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• Sports Night Season One

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I suck at watching television. I’m absolutely wretched at keeping my attention on 20 episodes of a TV show before I move onto something else. This is partly the reason why Nick and I created this column; so we’d have an excuse to focus on shows that we want to watch, but have never had the enthusiasm to. Yes, we’re lazy. So that’s why instead of finishing up Twin Peaks with my latest entry, I have shifted over to Aaron Sorkin’s first television series, the sitcom Sports Night.

Aaron Sorkin is one of those writers where you can watch one minute of something he wrote and you will immediately know that it is his work. The quick delivery, the walk-and-talk and the politically left-leaning characters can be seen in everything Sorkin has ever produced. So of course, this show isn’t going to be suited for everyone. Though Sports Night is much less reliant on (at times, heavy-handed) political messages then The West Wing, they still make a few appearances. The first season of Sports Night certainly feels as if Sorkin was a novice at television writing at the time, but the show is still worth watching.

Sports Night is a nightly newscast much like Sportscenter that is anchored by Casey McCall and Dan Rydell. Casey is recently divorced and Dan is Casey’s best friend attempting to urge him into getting back to dating. There is clearly sexual chemistry between Casey and the show’s executive producer, Dana Whitaker, but the two refuse to face each other about it. There is also managing editor Isaac Jaffe, the crew’s old boss whom they often go to for answers to their problems (how much of a sitcom cliché is that?). During the first season, which consists of 22 episodes at about 21 minutes each, there are also storylines such as Dan unknowingly dating a married woman, Casey attempting to reconnect with his son and Isaac suffering from a stroke.

One of my major gripes with the show can’t be blamed on Sorkin. Before the show aired, ABC was worried that people wouldn’t know what were jokes and what weren’t, so they made him insert a laugh track. It is one of the more clumsily used laugh tracks I have ever seen, due to the fact that the flow of Sorkin’s writing doesn’t lend itself to canned laughter. Two characters will be engaging in a conversation, and there will be about six jokes between them, but the laugh track only starts after the final punch line. It’s very disconcerting and adds an unintentionally bizarre tone to the show.

It’s a case where Sorkin is someone who is not fit for a sitcom format. Sorkin is a very funny writer, but the problem is that his set ups and delivery are often very similar. That’s why The West Wing works better then Sports Night; because when the laughs come sporadically, his humor is much more effective. When he has to rely on comedy, it doesn’t go as well. Sorkin is supremely talented at writing dramatic scenes, something that anyone who has watched The West Wing can attest to. With Sports Night, he only gets to display his abilities a handful of times. There is no way I can say this without sounding wildly pretentious, but Sports Night is essentially dumbed down Sorkin.

That’s not to say that Sorkin managed to address all of his imperfections after Sports Night ended. There is still one nagging problem that is present in each Sorkin show that drives me out of my mind — the know-it-all character. In every show, Sorkin has one character that is not only right all the time, but is smug and loud about how in the right he or she always is. In the first season of The West Wing, it was Mandy. In the first season of Sports Night, it’s Jeremy Goodwin, a new employee who can’t go one episode without being a self-loving goon. In a sitcom where you are supposed to love every character, to have one that is completely unlikeable yet gets a ton of screen time is infuriating. Jeremy also inexplicably begins dating one of the best looking women on the show, only to have that relationship revolve around how he always is the smartest guy in the room. I have hopes that Sorkin keeps Jeremy’s appearances to a minimum with season two, but I doubt that is going to happen.

I know that I have spent nearly 700 words ragging on Sports Night, but it is honestly a solid show despite its hiccups. You can’t help but marvel at Sorkin’s writing, and the show is genuinely well acted. The humor is smart, albeit sometimes repetitive, but it wasn’t like I was ever searching for the remote to turn off the DVD. This may be rationalizing my enjoyment, but the show was on 12 years ago, and television was a much different landscape back then. There weren’t any big, sweeping story arcs, and a sitcom without a laugh track was rare to be found. It isn’t the best sitcom I’ve ever seen, but it’s intelligent and most of the characters are interesting enough to keep your attention for twenty minutes at a time. Think of it as a trial run for The West Wing, and thank whatever it is you pray to that The West Wing wasn't Sorkin's flawed first foray into television writing.

Shows on the docket: Twin Peaks, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Firefly, Sports Night