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Gone Too Soon: Sports Night

by Jason Hughes, posted Dec 14th 2009 7:04PM
Sports Night
A lot of times, when a show that we love gets canceled way too early in its run, we like to trot out the mantra: "It was before its time." But looking at a television landscape with The Office, 30 Rock and Parks & Recreation (and that's just one night on one network), I really do think Sports Night may have been too innovative for its own good.

Creator Aaron Sorkin even wanted the sitcom to air without a laugh track, but ABC balked and there is one evident in the first season. It was dropped by the second season, but unfortunately the show was dropped as well after only 45 episodes.

Character relations were front and center, and the humor was much more subtle and dry. In 1998, comedies were still dominating the television landscape, led by traditionally formatted shows like Frasier, Friends, The Drew Carey Show and ABC's TGIF lineup. Maybe the very non-traditional Sports Night should have been an hour long, and acted more like FOX's Ally McBeal.

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Sports Night - 10th Anniversary DVD review - VIDEO

by Bob Sassone, posted Sep 10th 2008 3:00PM
Sports Night DVDFans of the short-lived ABC comedy Sports Night were disappointed when the DVD set for the show came out in 2002. We were really happy that there was indeed a complete series set for the show, but there wasn't any extras in the set at all. No commentaries, no features, no interviews, no booklet. Some people even reported that the discs didn't work that well, that they would stop and start or freeze altogether on some DVD players (I have the old set and never had this problem). Fans were happy to have the show, but still wanted more.

Well, now we do. Shout! Factory has released a new 10th Anniversary set for the show, and all of the the extras that were missing in that set are here, and then some.

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Sports Night: Ten Wickets

by Bob Sassone, posted Sep 1st 2006 9:10PM

Sports Night(S01E21) You know, when you get right down to it, there's nothing sadder than a man in love, waiting for his woman, holding a bottle of wine, a bouquet of flowers, and an old abacus.

Dan has a special night planned for Rebecca, but she's thinking about going back to her husband. Meanwhile, Casey is still freaked out about last week's bomb scare and still ticked at Dana for bailing on the show to go to dinner with Gordon. And Jeremy is still broken up with Natalie. At least he thinks so. Natalie is telling him and everyone else in the studio that they are still together. Maybe Jeremy's obsession with a cricket (the sport, not the insect) story will make him forget how maddening she's being.

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Sports Night: Ordnance Tactics

by Bob Sassone, posted Aug 31st 2006 9:16PM

Sports Night(S01E20) While Isaac continues to recover from his stroke in the hospital, Dana is in charge, and the network execs are putting a lot of pressure on her. Meanwhile, Rebecca might want to go back to hubby Steve, which doesn't please Dan too much, and Jeremy wants to break up with Natalie, because there are way too many things happening right now, including his parents breaking up.

Oh, and there's a bomb threat called in to the building.

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Sports Night: The Sword of Orion

by Bob Sassone, posted Aug 30th 2006 7:17PM

Josh Charles and Teri Polo(S01E18) At this point, the show is rather complex, with many storylines going on and continuing from episode to episode. There's even a "previously on Sports Night" clip at the beginning, though it's kinda odd. They show a scene with Jeremy telling Natalie that his parents are getting divorced, but I don't remember that from a previous episode.

Jeremy is going to see his parents about the divorce, and Natalie is upset because he hasn't called her in a few days. Meanwhile, Dan is trying desperately to get Rebecca interested in baseball.

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Sports Night: Sally

by Bob Sassone, posted Aug 26th 2006 9:30PM

Ted McGinley(S01E16) This episode has one of the great surprise lines in sitcom history (in my opinion anyway, don't want to oversell it).

While Dana is upset that Gordon stood her up last night and Jewish Jeremy is freaking out that he has to spend three days with Natalie's Catholic family, Casey talks to Dan about a shirt of his that's missing, and Dan figures out how and why this particular shirt is missing.

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Sports Night : Dana and the Deep Blue Sea

by Bob Sassone, posted Aug 24th 2006 11:03PM

(S01E15) Felicity Huffman - Sports NightWhile Dan tries to get help - from Casey, Jeremy, or anyone, really - on how to go about winning over Rebecca, a nervous Dana agrees to go snorkeling with boyfriend Gordon, even though fish completely freak her out.

I feel the same about the fuzz on peaches. Sends shivers down my spine.

