Sports Night â Episode One â Pilot
Season One:Â Episode 1:Â Pilot
Original Air Date:Â 22 September 1998
Written By:Â Aaron Sorkin
Directed By:Â Thomas Schlamme
Starring: Josh Charles, Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, Joshua Malina, Sabrina Lloyd, and Robert Guillaume
Also Starring: Kayla Blake, Greg Baker, Timothy Davis-Reed, Ron Ostrow
Guest Starring: Robert Maihouse, Bernard Hocke, Nina Jane Barry
Sports Night is show that takes place at the New York Headquarters of a sports show calledâ appropriately enoughâSports Night. The pilot episodeâthe first episode of television the Aaron Sorkin ever wroteâdoes a more than adequate job of introducing the setting and characters, and setting up the primary conflicts for the run of the show. We have our two stars, Dan Rydell & Casey McCall (Charles & Krause), who anchor the show from NYC (later we'll be introduced to some of he show's on-air analysts and field reporters) and the production staff led by Managing Editor Isaac Jaffe (Guillaume), Executive Producer Dana Whitaker (Huffman), and Senior Associate Producer Natalie Hurley (Lloyd). Joining the show-within-a-show is Jeremy Goodwin (Malina,) who has a rather awkward but very verbose interview in the third act of the episode.
In the pilot episode there is immediately a major problem to solve that has ripple effects throughout the personal and professional relationships of the ensemble. Casey is recently divorced and, as a result of not dealing with his issues surrounding his marriage, his job performance is suffering. His friends & coworkers attempt to help Casey return exercising his full potential behind the anchor desk. Casey's performance on the airâor lack thereofâcatches the attention of the representative of the Network, J.J. (Mailhouse), who wants to replace him.
As we kick off the first entry in the Sports Night portion of the Rewatch, try not to be too distracted by the now-preciously-ancient laptops & other electronics, and enjoy what Sorkin himself refers to as "the redemptive power of sports."Â
The first thing that needs to be addressed is the incredible distraction that is the artificial laugh track. The ABC executives weren't sure that the audience would know that the show was supposed to be funny without the artificial laughter added, even though Sports Night "doesn't have the rhythms of a
regular sitcom," Sorkin explains on the DVD commentary. The laugh track will gradually fade through the first dozen or so episodes, so we won't have to deal with it for the entire run of the series. On to more relevant things...
The pilot introduces the six principle members of the ensemble by setting up an immediate conflict to pit them against each other, and make them find reasons to unite. The storyline of the pilot episode is not so different from A Few Good Men or The American President. Our protagonist has some deep-seated emotional issues that he cannot deal with alone, and performs uncharacteristically poorly at their job until pushed to greatness by those around him.Â
Here we see Casey McCall in the Dan Kaffee/Andy Shepherd role, unable to process the frustration and loss and confusion of his recent divorce. His writing partner Dan and his producer Dana try to hold his hand through this personal transition, while preventing him from doing to too much damage to the institution of the show itself. Much like any other personality-driven television program, the face of the show is the show in the public eye, so Casey not being Casey is a big problem for Sports Nightâone that cost people their jobs.
Peter Krause, doesn't have enough time in this first episode to completely flesh out Casey's brilliance and complexities, but cracks open the door for the audience to peer through. His transformation at the end of the episode ("Ntozake Nelsen's got something' to say about a world record!") is truly a thing to behold, especially given his lackluster reads at the top of the show.Â
Dan's main function in this episode is comic relief, as the audience adjusts to the interplay of the characters and Sorkin's unique dialogue style. He is having a "New York Renaissance," and gleefully pesters everyone in sight with his epiphanies about the city. Josh Charles never allows us to think that Dan is vapid or insubstantial, however. When J.J.-the-suit tries to get Dan to turncoat on Casey in favor of another partner, he responds with singular pith and intensity, "My future is writing and anchoring a sports program with my partner, Casey McCall. Now if it's here, it's here, if it's not, it is someplace else."
His loyalty and passion are expressed even more forcefully at the end of the episode, when he confronts his writing partner head-on about his issues. Danny's is easily the best speech of the night, as he refutes the petty problems objections Casey is hiding behind.Â
I've been here every day Casey, every day. And I have kept my mouth shut, because that's what you asked me to do. But if you'd've asked me, I'd've told you that Lisa is an angry, unhappy, punishing woman, and in ten years there's never been a single moment that has suggested to me that she has any affection for you at all. And I have no patience for people like that. Now the people here, they like you. Isaac, Natalie, Kim, Elliot... I don't know who the new guy Jeremy is, but he seems to like you just fine. Have you even noticed that Dana's been keeping J.J. and the network away from you with a whip and a chair? Huh? Have you noticed that she's been risking her job for you every day? And do you really think, my friend, that it has that much to do with your talent? These are people who like you, okay? They know what you've been going through, and for three months now, you have shown us nothing but the back of your handâand now you're gonna show us the door? Well excuse me, but the wisdom of your decision isn't entirely clear to me here, okay?Â
This is the critical moment for Caseyâand by extension, the show as we know it. Without this moment of confrontation, maybe Casey really does leave, and who knows what Sports Night becomes without the Dan-Casey-Dana partnership at it's heart. Danny doesn't single-handedly solve the problem, but he provides a crucial setup for the finale.Â
"You're screwing up my show," Dana tells Casey during the first heart-to-heart Casey experiences in this episode. This is just one in a series of management-level decisions and conversations that Dana, as Executive Producer, is called upon to conduct in the pilot, alone. She rides herd over the office shenanigans of her producers and the many myriad departments necessary to run a live nightly television show.
Like Dan & Casey, her personal loyalties are just as important as her professional connections. She stands up for Casey not just because it's her duty as a boss, but because it's her role as a friend, telling Isaac, "I owe it to him... We all do."
And also like Dan & Caseyâand basically everyone else in the Sports Night cast/familyâsports isn't just Dana's vocation, but her passion. We'll learn more later about her personal connections to the world of professional athletics, but during this episode it's easy to see that this woman loves what he does.Â
There is no question from the way Robert Guillaume walks that Isaac Jaffe is in the man in charge. He is the leader of the ensemble, managing his staff and their corporate bosses with confidence and a plainspoken eloquence. We'll get more of his backstory in a few episodes, and hear about the incredible career in journalism and broadcasting he has had. Isaac is far more than just another suit, and Sports Night will never stop reminding us throughout the run of the series.Â
The character that may be the most underdeveloped in the pilot is Natalie Hurley. Sabrina Lloyd will be given far more to sink her teeth into in subsequent episodes, but for now, Natalie seems rather similar to Samantha Mathis's Janie Basdin from A Few Good Men: a person playing an exceptionally professional and dedicated supporting role. Natalie clearly has substantial responsibilities on the show, given her position as Dana's right hand in production and management, but we have yet to see her at her strongest. For now, she is depicted as being confident and passionate, but still a bit of a goof.Â
Our introduction to Jeremy Goodwin comes four and a half minutes (& an entire act break) before we actually see him on screen.
Dana mentions to Isaac that she'll be interviewing the "finalist" candidate to fill an open associate producer slot that afternoon, and Natalie (the only staff member who has met Jeremy thus far) describes him in perhaps a less than professional way. "You guys, he is so totally cute and intense, with a dark mystery about him that says: 'this is not a technician, this in an artist.'"
When the time finally comes for his interview, he is crippled by anxiety brought on by breathless enthusiasm. What follows is his spectacularly eloquent and impassioned freak-out.Â
This being just the series premier, we're a bit light on proper Sorkinisms, but we do have a few fun examples of the characteristic, Sorkin-esque dialogue. When Isaac and Dana are headed into their daily rundown meeting, they briefly discuss Casey's on-air performance, and Isaac tells her, "I know all about his problems. You know, the network knows about his problems, too. As a result of which, they become my problems, and I'm saying at the very most, I want them to be your problems." Additionally, we have the sequence in the rundown meeting, where Casey continually insistsâinterjecting into the conversation of those around himâthat "he can't kick."Â
THE MIGHTY SORKIN PLAYERS
The role that Joshua Malina plays in Sports Night is the first of his television career. Malina had originally read for the part of Dan Rydell, but after losing out to Josh Charles, the part of Jeremy Goodwin was rewritten so that Malina could play it as a series regular. Another tidbit on the 10th Anniversary DVD Commentary: Sorkin and Felicity Huffman knew each other from "coming up together" doing theater in New York in the 1980s. Huffman was a member of Atlantic Theatre Company when it did the first "out-loud reading of A Few Good Men." Peter Krause and Aaron Sorkin tended bar together before they were able to work full time in their respective disciplines.Â
Greg Baker, who plays Eliot, will have a small role in an episode in the first season
of The West Wing in the episode entitled "Ellie."Â
All three control room techs later portray reporters in the WH press corps on The West
Wing, but only two of those actors actually appear here in the series premier. Timothy Davis-Reed plays Chris, and Ron Austria plays Will. They both have stand-out moments sparring with Press Secretary C.J. Cregg (portrayed by by the brilliant and talented Allison Janney) in the first few seasons of that show.Â
We've got a few new additions to our list of recycled character names:
Dan & Casey, of course, with their lefty-righty, side-angle desk high-five move, are the quintessential example of this type of relationship. As we will learn in subsequent episodes, they have written together for years, and have an immense reservoir of personal loyalty.
