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Sports Night, an Emmy award-winning television show, entertained audiences
for two seasons before being cancelled because it didn’t have a big audience and was dropped for low ratings. However, the show had a stellar cast including
Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, and Robert Guillaume and was written and
created by Aaron Sorkin, the driving force behind The West Wing. This
probably explains why a television show that was only on for two seasons made
it to DVD.
The premise for the show is that Sports Night is a late-night sports
highlight show, like ESPN’s SportsCenter, on a new cable network. The
backdrop is the show, but the focus is on the staff. The staff tries their
best to gain viewers while the network tries to justify the expense of the
show. But it is the interaction of the main ensemble cast that makes this
show special. There are some serious moments, and there are some funny
moments. But, mostly, there’s a story line — and each of the characters has a
history. This isn’t usually the case with sitcoms. Situation comedies, as
their name implies, revolve around a particular event. Sports Night has a
flow — much like its hour long drama counterparts. You can watch a single
episode and enjoy the situation, but watching a few in one sitting reveals a
mosaic, with connecting plotlines and consistent behaviors among the
characters.
I watched this show from the very beginning and discovered after viewing the
DVD that I had seen every episode when it was originally aired. I think
this was the first show that I couldn’t wait to see. The writing is
excellent, and the stories are compelling because they’re realistic. As I
said before, each of the characters has a history, and none of the situations
seemed contrived to elicit a laugh. There’s a funny subplot in each
episode, but I tuned in to see what was going to happen with the story.
One thing to watch for while watching the show is the pictures of the New
York skyline, including the World Trade Center. This may be disturbing to
some viewers, given what happened on September 11, 2001. I’ve never been to
New York City and was impressed by just how much taller the World Trade
Center was compared to other buildings on the New York city skyline.
This critically acclaimed “dramedy” is a program I will always be able to enjoy — because I own the DVD version.
