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Sports Night Episode Guide
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MayMay 16, 2000I'm sad to report that this 7 Flusher was probably the last-ever episode of this fantastic series. At least it has a happy ending. Dan really wants to move to LA in case the show is canceled (keep in mind, they have a great job offer in LA), but Casey says he cannot go because of his son. Dan says OK and that he will go by himself. In the meantime, Dana continues to get weird stock news from Insider at Anthony's. Dana knows that this guy is rich and knows stock news, but that's all. He tells her that a new buyer will enter the field, Quo Vadimis. Dana does some research and learns that they are only interested in buying Continental Corp for the cable wires whereas NBI Transcom wants to keep CSC and Sports Night. But anyway, Insider tells Dana that she should not worry and that whenever things go wrong and whenever he fails, that he asks himself, "Where are we going?" He then comes up with a new plan and succeeds.Back at the office, Rebecca Wells shows up. She talks to Dan. Apparently, Dan and Rebecca used to date when Rebecca was married. She moved to LA, but is now back in New York and divorced and wants to get back together with Dan. He says that he cannot agree to anything right now, because he might be moving to LA and he does not want to have to consider her in his decision to move. Also in the love field, Jeremy and Natalie admit their love for each other and kiss. So the bidding war is on between NBI Transcom and Quo Vadimis. Quo Vadimis wins the war as Sports Night is about to go on air, but the crew still has a show to do. Jeremy reflects on Quo Vadimis meaning "where are we going." Dana thinks for a second and then puts Natalie in charge of the show. Dana runs across the street to Anthony's and finds Insider. She asks him if he is Calvin Trigger, the CEO of Quo Vadimis. He says that he is and that he is going to keep Sports Night on the air. Dana returns to the studio and tells everyone. Casey works it into the show-within-a-show by saying "Stick around, it looks like we're going to be around for awhile." QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: Anybody who can't make money off of Sports Night, should get out of the money making business. --Calvin in some words of truth. May 9, 2000The return of Sports Night has me totally charged so I enthusiastically reward this episode 9 Flushes. The network, CSC , is up for sale and it seems as though either Time-Warner, Disney, or Fox will buy the network and then sell it off. Each of these companies already has a cable sports network and will not need another one. Dan and Casey discuss what they will do if the show is canceled. They have received an offer to continue working together with Dana as their executive producer in LA. The new LA show will have a larger audience. Dan seems excited about the job offer, but Casey does not. He fears leaving his child behind in NY. Dan says that Casey's child and ex-wife should move to LA, but Casey continuously says that he will make a decision about LA when he crosses that bridge, meaning only if the show is canceled. In the meantime, Dana is at Anthony's, the local bar where everyone goes after a show, and she meets a guy whom I'm going to call the Insider. Insider tells Dana that Time-Warner is going to sell all of their CSC stocks when the stock hits $27. The next day, Dana learns that Time-Warner sells its stocks at $27. The next night, Dana returns to Anthony's and sees Insider. She tells him that she cannot be privy to inside trading information as it is illegal. Insider nonetheless tells Dana that a new buyer is going to enter the CSC stage. The new buyer is NBI Transcom. NBI put the original cable lines in the ground and now wants to expand their market to include the internet. We have no idea what this means, but it will have significance next week.In personal news this week. Dan gets flowers from a person who signs the card R.W. Dan wonders who RW is, and when he signs a random lady's autograph, she tells him that her roommate's friend once dated Dan. The former girlfriend's name is Rebecca Wells. Also, Natalie gets drunk at Anthony's two nights in a row. After getting drunk, she confesses her love for Jeremy. Will they get back together? In addition, a theme has come out this episode: in desperate times when things look bleak, people have sex as a means of comfort...the question becomes who will hook up with whom? Finally this week, la forza del destino comes out as a theme. Natalie hopes for some help from fate to save the network.
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: Remember please, if you're going out on a date and
you want to impress someone: it's a dog-eat-dog world, not a doggie-dog world. --Casey.
