Sports Night
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sports Night | |
|---|---|
 Series title card |
|
| Format | Comedy-drama |
| Created by | Aaron Sorkin |
| Starring | Josh Charles Peter Krause Felicity Huffman Joshua Malina Sabrina Lloyd and Robert Guillaume |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 45 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 Minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 22, 1998 – May 16, 2000 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
Sports Night is an American television series about a fictional sports news show (also called Sports Night) and the people who work there. It focuses on the friendships, pitfalls, and ethical issues they face while trying to produce a good show under constant network pressure. Created by Aaron Sorkin, the half-hour prime time comedy-drama[1] aired on ABC for two seasons, from 1998 to 2000.
The show stars Robert Guillaume as Managing Editor Isaac Jaffe, Felicity Huffman as Executive Producer Dana Whitaker, Peter Krause as anchor Casey McCall, Josh Charles as anchor Dan Rydell, Sabrina Lloyd as Senior Associate Producer Natalie Hurley, and Joshua Malina as Associate Producer Jeremy Goodwin. Regular guest stars included William H. Macy as ratings expert Sam Donovan and Brenda Strong as Sally Sasser, the producer of West Coast Update (another show on the same network as Sports Night) and rival of Dana.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
The fictional Sports Night is a sports news program in the style of ESPN's SportsCenter.[2] It broadcasts from the fictional Continental Sports Channel (CSC), a subsidiary of Continental Corp, owned and run by Luther Sachs. (Some believe Continental Corp is loosely based on Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which owns Fox Sports Net.)
Sports Night struggled to find an audience and ABC cancelled it after two seasons. Although it had the opportunity to move to several different networks, including HBO, Showtime and USA, Sorkin decided to let the show pass so that he could focus on his popular drama The West Wing.
Although the first season of Sports Night is a sitcom, it often is portrayed as more of a comedy-drama representative of some of Sorkin's later work on The West Wing. Sorkin intended for the series' humor to be drier and more realistic than typical sitcoms. He initially wanted the show to be recorded without a laugh track, but ABC network executives insisted on including one.[3][4] The volume of the laugh track faded as Season One continued[5] and was abandoned at the beginning of Season Two.[6]
The dialogue is often delivered at a rapid-fire pace and intentionally exposes many aspects of communication that go beyond the words that are spoken. The show also frequently employed a technique known as "Walk and Talk," where the characters are walking from one location to the next while in conversation. This is another characteristic of Aaron Sorkin shows as "walk and talks" are used quite frequently in The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. A number of similar themes, elements and actors carried over from Sports Night to The West Wing (and later Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip).[7][8][9]
The show's main focus is the relationships between the characters. These include an off-again on-again flirtation and romance between Dana and Casey, the oil-and-water passion between neurotic Natalie and nerdy Jeremy, and Dan's ongoing problems with relationships in general. The character of Isaac Jaffee hovers over his staff as a benevolent but uncompromising father figure.
The show is mostly set in the studio and station offices. However, in the second season Anthony's, a local sports bar and restaurant, was introduced as another location for scenes in order to get the characters out of the work environment a little bit.
Guillaume suffered a stroke midway through the first season, and this event was worked into his character and the season's story arc.[1][5]
Sorkin wrote life experiences into his scripts.
- Both season finales ended with metaphors for the fate of the show, and the way ABC failed to promote it properly. In the 1st season, Jeremy is obsessed with a baseball game where one team is going down to defeat. He thinks they'll have a 9th inning rally, very similar to the unknown fate of the show. A major plot point of the second season involved the sale of CSC. The eventual purchaser of the network tells Dana "Anybody who can't make money off of Sports Night should get out of the money-making business." This is an obvious jab at ABC's failure to make the show a hit.
- Casey McCall is said to be modeled after Craig Kilborn, which is emphasized in the episode "Thespis" in the allusions to Casey having been offered "Conan's late night show." Dan and Casey's professional and personal relationship is said to be modeled after Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann, who were the most well-known team on SportsCenter on ESPN.
- In the episode "Dear Louise", Natalie tells Casey there is an error on the teleprompter, and that they left out the 's' in the phrase 'bulging disk.' This actually happened on SportsCenter, and anchor Steve Levy said 'bulging dik' before correcting himself.[2]
- In the Season 2 episode "The Giants win the Pennant, the Giants win the Pennant", mention is made of Isaac missing a crucial home run in a famous baseball game because he was in the bathroom. This is a reference to Christine Lahti, the actress wife of executive producer Thomas Schlamme, who famously was in the restroom when she won a Golden Globe Award in 1998 for her role on the TV show Chicago Hope.
