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Sports Night: Season One
R0 - America - Shout! Factory Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (29th May 2010). |
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The Show
 Although Aaron Sorkin is arguably best known for his work on “The West Wing” (1999-2006) – which was one of the best dramas to ever air on broadcast television in this writer's opinion – it’s always been his two much less successful, less popular (but still critically praised) projects that bookend that presidential series that have interested me. I’m a huge fan of Sorkin’s most recent television show, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (2006-2007). While it never caught on and was subsequently cancelled at the end of it’s first season, although luckily not before a satisfying finale could be written, I still think that it was one of the smartest things to ever hit the airwaves. I (and the six other people who watched the show during it’s original run) have the DVD boxset to rewatch, which I do while weeping, as I think of what could have been (P.S. Warner, get working on the Blu-rays of both “The West Wing” and “Studio 60”). Likewise, thanks to Shout! Factory fans of Sorkin’s first television show, the titular “Sports Night”, can revisit the groundbreaking, often fantastic series for years to come, wondering what would have been had ABC promoted it better, or been satisfied with the meager but loyal fan base the show gathered in it’s quick two seasons. (For those slow on the uptake – neither of those things happened; the show died when Sorkin moved on to the better-received “The West Wing.”) It’s long since been off the airwaves – passing its 10th Anniversary in 2008 – but the series is still as good as ever in my opinion, and while the first season does have a few (relatively minor) flaws, it’s definitely one of the best shows of the 90's. Probably best described as a half-hour drama (it’s part sitcom, but mostly all Sorkin – yes, the man’s basically his own genre), “Sports Night” is really unlike most anything else ever put on TV. Is it a comedy? Sort of, in the same way that “Studio 60” – and parts of “The West Wing” – are. That’s to say, the humor isn’t in your face, and is of the more subtle, dry sensibility. Typical of Sorkin’s work, the show deals with some dreadfully serious subject matter too – like racial tensions in the American South (“The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee”), the sexual assault of a main character (“Mary Pat Shelby”), the stroke of another and affair after affair – so it’s largely seated in the drama hemisphere. But, no matter, “Sports Night” is almost always upbeat and, above all else natural and well reasoned, genre distinctions be damned. As is the case with all of his shows, Sorkin gives us a candid, seemingly realistic peek behind-the-scenes of a world we only have a vague understanding of. With “The West Wing” we saw the inside of the White House, “Studio 60” gave us a rundown of "SNL" (1975-Present) and “Sports Night” looks to the world of sports news and ESPN. His work is brilliant because his characters are easy to understand, connect with, and relate to. This is true because, while the show exists in a world that is alien to most everyone (except those who are actively involved in it), he makes it all seem scarily familiar. Sorkin does this by creating a family dynamic between the main cast of characters, which makes us, the viewers, more at ease and able to dive head first into the action. The hosts of “Sports Night” (the show within the show), Dan Rydell (Josh Charles) and a Craig Kilborn-esque Casey McCall (Peter Krause) are the troublesome brothers of the family. The actors have great chemistry – their relationship supposedly modeled after iconic “Sport Center” duo Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann – and that goes a long way in making “Sports Night” what it is. Krause’s raw talent shines (yes, I’m pretty much a fan boy of Nathaniel Fisher Jr., go figure) and he and Charles really have what seems to be a genuine friendship, which translates beautifully on screen. Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman), the show’s executive producer, is the doting, but stern mother, again this part is played perfectly by Huffman. She matches the right balance needed for her character to be, as Sorkin intended, professionally sound, but personally a mess. Managing Editor Isaac Jaffe (played by seasoned veteran Robert Guillaume) takes the role of the broods generous but uncompromising father. Natalie (Sabrina Lloyd), one of the shows sweetly insane producers, who’s directly under Dana, is best thought of as the younger Whitaker sister. And newcomer Jeremy (Josh Malina) joins the “Sports Night” family as an associate producer in the "Pilot" episode, serving as both an “in” for the viewer, as well as providing some mild comic relief do to his extreme nerdiness. Of course, these roles that the characters fill in this “family” are not literal (thank god, as you’ll see that would make some the relationships and plots far too odd) but, on the whole, the comparison works on a base level. Dana and Casey have an on-again-off-again, and sort of on again relationship – complicated by Casey’s recent divorce, Dana’s new boyfriend Gordon (Ted McGinley) and their fifteen year history that goes back to before either was in the business. They closely resemble Matt and Harriet’s volatile coupling from “Studio 60.” Natalie and Jeremy also play with fire as they nervously navigate through a new relationship some episodes in, carrying on, bumpily to the season finale. And then there’s Dan, the odd man out who doesn’t have an office romance – until he meets Rebecca (Teri Polo), a Network bean counter that he likes – a lot. Surrounding all of this is Sorkin’s knack for writing hard-hitting dialogue and complex, interwoven storylines. He wrote, or co-wrote, almost every episode in the show's first season, often taking real life experience and wrapping it into the series – even going as far as writing actor Robert Guillaume’s stroke, which he suffered half-way though season one, into the show’s plot, giving Isaac one too. Smart and instinctual, Sorkin’s stories and distinct narrative voice are just more pieces of the puzzle that helped make “Sports Night” so unique. The same goes for Thomas Schlamme’s direction too (particularly in the "Pilot" episode). Schlamme’s rightful use of extensive steadicam, mated with Sorkin’s rapid-fire dialogue popularized (but didn’t create) what has been coined “the walk and talk”, a technique later perfected and used to borderline excess in both “The West Wing” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” Still, despite it’s strong points, of which there are many, “Sports Night” is not without fault. It takes (like many a new show) the first 8 or so episodes for most of the cast, characters, settings, and plot developments to settle in and the road to finding its identity is a particularly rough one. The most jarring inconsistency in the show's short time it takes to find its voice is the presence of an artificial laugh track. Sorkin fought executives tooth and nail to make his show more serious, and insisted that the show be laugh-track free (a smart move), but network heads believed that because the show was classified as a sitcom and was slotted in a 30-minute window, that audiences wouldn’t accept “Sports Night” without one of the dreaded things. Eventually Sorkin won out, as his stories became less “ha ha” funny, and by the end of the first season, the volume of the laugh track steadily decreasing as the show went on, the canned laughter was near dead – and would not return in season two. But, watching the series back the presence is jarring and kind of off putting, especially when it seemingly makes a return from a welcomed hiatus. Episodes will be laugh track free for twenty-one-fifty-five of the twenty-two scripted minutes, and towards the end of the season, whole episodes will not feature a single nanosecond of that awful laughter, and then another episode will be free, you get complacent, and then like a swift kick to the groin, the damn laughter returns for a few painful seconds, only to recede into the shadows, waiting. Lurking. Also, a few of the episodes scream out as new-viewer baiting: “Dear Louise” and “How Are Things in Gloca Morra”, both of which are centered on a letter that Jeremy is writing to his deaf sister. These episodes serve only as exercises in unnecessary exposition – needlessly reintroducing characters and recapping plot points from previous episodes. But those episodes are the odd man out, the exception rather than the rule. And in the second season, with the laugh track gone and the letter writing kept to a minimum, the series would only improve, going on to deliver one of the best final seasons in TV history. In short: I adore this show, and recommend it to anyone. All 23 episodes from “Sports Night’s” first season are included on three discs, including: - "Pilot" - "The Apology" - "The Hungry and the Hunted" - "Intellectual Property" - "Mary Pat Shelby" - "The Head Coach, Dinner and the Morning Mail" - "Dear Louise" - "Thespis" - "The Quality of Mercy at 29K" - "Shoe Money Tonight" - "The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee" - "Smoky" - "Small Town" - "Rebecca" - "Dana and the Deep Blue Sea" - "Sally" - "How Are Things in Gloca Morra?" - "The Sword of Orion" - "Eli’s Coming" - "Ordnance Tactics" - "Ten Wickets" - "Napoleon’s Battle Plan" - "What Kind of a Day Has it Been?"
Video
It appears that “Sports Night: Season One” reuses the same acceptable but unspectacular 1.33:1 full frame transfers found on the "10th Anniversary Complete Series" set released a few years ago. Produced at a time when broadcast TV was in transition, on it’s way back to 35mm originated photography, and swinging away from NTSC video and 16mm film (and tape-based editing), “Sports Night” looks good but not great. Sharper and less cheap looking than many of it’s contemporaries but not fully modern, missing out on the HDTV boom by a few years, this DVD rendering makes good use of the source (which in itself is slightly flawed), with adequate colors, appropriate detail, decent grain retention, minimal noise and very few instances of print damage. Much like the series itself, the video quality improves as the season soldiers on – things start a little bumpy with darker, more drab highlights, moving towards a much brighter, sharper and more colorful tone, especially in regards to Dan and Casey’s new casts. Still, this isn’t the clearest, most impressive offering of a catalog TV shows I’ve ever seen. “Sports Night: Season One” looks good for something nearing its 15th birthday, but it just can’t compete with more modern, 16x9 HD-sourced productions.
Audio
A bog-standard English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track is included, which remains faithful to the show’s origins. Dialogue is clear and precise. A few of the episodes do play at a louder volume than the rest but it was hardly bothersome – just noticeable. My only complaint is the lack of a laugh-track free option. First, I hate laugh tracks. Second, for consistencies sake, as the artificial laughter was canned at the insistence of Sorkin in the following (final) season, it would only have made for a more cohesive experience. Oh, well. No subtitles are included.