Sports Night was on hiatus from April 4 to May 9. AprilApril 4, 2000An 8 Flush closing to a wonderful series. Even if the show is not renewed, I hope that the final two episodes (which have already been recorded) are aired. This week Dan gets a publicist named Catherine Brenner. Actually, his publicist is Paul, but Catherine is handling his account. Dan goes to a restaurant opening in New Jersey to increase his public image but has a miserable time at this opening so he decides to fire Catherine, but Catherine talks him into keeping her. A cute storyline this was.Also this week, Natalie goes looking for a job. She has not yet been fired from Sports Night, but she fears being fired. She has an interview with Saturday Night Live, but Dana does not want Natalie to change jobs. Dana tries to make Natalie nervous and mess up her interview. Natalie returns from the interview and tells Dana that she did mess up the interview, but Dana says that she knows Natalie nailed the interview. As a matter of fact, Natalie was offered a job on the spot and promised a raise over what she makes at Sports Night. Natalie, however, rejected the offer, because her heart is at CSC (the station Sports Night airs on) and she worked the night of Sports Night's first episode and will not leave until someone makes her. Finally, Casey decides that he is going to monitor Continental Corporation on the internet. Continental is the company that owns CSC and is currently losing money. Casey hopes that if CSC starts to make money then the show will not be canceled. Keep in mind, that Natalie is scared of losing her job, because there have been so many cutbacks at the network lately. In addition, Sports Night is CSC's most expensive show. Everyone fears the show being canceled. As the show comes to a close, the entire cast is huddled around a computer screen, because the computer promises breaking news at any moment. With moments until Sports Night is supposed to go live on the air, the cast learns that Continental Corp is up for sale. What does this mean for the fate of the show? Will we ever learn the answer?
CLOSING SENTIMENT: We're for sale. But we still have a show to do.
MarchMarch 28, 2000A frantic 9 Flush episode of Sports Night that never dragged and moved along perfectly. The show begins with a conversation between Dana, Isaac, and two network executives named Bert, who is the network CFO, and Ray. Bert shares that CSC has to reduce the size of the Olympic crew from 32 people to 12 to save costs. Dana becomes furious at this suggestion and says that she cannot do a show with only 12 people. Ray explains that CSC will be covering Olympic coverage with the help of an Australian television company known as Austech. Moreover, Bert hints that there may be some more long-term cutbacks with unnecessary jobs. Dana interprets this to mean that all unnecessary producers will be fired, and Natalie is one such producer.In the meantime, Dan tells Jeremy that he is planning a seder. Jeremy gets excited at the thought of a seder and decides that he will write a reformed Hagadah play that everyone can participate in. Dan is not sure about this, because he does not know if everyone will come to the seder because they may not have forgiven him for misbehaving last week, but Jeremy says that Dan is good with everyone but Casey. Jeremy will invite everyone, including Natalie, to participate in the Passover seder, but Dan has to ask Casey. Everyone agrees to come to the seder, but when Dan asks Casey, Casey says that he has something to do. What does Casey have to do? He has been asked by a local video store to rank his top ten videos of all time so that the video store can promote them, but Casey does not want to be associated with the video store, but at the same time he feels like a premadonna for not wanting to make the video list. But Casey can hand his list in at any time; he just chooses to do it during the seder. But I've digressed, the way Dan asked Casey to come to the seder was so realistic because it was Dan's way of trying to bring Casey back into his life, and when Casey said that he could not come to the seder, Dan's face expressed real pain, but not the dramatic pain...it was much more like the I'm-tying-to-hide-my-pain pain. Anyway, Jeremy and Natalie are practicing their lines for the Seder when she tells him that she does not think Jenny was good for him, after all she represented the kid in Jeremy as she was a choreo-animator. Jeremy shares that Jenny was actually a porn star and that she was good for the boy and man in him. Right after this revelation, Dana walks in and asks to speak with Natalie. Dana tells Natalie that she thinks her job may be in jeopardy. Natalie is a senior producer which is a luxury position as it is not necessary to run a show, so Natalie may want to look for a new job. Natalie then returns to Jeremy and asks him about Jenny. Jeremy shares that he never had sex with Jenny. Natalie then shares the news about her job with Jeremy. Jeremy says that Dana will fight for her job back and that so will he. She then tells him that she misses her. He responds by saying OK, and then the two head off to the seder. As the seder begins, Dan shares that he fears major cutbacks will be made in the next few weeks and that the crew of Sports Night needs to stick together as a team. In the middle of his speech, Casey shows up, and Dan and Casey go outside to speak. The two make up in a simple way, but their relationship is not necessarily back on track. The way these two interacted with each other was so real, because they both held back any serious emotions in an attempt to not appear weak. I very much enjoyed this episode.