[edit] Cast
- Josh Charles — Dan Rydell, Co-Anchor
- Peter Krause — Casey McCall, Co-Anchor
- Felicity Huffman — Dana Whitaker, Executive Producer
- Joshua Malina — Jeremy Goodwin, Associate Producer & Research Analyst
- Sabrina Lloyd — Natalie Hurley, Senior Associate Producer
- Robert Guillaume — Isaac Jaffee, Managing Editor
[edit] Recurring guest cast
- Kayla Blake — Kim, Associate Producer
- Greg Baker — Elliot, Associate Producer
- Jeff Mooring — Dave, Director
- Ron Ostrow — Will, Technician
- Timothy Davis-Reed — Chris, Technician
- William H. Macy — Sam Donovan, CSC Ratings Advisor (season 2)
- Teri Polo — Rebecca Wells, Analyst for Continental Corp.
- Brenda Strong — Sally Sasser, Executive Producer of West Coast Update
- Robert Mailhouse — J.J., Network Advisor
- Ted McGinley — Gordon Gage (season 1)
- Jayne Brook — Abby Jacobs (season 2)
- Paula Marshall — Jenny (season 2)
- Megan Ward - Pixley (season 2)
[edit] Awards
In addition to numerous awards and nominations from various guilds, the show was nominated for eight Emmys and one Golden Globe. It also won three Emmys
- Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series - "Cut Man" (2000), Janet Ashikaga
- Outstanding Director for a Comedy Series - "Pilot" (1999), Thomas Schlamme
- Outstanding Multi-Camera Editing for a Series - "Small Town", Janet Ashikaga
[edit] Additional airings
- After its cancellation, the rerun rights to the show were briefly picked up by Comedy Central.
- In 2004, ABC1, a British offshoot of ABC, began broadcasting Season 1 of Sports Night in the United Kingdom for the first time, although the second season did not air until January 2006.
- It was also aired briefly in Latin America on Sony Entertainment Television. The Spanish version of this channel currently runs the show in Spain.
- Australia's Foxtel cable network aired Sports Night on The Comedy Channel in 2005.
- The show was aired in Turkey on DiziMax in 2006.
[edit] Episode list
[edit] Season 1
| No. | Title | Original Airdate | Writer(s) | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Pilot" | September 22, 1998 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 2 | "The Apology" | September 29, 1998 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 3 | "The Hungry and the Hunted" | October 6, 1998 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 4 | "Intellectual Property" | October 13, 1998 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 5 | "Mary Pat Shelby" | October 20, 1998 | Tracey Stern, Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 6 | "The Head Coach, Dinner and the Morning Mail" | October 27, 1998 | Matt Tarses, Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 7 | "Dear Louise" | November 10, 1998 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 8 | "Thespis" | November 17, 1998 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 9 | "The Quality of Mercy at 29K" | December 1, 1998 | Bill Wrubel [1], Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 10 | "Shoe Money Tonight" | December 8, 1998 | Aaron Sorkin | Dennie Gordon |
| 11 | "The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee" | December 15, 1998 | Aaron Sorkin, Matt Tarses, David Walpert, Bill Wrubel | Robert Berlinger |
| 12 | "Smoky" | January 5, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin | Robert Berlinger |
| 13 | "Small Town" | January 12, 1999 | Paul Redford, Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 14 | "Rebecca" | January 26, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 15 | "Dana and the Deep Blue Sea" | February 9, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 16 | "Sally" | February 23, 1999 | Rachel Sweet, Aaron Sorkin | Robert Berlinger [2] |
| 17 | "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" | March 9, 1999 | Rachel Sweet [3], Aaron Sorkin | Marc Buckland |
| 18 | "The Sword of Orion" | March 23, 1999 | David Handelman, Mark McKinney, Aaron Sorkin | Robert Berlinger |
| 19 | "Eli's Coming" | March 30, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin | Robert Berlinger |
| 20 | "Ordnance Tactics" | April 6, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin, Paul Redford (story) | Alex Graves |
| 21 | "Ten Wickets" | April 13, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin, Matt Tarses (story) | Robert Berlinger |
| 22 | "Napoleon's Battle Plan" | April 27, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin | Robert Berlinger |
| 23 | "What Kind of Day Has It Been" | May 4, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
[edit] Season 2
