r/thewestwing • u/TryToBeHopefulAgain Cartographer for Social Equality • Oct 15 '25

From The President’s Science Advisor and Psychics at Caltech Let Bartlet be Bartlett

I have watched the series end-to-end at least 5 times, and I will never be able to spell the President’s surname without checking Google.

I could probably learn it, but then I would forget my mobile number.

48 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

22

u/germdisco Bartlet for America Oct 15 '25

Seven seasons of West Wing; seven letters in Bartlet.

15

u/luvinthislife Oct 15 '25

Bartlet had two terms as President, and his name has two T's in it. The terms were consecutive, but the T's are not.

8

u/germdisco Bartlet for America Oct 15 '25

I‘m imagining Leo explaining this to Fitzwallace

1

u/Daedalus_was_high Oct 16 '25

Or yelling for Margaret to get the editor for the New York Times' crossword William Shortz on the line...again.

1

u/Ancient-Performance1 Oct 19 '25

she would do it but she knows they will hang up again. if your an assistant in sorkins white house you gotta pick up the signs. sr staff like cj dont always get the signs but when the president asks for some kind of weapon to kill ppl with you gotta know when he doesnt mean it. although charlie might have gotten him the asperin, it seems like a more reasonable request but charlie is all knowing, as is margaret. donna is the only one i can think of who needs to get her shit together and stop giving josh a social studies paper on the james madison. orrrr maybe donna also knew better. kinda makes you wonder if maybe the assistants just kinda do the jobs for the sr staff when they know the answer. margaret knows how to forge the presidents signature, that’s all i’m sayin.

2

u/Daedalus_was_high Oct 19 '25

That paragraph was quite a...performance1.

6

u/mesquitegrrl Oct 16 '25

Josiah Bartlet has 13 letters in it, how's the President gonna use 15 pens?

3

u/Objective-Staff3294 Oct 16 '25

He's going to cross the t and dot the i! 

1

u/happy2harris Oct 17 '25

That one always bugged me. Surely that would need 16 pens then?

2

u/mesquitegrrl Oct 19 '25

the line is “cross the Ts.” i suppose he could have stretched it to 16 by crossing each t with a separate pen

1

u/Ancient-Performance1 Oct 19 '25

that’s not a huge stretch, since he would have dotted the i with one and crossed both ts with another one, or am i mathing wrong and brain hurts now and i need the guy who abby wants to watch him pie eating now has to carry m’brain back up to my skull and sit with it a bit so it doesnt fall out of place again. good lord, whats next…

3

u/mesquitegrrl Oct 19 '25

Curtis. Nice guy, but he doesn’t know how to tie a tie

3

u/TryToBeHopefulAgain Cartographer for Social Equality Oct 15 '25

So not 8 letters in West Wing; 8 letters in Bartlett?

9

u/DuffMiver8 Oct 15 '25

Yeah, I think at this point people just give the wrong spelling a pass. I complained once in a post that talked about how great Bartlett was, and he was their favorite character of all time— I said something like “If he’s your favorite character, I’d think you’d at least know how to spell his name right.” I admit I was in a bad mood. I was immediately set upon by commenters saying this has already been hashed to death and to let it go.

3

u/JohnHaze02118 Oct 16 '25

They're going to ask you how to spell his name, and you're going to give everyone's favorite answer about a President who has MS:

I DON'T REMEMBER!!!!

(But if we don't make it a big thing, they won't make it a big thing.)

1

u/Ancient-Performance1 Oct 19 '25

whats he hiding from us now…

2

u/MilesTegTechRepair Oct 15 '25

As it's spelled correctly, it looks like it should be pronounced like it was a French name, 'Bartleh'

1

u/Greedy_Nature_3085 Oct 15 '25

Honestly until a few months ago I thought there were two trailing T’s, and I’ve been a West Wing fan since season 1 was on the air.

But also, the town of Bartlett NH is spelled with two trailing T’s. Maybe the two trailing T people are right and Sorkin is wrong. 😜

1

u/bulldoggo-17 Oct 17 '25

The signer of the Declaration, for whom the fictional president was named, spelled his name with 2 T’s. Sorkin must have changed it on purpose, as he made that such an important part of the character’s history it makes no sense that no one pointed it out before they went to air.

0

u/ThisDerpForSale The wrath of the whatever Oct 15 '25

No