"Sports Night" DVD Review: Getting What It Deserves

In a recent interview with “GQ,” Aaron Sorkin admitted that he screwed up “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”…

“I made too many mistakes. I would give anything to go back and get another bite of that apple. Basically, to use a sports analogy, you can have the best team in football playing the worst team in football. But if the best team in football throws four interceptions, they’re not going to win.”

That may sound cocky, but let’s fact it. “Studio 60” should have been brilliant.

Why? Because Aaron Sorkin had already done a brilliant show that went behind the scenes of a fictional show—the gone too soon “Sports Night”…

Unfortunately for Sorkin; his producing partner, director Thomas Schlamme; and all of us “Night” fans, ABC didn’t understand the show at all, which was obvious from the dumb promos and the addition of that hideous laugh track (which Sorkin and Schlamme are still upset about). But in ABC’s defense, the show was unlike any comedy TV had ever seen before. It was a multicamera show that looked like a single camera one. The dialogue was rapid-fire and abundant. And because it was the first time Sorkin and Schlamme worked together, the show featured the birth of the walk-and-talk.

In all honesty, “Sports Night” was a good five years ahead of its time and ABC just didn’t know what to do with it…

Thankfully, the fine folks at Shout! Factory did know what to do with it—give it the DVD release it deserves with “Sports Night: The Complete Series 10th Anniversary Edition” DVD box set.

If you never saw it, “Sports Night” goes behind the scenes of a cable sports news show called “Sports Night” (Sorkin based it on “SportsCenter.”). Casey McCall (Peter Krause) and Dan Rydell (Josh Charles) are the anchors who exhibit their quick wit both on and off the set. The show’s producer is Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman) who takes no crap from the men around her. Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd) is her right-hand woman as an associate producer. The nerdy Jeremy (Joshua Malina) is another associate producer and Isaac Jaffe (Robert Guillaume) oversees it all as the managing editor/executive producer.

The heart of the show is not the sports, but the relationships between the characters. Casey is struggling to deal with his divorce, but also with his feelings for Dana. Natalie and Jeremy pair up fairly quickly and go through quite a bit in the show’s two seasons. And though we see Dan with a few women over the course of the show, it’s his relationships with Isaac and Casey that illuminate his character the most.

The cast was brilliant, as evidenced by their success in later projects. And even in his first TV show, it was obvious how good Sorkin would be at it.

The show was not perfect by any means, however. The Casey-Dana story was incredibly frustrating (something Sorkin unwisely repeated on “Studio 60”) and as in all his projects, Sorkin could get a little preachy. But overall, it was a brilliant piece of work that deserves to be remembered.

And this set goes above and beyond in doing that…

To say the set is comprehensive would be a major understatement. In addition to all 45 episodes, there are two full discs of bonus materials. There’s a great featurette with interviews with Sorkin, Schlamme, key crew members and the principal cast (with the exception of Sabrina Lloyd) that follows the show from beginning to end. There’s also a cool featurette that compares “Sports Night” to “SportsCenter,” an interview with Sorkin and Schlamme, a closer look at the technical aspects of the walk-and-talk and an extremely comprehensive gag reel.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are also eight commentaries with key cast and crew (this time including Sabrina Lloyd), and a booklet with interesting facts about the show and a great introduction from Sorkin.

If you have the old DVD set that was released in 2002 and are trying to decide whether an upgrade is worth the money, let me settle it for you. No “Sports Night” fan should be without this set.

But even if you’ve never heard of the show, I highly encourage you to check this one out. If it was on the air now, I think it would be successful…

IF you took out that horrid laugh track…

“Sports Night: The Complete Series 10th Anniversary Edition” is available now…

Image courtesy of ShoutFactory.com