Watching Studio60

We’re taking a second look at “Thespis,” the eighth episode of Sports Night. Following up on the review, here’s a recap of the episode. Still to come: memorable lines from the episode.

As with most episodes so far, this one begins with the beginning of a show. Unlike most episodes so far, this one has a turkey thawing in the light grid. Dana doesn’t want to take any crap from her mother over an improperly cooked bird, and somehow this connects to seeing how long one will take to thaw in the lighting system of a TV studio. You’d think that would be enough trouble for one night’s show. But you’d be wrong.

For one thing, Isaac is distracted by the fact that his wife, who has gone to visit their very pregnant daughter, and with whom he had a fight that morning before her departure, hasn’t called him yet. Dan is distracted that Casey doesn’t know the significance of the current date, and then everybody’s distracted when Casey asks Jeremy what the date means and Mr. Trivia tells them about Thespis, the first man to speak words on a stage as an actor and now a mischievous ghost who wreaks havoc on this day.

That’s not the day Dan was thinking of, and now he doesn’t want to talk about it, but that doesn’t stop Casey from trying during commercial breaks. Dana’s not afraid of Thespis, until he sends her falling to the floor. Then she takes it as a challenge to get through the first half of the show without error. Isaac’s babbling about how his son-in-law hasn’t rehearsed the route to the hospital yet, then Kim comes to his rescue with the news that his wife is on the phone.

After some nagging from Casey, Dan finally reveals that today is the anniversary of their first show together — not Sports Night, but the show they did before that. And then Casey goes from nagging to needling, acting gruff about the need to acknowledge the day and accusing Dan of imitating his ex-wife. In the control room, Jeremy is continuing to regale his co-workers and an adoring Natalie with facts about Thespis and pretty much any mythological figure that gets thrown at him. Isaac blows through saying he needs the next plane to San Francisco, and since Thespis seems to be causing only minor havoc, Dana leaves the show in Natalie’s hands and goes after Isaac to find out what happened.

Isaac tells her that his daughter has been rushed to the hospital for an emergency C-section. The medical problem she’s having is similar to one Dana’s sister-in-law had, and although they lost the baby, her sister-in-law was fine. That’s cold comfort to Isaac, who seems near tears as Dana rushes back to the show. It’s good that she’s back, though, because Thespis is feeling his oats now. Cues have been blown, screens have been wrong, and Casey has been left to recite the St. Crispin’s Day speech just to fill time. Plus, water is dripping on the anchor desk. Dana yells for everyone to get their heads in the game, she’s not going to let a 3,000-year-old Greek ghost screw up her show, nothing screws up her show unless she does it … which, of course, is when the frozen turkey plummets down from the light grid onto the anchor desk.

And still, the show limps along. During a break, Dan recalls that something was wrong with Casey back on that first show day five years back, and realizes that it was the fact that he lost the chance to do “Conan’s show.” Casey insists he was never seriously considered, and Dan insists he was; Dan insists getting stuck doing a show in Dallas was a come-down, and Casey insists it wasn’t — though it’s clear that the choice made for trouble between him and ex-wife Lisa. With a break and then a segment by Dan ahead, Casey stalks off to stretch his legs.

He winds up in Isaac’s office, where the boss is still beating himself up over his argument with Esther over the fact that he wasn’t showing enough enthusiasm about the baby, whining he was too young to be a Grandpa. Now, of course, that all seems like a terrible thing to have said. Casey talks about his fight with Dan, which is really about a fight he had with Lisa five years ago, and Isaac advises him to tell the truth. Showing the people you care about what you feel costs you only a little, he says, especially for what you get in return. Dana, in turn, is beating herself up about the humiliation she’s sure to suffer at the hands of her mother this Thanksgiving, and the lesson in humility she’s being given by Thespis right now, especially after the transmission goes out, leaving the show in a wave of static. Jeremy can’t do much about that, but he does advise her to appreciate her family and not stress so much about mom’s disapproval.

With more free time now that the transmission’s out, Casey tells Dan that he was offered Conan’s show, and he passed on it to work with Dan, who was not a consolation prize. Dan’s amazed that Casey didn’t believe he could do Conan’s show, and is angry at Lisa for undercutting his confidence. Casey would have done a great job, Dan assures him. And he’s good on this show, too. Things keep looking up when Isaac comes in with cigars and news of his new grandson, with mother and child doing just fine. The show comes back on, too, and Elliot delivers the good news that Kathy Lee Gifford has had a humiliating fall into a bowl of tapioca somewhere across town — Thespis has left the building! And so, now, do we.

Sports Night, ABC, Thespis, recap