Sports Night also has another twosome, Dana & Natalie. Their interplay in the control room is the obvious example of how hey work effectively together, but a less obvious display is during their interview with Jeremy. Lloyd & Huffman already seem very comfortable together, with an established big sister-little sister relationship. We'll learn more about each of them in a few more episodes, and why they're not on precisely as equal of footing with each other as Dan and Casey are.Â
Much like The American President, the pilot of Sports Night features father issues in the inverse: one of our characters dealing with being the father, himself. We will come to learn over the course of the series that the only other parent in the cast (as explicitly stated, anyways) is Isaac, but the first episode features Casey talking to his seven-year-old son, Charlie. At the climax of the story, Casey has returned to form ("I like getting people to like sports") and feels compelled to call up his son, despite the lateness of the hour, and share with him the incredible race that he is watching. One of the best parts of this scene has to be the "WTF" expression/gesture that Krause makes when Casey asks his son "Did you finish your homework?" This glimpse into one of the pro forma aspects of parenting rounds out Casey's character in a very specific way. In only a brief moment, we get a window into his internal monologue; I'm supposed to make sure he's done his homework right? That's what the father's supposed to ask... His intent is clearly sincereâbut watching Casey's parenting experience develop is an important aspect of his character.Â
THE MAGNIFICENT BICKERSONS
The pilot of Sports Night moves fairly quickly, so we are only treated to brief glances at Kim (Kayla Blake), Eliot, Chris, Will, and Dave. Also, not all of the members of the comic relief team are yet in place: Bernard Hocke portrays Dave in this episode, his one and only appearance on the show.
(Dave will of course be played throughout the rest of the show by Jeff Mooring, as the only member of the supporting ensemble to be credited with 44 episodes rather than 45.) In the premier, the only shenanigans that the Sports Night team get up to is having trouble figuring out where Helsinki is (Finland.)Â
"I like writing about writers who are struggling with writing," Sorkin says (again on the DVD commentary,) "especially when I'm struggling with writing." If the primary through line in Sports Night is the relationships (romantic and otherwise) between the members of the ensemble, one of the secondary through lines is Dan & Casey's writing process, and their efforts to create content for their live broadcast each night.
In the pilot we get a brief glimpse of their interaction, towards the end, right before Danny's earth- shaking speech calling out Casey's selfishness. Dan is at the desk, refining his script longhand and out loud (and about 15 minutes before airtime, by the way) when Casey helps him miss a bit or a verbal pothole in the road. ("Yesterday/speedway... you don't want the rhyme.") We see that Dan & Casey are good partners with complementary skills. The premier episode covers a lot of territory, so this is all we'll see of their authorial adventures for now.Â
Sports Night has multiple layers of authority that the staff have to deal with over the years: there is Continental Sports Channel (CSC) aka "the Network," and Continental Corp(oration) the parent company. While we will see a handful of different capitalist stooges pass through and give counter-productive advice and pointless notes and generally gum up the works with their existential self-importance, in the series premier we meet our primary antagonist. He is the man known only as JJ.Â
Robert Maihouse plays JJ exquisitely. We are
invited to hate him immediately, and without conscience. He is more concerned with ratings then objectively interesting or valuable content. He is put into conflict with Natalieâwho represents the heart & soul of the showâin the rundown meeting, interrupting her passionate description of an inspirational story of... "In these meetings, mine is the voice of the Network." He's
subsequently stomped on (figuratively) by Casey, and while it's obvious that it wasn't super appropriate for him to speak with such hostility and then storm out, it's also hard not to want to stand up and cheer at this arrogant suit getting knocked down a peg. But fear not: this is not the last we'll see of JJ.Â
As of yet, the only romantic subplots revealed explicitly are Casey's divorce, and Natalie's crush on Jeremy. During Jeremy's epic freak-out, though Dana is nonplussed, Natalie's expression betrays a range of emotion: hope, delight, fascination, and the recognition of the kinship between people who share a common passion (in this case, Sports).
Casey's divorce has already happened, and the pilot represents the majority of his growth in
dealing with the aftermath of a marriage that has come to an end. The next step for Casey is
getting badgered by the people he works with (especially Dan and Natalie) to "get back out there" and start dating again.Â
This leads us to the other relationship that we get the briefest of glimpses of in the pilot: Casey & Dana. When he wrote the pilot, Aaron Sorkin already knew he was going to make them the Sam and Diane of the series, modulating the romantic tension between the two characters throughout the run of the show. One the 10th Anniversary commentary track, it is Tommy Schlamme who makes note of a throwaway line uttered by Isaac to Dana: "is there something going on between the two of you?"
She, naturally, immediately denies that there is, and the stage is set for one of the main threads of the series to come.Â
