We watched the first season of this show a month ago now, but I didn’t write the review until today because it’s only this week that I finally committed to giving up on the show. So I’m slightly concerned that I won’t remember everything I thought about it when we first began watching it back in February.

But, I gave up and it’s only two seasons, which should tell you a lot.

Sorkinesque dialogue is now a cliche, and it’s kind of hard to see through that. But I think I can safely say that little on American television sounded or felt like Sports Night when it premiered in the late ’90s, especially sitcoms. We can pick at his tropes all we want, and we can absolutely criticize this show for its supposed progressive bonafides given how horribly a lot of that has dated, but I still think it’s fair to view this show as a landmark in terms of its attention to dialogue, again especially for a sitcom.

The other really notable thing is the way it was filmed. I don’t spend a lot of time watching ’90s sitcoms, nor ’90s TV dramas for that matter, but I lived through them, and I cannot remember a show like this, with these long takes and moving cameras. I’m sure there was the odd moment in other shows, especially in the more creative and weird American TV shows of the ’90s. But most American sitcoms were filmed exactly the same way. And most American TV drama was filmed very similarly. This stands out, to put it mildly. And yes, like the dialogue, the walking-and-talking is now a cliche. But it wasn’t in 1998.

So, I think, had I watched this in 1998, when it premiered, I might have loved it, especially if I didn’t know anybody else who watched it. (I was that kid.) But now, over two decades later, it’s really, really hard to give it its due.

For one thing, this convinced me never to watch The West Wing. This kind of manipulative, preachy moralizing without any jokes? Jesus. Kill me now.

Sorkin is trying to be super progressive but, whether the times have changed, or he has just always been out-of-touch, what he thought was progressive in the late ’90s seems horribly dated now. This is particularly true with the “battle of sexes” stuff that dominates so much of the show. Despite having a woman run a TV show on his TV show, so much of this feels like it was written by a man who doesn’t particularly respect (or understand) women. Jenn and I had a conversation about this weeks ago, where I felt like we reached some fundamental insight about why women actors would want to work with him, but I can’t remember the whole thing now.

Sorkin is also hilariously confused about the internet and technology. I can only imagine the shit he says in relation to the internet in his more recent shows. I had dialup back then, sure, and there was no Wikipedia, but at least some information was available online.

And that brings me to all the little mistakes throughout the show. There are tons of little things that somebody should have caught. I should have made a list back when I was watching the first season, but it felt like at least one silly factual error an episode. I know, I know, it was the ’90s and using the internet to get information was different back then. But I still think it’s reasonable to expect better.

So I hemmed and hawed my way through the first season, enjoying how radical the filmmaking must have seemed, impressed by how theatrical the dialogue was (not in the campy sense, but the Theatre sense), and genuinely enjoying the parts where it was focused on people making a sports TV show. But I didn’t like a lot of the interpersonal relationship stuff, with the worst of it being Dan’s pursuit of Rebecca, which is just awful. (And super hilarious given Sorkin’s vision of himself.)

I was ready to give up on the show, in fact, but then some strong-ish episodes at the end convinced me to give season 2 a try, despite Jenn’s warnings.

But then, we watched two episodes of season 2 and the same problems resurfaced. Also, I was introduced to the stupid plot contrivance that Jenn remembered from season 2 which she had hinted at. That was enough for me and I bailed. But, like I said, it was ages after we started watching by the time we made it this far, so I do feel like I’m forgetting some of what I had to say. Oh well.

I don’t know that I enjoyed myself, but I can’t deny it was trailblazing in some ways.

This is one of my top 10 TV shows of all-time. I hate that it only lasted two season. If streaming TV were around back then and the restraints of network TV were lifted I believe it would have been HUGE. But alas I am happy to have what I have.

TV Guide had a cover that said "The Best Show on TV That No One is Watching". IMO it was just to "smart" for network TV. The dialog was quick and it was stuck in-between being a comedy and a drama (dramady).

It also suffered from being considered a "sports show". It was basically a behind the scenes look at what Sports Center on ESPN might look like, but because of the relationship drama and the witty dialog you didn't have to be a sports geek to like this show.

The rumor was that Aaron Sorkin (creator) didn't fight ABC to keep the show on life support because he was too busy with West Wing. Some of the cast members ended up on West Wing as well.

Speaking of the cast, if you haven't seen Sports Night you will probably know most of the top notch cast because of previous work or what they have done since Sports Night. You will see that they all were either already accomplished actors, or landed on their feet and had some pretty big series after Sports Night was canceled.

Peter Krause (Six Feet Under, Dirty Sexy Money, Parenthood, 9-1-1), Josh Charles (Dead Poets Society, Wet Hot American Summer, The Good Wife), Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives, Transamerica, American Crime), Robert Guillaume (Soap, Benson, The Lion King) NOTE- Robert had a stroke in real life during the series and the writers did a great job of integrating that into the show, it was inspiring IMO , Joshua Malina (The West Wing, Scandal, Big Bang Theory), and Sebrina Lloyd (Sliders, Ed, Numb3rs) were the main characters.

The weekly supporting cast were excellent as well but there are five other characters I have to mention because their 3 to 8 episode runs on the show helped make the show what it was: Ted McGinley (Revenge of the Nerds, Happy Days, Dynasty, Married With Children, Hope and Faith), Teri Polo (West Wing, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, The Fosters), Brenda Strong (Desperate Housewives, Dallas, Blood Relatives, Supergirl)...

...a special nod to Paula Marshall (Spin City, Out of Practice, Californication, Gary Unmarried) who I have had a huge crush on for years and her three episodes as a porn star in Sports Night didn't do anything to hurt that...

...and of course Felicity Huffman's husband, William H Macy (Fargo, ER, Shameless, too numerous to list). The six episode run he had on Sports Night as a hired gun ratings specialist live up to his reputation as a great character actor. Too bad both he and Huffman have been in the news lately for the college cheating scandal...idiots!

Anyways, probably more then you wanted to know about a two season series. I hope you get a chance to check it out. I started a discussion if you would like to tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading.