Mrs. Landingham

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Mrs. Landingham
Debate Camp
"
  • October 16, 2002 (2002-10-16)
    • Portrayed by
    In-universe information
    Full nameDolores Landingham
    TitleExecutive Secretary
    ChildrenAndrew Landingham (deceased)
    Simon Landingham (deceased)

    Mrs. Dolores Landingham, played by

    18th and Potomac
    ", but reappeared for multiple flashbacks afterwards. Mrs. Landingham is considered a beloved character whose influence on politicians has continued through to 2021.

    Character role

    On

    Debate Camp".[6]

    A key moment for Mrs. Landingham's character comes in the

    first-season episode "In Excelsis Deo".[5] In the episode, set around the holiday of Christmas, Charlie Young notices that Mrs. Landingham feels down despite the festive atmosphere of the day. Mrs. Landingham explains that she always felt sad around the holiday season, revealing that her two sons, Andrew and Simon, were drafted into the Vietnam War. Mrs. Landingham and the boys' father tried to convince them not to go, and instead take a deferment to finish medical school, but the boys insisted. The two boys were killed by enemy fire on December 24, 1970. "It's hard when that happens so far away, you know," says Mrs. Landingham, "because with the noises and the shooting, they had to be so scared. It's hard not to think that right then, they needed their mother." Later in the episode, Mrs. Landingham accompanies Toby Ziegler to a military funeral arranged for a homeless man. Martin Sheen later said that he was supposed to have been present in the scene as well, but the scene was changed to not overshadow Ziegler and Mrs. Landingham, commenting that the two "were deeply affected by the incident: a woman who has lost two sons and a man who gave this guy clothes to keep warm".[7] Joosten said that the scene was a high point of her time on the show.[8]

    Mrs. Landingham sometimes serves as Bartlet's conscience,[3][4] highlighted in season two finale episode, "Two Cathedrals", following her death in "18th and Potomac". She guides Bartlet on how to grapple with moral issues starting with a flashback of her meeting Bartlet when he was in prep school. She repeatedly asks Jed to address a gender pay gap in the school's faculty, as his father was the headmaster. When asked why she is doing this, she asserts her role as the older sister Jed needed to set him straight, telling him "look, if you think we're wrong ... then I respect that. But if you think we're right, and you won't speak up because you can't be bothered, then God, Jed, I don't even want to know ya".[9] Later, in the show's present moment, Mrs. Landingham has a conversation with Bartlet in the Oval Office while a thunderstorm rages, reminding him that there is always an action he can take regardless of the challenges he faces as he must give a press conference following an announcement that he has concealed a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis from the public.[4] The President is reconsidering whether he should run for re-election, and Mrs. Landingham asks the President to list all of the problems still facing American society, and tells him that "you know, if you don't want to run for a second term, I respect that. But if you don't run because you think it's too hard, or you think you're going to lose, then God, Jed, I don't even wanna know ya."[10][11]

    Mrs. Landingham provided other characters on The West Wing with guidance rather than playing a central political role, and was known for her playful banter.[1][5][9] Her influence over the President was particularly noted,[9] with Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club commenting that Mrs. Landingham "held a unique kind of influence over the President Of The United States, yet had zero ego about it".[4] Mrs. Landingham was described by Heisler as humble, hard-working, relentlessly moral, and "important in all the ways The West Wing rarely talks about, yet in all the ways The West Wing excels".[4] With a show as idealized as The West Wing, Mrs. Landingham sometimes reminded the characters "who they should be working for". Kathryn Joosten is quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying that Mrs. Landingham "represented for a lot of people the voice of the little people".[1]

    Development

    Mrs. Landingham was played by Kathryn Joosten, while actress Kirsten Nelson played a younger Mrs. Landingham in the flashback scenes of "Two Cathedrals".[4] Joosten said that she drew from previous experience spending time with an executive assistant at a technology company in Pasadena, commenting that "she was efficient; she was proven. But she called her boss by her first name, and I couldn't do that".[12] Joosten also recalled a scene in which her character was to remind a few women secretaries who were gossiping that they "work for some very important men here". Joosten, who remarked that the line "pissed [her] off", persuaded the writers to change "men" to "people".[12]

