So after numerous attempts, I managed to get a hold of the full 2 seasons of Sports Night. For those of you that don't know, Sports Night is considered by many to be the "father" show of the the West Wing. Aaron Sorkin's original creation for the small screen, but was unfortunately cancelled after just 2 seasons. It was soon followed by the record number of emmy award winning West Wing. Very similar to sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Sports Night revolves around a late night sports news show production. One difference being Sports Night was dubbed a sitcom and hence each episode is only 30 minutes long with some annoying laughter overlays in the middle of scenes. (not very sorkinese) The show does not lack its share of punchy dialogues either. So far I must say I'm impressed with the quality, although it is of no comparison to sorkin's master work. It still attacks those key issues that we run into in society and it still has numerous moments of intellectual wit.
I figured I'd start with the first episode that really blew me away, that also attacked something I hadn't already seen in the west wing. Robert Guillaume plays Isaac Jaffe, the station manager and felicity huffman plays Dana the producer. This episode revolves around Jeremy, played by Joshua Malina. (Will Bailey in West Wing) Jeremy is sent to cover a hunting segment for the show and despite his qualms with the assignment, Jeremy doesn't say a word about it and continues on with the assignment. He is then hospitalized and returns to work 2 days after the hunting assignment and has this conversation with Isaac, when Issac questions him as to what had happened.
Jeremy Goodwin: We shot a deer. In the woods near Lake Mattatuck on the second day. There was a special vest they had me wear so that they could distinguish me from things they wanted to shoot, and I was pretty grateful for that. Almost the whole day had gone by, and we hadn't gotten anything. Eddie was getting frustrated and Bob Shoemaker was getting embarrassed. My camera guy needed to re-load so I told everybody to take a ten minute break. There was a stream nearby and I walked over with this care-package Natalie made me. I sat down and when I looked up I saw three of them; small, bigger, biggest. Recognizable to any species on the face of the planet as a child, a mother and a father. Now, the trick in shooting deer is you gotta get 'em out in the open. And it's tough with deer, 'cause these are clever, cagey animals with an intuitive sense of danger. You know what you have to do to get a deer out in the open? You hold out a twinkie. That animal clopped up to me like we were at a party. She seemed to be pretty interested in the twinkie, so I gave it to her. Looking back, she'd have been better off if I'd given her the damn vest. And Bob kind of screamed at me in whisper, "Move away!" The camera had been re-loaded and it looked like the day wasn't gonna be a washout after all. So I backed away, a couple of steps at a time, and I closed my eyes when I heard the shot. Look, I know these are animals, and they don't play bridge and go to the prom, but you can't tell me that the little one didn't know who his mother was. That's gotta mean something. And later, at the hospital, Bob Shoemaker was telling me about the nobility and tradition of hunting and how it related to the native American Indians. And I nodded and I said that was interesting while I was thinking about what a load of crap it was. Hunting was part of Indian culture. It was food and it was clothes and it was shelter. They sang and danced and offered prayers to the gods for a successful hunt so that they could survive just one more unimaginably brutal winter. The things they had to kill held the highest place of respect for them, and to kill for fun was a sin. And they knew the gods wouldn't be so generous next time. What we did wasn't food and it wasn't shelter and it sure wasn't sports! It was just mean!
Isaac: Jeremy, why didn't you tell us how you felt about hunting when we gave you this?
Jeremy Goodwin: With all due respect Mr. Jaffe, I have 80,000 dollars in college loans to pay back. My instincts told me to shut the hell up and do what I'm told.
Isaac: Your instincts were wrong
Jeremy Goodwin: Not fitting in is how qualified people lose jobs
Isaac: Yeah but a lof of the time, that's how they end up working here. Now you had an obligation to tell us how you felt. Partly because i don't like getting a phone call saying I put one of my people in the hospital. But mostly because if you feel that strongly about something, you have a responsibility to try and change my mind. Did you think I'd fire you simply because you made a convincing argument. It's taken me a lot of years, but I've come around to this. If you're dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you. I'm an awfully smart man and Mark Sabbath is an idiot. He had you and he blew it. You fit in on your own time, but when you come to work for me, you show up to play. I'm going home.
I'm continually amazed at Sorkin's ability to write the most provocative dialogue on television. It's very unfortunate that Sports Night was another show of his that was cancelled after only 2 seasons. I really hope that he continues to write in the future so we can squeeze out everything this creative mind has to offer. I will continue to post some interesting dialogues and storylines that I encounter from time to time.
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