| No. | Title | Original Airdate | Writer(s) | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | "Special Powers" | October 5, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
| 25 | "When Something Wicked This Way Comes" | October 12, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin | Robert Berlinger |
| 26 | "Cliff Gardner" | October 19, 1999 | Aaron Sorkin | Robert Berlinger |
| 27 | "Louise Revisited" | October 26, 1999 | Miriam Kazdan (also story), Aaron Sorkin | Marc Buckland |
| 28 | "Kafelnikov" | November 2, 1999 | Matt Tarses , Bill Wrubel | Robert Berlinger |
| 29 | "Shane" | December 7, 1999 | Kevin Falls, Matt Tarses, Bill Wrubel | Robert Berlinger |
| 30 | "Kyle Whitaker's Got Two Sacks" | December 14, 1999 | Tom Szentgyorgyi, Aaron Sorkin | Dennie Gordon |
| 31 | "The Reunion" | December 21, 1999 | Kevin Falls, Aaron Sorkin | Dennie Gordon |
| 32 | "A Girl Named Pixley" | December 28, 1999 | David Walpert | Dennie Gordon |
| 33 | "The Giants Win the Pennant, the Giants Win the Pennant" | January 11, 2000 | Matt Tarses, Aaron Sorkin | Pamela Dresser |
| 34 | "The Cut Man Cometh" | January 18, 2000 | Bill Wrubel, Aaron Sorkin | Alex Graves |
| 35 | "The Sweet Smell of Air" | January 25, 2000 | David Handelman, Kevin Falls, Matt Tarses, Aaron Sorkin | Alex Graves |
| 36 | "Dana Get Your Gun" | February 1, 2000 | David Walpert | Alex Graves |
| 37 | "And the Crowd Goes Wild" | February 8, 2000 | Tom Szentgyorgyi, Aaron Sorkin | Alex Graves |
| 38 | "Celebrities" | February 29, 2000 | Aaron Sorkin | Robert Berlinger |
| 39 | "The Local Weather" | March 7, 2000 | Aaron Sorkin (also story), Pete McCabe (story) | Timothy Busfield |
| 40 | "Draft Day: Part I – It Can't Rain at Indian Wells" | March 14, 2000 | Matt Tarses, Aaron Sorkin | Bryan Gordon |
| 41 | "Draft Day: Part II – The Fall of Ryan O'Brian" | March 21, 2000 | Aaron Sorkin, Kevin Falls (story) | Danny Leiner |
| 42 | "April is the Cruelest Month" | March 28, 2000 | Bill Wrubel, Matt Tarses | Don Scardino |
| 43 | "Bells And A Siren" | April 4, 2000 | Chris Lusvardi, David Walpert, Aaron Sorkin | Don Scardino |
| 44 | "La Forza Del Destino" | May 9, 2000 | Aaron Sorkin | Timothy Busfield |
| 45 | "Quo Vadimus" | May 16, 2000 | Aaron Sorkin | Thomas Schlamme |
[edit] DVD release
On November 5, 2002, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 for the first time.
A special 10th Anniversary Edition Sports Night DVD set was released on 30 September 2008 from Shout! Factory with new bonus features.[10]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Sherri Sylvester (2000-03-16). "Sorkin still writing on 'Sports Night,' 'West Wing'", CNN. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ a b Jeff Merron (2002-11-12). "Keeping it real on 'Sports Night'", ESPN Page2. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ Joe Flint (1998-09-25), "A Laugh Riot: The TV industry keeps pumping up the canned laughter, even on shows that genuinely earn their guffaws. But the cranked-up chuckles are making some sitcom creators gag", Entertainment Weekly (451), <http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,284963,00.html>
- ^ Rob Owen (1998-09-22). "'Sports Night' one of best players in season's starting lineup", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ a b Sylvia Rubin (1999-10-05). "Malina Gets Into the Swing of `Sports Night': But critically acclaimed show may need a ratings boost to survive second season", San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ Mike Pinsky (2002-12-09). "Sports Night: The Complete Series". DVD Verdict. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ Peter Vetsch. "Actors Overlap between Sports Night & West Wing". The West Wing Continuity Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ Peter Vetsch. "Miscellaneous Overlaps between Sports Night & West Wing". The West Wing Continuity Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ Peter Vetsch. "Episode Overlaps between Sports Night & West Wing". The West Wing Continuity Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ Home Media Magazine | 'Sports Night' Redux
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Sports Night at TV.com
- Sports Night at the Internet Movie Database
- Interview with Robert Guillaume from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. This interview may not be available in some countries outside the U.S.
- Episode Guide - TKTV
- First season interview with Aaron Sorkin
- Inside.com article on the demise of Sports night
- ESPN article comparing itself to Sports Night