WHAT MOVIES DAN WOULD INCLUDE ON HIS TOP TEN MOVIE LIST:
Three of the Rocky films...I, II, and III, but not IV and V because Dan only has ten choices.
March 21, 2000A solid, 8 Flush episode of Sports Night that was only slowed down by the beginning of the show. The episode picks up where last week's left off meaning that Jenny is about to arrive at the studio while Casey and Dan fight. We'll begin with Jeremy. In the beginning of the episode, he explains to Isaac that he is in trouble and that he does not know how to deal with the confrontation between Jenny and Natalie. As it turns out, Jeremy does not have much time to decide what to do, because Jenny soon shows up at the office. Jeremy tells Jenny that he told Natalie that Jenny was a choreo-animator. She accepts this fact and will lie for Jeremy because he and Natalie just broke up. But Natalie asks Jenny how she got into the choreo-animatography business. Jenny says that she came to New York to be a dancer and was going to study at Julliard, but her family needed money and a guy approached her to do "choreo-animatography." The money was good and Jenny was good at the job, so she entered the business. Jeremy understands that this is how Jenny entered the porn business, so when Dana meets Jenny, Jeremy says that Jenny is a porn star. Dana says OK and then leaves. Jenny realizes that Jeremy does not know how to deal with her profession because he cannot keep a constant story. She dumps him. This relationship is over.Dan and Casey continue fighting. They get into a fight because Casey makes more money. Casey says that he is worth more money. Tension rises and rises as Dan feels like Casey's sidekick instead of his partner. Casey certainly helps Dan feel this way by paternalistically approving Dan's jokes and saying that Casey made Dan who he is. The fight climaxes during the show: Dan is supposed to ask Casey a prearranged set of questions about a particular athlete. Dan decides to ask some different questions that Casey has no chance of knowing the answer to; Dan just wants to make a fool of Casey. After mistreating Casey, Dan apologizes, but the fighting has not yet been resolved. Finally, Dana is high-strung. She has been acting wired throughout the past two episodes. Remember that she has a bandage on her face by her chin. People keep asking her how she could manage to fall and hit herself at such a weird angle; Dana perpetually avoids answering this question. At the end of the episode, Casey asks Dana why she is wearing a bandage. She tells him that a stress attack is making her break out...this breaking out has occurred many times in the past. But we know that Dana is taking pills. Are the pills for stress reduction? Does Dana maybe have skin cancer? If the pills are for stress, what is the root of Dana's stress? NEXT WEEK: A Passover dinner begins. Casey and Dan continue to battle. Natalie tells Jeremy she wants to start over with him. March 14, 2000A phenomenal 9 Flush episode of Sports Night which TV guide just named the Best Show You're Not Watching. As is often the case with this show, not much happened, but I still loved the banter between characters. The show takes place on the NFL Draft Day. For those of you who do not understand sports, draft day is the day when all of the football teams choose who is going to be on their lineup for the next year. Dana is very excited that her crew is covering the events but wishes that they could cover the first and second round instead of just the first round. Her wishes come true when Isaac informs her that if a golf game scheduled after the first round of drafts gets canceled then the crew will continue coverage for the second round. This news perturbs Dan who has plans to play golf in New York (as opposed to the golf event which is Indian Point) with David Duval, a professional golfer. Dan tells Dana that he will not cover the second round; that he has worked 13 days without a break and is not going to work. As a matter of fact, Dan has been really upset about something (he never says what) the entire episode. At the end of the episode, Casey comes to talk with Dan. Casey says that Dan needs to stay and do the show if it rains because Casey needs to "use" him for "my [meaning Casey's]" show. Dan gets upset that Casey is so paternalistic. The two are very angry at each other.In the meantime, Jeremy discusses Jenny, his girlfriend, with Casey and Dan. They know that she is a porn star, but nobody else does. Jeremy decides that he will be honest with people if they ask him what she does but that he will not volunteer her profession. In the meantime, Jeremy asks what a choreo-animator is; he overheard someone say that somebody was a choreo-animator and now he wonders what a choreo-animator is. Anyway, Jeremy wants to show Jenny that he is not ashamed of her so he invites her over to the studio. He tells her to come at 3 pm, because he figures that the first round ends at 2 pm which means Natalie will have left by then, and he can avoid a confrontation between Natalie and Jenny. But Jeremy learns that CSC might cover the draft into the second round in which case Natalie will be at the office at 3, and the two ladies will meet. Jeremy decides to tell Natalie that he is dating someone. He does not say that she is coming to the studio, but he hopes that Natalie will never know. Natalie does ask what she does for a living. He stalls and says that she is a choreo-animator. Natalie asks what that is. Jeremy asks her what she thinks a choreo-animator is. She guesses that it is someone who arranges dance moves for cartoons. Jeremy says that she is right. At the end of the episode, we learn that it is raining at Indian Point. CSC will continue coverage of the NFL draft. Natalie is now doomed to meet Jenny. Dan is now pitted against Dana and Casey. Also of note this week: Dana is wearing a bandage on her face. She says that she literally fell on her face and that the fall explains her bandage, but I suspect something extra (unfortunately, something bad) that will maybe be revealed next week. I also note that Dana and Casey have a bet over the first round draft picks...the winner gets a $100. But as the two discuss their picks for the draft, we see sexual tension between them reemerge. Casey even admonishes Dan when Dan teases the t-shirt Dana is wearing.
