JOSH- DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF

[Lemon Lyman]

Personal Background [/u]


[/li][li]Josh's grandfather was a concentration camp survivor interned at Birkenau (Concentration Camp). There's a picture of a young Josh with his grandfather hanging on the wall of his office (Six Meeting before Lunch).
[/li][li]Josh's father was Noah Lyman. He died of a pulmonary embolism on the night Jed Bartlet won the Illinois primary (Six Meetings before Lunch). Josh wishes his father had lived long enough to hear that they had won, because it would've made him happy (In Shadow of Two Gunmen).
[/li][li]Leo McGarry is an old friend of Josh's father (In the Shadow if Two Gunmen).
[/li][li]Josh's mother keeps up with him via email, occasionally sends him shoes (The Stackhouse Filibuster) and moved from Connecticut to West Palm Beach, Florida (The Indians in the Lobby).
[/li][li]Josh is, in his own words, a white guy from Connecticut (Six Meetings before Lunch) specifically, Westport, Connecticut ;he is also Jewish (The Pilot
[/li][li]Joanie, Josh's older sister, died when he was a child. She was babysitting Josh when a fire started, which he believes had something to do with a popcorn maker. Josh ran out of the house to safety and he is still plagued by survivor's guilt. Joanie loved music and wanted to be a conductor. She used to play Schubert's Ave Maria over and over again in her room (The Crackpots and these Women)
[/li][li]Leo says that Josh walks around "with so much guilt over everyone you love dying that you're a compulsive fixer" (Barlet for America). Although Donna has no value to Eastern Europe, she has "enormous value" to Josh (The Lame Duck Congress).
[/li][li]Josh wondered why Donna was pushing him to ask out Joey Lucas, since he thought she would be jealous. He claims he does not get jealous when Donna dates other men, though he does "everything in my considerable capabilities to sabotage it" when she does (The War at Home). Josh says he's not dating Donna because she's his assistant (The Women of Qumar).
[/li][li]Josh used to see a therapist named Stanley. He stopped attending therapy shortly after Bartlet took office because he was concerned it might make some of the people he works for nervous (The Crackpots and These Women). This is not Stanley Keyworth from the American Trauma Victims Association that Josh talked to in Noel.
[/li][li]Josh was 38 years old in 1999 (The Pilot – Script book)
[/li][li]Josh was shot in the chest after a town hall meeting in Rosslyn, Virginia (In the Shadow of Two Gunmen).
[/li][li]He suffered a collapsed lung and a ruptured pulmonary artery. His condition was critical but he pulled through after 14 hours of surgery.
[/li][li]Josh is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the shooting. His flashbacks are triggered by music (Noel).
[/li][li]Josh's doctor advised him to stand with his back against a wall to relax (The Drop In).
[/li][li]Josh has to have his blood pressure checked twice weekly. It's 130/87 eight months or so after the shooting, which is a little high. His right leg and arm are a little stiff, and he has some pain in his back, but it's supposedly all in his head (along with all manner of things) (Ellie).
[/li][li]The Surgeon General saw his scar when he was in the hospital while he was unconscious and declared it beautiful (Ellie).

References
"Bartlet4 America.Org"
"Inside Bartlet's White House" by Keith Topping
"Inside the West Wing" by Paul Challen

[Lemon Lyman]

Professional Backgound [/u]



[/li][li]Josh is a Fulbright Scholar (Pilot), a graduate of Harvard and Yale (Celestial Navigation), and scored a 760 on the verbal portion of his SAT (Lies, Dam Lies and Statistics), though he claims that his IQ doesn't break the bank (H.Con172).
[/li][li]Although Josh earned his Juris Doctorate, Sam considers him to be not a "real lawyer" (Lord John Malbury).

[/li][li]Josh's Career Pre-White House


[/li][li]He worked as floor manager to the House minority whip, Chief of Staff for Congressman Earl Brennan (Celestial Navigation), worked three years in the Senate and advised Senator John Hoynes during his bid for the Democratic nomination (In the Shadow of Two Gunmen). Josh was working for Hoynes when he created the Internet education bill (Stirred).
[/li][li]Josh has two years as legislative director in the house, and two years as floor director in the senate (Manchester)
[/li][li]Thirteen weeks before the New Hampshire primary, Leo McGarry (an old friend of Josh's father, Noah) appeared in Josh's office and asked him to come hear Jed Bartlet speak in Nashua, New Hampshire (In the Shadow of Two Gunmen).
[/li][li]Impressed by Bartlet's candor, Josh quit Hoynes' staff and joined the Bartlet for America campaign as the Senior Political Director (Celestial Navigation).
[/li][li]On his way back from Nashua, Josh stopped by to see his old friend, Sam Seaborn, who'd refused to join Hoynes' presidential campaign because he wasn't "the real thing." Josh's horrible poker face convinced Sam to quit his job and go with Josh to New Hampshire to work for Jed Bartlet (In the Shadow of Two Gunmen).
[/li][li]Despite initial friction with Jed Bartlet, Josh, Toby, Sam, CJ, and Leo successfully crafted a campaign that won Bartlet not only the Democratic nomination, but the Presidency. According to Donna, Josh's work on the campaign got the President elected (The Pilot).

