telling me more than I need to know.
As a former Officer of the ultra secretive Australian Department of Defence I can (in response to “Do you know what time it is?”) give an unequivocal “Maybe”.
That is why i deeply enjoyed the character. He was there to PROTECT them and they acted belligerently. Plus good advice and it reminds me of refusing to answer questions to police without a lawyer present.
Steuben glass pitcher. This is very far fetched writing. I like this show but it was not realistic. No one speaks this way. That's why I preferred The Practice over The West Wing
No TV show has had realistic dialogue, not even reality TV. Real dialogue is boring as hell. We are not as clever as we think we are. Nobody has 4-5 close friends that come over every night to share witty one liners with perfect hair and dressed in the trending casual fashions. To be honest, no well written book or play has featured realistic dialog either...Hell, Shakespeare invented words (some of which we still use today). Everyone can like a show for lots of reason (ie The Practice over The West Wing). However, that argument loses some credibility when you claim that the writing of David Kelley (The Practice, Doogie Howser MD) is more realistic than Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, A Few Good Men).
@@delphic464 I like Aaron Sorkin. The West Wing is still the finest of shows I've seen. The West Wing is completely idealistic show. What kind of intellectual person should be part of the government. The Practice is a show which deals with the struggle of defense lawyers between their sense of morality and work ethics. Some dialogues of The West Wing sometimes are too far fetched like here when a pitcher fell who defines the type of pitcher. It's my personal opinion.
@@sumedhparalikar5236 Real conversations are full of hmmmms, awkward pauses, anacoluthons and so on. Real conversations are not "very cinematic". Sorking dialogues are not looking for realism anyways.
In a previous episode, right before the President had an MS episode and broke said Steuben glass pitcher, he had pointed out that it was a Steuben glass pitcher that was gifted to him by someone, blah blah, so it's not a leap to believe that she would have remembered what he had called it.
As a practicing attorney, I use the "do you know what time it is?" line on every client, when preparing them for cross-examination at trial. It's amazing how often people don't get it.
People are conditioned all their lives to be helpful and assume the meaning behind questions. It can be a hard habit to break.
Most people would fail socially if they answered questions like it was a deposition.
@JP-lu9ed They would, but that isn't the assignment
@@charlesnathansmithI think what people are getting at here is that it’s not reasonable to expect that people would be able to answer questions that way when it’s a skill they’ve never been conditioned to in an environment they’ve never encountered before. OP says it is “amazing” how many people get it wrong, but why would that be amazing?
Oliver Platt was gold on the west wing. We did not get enough of him
Whom ever was the head writer for this show TOTALLY missed out on developing the character of Oliver Babish. This was a person with depth, someone who knew the good, the bad and the ugly of The WEST WING and never flinched. "Bring it on" Oliver Babish I appreciated you when ever you appeared.
What's great about this shot is up to the 1:22 mark, the conversation is cut between over-the-shoulder shots to quickly "move" the conversation along as if CJ just wants to rush through it but then when Babish asks her the question the 2nd time, the camera instead pans over, emphasizing CJ's realization of Babish's point.
“In my entire life, I’ve never found anything charming.” SHUT. DOWN.
I've gotten lots of mileage out of that line
Shut down?
Blown up!
I like to imagine someone had said something like this to Aaron Sorkin about his own work and it really got under his skin
As much as I liked the senior staff, a lot of them had some attitude and it was nice to see them get deflated. Babbish didn't have the time, inclination, or need to listen to anyone being cute.
Oliver Babish is pretty much my spirit animal.
Yup 👍👍
The second 'do you know what time it is' is too perfect. Read between the lines. She got it, immediately.
I understand the point he was making with that line, but I don't think that was the best way to make it
I think you can just read the regular lines here.
She's one of the smartest people on the entire show, probably second only to Sam for straight brilliance... She doesn't need things spelled out for her more than once.
Wdym between the lines? She did exactly what was asked in the lines
Strictly speaking, this is about _not_ reading between the lines
But then I guess she had to read between the lines to realise that the advice was to stop reading between the lines? Confusing
CJ and everyone else is so hostile towards Oliver Babish and I never realised until recently that the reason they seems so pissed at Oliver and because they are so incredibly pissed off at the president but they don't think they can be angry at him so they are angry at everyone else even connected to it.
Okay dude....I'll roll with that. Now answer WHY they were mad at the president? And it was NOT because he did not tell them he had MS.
@@retroguy9494 of course it's the MS. He implicated them in a potential fraud to the entire country which could get them in a ton of legal trouble, they could have been hounded by the news and haters for the rest of their lives, and on a personal level, their colleague, friend, and mentor didn't trust them enough to talk about this to let them make their own decision on how to deal with it. If he lied to them about this, what else could he have been lying about?
@@Vesperitis I'm sorry but you're wrong. Until these congressional hearings were held, the only people to know about his MS before he was elected president other than his personal physicians were his wife and Vice President Hoynes. Even his own daughters did not know. The only way a person can be LEGALLY implicated in anything is if they at any time KNEW about it BEFOREHAND.
You don't know anything about how politics works. These "people" were not Jed's friends nor was he a mentor to them. Leo was Jed's best friend and got him to run for president and even HE didn't know until the night Jed collapsed in the Oval Office and was justifiably angry with him. It was Leo who put the team together. In fact, if you know the series, it was Toby who flew to California and asked CJ to put her half million dollar a year ad exec career on hold to join the campaign and become press secretary. CJ didn't even KNOW Jed. She said to Toby "is Jed Bartlett a good man?" These people were serving their country and the ideals they believed in more than serving the man.
