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- This article is about the American television drama series. For the BBC TV program of a similar name, see Sportsnight.
Sports Night was an American television series about a fictional sports news show (also named Sports Night) and the people who worked there. It focused 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 aired on ABC for two seasons, from 1998 to 2000.
The show starred Robert Guillaume as managing editor and executive producer Isaac Jaffe, Felicity Huffman as 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, a producer on another show on the fictional network of Sports Night and rival of Dana Whitaker.
Overview
The fictional Sports Night is a sports news program in the style of ESPN's SportsCenter. 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. Its dialogue-based humor did not play very well in situation comedy–oriented America, 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 oftentimes is portrayed as more of a dramedy 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. The volume of the laugh track faded as Season One continued and was abandoned at the beginning of Season Two. The dialogue is often delivered at a rapid-fire pace and uses a technique of exposing many aspects of communication that go beyond the words that are chosen. For example:
Jeremy: Is it about Rebecca?
Dan: It's not about Rebecca.
Jeremy: Because I can't get in the way of your relationships anymore —
Dan: (more reassuringly) It's not about Rebecca.
Jeremy: (silent pause)
Dan: (admittingly) It's about Rebecca.
The show's main focus are the relationships that occur between the characters. These including an off-again on-again flirtation and romance between Dana and Casey, the oil-and-water passion between partygirl Natalie and nerdy Jeremy, and Dan's ongoing problems with relationships in general. The character of Isaac Jaffe hovers over his staff as a benevolent but uncompromising father-figure.
Guillaume suffered a stroke midway through the first season, and this event was worked into his character and the season's story arc. The show was released on DVD in 2003.
Cast
- Josh Charles — Dan Rydell
- Peter Krause — Casey McCall
- Felicity Huffman — Dana Whitaker
- Joshua Malina — Jeremy Goodwin
- Sabrina Lloyd — Natalie Hurley
- Robert Guillaume — Isaac Jaffe
Recurring Guest Cast
- Kayla Blake — Kim
- Greg Baker — Elliot
- Jeff Mooring — Dave
- Ron Ostrow — Will
- Timothy Davis-Reed — Chris
- William H. Macy — Sam Donovan (season 2)
- Teri Polo — Rebecca Wells
- Brenda Strong — Sally Sasser
- Robert Mailhouse — J.J.
- Ted McGinley — Gordon Gage (season 1)
- Jayne Brook — Abby Jacobs (season 2)
- Paula Marshall — Jenny (season 2)
Additional airings
- After its cancellation, Sports Night was aired late at night on Comedy Central for several years. Many fans cite this as the venue in which they discovered the show for the first time.
- 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.
- Australia's Foxtel cable network aired Sports Night on The Comedy Channel in 2005.
Similarities with The West Wing
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. ***
- Most notably, creator and head writer Aaron Sorkin went on to develop The West Wing.
- 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 and Director Timothy Busfield have all appeared on The West Wing.
- Janel Moloney of The West Wing guest starred as Monica Brazelton in Season 1 episode 11.
- 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.
- The character Sam Donovan has a name very similar to a character who appeared in several episodes of The West Wing named Simon Donovan.
- Felicity Huffman guest starred in a second season episode of The West Wing as Ann Stark, the chief of staff for a Republican presidential candidate. During the episode, Ann gifts Toby with a jar of New Hampshire maple syrup (after Bartlet expresses his disgust that the maple syrup being served at the leadership breakfast is from Vermont and not his home state), a reference to a Sports Night episode in which Dana is going to Vermont for the weekend and offers to bring back maple syrup for her friends.
- Season 1 episode 23: "What Kind of Day Has It Been" is also the title of the season 1 finale of The West Wing. 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 night"; 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.
- Season 1 episode 18: The Sword of Orion was rewritten almost identically in theme as the episode of 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 the America's Cup. 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 1950's involving a White House staffer.
Episode List
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, 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 |
| 17 | "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" | March 9, 1999 | Rachel Sweet, 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 |
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 |
Trivia
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 "If you can't make money with "Sports Night," you need to get out of the money-making business." This is an obvious jab at ABC's failure to make the show a hit.
See also
- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin's new TV project, which takes place behind-the-scenes at a late-night TV comedy show.
- The West Wing (TV series), Aaron Sorkin's most successful TV project, which takes place in the West Wing of the White House and follows the staff of a fictional President of the United States.
External links
- Interview with Robert Guillaume from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.This interview may not be available in some countries outside the U.S.
- Sports Night Discussion
- Episode Guide - TKTV
- Fan Site with original scripts and transcripts
- Recaps from Television Without Pity
- Inside.com article on the demise of Sports night
- ESPN article comparing itself to Sports Night
1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States | ABC network shows | American television series | Sitcoms | Television series by Buena Vista Television
"Sports Night"