[/li][li][u}Josh’s Career in The White House [/u]

[/li][li]As Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh has twice-weekly meetings with his assistant deputies where he basically staffs out in-box material for the next few days (The Stackhouse Filibuster). Donna Moss became Josh's assistant during the Bartlet for America campaign (In the Shadow of Two Gunmen) and is his senior assistant in the White House (Night Five).
[/li][li]Josh believes in efficiency, professionalism, and "the well-placed, well-worded memo"(Ellie);
[/li][li]During his first year as Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh nearly lost his job after a flip comment on Capital Beat to Mary Marsh regarding her God being indited for Tax Fraud! (The Pilot).
[/li][li]In addition to his regular duties at the White House, Josh does some extracurricular things, like participate in the Marjorie Du Pont Lecture Series (Celestial Navigation) and meet somewhat reluctantly with the high school kids from Presidential Classroom (Isaac and Ishmael).
[/li][li]Because he couldn't fix the chaos following Bartlet's disclosure of his illness, Josh grew somewhat obsessed with the Justice Department's suit against Big Tobacco. As Bruno pointed out, they could have used nicotine against their Republican challenger - Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio are three swing states that could have jumped to Democrats, and Josh knows it will be a close election (Manchester).

References
"Bartlet4 America.Org"
"Inside Bartlet's White House" by Keith Topping
"Inside the West Wing" by Paul Challen

[Lemon Lyman]

Other Facts[/u]

[/li][li]Among Josh's more endearing traits are his refusal to carry a briefcase, preferring the ubiquitous black backpack, and keeping a barely-legible chalkboard calendar on one wall of his office.
[/li][li]Josh made the cover of George magazine, presumably in 1999 (Pilot)
[/li][li]Josh is not good at waiting (The War at Home),he never tires of the sound of his own voice, and he is the only person Donna's ever met who sends flowers to be mean (17 People).
[*}According to Leo, Josh has always been industrious; Josh admits he once carved a bong out of a potato (The Short List).

[/li][li]Josh – women magnet

[/li][li]Josh is widely admired by hordes of lovestruck young girls who follow him around telling him how excellent he is; Josh thinks they like him in his tux (Five Votes Down). He received a $1189 Viennatelli silk smoking jacket and $345 antique scrimshaw cigarette holder from Miss Sarah Wissenger on July 3 because she was "very fond" of him, it was voted by the staffers the best gift on the disclosure report (Five Votes Down).
[/li][li]Josh dated Mandy Hampton while they were both working on the Bartlet campaign (Pilot). They met at a seafood restaurant near the Democratic Leadership Conference; he couldn't stop staring at her (A Proportional Response). They broke up on July 9th (Five Votes Down)
[/li][li]According to Donna, Josh's romantic strategy generally consists of randomly tumbling into a girl sideways and hoping she breaks up with him soon (The War at Home). This doesn’t agree with what Josh thinks about himself- that he's a "power dater" (He Shall, From Time to Time).
[/li][li]Though Josh claims "the jury's still out" on their relationship, he is dating Amy Gardner, whom he knew from law school (Dead Irish Writers) until around the time he got her fired (Posse Comitatus).

[/li][li]Josh has friends in strange places, including former college buddy and current Representative Christopher Wick (whom Josh got elected, and who may or may not be his "roommate Chris" from college (Five Votes Down), Michael Casper, an FBI agent (Bartlet for America) and Billy, an actor and activist who camped out on the island of Vieques to protest arms testing there -- if Josh weren't working in the White House, he says he'd be down there protesting too(He Shall, From Time to Time).
[/li][li]After hiring Charlie Young (A Proportional Response). Josh seems to consider Charlie an adopted younger brother. He introduced Charlie and Zoey, and after they broke up, gave advice to Charlie.
[/li][li]He can sometimes be found playing basketball with the President outside the White House (The Crackpots and These Women).
[/li][li]Sam's ex-fiancée, Lisa Sherbourne, thinks Josh is a pompous ass. He agrees (100,000 Airplanes).
[/li][li]With help from Sam Seaborn, Josh once set the White House on fire (The Leadership Breakfast).
[/li][li]Josh is afraid of snakes, and climbs onto his chair when he thinks it's "a pretty big snake" in the hay in Bartlet's barn (Manchester).
[/li][li]When he suffers a disappointment at work Josh tends to get drunk and show up at Donna's apartment in the middle of the night where he proceeds to yell at her roommate's cats (The Crackpots and these Women). He is not a good drinker -- according to Donna, he "can't drink with any of them," despite being a politician (Take this Sabbath Day). He's ordered Absolute martini on the rocks, with two olives (H.Con 172) and ice & vodka (100,000 Airplanes), though there's no evidence that he actually drank them.
[/li][li]He gave Donna a copy of Heimlich Beckengruber's The Art and Artistry of Alpine Skiing with a molted calf cover and original drab boards for Christmas. He inscribed a very sweet personal note to her inside (In Excelsis Deo)
[/li][li]Josh enjoys playing golf and wants Donna to caddy for him. He believes that real golfers don't use carts (Lord John Malbury)
[/li][li]CJ bought Josh a very large pair of pajamas while he was recovering from his gunshot wound and subsequent surgery (The Midterms). He wears CJ's pyjamas on what he claims is laundry day (The Two Bartlets).
[/li][li]Josh can walk from his Flat in Georgetown to The White House (20 Hours in L.A)
[/li][li]Josh was planning to spend a weekend at Port Saint Lucie, the spring training home of the New York Mets. His fantasy was that Mike Piazza would be standing in the batting cage, turn and see him and say, "Dude." (The Stackhouse Filibuster).

