'Sports Night' Lands On Dvd...

[posty 2,608]

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.s...nds_on_dvd.html

 

COMEDY SERIES: "Sports Night: The Complete Series" Shout! Factory. Eight discs. $69.99. Not rated.

 

"My life flashed before my eyes. I looked down a long corridor, figuratively, and saw my career fading away, and I thought, 'This is the end.' It was a not-too-gentle reminder that I wasn't in charge of much."

 

Robert Guillaume is on the phone recalling a stroke he suffered in the late '90s on the set of the ABC series "Sports Night." The veteran actor, who turns 81 next month, recovered nicely. Indeed, his stroke was written into the show when his character, TV executive Isaac Jaffe, suffered the same blow, and subsequently recovered.

 

Not to stretch the point too far, but the folks of "Sports Night" -- creator-writer-producer Aaron Sorkin, director Thomas Schlamme and its principal and recurring cast members -- never seemed to be in charge of much when it came to keeping the show on the air past two seasons.

 

Not that they didn't try. The show was a critical favorite that won three Emmys, but ABC might be accused of short-sheeting the series in terms of promotion and visibility. Debuting in 1998, "Sports Night" was canceled in 2000, lamented by its fans, but gone nonetheless.

 

"I realized that we were doing something that was way ahead of its time," says Guillaume. "And I also thought that the network was a little short-sighted in its appreciation of the show."

 

Now, some eight years later, comes Shout! Factory's release of "Sports Night: The Complete Series," comprising eight discs, 45 episodes, a 10th anniversary booklet and two discs of extras, including interviews with Guillaume and others, featurettes, gag reels, deleted scenes and audio commentary.

 

"I think one of the hallmarks of the show," says Guillaume, "is that it couldn't be categorized as either comedy or drama."

 

"Sports Night," set at the fictional, ESPN-inspired Continental Sports Channel and involving the production of a nightly wrap-up show called, aptly, "Sports Night," deftly balanced guffaws and gravitas, setting the stage for Sorkin's and Schlamme's much more successful "The West Wing" (and the not-so well-received "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip").

 

Indeed, "Sports Night" is as much known for its ######-laude graduates as it is for its TV savvy. Aside from Sorkin and Schlamme, the show boasted Felicity Huffman, who played executive producer Dana Whitaker and would go on to star-making face time, and an Emmy win, on "Desperate Housewives"; Peter Krause, who played anchor Casey McCall, landed on HBO's much-acclaimed "Six Feet Under" and currently stars in ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money"; Joshua Malina, who played associate producer Jeremy Goodwin, wound up doing 77 episodes of "The West Wing"; while Sabrina Lloyd, Josh Charles, William H. Macy and Brenda Strong have done fine for themselves.

 

But at the time that "Sports Night" premiered, Guillaume was the only familiar face in the cast member, one with a crowded resume, including the ground-breaking series "Soap," which earned him both an Emmy and a popular spin-off for his character, "Benson."

 

Later, he appeared on two short-lived series, "The Robert Guillaume Show" and "Pacific Station," before being offered "Sports Night."

 

"I had been searching for something else to do, but I was certainly not under the impression that I would ever again get anything as wonderful as 'Benson' or 'Soap.' But I recall how intrigued I was by the writing on 'Sports Night.' I loved the writing. I didn't really know who Aaron Sorkin was at the time or what he would become, I just knew that there was someone special writing this material and when the role of Isaac Jaffe was offered to me, that's all I needed."

[phillybear 366]

I bought the complete series DVD a couple of years ago. Very entertaining, quick paced dialogue throughout the series. William H Macy was great in his handful of episodes.

[jets24 6]

A truly underrated show.

 

Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlammie are brilliant together in this and West Wing.