Television and filmed in Burbank, California, the episode was directed by Laura Innes, who was known for portraying Dr. Kerry Weaver on the NBC television series ER and had previously directed the ER sixth season episode "Be Still My Heart". In a May 2000 interview with TV Guide Online, Martin Sheen admitted to not knowing much about Innes when he first learned that she would be directing the episode, but that evening, when his wife looked at the call sheets, she commented that "Laura was the best thing on ER, so he had better behave." In the episode, the characters reaffirm their commitment to the president after a White House insider wrote a memo attacking the president, leading to the popularizing of the sound bite: "I serve at the pleasure of the president." In addition, the episode captured the series' effort to show how politics and government could work in Washington D.C., and the series creators subsequently used the title phrase, "Let Bartlet be Bartlet," as a recurring theme in the series. Yet, in episodes that followed "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet," the fictional staff's success in pursuing agendas more aggressively was mixed at best. For example, in season 2, their attempt to retake control of Congress fell short. In commenting on the episode and its application to real life, television writer R. D. Heldenfels noted in January 2001: The episode's title is a reference to the parallel phrase "Let Reagan be Reagan," used by conservative supporters of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. The episode influenced political commentators, who took the 'let the politician be himself/politicians must remain true to themselves' lesson and applied it to politicians including US Vice President Al Gore in 2000, Canadian health minister Allan Rock in 2001, Quebec premier Jean Charest in 2004, US presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, and US president Barack Obama twice in 2009, and once in 2011. Commentators additionally applied the lesson to politicians including New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2009, Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard twice in 2010, which prompted other news reporters to publish their thoughts to that topic and make it a top ten discussion of the week in Australia, British labour leader Ed Miliband in 2011, and Scottish politician Johann Lamont in 2011. References External links 2000 American television episodes The West Wing (season 1) episodes