Sports Night

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This article is about the American television series. For the BBC sports program, see Sportsnight.
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.

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 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 episode "Cliff Gardner", J.J. and two other network executives critique the material written by Dan and Casey, finding it to be too smart for the average viewer. It has been speculated (not confirmed) that the conversation was adapted from a conversation Sorkin had with ABC network executives regarding the show's material.
  • 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 in 1998 for her role on the TV show Chicago Hope

[edit] Cast

[edit] Recurring guest cast

[edit] Awards

Sports Night poster (1998) with a reference to Charlie's Angels
Sports Night poster (1998) with a reference to Charlie's Angels

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] Similarities to The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

 This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (April 2008)

The West Wing emulated Sports Night in many ways, including many of the same cast and crew members. The shows even share many similar storylines in the years when Aaron Sorkin acted as head writer. [7] [8] [9]

  • Both the dialogue style and the steadicam tracking shots used in Sports Night are also used in The West Wing.
  • Joshua Malina starred on The West Wing as White House staffer Will Bailey.
  • Clark Gregg, Teri Polo, Timothy Davis-Reed, Ted McGinley, Nina Siemaszko, Felicity Huffman, Ron Ostrow and actor/director Timothy Busfield have all appeared on The West Wing.
  • Janel Moloney guest starred as Monica Brazelton, a wardrobe assistant, in Season 1's "The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee". Sorkin was so impressed with her performance[10] that he brought her in to audition for The West Wing, where she became a series regular playing Donna Moss.
  • Lisa Edelstein guest starred in two episodes of Sports Night as fill-in anchor Bobbi Bernstein. In the first episode, she was depicted as slightly deranged for thinking that she and Dan had had an affair. In the second appearance, it is revealed that Dan is the one who is wrong and had forgotten her. She also figured prominently in the first season of The West Wing as a prostitute that Sam Seaborn accidentally slept with.
  • Cress Williams, Nadia Dajani, John de Lancie and Alanna Ubach have all guest starred on both shows.
  • Ross Deane and Stuart Goetz worked in the sound departments of both shows.
  • Alex Graves has worked as director on episodes of both shows.
  • Paul Redford has worked as writer for Sports Night and is credited as being part of "miscellaneous crew" on both shows
  • W.G. Snuffy Walden acted as composer for the score of both shows.
  • Kayla Blake, who played associate producer Kim on the show has also been credited as Elsie Sniffen. Former The Wonder Years actress Danica McKellar played the role of Elsie Snuffin (the sister of Joshua Malina's character) in several The West Wing episodes.
  • Felicity Huffman guest starred in a second season episode of The West Wing as Ann Stark, the chief of staff for the Republican Congressional Leadership (in the episode "The Leadership Breakfast"). During the episode, Ann presents Toby Ziegler with a jar of New Hampshire maple syrup (after President Bartlet expresses his disgust that the maple syrup being served at the leadership breakfast is from Vermont and not his home state). This is a reference to a Sports Night episode ("Intellectual Property") in which Dana is going to Vermont for the weekend and offers to bring back maple syrup for her friends.
  • Sorkin reused many names of characters and incidental names from Sports Night in The West Wing. For example, in the "Intellectual Property" episode of Sports Night, one character is named Mallory (the name of Leo McGarry's daughter in The West Wing') and the name of one athlete mentioned in a meeting is Landingham (the name of President Bartlet's secretary in the first two seasons of The West Wing is Delores Landingham). A couple of episodes in the first season mention a college football coach named Rostenkowski; The West Wing mentions a congressman with the same name.
  • Season 1 episode 23: "What Kind of Day Has It Been" is also the title of the season 1 finale of The West Wing and the series finale of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Also in this episode, Casey tells his son that "the only thing you have to do to make me and your mom happy is to come home at the end of the day"; a line President Bartlet paraphrases to his daughter Ellie (played by Nina Siemaszko) in The West Wing. Nina Siemaszko also guest-stars in this episode. Also Jeremy quotes from The Lion in Winter which is latter mirrored in a conversation between Toby and the President in H.Con 172
  • The plot of Season 1 episode 18: The Sword of Orion was similar to that of the episode of The West Wing entitled Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail in season 2. In the Sports Night episode, Jeremy's father and mother are getting divorced after the revelation by his father that he has been having an affair for Jeremy's whole life. Jeremy takes it hard and becomes fixated on a specific thing at work: a boating disappearance during a sailboat race in Bermuda. In The West Wing episode, Sam's dad reveals exactly the same thing, Sam takes it hard and becomes fixated on finding out the truth about an espionage case in the 1950s involving a White House staffer.
  • The episode "Thespis" and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip's last several episodes all involved a baby whose life was in danger, both of which resulted in a healthy 6 pound, 8 ounce baby.
  • The episode named "Cliff Gardner" uses two names of characters later on The West Wing namely Clifford "Cliff" Calley and Amy Gardner.

[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 will be released on 30 September 2008 from Shout! Factory with new bonus features.[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Sherri Sylvester. "Sorkin still writing on 'Sports Night,' 'West Wing'", CNN, 2000-03-16. Retrieved on 2007-06-14. 
  2. ^ a b Jeff Merron. "Keeping it real on 'Sports Night'", ESPN Page2, 2002-11-12. Retrieved on 2007-06-14. 
  3. ^ 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 (no. 451), <http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,284963,00.html> 
  4. ^ Rob Owen. "'Sports Night' one of best players in season's starting lineup", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1998-09-22. Retrieved on 2007-06-14. 
  5. ^ a b Sylvia Rubin. "Malina Gets Into the Swing of `Sports Night': But critically acclaimed show may need a ratings boost to survive second season", San Francisco Chronicle, 1999-10-05. Retrieved on 2007-06-14. 
  6. ^ Mike Pinsky (2002-12-09). Sports Night: The Complete Series. DVD Verdict. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
  7. ^ Peter Vetsch. Actors Overlap between Sports Night & West Wing. The West Wing Continuity Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
  8. ^ Peter Vetsch. Miscellaneous Overlaps between Sports Night & West Wing. The West Wing Continuity Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
  9. ^ Peter Vetsch. Episode Overlaps between Sports Night & West Wing. The West Wing Continuity Guide. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
  10. ^ (2002-01-08) The West Wing: The Official Companion. Pocket Books, 188. ISBN 0743437403.  "Janel Moloney came to us via Sports Night. She did an episode of Sports Night in the first season and just parked it in the bleachers with one scene that really knocked me out."
  11. ^ http://www.homemediamagazine.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?sec_id=2&&article_ID=12771

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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