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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: February 16, 2000
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: The West Wing, “Celestial Navigation” (Season 1, Episode 15) [Stream on Netflix]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: One of the great things about The West Wing was that they were able to downshift into comic relief within an episode without de-railing the main storylines. In “Celestial Navigation,” the momentum of the serialized Judge Mendoza storyline — where Toby was in charge of getting the potentially controversial and certainly irascible judge confirmed for the Supreme Court — is weaved into a nested story structure where Josh recounts the week’s events for an audience of college students. The Mendoza parts are more dramatic, but it’s paired with one of The West Wing‘s best comedy moments: C.J. rendering herself incapable of delivering the press briefing by undergoing root canal, followed by Josh taking on the press briefing in a spectacularly ill-advised moment of hubris.
It seemed comically unbelievable that a press briefing could go quite this poorly for anyone. (Little did we know…) The snowball effect of Josh’s massive press gaffe continued throughout the episode, until finally the President had to weigh in.
But as fun as it was to watch the President beat the crap out of Josh, it was that first sight of C.J. post-root-canal that will stay with us forever and ever.
