Sports Night: The Complete Series 10th Anniversary Edition
OK, so before I start my annual Halloween salute next week, running down the best scary stuff out there, I gotta give some love to a bunch of new sets that have been keeping me all sorts of busy. — Damian Holbrook
Sports Night: The 10th Anniversary Edition
Before Aaron Sorkin got the West Wing-ers firing off all those quips and preachy quick-witted comments, he set his sharp eye for detail and entendre on the world of cable sports television. Think ESPN with a much hotter staff...
See the rest of this review and our take on new Nymbers and How I Met Your Mother sets after the jump.
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My Name Is Earl: Season 3 courtesy Fox
New releases announced today, May 19:This American Life - Season 1 will be coming out September 23 My Name Is Earl - Season 3 will be coming out September 23 The Princes of Malibu - The Complete Series will be coming out July 29 Spider-Man - The Hobgoblin will be coming out July 8 Sports Night - The 10th Anniversary Edition will be coming out September 30 Visit TVShowsOnDVD.com for the complete stories on these and other news items.
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Peter Krause, Dirty Sexy Money
Peter Krause is ready to get dirty. Not dirt as in a funeral plot, but as in scandals of the rich and famous. On ABC's Dirty Sexy Money, premiering tonight at 10 pm/ET, the Six Feet Under and Sports Night alum plays Nick George, a high-powered legal eagle who, begrudgingly, inherits his suspiciously passed-on father's role as consigliere to the Darlings of New York City. Headed up by Donald Sutherland and Jill Clayburgh, the ultra-affluent clan is littered by all manner of bad-seed offspring (and parents), giving Nick plenty to manage, spin-control and nip in the bud. Krause shared a sneak peek at the good 'n' dirty 'n' sexy times ahead.
TVGuide.com: This is a r
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Question: I share some of the discomfort about Danny's recent stalking on Studio 60. It was particularly creepy when Jordan asked him to back off and he said "no." What I'm surprised by is that people are acting like this is something strange for Aaron Sorkin. It may be written a bit less artfully, but this story line is vintage Sorkin. We've got the one romantic subplot of the "will they or won't they" tension between Matt and Harriet, and then we've got the "If she doesn't give in at first, stalk her till she admits her love" story line of Danny and Jordan. These same themes were present in Sorkin's previous shows. We had Josh and Donna on The West Wing and Casey and Dana on Sports Night doing the "will they or won't they" dance. With the "stalking" subplot, we've had Charlie and Zoey on West Wing and Dan and Rebecca on Sports Night. Sorkin's shows have contained other expressions of stalkerish love, such as when Natalie on Sports Night refused to acknowledge that Jeremy had broken ...
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The cast of Sports Night
Question: Don't get me wrong, I love Aaron Sorkin. Even bad Sorkin is better than a lot of the crap on TV these days. But while I like Studio 60, I don't love it. I find it interesting that people are always comparing it to The West Wing, when the more logical comparison is to Sports Night. I loved Sports Night, which was also about the behind-the-scenes happenings of a TV show. Any thoughts on why that concept worked so well on Sports Night, but not so well on Studio 60?
Answer: First, keep in mind that Sports Night wasn't a ratings success, either. (I have bittersweet memories of penning TV Guide's "Best Show You're Not Watching" cover story on the show during its second, and regrettably final, season.) But you make a great point. In retrospect, Sports Night does seem to be more satisfying week to week than Studio 60 is turning out to be. Part of it, I think, has to do with the fact that the Sports Night characters were underdogs, working for a struggling cable sports network, and you
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Question: I don't understand why Studio 60's ratings aren't better, considering how celebrity-obsessed our society is these days. Entire magazines are dedicated to describing in great detail what stars are wearing, dating, eating, etc. I really love TV, and I enjoy knowing about the behind-the-scenes workings of my favorite shows. It seems like there are a lot of people who feel the same way. So why can't a show about a show find an audience?
Answer: Gossip is popular, true, but Studio 60 takes the world of entertainment all a bit more seriously. Maybe too much so, as it addresses aspects of the culture wars and the corporate entertainment world with a growing sense of self-importance and at times (especially this week) with a self-righteousness that muddies what could be a very enjoyable workplace-relationship show. Aaron Sorkin never writes ordinary TV, which is great. And there's much about Studio 60 that still dazzles me. But Tyler's comments below may help shed more light on
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Matthew Perry, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Question: Is there a point to having Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Tina Fey's 30 Rock on the same network? Studio 60 looks more interesting, although the ad campaign seems to focus on the Network rip-off — I mean, homage — than on Sorkin. 30 Rock seems much more based on real life, with Tracy Morgan basically playing himself. However, it seems baffling that we have two shows about a fictional Saturday Night Live debuting at the same time. What are their long-term prospects?
Answer: These are excellent questions, and ones we've asked ourselves (and NBC during the press tour) repeatedly. The only way we're going to get a real answer is to see how the public responds. The dilemma facing both shows is that the track record isn't exactly great for TV shows set in the world of TV (not even Sorkin's brilliant Sports Night, whose pilot I enjoyed more than Studio 60). To their credit, the shows don't feel remotely like each other. 30 Rock is a straight-out comedy/satire,
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Question: Is it just me or are TV critics taking schadenfreude in seeing NBC's slipups and misses for the past few seasons, especially now, during the Olympics, and with Joey's dismal ratings. While it's true that success does breed some sort of contempt from advocates of rival networks, TV critics should always have an objective approach. However, highlighting and then further underlining NBC's failures borders on playground teasing.
Answer: Maybe it looks like critics are kicking a network when it's down, but really, NBC has been a juicy target ever since it fouled its airwaves with Fear Factor, failed repeatedly to find an adequate comedy to replace Friends (most notoriously with the ill-fated Joey), cloned Law & Order to the point of absurdity, failed to adequately promote and protect gems like Ed and American Dreams through their multiseason (and still too brief) runs — again, the list goes on. And lately, with the The Book of Daniel debacle, the twice-a-week Apprentice disaster
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Question: Now that both Matthew Perry and Steven Weber (and D.L. Hughley) have signed on to Aaron Sorkin's Studio 7 on the Sunset Strip, do you think NBC will give the show ER's current "must-see" Thursday time slot? After all, Perry (Friends) and Weber (Wings) are both former Thursday residents and many have suggested that perhaps ER finally needs a new night for its old age. Or do you think Studio 7 will get one of the vacated West Wing time slots (Sundays at 8 pm/ET or Wednesdays at 9 pm/ET)?
Answer: I'm pretty awful at guessing network schedules, but I'm betting that, given what I imagine would be the comedy-drama tone of Sorkin's new show (more Sports Night than West Wing), it would be perfect for West Wing's old Wednesday-night slot — although Lost has become a juggernaut these last few seasons, so maybe it would be better off inheriting the fading Law & Order's time period. Sundays won't be an option, at least for the first half of the season, because of NBC's new football
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If it weren't for Lost, you might never have known what year was being honored at Sunday's Emmy Awards.
James Spader and William Shatner— didn't they win last year? A Raymond sweep — haven't we seen that before? Tony Shalhoub winning again? Wake me when it's over.
I think Felicity Huffman (prior to her own surprise, but not undeserved, win) summed it up best when she muttered, "Clunk."
She was referring to some lame banter during a joint presentation by the five main Desperate Housewives, but she could have been talking about the night itself. Poor Ellen DeGeneres did her droll best to keep this bloated show afloat, but not even the second coming of Johnny Carson (who was paid generous, if solemn, tribute by David Letterman) could have rescued this long, unsatisfying evening.
Few awards are as capricious and as maddening as the Emmys. Even when you s
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