Extras
When Shout! reissued the series in it’s aforementioned "10th Anniversary" set in 2008, true to their core, the distributor produced a slew of all-new extras including cast and crew commentaries on select episodes, retrospective featurettes and even searched through the archives for a few nonsensical bookends in the form of a gag reel and a few of the original ABC promos. All of that material is found again here on the season one standalone set. A further look at the extras, spread across all four discs, reveals: DISC ONE: A rapid-fire audio commentary on the “Pilot” with creator/writer/executive producer Aaron Sorkin and executive producer/episode director Thomas Schlamme is included. The two offer a concise, informative discussion on the origins of the series, reveal insider stories and look back at where it all started for them. The duo talk for the entirety of the 22-minute runtime, never breaking pace; it’s obvious that if they weren’t given a time constraint that they could keep up their dialogue for much longer. Pre-menu bonus trailers are for: - “Freaks and Geeks – The DVD Boxset.” 1 minute 15 seconds. - Coming Soon… “Spin City: Season One.” 10 seconds. DISC TWO: A trio of audio commentaries resides on the second disc. A wide range of participants, including actors, directors and writers talk about the series and offer plenty of information in an easygoing manner. The first audio commentary is on “The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee” with actors Josh Charles, Peter Krause, Sabrina Lloyd and episode director Robert Berlinger. Secondly we've got the audio commentary on the episode “Small Town” with series editor Janet Ashikaga. Finally on this disc is the audio commentary on the episode “Sally” with actors Greg Baker, Karla Blake, Timothy Davis-Reed and Ron Ostrow. DISC THREE: Peter Krause and Robert Berlinger return to talk over “Eli’s Coming” on the last audio commentary in the set. This is another good discussion and there are plenty of meaty talk-points, delivered in an always-approachable tone. DISC FOUR: This platter does pure supplement duty. Here you’ll find Shout! Factory’s “new” video-based bonus material, all presented in 1.33:1 full frame of varying quality (the gag reel looks pretty ropey, everything else is comparable to the series itself). “The Show” (4x3) is a retrospective featurette running for 33 minutes 47 seconds with, surprisingly, a large majority of the shows original cast and crew. Topics range from the genesis of the program to the final episode of the first season. Comments are to be had from Aaron Sorkin, Thomas Schlamme, Robert Berlinger, Janet Ashikaga, Josh Charles, Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, Josh Malina, and Robert Guillaume. In all, a worthy featurette that, when combined with the rest of the supplemental material, proves to be an effective, must-see look back on season one. “Face-Off: ESPN’s ‘Sports Center’ vs. CSC ‘Sports Night’” (4x3) is another featurette running at 21 minutes 3 seconds. Less reflective but in many ways more interesting, this shorter piece looks at the ins and outs of “Sports Night’s” realistic depiction of network TV and sports news. Interviewees include both “Sports Night” and “Sports Center” alums. Creator Aaron Sorkin, executive producer/director Thomas Schlamme, executive producer/director Robert Berlinger, director of photography Peter Smokler, and actors Josh Charles, Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, Josh Malina, and Robert Guillaume make up the SN crew. From ESPN, we get thoughts from several “SportsCenter” (1979-Present) staffers including producers Glenn Jacobs, Elizabeth Sosbee and Michael Shiffman, anchors Jay Harris and Josh Elliott and researcher David Rose. A gag reel (4x3) runs for 11 minutes 43 seconds and overstays it’s welcome by about 8 minutes, but the overlong runtime does push the combined tally of the video-based supplements over an hour in length, which is pretty impressive for a failed TV show that was abandoned by it’s creator, had terrible ratings and is too old to be freshly remembered but not old enough to be considered a classic (and thus in constant reruns). According to a brief intro, this reel was produced for the first season wrap-party and is sourced from a VHS tape from one of the crew’s own collection, which accounts for the crummy, low-quality image and sound. Finally, four of the original promos from ABC's 1998-1999 season for “Sports Night” are included, totaling 1 minute 37 seconds collectively.
Packaging
This “Season One” set herein reviewed marks the 3rd time that “Sports Night” has been released on DVD. First, in 2002, ABC dumped out a 6-disc "complete series" set that was barren, aside from the episodes themselves. In 2008 Shout! Factory released a comprehensive “10th Anniversary Edition” of the complete series, expanding the number of discs to a respectable 8 platters with loads of new extras. This current “season one” release is identical to the first 4 discs in the “10th Anniversary Edition”, only with irrefutably more hideous cover artwork. The 4-disc set comes housed in a cardboard outer box that contains two smaller slim-pak cases, each holding two DVD's. Unfortunately the impressive 36-page booklet that was packed in with the "10th Anniversary" set, full of essays, production info and photos is no where to be found. I was hoping that a “new” booklet (with the exact same information as the original) running half the length, with only season one content, would have been included, but alas no. Presumably, when season two is released on it’s own, will also be booklet-less, which is all the more reason to spring for the 8-disc complete series set.
Overall
An underrated show, “Sports Night” ended before its time, but even in it’s short run, proved to be one of the best shows of the 1990's. This new season one set is great in theory; at an MSRP half that of the complete series boxset, those wishing to add only one of the seasons to their collection or taking their time (and buying the show in cheaper increments) finally have an option. But, as many retailers frequently discount the slightly superior "10th Anniversary" set to a price almost equal to what the first season is going for, it seems a bit flawed in practice. I totally recommend the show; just wait for the price to come down a bit (or spend the few extra dollars and spring for the complete series).
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