    Conclusion

    While at a charity dinner with the cast and crew of The West Wing, Joosten told series creator

    Emmy [Award]".[13] The following June, Joosten told the Los Angeles Times that "the publicity resulting from Mrs. Landingham’s untimely demise has been good for me personally".[1]

    Reception

    The Los Angeles Times wrote that Mrs. Landingham's tendency to ground characters in an otherwise idealized show allowed the audience to identify themselves—or their mothers—with the sexagenarian presidential secretary.[1] In The Prime-Time Presidency: The West Wing and U.S. Nationalism, Shawn Parry-Giles argues that Mrs. Landingham embodies a "republican mother", willing to sacrifice her children for the nation and guide Jed Bartlet towards his potential as a leader.[9] In a 2020 Entertainment Weekly reunion of cast and crew on The West Wing, special recognition was given to Joosten; Sorkin praised the compassion Joosten played Mrs. Landingham with, while Rob Lowe and Richard Schiff called her performance in "In Excelsis Deo" the best in the show's seven-season run.[14] That same year, Showbiz Cheat Sheet called Mrs. Landingham "a beloved part of" The West Wing,[15] and in 2021, the Waco Tribune-Herald described her as "a sentimental favorite" character from the series.[2]

    Legacy

    After the character was killed off in 2001, the

    the energy crisis".[16]

    In 2014, The Atlantic placed Mrs. Landingham as 13th on their ranking of 114 characters from The West Wing, commenting that she had few, but meaningful, interactions with Leo McGarry, Charlie Young, and the President.[5] In 2015, the United States' General Services Administration released a Slack bot named "Mrs. Landingham" to ease new hires through their onboarding; the many fans of The West Wing at 18F felt it right to "[bring] back the beloved character".[17]

    In 2021, then Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Sir Robert Buckland, the British Member of Parliament for South Swindon, adopted a grey tabby cat from Cats Protection and named her Mrs. Landingham.[18]

    References

    1. ^
      OCLC 3638237. Archived
      from the original on September 9, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
    2. ^ a b Dewitt, Ellen (January 19, 2021). "25 jobs in the White House and what they do". Waco Tribune-Herald. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
    3. ^ a b Rollins 2003, p. 407.
    4. ^ a b c d e f g Heisler, Steve (August 23, 2010). "The West Wing: "18th & Potomac"/"Two Cathedrals"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
    5. ^
      ISSN 2151-9463. Archived
      from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021. And by 'every character,' we mean it. Everyone who ever served at the pleasure of the president and then some, ranked.
    6. ISSN 0033-8060. Archived
      from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
    7. ^ Heffernan, Greg. "Martin Sheen: Catholic President on Prime Time". St. Anthony Messenger. Archived from the original on March 5, 2001. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
    8. ^ Norman 2017, p. 165.
    9. ^ a b c d Parry-Giles 2010, p. 64.
    10. ^ Parry-Giles 2010, p. 63.
    11. ^ Sachleben & Yenerall 2004, p. 30.
    12. ^ a b Norman 2017, p. 164.
    13. ISSN 0744-8139. Archived
      from the original on June 5, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
    14. OCLC 21114137. Archived
      from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
    15. ^ Kerr, Mandi (March 22, 2020). "'The West Wing': Why Mrs. Landingham Got Written off the Show". Showbiz Cheat Sheet. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
    16. OCLC 1645522
      .
    17. ^ Young, Jessie (December 15, 2015). "How a bot named Dolores Landingham transformed 18F's onboarding". General Services Administration. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
    18. ^ Angelini, Daniel (January 27, 2021). "South Swindon MP Robert Buckland adopts tabby cat Mrs Landingham". Swindon Advertiser. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021. A FINE feline has a new home thanks to South Swindon MP Robert Buckland.

    Works cited

    External links

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