References
"Bartlet4 America.Org"
"Inside Bartlet's White House" by Keith Topping
"Inside the West Wing" by Paul Challen

[Flamingo]

Josh wanted to be a ballerina when he was 4 (Ways and Means)

Ref: TV

[Lemon Lyman]

Also not forgetting that he has his own fan site LemonLyman.com - which turns on him. (US Poet Laureate)

[Josh Lyman]

not forgetting he used to date mandy hampton and didn't want her to work in the white house ,he then got "ambushed " by the rest of the staff into hiring her. she then gave him a picture of the two of them on the first night they met and she had blocked his face out with a magic marker pen , a nice personal touch i feel

[Lemon Lyman]

Thanks Josh

I had the bit about him dating Mandy. The rest I believe comes from the episode - A Proportional Response

[Admin]

Lemon said:

Also not forgetting that he has his own fan site LemonLyman.com - which turns on him. (US Poet Laureate)

That is a good moment. He actually tells it as it is - other West Wing forums are rather strict on the rules. Supposedly relates to something Aaron Sorkin did at one of the fans forums, I think TWoP. After that episode was shown the webmasters thought they were great and superior, and a bit annoyed that AS thought better of their rules about CAPiTaL LeTTeRs (CAUSE IT'S SHOUTING).

[Flamingo]

He also likes his burgers so well done that if they fall on the floor they break- much to the annoyance of donna who he asks to check his food to see if its right

[Lemon Lyman]

In May 2000, Esquire Magazine came up with the idea of having David Whitford, Bradley’s journalist brother, write a piece about what it was like to be a top-ranked TV stars sibling. In it David recounts a tale of how his brother got the part of Josh on The West Wing, and provides some insight on how the show’s creative team of Sorkin, Wells and Schlamme went about selecting their new cast.

Sorkin and Whitford had first started working together when the actor tool over the lead role (the one eventually to be played by Tom Cruise in the movie version) as the prosecutor in A Few Good Men. The two kept in touch and when Sorkin wrote the pilot to Sports Night, the first person he showed it to was Whitford, who he had in mind as one of the show’s sports anchors. But Whitford already involved with a short-lived series called “The Secret Lives of Men” (it lasted 6 episodes on ABC) had to decline. Once Again, Sorkin came calling, this time with the pilot episode of The West Wing in which he wrote the Josh character for Whitford, and tried to “to throw it his strike zone”.

Whitford prepared obsessively for his audition for the part of Josh, and delivered his lines in front of Sorkin, Schlamme and John Levey, the WB’s casting director. After what he thought was an extremely successful first reading, Whitford was then asked to do it all over again, in front of Levey, Schlamme and John Wells. This time Whitford had to read his lines with Moira Kelly, who was slated to play Josh’s ex-love interest in the early episodes. Unfortunately, the team of evaluators concluded there was no chemistry between Kelly and Whitford. Levey then informed Whitford’s agent that he was not going to get the Josh part.

On the Friday before production was supposed to start, Whitford got a call – he had been picked for a part on The West Wing after all. But it wasn’t as Josh, it was as Sam Seaborn. “I was just ‘Noo, no, no’” Whitford told his brother. “So I called Aaron and just said ‘Aaron, I just feel this strongly… This isn’t about me wanting a job. This is the only time in my life I will play this card. I am this guy; I am not the other guy’”.

In the end, Lowe agreed to sign for the part of Sam getting what David Whitford say’s was “What he was asking for, including first billing and more money than any one else in the cast – except Martin Sheen” – and Whitford was in as Josh.

Taken from Inside the West Wing by Paul Challen

I’m sure your all agree with me that no one could play Josh like Bradley does. Also I find it a bit scary that we nearly didn’t get Bradley because of Mandy. I like this story.

[Joey Lucas]

From BravoTV.com:

Josh serves as the Deputy White House Chief of Staff and therefore works closely with Leo McGarry (White House Chief of Staff). An Ivy-league graduate, Josh served as the floor manager for the House Minority Whip, the Chief of Staff for Congressman Earl Brennan, a staffer on the presidential campaign of Senator John Hoynes (currently Vice President) and then as Senior Political Director for Bartlet's campaign. Josh hails from Connecticut and is known as a competitive team player.

[J. Lyman]

I've never really had much time for Bradley in anything else I've ever seen him in.

However, since I first watched the West Wing I've been constantly impressed with the dry wit and sarcasm which comes over on screen.

Josh Lyman has totally changed my view of this guy.