'' The West Wing '' episodes were written close to production and at the time of the September 11 attacks Sorkin was writing on episode six of the season ( " Gone Quiet " ) , which originally was to air on Halloween ( October 31 ) . The events caused consternation in the writing staff , and the episode had to be entirely rewritten . " I was kind of paralyzed , " said Sorkin , " I did n't know what to write " . Because of the attacks , air dates were postponed and the already finished " On the Day Before " became the Halloween episode instead . Nevertheless , the episode took on greater relevance to actual , international events than the writers had intended . On August 9 , after the actors had just done a cold reading of the episode , they were informed about the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing , a Jerusalem suicide bombing in which an American was killed . The close similarity to an event in the script came as a shock to the actors . " It was mind-blowing , " said Richard Schiff ( Toby )
Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing
Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing
On the Day Before