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: What happened to men hitting on women in bars? It's 2am. I'm drunk. What's happening here? --Natalie complaining that no guy will hit on her.
March 7, 2000Not a bad episode, but this 7 Flush episode only won its high marks for good acting, not a fun and fast-paced story. The episode is formatted a la The Sopranos in that the plot is revealed through a therapy session, and even more like The Sopranos because Dan does not want to be at his therapy session. Dan walks into Abby's room (Abby is Dan's therapist) and tells her that he does not want have a session this week. He says that he is feeling fine. Abby says that she thought he might be upset, because she heard that Casey made a list of the top 100 sportscasters, and he did not. Dan says he is not upset about this. He then unravels some plots that have taken place over the past few hours.First, Jeremy realized that he made a mistake in leaving Jenny at the bar. He e-mails her through her video website, and she returns the e-mail. The two meet at Anthony's (which is the name of the bar across the street from CSC). The first thing Jeremy tells her is that he does not want to have a relationship with her. Jenny realizes that he only wants to have sex with her so she slaps him across the face. Fighting ensues. Jeremy leaves Jenny at the bar. Jeremy goes to talk to Isaac. Jeremy realizes that maybe he does like Jenny who prefers to be called an "adult film actress" than a "porn star." Isaac says that Jenny is just a rebound girl. Jeremy disagrees and goes to apologize to Jenny. He waits for her outside of the bar in a rain storm and offers her his umbrella, because she does not have one. She takes the umbrella but realizes that now he is going to wet. She says that she'll walk him home. Who know what follows. As a side note, the chemistry between these two is much more played up then I'm making it. They have a nice banter and tease each other over little things like what it means that someone does not have an umbrella. Casey is excited about a long-jump competition. A man named Oscar Parrish has been trying for a decade to break the long jump record of 24 feet. Parrish tried in two different Olympics but just before one of the Olympics he got violently ill and before another one his father died. Parrish is now aging, and this competition is his last chance to break the world record. He takes the jump and breaks the world record. He jumps to 25.25 feet. Everyone is very happy for him. The competition continues, however, and some Australian 19-year old jumps 28.25 feet, breaking the just-made world record. This new jump is happy for the 19-year old, but sad because someone who worked so hard for so long failed to win. Note the parallel to unrecognized hard work to Dan, as in Dan feels like his great accomplishment will be forgotten in the record books because only Casey made the list for the top 100 sportscasters. That's all folks.