Also, Jed never lied to them. He simply did not tell them he had MS. Do you know the difference between a lie and an omission? CJ told the press he had the flu that night because its what the White House physician told her because its what he believed before Abbey sent him out of the room to give Jed injections for the MS. Finally, a White House staff can NEVER make their own decisions on how to deal with a matter such as this concerning the president. They are instructed, guided, coached if not outright TOLD what to say!
Yup, the president's cabinet fought Babish every single step of the way...because this was one situation they didn't want to be in and it was all thanks to one little lie by their boss.
@@retroguy9494 The daughters did know because Zoey told Charlie what to watch for.
One of the interesting pieces within Sorkin's production is his use of pacing and attention to detail. This scene sets up a lesson quickly to show a sense of urgency and build a lesson for CJ using time. And, if you listen closely, you'll also hear the ticking of a clock in the background, supporting the quickening pace of the scene.
Oh yea....there was a LOT of brilliant writing like that back then. Sorkin with The West Wing, Chase with The Soprano's, etc.
TIL to turn up the volume now and then. Thanks for the tip!
The biggest problem The West Wing had was the enormous number of well written, interesting supporting characters, played by superb actors, that never got enough screen time. Case in point... Oliver Babbitt
I am a gun toting Republican, and I love this show. It was so well written. These exchanges are exquisite and take true talent and acting. I love Oliver Platts acting ability.
I completely understand. It was a fictional show, and the writing and acting was superb. It was deliberately written so the "left" argument of that day won a debate with the "right" 99% of the time. But agree or disagree with their point of view, it was a wonderfully entertaining show.
@@avae5343 whatever, snowflake
@@avae5343 I don't seem to remember this. If anything, it showed them as shrewd.
@@avae5343 You mean John Amos who played Admiral Percy: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?
Yeah, I guess Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is something to sneeze at... 😒
@@avae5343 Sometimes, yes. But you also have Ainsley Hayes saying "A new amendment we vote on declaring that I am equal under the law to a man, I am mortified to discover there's reason to believe I wasn't before." I always found that to be a positive example of right wing small government ideals. And the Republican judge they put up on the supreme court was hardly shown in a negative light. I also recall the right railing against all the pork barrel deals this democratic white house was throwing around.
I'd have loved to see the next term with Vinick and his staff in the white house.
“.. out of the habit of … answering more than is asked” these words started a personal social precept for me.
Oliver is the code key in a world Of encryptions.
I like how he lowered the boom on CJ as ALL of the staff have that little habit: mixing wit with statements, causes, questions, debate, and more.
Oliver is very binary:
Correct answer or incorrect
"In my entire life, I have never found anything charming!" 😔
ALWAYS loved that exchange'. Thanks for posting
"In my entire life I've never found anything charming". 🤣
No wonder he was divorced 5 times. 😀
When Babish asks the second time, "Do you know what time it is?" CJ finally got it that he was not messing around, and this was very serious.
“Get out of the habit -- of answering more than is asked.” Interesting thematic. Subbed. And here I am, 3 years later, remembering that 2 line moment of dialogue … as someone I haven’t from in years has suddenly emailed me and wants to meet up … Meanwhile, it really has demonstrably forged a niche in my brain-mind pathways…
... for the WH Press Secretary, certainly 😏
I love the glance by CJ when first asked if she knows the time to what presumably is the clock in the room.
The number of times I have used the “getting out of the habit of answering more than was asked.” With my students is staggering. Such a great way of saying stop telling me more than I need to know.
"Do you know what time it is?"
"Yes, it's fuck you o'clock!"
As a former Officer of the ultra secretive Australian Department of Defence I can (in response to “Do you know what time it is?”) give an unequivocal “Maybe”.
Oliver is the best.
This same line of thought was used in Lou Grant years ago .
That is why i deeply enjoyed the character. He was there to PROTECT them and they acted belligerently. Plus good advice and it reminds me of refusing to answer questions to police without a lawyer present.
I really wish we got to see CJ at these hearings.
Knowing her she’d probably get emotional and bungle the defense.
I took a life lesson from this.
Steuben glass pitcher. This is very far fetched writing.
I like this show but it was not realistic. No one speaks this way. That's why I preferred The Practice over The West Wing
It’s a fantasy. It’s what you want the White House to be like in your dreams.
No TV show has had realistic dialogue, not even reality TV. Real dialogue is boring as hell. We are not as clever as we think we are.
Nobody has 4-5 close friends that come over every night to share witty one liners with perfect hair and dressed in the trending casual fashions. To be honest, no well written book or play has featured realistic dialog either...Hell, Shakespeare invented words (some of which we still use today).
Everyone can like a show for lots of reason (ie The Practice over The West Wing). However, that argument loses some credibility when you claim that the writing of David Kelley (The Practice, Doogie Howser MD) is more realistic than Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, A Few Good Men).
@@delphic464 I like Aaron Sorkin. The West Wing is still the finest of shows I've seen. The West Wing is completely idealistic show. What kind of intellectual person should be part of the government. The Practice is a show which deals with the struggle of defense lawyers between their sense of morality and work ethics.
Some dialogues of The West Wing sometimes are too far fetched like here when a pitcher fell who defines the type of pitcher.
It's my personal opinion.
@@sumedhparalikar5236 Real conversations are full of hmmmms, awkward pauses, anacoluthons and so on. Real conversations are not "very cinematic". Sorking dialogues are not looking for realism anyways.
In a previous episode, right before the President had an MS episode and broke said Steuben glass pitcher, he had pointed out that it was a Steuben glass pitcher that was gifted to him by someone, blah blah, so it's not a leap to believe that she would have remembered what he had called it.
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