During Tuesday's episode of the ABC show, starring Geena Davis as the first female president, the White House tried to resolve an international crisis precipitated when an American military submarine was damaged and stranded off North Korea. President Allen (Ms. Davis) and her husband-adviser (Kyle Secor) consulted with a friend who is an expert on Korea. That character, played by Robert Harper, was named Owen Latimer.

In 1950, Owen Lattimore, an Asia expert and professor at Johns Hopkins University, was among the many people accused by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican, of being Soviet spies. In 1952, Lattimore was indicted on perjury charges, which were later dismissed. On the show, the president's husband told Latimer: "From now on, every conversation you're a part of, every document you read, basically anything that you see or do is classified. Now, I don't know the statutory penalties, but if you reveal anything that you learn here, I expect it's a couple of decades in prison." No one from "Commander in Chief" was available to comment on the coincidental name and parallel story.