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: If you're good enough to be in second place, you're good enough to know you're disappointed. --Dan
FebruaryFebruary 29, 2000Sports Night returns with a perfectly enchanting 8 Flush episode (and if you've been paying attention to my recent ratings, you'll see just how impressive a rating of 8 is). Apparently, Natalie and Dan have been having a trivia bowl contest for some time now. The teams that play for Natalie and Dan always change, but Natalie's team always wins. Dan plans on winning the contest tonight. The whole office is playing, but Natalie did not invite Jeremy because of the recent break-up. Jeremy finds out that everyone else is playing in the contest, and he is hurt. Dan and Casey tell Jeremy that he should play, because Natalie is not being fair, but Jeremy decides to go across the street to a bar instead. Before we discuss Jeremy at the bar, let's discuss Dan and Casey. Natalie learns that later this week a list of the most influential sports casters is going to be released. Casey's name is on the list, but Dan's is not. Natalie tells Dana that she should tell the guys about this. Dana tells Casey and asks Casey to tell Dan that he is not on the list. After much struggling with himself, Dan tells Casey. Casey tells Dan how happy he is that Dan did make the list, but Dan is obviously upset. He will go tell his therapist about this problem.As for Jeremy, he goes over to the bar. He is playing with some olives when a very attractive woman played by Paula Marshall comes over to Jeremy and hits on him. Jeremy and the woman, named Jenny, hit it off immediately. Jeremy insists that he knows Jenny but cannot figure out from where. The two flirt quite a bit. She learns that Jeremy works in sports and challenges him to some sports trivia. The two disagree as to how many hits Ken Griffey Jr. had in 1997 so Jeremy goes across the street to find out the right answer from a book while Jenny waits in the bar. While in the office getting the information, Jeremy realizes who the woman is. He goes back to the bar to announce that he is right, but she can tell that he knows who she is. Jenny is a porn star. Jeremy now feels uncomfortable around her. She says that the two of them were having a great time before he knew what she was so why can't they continue to have a good time. Jeremy says that he cannot compete with the men that she is used to being with and that he does not belong with her kind of people. She tries to convince him otherwise, but he refuses to change his mind. She tells him that he is a coward for feeling this way and leaves him at the bar. Jeremy returns to the office where everyone is still playing trivia. Jeremy overhears their game and feels so left out especially because he knows all of the answers. A very melancholic scene in which I really felt the sadness of two people breaking up. Jeremy feels deserted by his girlfriend and his friends.
QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: No one is going to take their penis out and hit you. --Jenny, trying to convince Jeremy that he should hang out with her friends.
February 22, 2000ABC again ran a rerun of The Drew Carey Show.February 15, 2000ABC at the last minute decided to air a rerun of Drew Carey.February 8, 2000An episode that was not bad, but was not great or special or anything like that. A score of 6.5 Flushes. Natalie and Jeremy barely deal with their break up. They basically pretend like nothing has happened and do not even tell anyone. Dana finds out about the break up from Jeremy. She tries to comfort Natalie, but Natalie stays strong until she talks to Isaac and just breaks down. There was also a story line with Casey being temporarily blinded, but it was just for site gags. Also, there is a major riot at Madison Square Garden, and this guy from the legal department named Peter Sadler tells Isaac that Sports Night needs to hand their coverage of the riot over to the district attorney so that the DA can discover who instigated the fight. Isaac agrees, but Natalie says no. She claims that they do not have to turn the video over because of the first amendment. Isaac says it does not matter, and this is when Natalie breaks down and cries over missing Jeremy.The real beef of the episode had to do with Dana and Sam. The two realize that there is a romantic connection between them, yet Sam is leaving town for an undetermined time. Sam tells Dana that he cannot enter a relationship, because he cannot stay in one place. He chooses to make his job mobile, because he has so many interpersonal communication problems. However, love prevails and Dana kisses Sam in an attempt to get him to stay. He agrees that he'll stay the night so that the Sports Night gang can throw a party for him. Dana is excited to spend the night with Sam, yet as Dana produces an episode of the show, Sam leaves unnoticed. I bet that next week, Dana is heart-broken. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: Not every woman in the world falls apart when she loses her boyfriend. --Natalie to Dana
February 1, 2000A decent episode that was more about advancing plots and setting up stories than entertaining the audience. Dan manages to take the night off after performing favors for about five people. One of the favors is to get Natalie and Jeremy on the bouncer's list at some hip and popular club. Jeremy does not want to go, but he finally says that he will. However, Jeremy makes non-stop fun of this club and the type of people that hang out at these hip clubs. Natalie gets insulted b/c she likes these clubs and says that Jeremy never has a good time at the clubs, because he is such a stiff. The fight escalates until they decide to break up. In the meantime, Dana's uncle has bequeathed an 18th century gun to Dana. Sam sees the gun and is very impressed by the gun. He talks with her about the gun, and she says that she is disgusted by the gun. He flirtatiously tells her the history of this gun, and then abruptly interjects that he was not flirting with her. Dana is now in a flurry and thinks that Sam is flirting with her. Later the two talk, and Sam shares that he is a member of an anti-handgun association. Sam says guns are not a black-and-white issue. Dana is all of a sudden attracted to Sam, and the two almost kiss, but decide not to when Sam shares that he will only be in town for one more week.NEXT WEEK: Rerun |
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