Sports Night

From Wiki Gonzalez

Sports Night (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0165961) was a short-lived single-camera sitcom created by Aaron Sorkin (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0815070), who was at the time best-known for having written the play A Few Good Men and its cinematic adaptation (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0104257) and the screenplay for The American President (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0112346), which he wrote under the influence of illegal narcotics.

While staying up nights in a hotel room writing The American President with the aid of illegal narcotics, Sorkin became enamored with SportsCenter, and a few years later wrote a pilot for show concerning itself with the behind-the-scenes lives of a fictional Sports Center-type show. Matched with director Thomas Schlamme (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0772095) (usually referred to as "Tommy Schlamme" because it's a fun rhyme), Sports Night debuted in the fall of 1998.

The show, a highly unconventional comedy filled with Sorkin's trademark machine-gun-paced wiseacre dialogue, struggled to find its audience on ABC, though many who found the show adored it and it enjoyed a fervent cult following. Sorkin often struggled with the ABC brass over such issues as whether or not the show should have a laugh track (it did, though it was toned down over the course of the show's run) and whether or not the show would take part in "theme nights" where all Tuesday ABC sitcoms would feature some common plot device (Sorkin refused, and ABC refused to air the show on such nights).

The conflict between Sorkin and ABC became running subtextual fodder for the show's overarching plot. On the world of the show, "Sports Night" is the primetime news and flagship program of the Continental Sports Channel (CSC), part of a large corporation run by a man named Luther Saks. CSC is a consistent also-ran in its competition with ESPN and Fox Sports. CSC corporate flaks often try to impose their will on the creatively and journalistically minded staff of "Sports Night", the heroes of the program.

These conflicts grew during the show's second season, which ended with Luther Saks selling CSC to a character played by Clark Gregg (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0163988), who in one of the show's final lines pointedly says "Anyone who can't make money off of 'Sports Night' should get out of the money-making business." The hidden meaning was, um, not-so-hidden.

Aside from the show/network conflict, other plots concerned the loves and losses of the main characters, a few of whom were in love with each other but afraid to admit it. Shows would also occasionally focus on "hot-button" issues, such as the legalization of drugs, steroid use in football, and the use of the Confederate flag by southern universities.

The season two finale was written in such a way that it could have been a series finale, which it indeed turned out to be. Sorkin and Schlamme had already moved on to The West Wing (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0200276), a highly popular NBC drama which first season had overlapped with Sports Night's second.

Several other participants in Sports Night went on to success. Felicity Huffman (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0005031) (wife of William H. Macy (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000513), who had an arc as a guest star on the show), who played Sports Night's producer, went on to win an Emmy for her role on the television series Desperate Housewives (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0410975) and a Golden Globe for her performance as a pre-op transvestite in the film Transamerica (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0407265).

Peter Krause (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0470244), who played one of Sports Night's anchors, went on to star as Nate Fisher on the HBO drama Six Feet Under (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0248654), where he earned two Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations.

Joshua Malina (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0539651), who played one of Sports Night's associate producers, is currently a regular on The West Wing, continuing a streak of performing in every Aaron Sorkin project. He also benefitted by getting to make out frequently with Sabrina Lloyd (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0005158), who is much hotter than him, and who played another associate producer and the love interest of Malina's character.

Other castmembers included Josh Charles (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001038), probably best-known for playing the lovestruck Knox Overstreet in Dead Poets' Society (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0097165) and for dating Jennifer Connelly (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000124); and Robert Guillaume (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0347039), most famous for playing the title role in the TV series Benson (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0078569) and for playing the title role on stage in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.