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- In "And it's Surely to their Credit" there is a great deal of discussion of Gilbert and Sullivan. And there was also a reference to them from "Mandatory Minimums".
- Michael Rudolf researched the Gilbert and Sullivan information (including Sam being the "recording secretary for the Princeton Gilbert and Sullivan Society") and came up with the following:
- ". . .this is the best link I could find.
http://diamond.idbsu.edu/GaS/
I tried to find a link to the Princeton University Gilbert & Sullivan Society, but apparently it doesn't have a website. (The Yale G&S Society does, though). But the Princeton G&S Society does exist, as evidenced from a program cover posted on another site.
http://www.leyline.org/pup/history/programs/pop89.html
From the date, and from Sam's age and when he left school, it's quite possible (in the show's storyline, of course) that this was one of the plays he performed in."
- And as the episode makes clear with the references and the song played in Ainsley's office at the end, she was right and "He is an Englishman" is from "H.M.S. Pinafore" and not "Pirates of Penzance" as Tribbey claimed. Andrew G. Webb also wrote:
- "'He is an Englishman' IS from 'HMS Pinafore', not 'The Pirates of Penzance'. The subtitle of 'The Pirates of Penzance' is 'The Slave of Duty' so that being the case, an aria from the latter probably would have been more apropos."
Note: September 2006 -
Sorkin is continuing references to Gilbert and Sullivan from his new show, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip".
See the Overlaps section on our new Studio 60 Guide site. |
- It turns out this wasn't the first reference to Gilbert and Sullivan (Sorkin must like them). Andrew Schneider writes:
- "In 'Mandatory Minimums' [#120], toward the end of the episode, Sam
storms into Josh's office to tell he and Toby about his lunch conversation
with Steve Onorato. When Toby and Josh explain that Onoraton knows about Laurie and is trying to use it against him the following dialogue takes place. . .
- Sam: "He's trying to practice on my. . . my. . ."
Toby: "Credulous simplicity?"
- This is a line from The Pirates of Penzance. The Pirate King (Kevin Kline in the last Broadway revival - some 20 years ago) utters these words when he learns that the Major General has lied that he is not an orphan:
- FREDERIC: "It breaks my heart to betray the honoured father of the girl I adore, but as your apprentice I have no alternative. It is my duty to tell you that General Stanley is no orphan!"
KING/RUTH: "What!"
FREDERIC:"More than that, he never was one!"
KING:"Am I to understand that, to save his contemptible life, he dared to practice on our credulous simplicity? (FREDERIC nods as he weeps) Our revenge shall be swift and terrible. We will go and collect our band and attack Tremorden Castle this very night.
- Also Sharon Gorman reports the following conversation from "Lord John Marbury":
- C.J. (into the phone) -- "the Earl of Sherbourne, he is the great great grandson of a former Viceroy and for thirteen years served as the Queen's minister to either India or Pakistan. Lord Marbury is here to counsel the President, and if you think this is all starting to sound like a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, I don't blame you a bit."
- And, of course, Bartlet describing Will's father as "the very model of a modern Major General" in #414 is also from Gilbert and Sullivan.
- Patty Gerstenberger sent us the following:
"This is from Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta 'Pirates of Penzance:'
First verse:
'I am the very model of a modern Major General;
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral:
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical,
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical.
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical;
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical:
About binomial Theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.'"
- The Marx Brothers
- In Enemies Foreign and Domestic there are three references to three different Marx Brothers movies all within the following conversation:
"You want to make it clear," Sam tells C.J., "we are pushing for Slovenia and possibly the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania"
"Not Freedonia? We're going to leave Freedonia out there?" C.J. asks and then starts singing, " . . . Hooray for Captain Spaulding. . . ." But Toby is not laughing so she tells him, "I'll give you $500 if you perform "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" at next year's Gridiron."
We wouldn't have picked up on any on any of this without the email from John Spiers.
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