Sports Night

I never missed an episode of this show during it's original run and even recorded all but a few. I was thrilled to see this was released on DVD. I've turned a few people on to this show via my video tapes and we all love it. The reason to watch this show isn't the guffaws. You smile and snicker more then laugh out loud. But for shear entertainment you just can't beat it. The characters are real and you can relate to all of them and more importantly you care for all of them. The real genius of this show is not just the story and characters, but the dialogue. The way the actors deliver the lines, and the lines themselves are a joy to listen to and what makes this show watchable again and again. You will never get tired of listening to the verbal volleys between the actors. I can't say enough about the writing and acting of this show. Borrow it, rent it, buy it, whatever you have to to see it. Give it just a few episodes (ignore the lame laugh track on the first episode or 2) and I guarantee you'll be happily addicted to possibly the most well written (and acted) television show ever.

If you love the snappy fast paced dialogue of The West Wing then understand Sorkin got his feet wet with this light hearted comedy about an all sports station competing with ESPN and FOX Sports.

I for one found this show in mid flight when ABC had it and was sorry to see it canceled. I was also gratified many tv critics complained that intelligent and fast paced humor could not survive the rating wars. It was just recently on Comedy Central and I would set my VCR to record it at 3:30 am each night (morning). I looked forward to the twenty plus minutes a day to watch it (I skipped commercials!). I found the show went by far quicker than the regular sit-coms on tv now and that told me one thing...this was a well done show with good performances from some really excellent actors. For those that did not like the show...have you really taken stock of the pool of talent this show had?

Peter Krause is now a bedrock performer on HBO's Six Feet Under. Robert Guillaume, whom we all got to love as Benson from the original "take it to edge" comedy SOAP and then the Benson spin off is terrific. Integrating his real life stroke into the fabric of a show's Managing Director's stroke was brilliant. Josh Charles did a good job, Sabrina Lloyd will be heard from, and we discovered a fine young actor in Joshua Molina who has gone on to play good roles in The American President and has now emerged as a character that will endure in The West Wing. Felicity Huffman also does an outstanding job as Dana, the show's producer.

For you naysayers take a look at the guests on this show. Can one quibble with William H. Macy, Ted McGinley, Terri Polo, and Lisa Edelstein? This show had sass, verve, energy, and dealt with some very real subjects such as the one where Natalie (Lloyd) is accosted in the locker room of a pro football team by one of it's star players. Does the name Lisa Olson ring a bell? Or how about the one where the star running back (African-American) at a Tenn. college refuses to play so long as the school flies the Confederate flag. Was this not a current and highly charged issue?

I cannot tell people that were not fans of the show what to like. What I can say is if you like very fast wit, quick "you gotta be on your toes or you might miss the next sarcastic or sardonic line" dialogue, or if you just want to see 1/2 hour go by in a flash then see this show when (if) it comes back on. My advice is tape it if it shows again at the 3ish in the morning time slot OR it is now on DVD (the entire two seasons.

TV Guide voted it 'The Best Show You're Not Watching' ('If they're not watching it, how do they know?' demanded Peter Krause, accepting the award.)

Sports Night was West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin's first venture into television. Its focus was a fictitious sports show, the struggling 'Sports Night' on cable channel CFC ('A third-rate show on a fourth-rate network'), and the dramas lived out behind the scenes by the characters: Dan Rydell (Josh Charles, in one of the most marvelously complex and multi-faceted performances ever to grace the small screen) and Casey McCall (Peter Krause, now better known as Nate in Six Feet Under), the two handsome, charming, talented and hopelessly neurotic anchors; the producer, Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman), confident in her professional abilities but insecure in her personal life; associate producers Jeremy Goodwin (Joshua Malina, now to be seen in Sorkin's other show), geek extraordinary, and his girlfriend, the forceful, opinionated Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd); and, overseeing it all with quiet dignity, veteran journalist, now managing editor, Isaac Jaffee (Robert Guillaume, known to a generation of viewers as 'Benson', whose dry delivery makes his every utterance a joy, and whose mere presence lends the show gravitas). A critical success but a ratings failure, it lasted for a scant two seasons comprising 45 half-hour episodes (less commercials and credits, more like 22 minutes apiece). That was enough to gain it a small but dedicated audience, and a fanbase whose numbers are still growing. The release of this DVD boxed set has helped to bring Sports Night, never to date aired on UK TV, to a new and appreciative audience.

Some aspects of the show, which ran from September 1998 to May 2000, haven't aged well – the frequent establishing shots of the New York skyline dominated by the twin towers of the World Trade Centre send a jolt through the system every time, whilst a passing reference to the Spice Girls seems laughably dated. But the dialogue (much of which Sorkin recycled for use in The West Wing) is as fresh and vibrant as the day it was penned, the story lines as compelling, the characters as real, human, endearing and, frequently, maddening, as ever seen on TV – and a great deal more so than most. The performances throughout are assured and compelling, the timing split-second, the direction flawless; and Sorkin's trademark walk-and-talk dialogue and long tracking shots through a standing set will be instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with his work.

Two criticisms: season one is plagued by a laugh track, superimposed (presumably in a fit of madness) by the US network; and there are no DVD extras, only the 45 episodes. But, really, that should be enough. Wanting more is simply greedy. But, of course, I do want more. And so does everyone else who loved this show.

Too bad we can't rate TV shows on IMDB, eh? I wonder what this one would get; I'm sure it would be very high.

Like practically everyone else, it seems, I ran across SN after it had been canceled and was in reruns on cable. It took about 15 seconds to fascinate me, because it was obviously a show about a sports show that somehow wasn't about sports (which naturally made me wonder what it _was_ about), and because the writing was so excellent. Oh, and the acting was good too ;-).

Given all the comments already posted, there seems to be nothing left to say about this program so I'll close by ranking it alongside Babylon 5 and Northern Exposure as one of my all-time favorite shows ever aired on television (the similarities to NE are possibly worth exploring). Really enjoyable stuff; terrible that it only lasted such a short time.

You were wrong. It's 20 years later. And it's still wrong.

Please quit the TV business, because you're awful at it.

Dickhead...