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Sports Night: Small Town

by Bob Sassone, posted Aug 17th 2006 8:23PM

Sports Night(S01E13) This isn't the "funniest" episode of Sports Night (and I think I sense them using the laugh track less here), but it's a truly solid episode, because it tells a lot about the characters, strengthens the relationships they all have, and has three different plots that work seperately but also work off of each other too.

Casey and Dana have a night off on the same night, so they decide to double date: Casey will be with on a blind date with a lawyer (Lisa, with an "S" but pronounced Liza), and Casey will be with Gordon. Neither Casey nor Dana really want to go on the date (they think they'll be too uncomfortable), but Isaac won't let them work that night just because a trade "may" happen.

Meanwhile, Natalie is in charge for the night, and Dan has to deal with a substitute anchor who insists they slept together in Spain a few years earlier and he never called her afterward. Dan says she's a nut.

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Sports Night: Smoky

by Bob Sassone, posted Aug 13th 2006 7:15PM

(S01E12) Sports Night castIsaac knows that one day he won't be in charge at the show forever (especially after embarrassing him by supporting the college players in the last episode) , so he wants to groom Dana to take over someday. But she doesn't even want to talk about it. He wants her to come to the monthly executive meetings, but she doesn't want to. He tells her not to tell anyone what they've talked about.

She immediately tells Natalie.

Meanwhile, Dan thinks it's time to get Casey back into the dating scene.

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Sports Night: Shoe Money Tonight

by Bob Sassone, posted Aug 3rd 2006 8:30PM

Brenda Strong(S01E10) The two anchors that do the 2am West Coast update are stuck in Pittsburgh because of a snowstorm, which means Dan and Casey have to give up their night in Atlantic City to do the show. So they put together a staff poker game.

Meanwhile, Natalie is mad at Jeremy for ditching her the other night and playing tennis with a movie star, and she plans on making him pay when they play poker. Dana confronts Sally about the way she's going to produce the 2am update, and Isaac thinks he's shrinking.

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Sports Night: The Head Coach, Dinner, and the Morning Mail

by Bob Sassone, posted Jul 6th 2006 8:15PM

Sports Night(S01E06) This episode is a continuation of last week's episode, where Natalie decided to tell the police what the football player did to her in the locker room. Meanwhile, Casey is all over a football coach's bad decision during a game, and Jeremy is obsessing over where to take Natalie on a date.

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Sports Night: Mary Pat Shelby

by Bob Sassone, posted Jun 29th 2006 8:44PM
Sabrina Lloyd(S01E05) I mentioned in another review that not many people mix comedy and drama as well as Aaron Sorkin does, and this is another good example. On another show, it would have been handled really badly (or not attempted at all).

CSC gets a big scoop when football player Christian Patrick agrees to be interviewed in the studio. Maybe after this interview, CSC won't be the number three network anymore...

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Sports Night: Intellectual Property

by Bob Sassone, posted Jun 22nd 2006 7:57PM
Yeardley Smith(S01E04) Did you know that "Happy Birthday" is a copyright-protected song? Sing it on TV or the radio and you'll get a bill from the family of the two women who wrote it. Dan learns that lesson when he sings it on the air and a CSC business affairs woman informs him of how much money it's going to cost. Oh, and the business affairs woman is played by Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson!

While Dan deals with that, Casey deals with a giant fly that is buzzing around the studio. Trouble is, no one else has seen the fly and they think Casey is going loony, which has to be frustrating when you not only know the fly exists but you have to deal with the woman you like dating some Gordon.

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Sports Night: The Apology

by Bob Sassone, posted Jun 8th 2006 7:54PM
Sports Night castDo not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of your favorites shows, in order, every week.

(S01E02)
No one mixes comedy and drama better than Aaron Sorkin. I don't mean in that "dramedy" kind of way (ugh, I hate that term), I mean in a natural, realistic way. You saw it all the time on The West Wing, and also on Sports Night. It's in particularly fine form in this episode, one of my favorites.

Dan is in trouble with the network for saying in an Esquire interview that marijuana should be legalized. Meanwhile, Jeremy puts together his first highlight reel, and Natalie tells Dana to show an interest in Casey now that he's divorced.

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Sports Night: Pilot

by Bob Sassone, posted Jun 1st 2006 7:01PM
Sports NightDo 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.

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