Watching Studio60

I watched “The Apology,” the second episode of Sports Night, again last night, and thought it did a great job in developing the characters introduced in the pilot. Isaac is established as loving his staff but taking no guff. Jeremy is so involved with sports he can’t be objective, and Natalie is so involved with Jeremy that she can’t be, either. Dana’s got a crush on Casey, who is uncool. And Dan enjoys bantering with his co-workers on completely random subjects, with this week’s aerobics stalker replacing last week’s New York renaissance. This week, of course, Dan got himself into trouble by talking in favor of legalizing marijuana in an Esquire interview. It didn’t matter that the interviewer missed the point that he thought it should be a healthcare issue and not a criminal issue; the network still wants an apology and lays down all kinds of threats to get it, good-lawyer-bad-lawyer style.

The apology that Dan eventually delivers on air — to his younger brother, who died in a car accident as a teen because he was copying his big brother and getting high — is moving, and yet … am I the only person who thought that there, at the end, when Casey sort of quietly leaned over to Dan, he was going to say something like, “You don’t have a brother.” The apology seemed too “Lifetime Movie of the Week” to be for real on a comedy show and I kind of thought it might be made up, but this show did mix serious themes in with the silly and I guess this was the start of it. At any rate, Casey’s easing the discussion back to his lack of coolness once again was a pretty nice little moment.

What did you think about this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sports Night, ABC, The Apology, review

Our Sports Night marathon continues tonight with Episode 2, “The Apology,” which originally aired on September 29, 1998.

The synopsis, according to the DVD box: “A breaking magazine interview reveals Dan’s support for the legalization of marijuana, and network top dogs look for an on-air apology. Natalie outs her feelings for Jeremy, who struggles to get a highlight piece just right.”

We will be watching these, of course, on our old DVD sets, of the sort I photographed for these blog entries. That was the set that came out in 2002, a few years after the show’s demise, for fans who were so desperate to be able to visit their Sports Night friends agan that they were willing to pay considerable money for the episodes and nothing but.

For years, that’s been all that’s available — but it looks like there may be a 10th anniversary set in the offing with the extras we should have had before. And also with a lack of technical glitches, which apparently were common in those early sets, though I always just blamed mine on my DVD player.

It will be interesting to see what they come up with in the way of extras if this set actually materializes. I’d hope for at least an Aaron Sorkin commentary on some episodes, and it would be great to get the cast together again for either commentary or appreciation. What would like to see in those extras? And will you shell out for another set if you’ve got one already? Share in the comments.

As a follow-up to the recap, here are some memorable lines from the Sports Night pilot. Did I miss your favorites? Share them in the comments.

Dan: When you get right down to it, what I’m saying is this, Case — I think you should start getting out of your house. Just out of your house.
Casey: I am out of my house. I’ve been out of my house for six months. I don’t live at my house.

Natalie: CASEY, DID YOU GET THE CHANGE ON ARROWHEAD AND DENVER?
Casey: Natalie, if you shout into a microphone when I’m wearing an earpiece, it poses the question, is there a decibel level at which the human head will just, you know, explode?
Isaac: Is he in a better mood than he was this morning, or is this going to be another crappy show?
Dana: Hey, Casey, Isaac wants to know if you’re in a better mood –
Casey: Shut up.
Dana: Pretty crappy, yeah.

Dan: Why are we quoting high-level sources inside the Swiss Olympic Committee on Helsinki’s bid for the 2010 Olympics?
Dana: What’s the problem?
Dan: Helsinki’s in Finland.
Dana: Really?
Dan: Yeah. Don’t worry, I got it.
Dana: Are you sure?
Dan: Am I sure that Helsinki’s in Finland? Yeah. I’m quite sure.
Will: I thought it was in Sweden.
Chris: It says “unnamed Swiss Olympic officials.”
Natalie: Graphics, which is it, Sweden or Switzerland?
Casey: It’s in Finland!
Natalie: Elliot, get something up on the Net.
Elliot: What do you need?
Natalie: We think Helsinki might be in Finland.
Dan: Yeah, we think there’s a pretty good chance.

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