'Dancing With The Stars' Season 14 Dream Casting
What To Watch On TV This Week
Sports Night: Pilot
by Bob Sassone, posted Jun 1st 2006 7:01PM
Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of your favorite shows, in order, every week.(S01E01) Sports Night is the show that Aaron Sorkin created before The West Wing. It didn't last very long (two seasons), but it has a lot in common with The West Wing: intelligent writing, fast-paced dialogue, and a strong ensemble cast of smart, moral characters all working toward a common goal. In this case, that goal is getting out a nightly show on the CSC network. It also have several of the same behind-the-scenes people as TWW, and a few on-camera people too.
Sorkin got the idea for the show from watching TV while he was holed up in a hotel room writing The American President. He was watching ESPN, and found the humor and banter from the anchors (Dan Patrick and - there's been some confusion here - either Keith Olbermann or Craig Kilborn) intoxicating, and decided to create a comedy set in that world.
The pilot episode, like The West Wing's, introduces each character beautifully. Sorkin knows how to write characters (and dialogue), and the casting on his shows always seems to be especially good. Casey and Dan are the hosts of the show. Dan (Josh Charles) is the good-natured one, and Casey (Peter Krause) is the just-divorced one who likes producer Dana (Felicity Huffman), who always seems to be running around like a nut trying to get the show produced for her boss Isaac (Robert Guillaume). Natalie (Sabrina Lloyd) is Dana's co-producer, who likes a new guy interviewing for a spot at CSC, Jeremy (Josh Malina). One of the big scenes in the pilot is Dana interviewing Jeremy, and Jeremy is outrageously nervous. Personally, I think Malina overplays this scene a little bit, but it's funny and the scene is redeemed by a funny closing line about Spike Lee. Jeremy is hired.
But the main plot of the pilot is Casey's growing ambivilance about covering sports for a living. He wants to quit Sports Night and do something else. Dan thinks that this is just a phase, in part brought on by Casey's divorce (he's even sleeping in the office). He tries to convince Casey to stay, but as it turns out, he doesn't have to. He is inspired again by a 40 plus runner who is trying to break a world record. When the runner does indeed break the world record, Casey realizes that there really is something left to surprise him in the world of sports. He calls his son and tells him to get out of bed to watch the man break the record. Casey stays at the show.
P.S. If you're wondering whether or not you'll like this show because you hate sports and TV shows/movies set in the world of sports, don't be. As the show's tag line says: "It's about sports. The same way Charlie's Angels was about law enforcement."
Quotes:
"At this level, they pretty much want you to be able to kick in a game." - Casey, to a staffer who said he once saw a lousy placekicker kick in practice.
"Tell Spike Lee to sit down and shut up?" - Jeremy, answering interviewer Dana's question about what the Knicks have to do this season to improve.
"Natalie, if you shout it into a microphone while I'm wearing a headpiece, it poses the question, is there a decibel level at which the human head will, you know, explode?" - Casey, after Natalie yells something to him in his earpiece.
"I'm getting a divorce. I don't need a cruise director." - Casey, to Dan, who is trying to get him to go out and do something.
"I'm not gonna do the show with your high school driving instructor if that's what you're driving at J.J." - Dan, to a network exec who compared Casey's charisma to his high school driving instructor.
17 Comments