A friend once told me of a television show titled “Sports Night”, claiming it was one of the best shows they had ever seen. And after they had described what the show was to me (a behind-the-scenes look at people who produce a sports show), I had imagined something totally slick and in-your-face. A show which exploited modern conventions of what I knew ESPN to be, replete with 60mph headline tickers with brawny, fast-talking analysts laying down coverage of SPORTS.

I had no idea that I was about to watch a show from the ’90s.

In the show, you’ll see a great deal of fast-talking, but not because it’s ESPN style, no, more because of the fact that the shows creator is Aaron Sorkin, well known for “The West Wing”. Despite it’s own title, the show has very little to do with sports.

Set against the hustle and bustle of a high rise television studio in NYC (Disney Studios in-real-life), and often utilizing an Aaron Sorkin trademark (super long walk-and-talks on a steadicam), the show never stops short of delivering a quality about storytelling I truly miss from the ’90s:

compassion.

Watching the show has proven how much has changed with regards to storytelling style in the last 10 years. In general…doesn’t everything nowadays feel like it has to be IN-YOUR-FACE, SEXY, SUSPENSFUL or contain UNBELIEVABLE PLOT TWISTS?

Everything about “Sports Night”, right down to the laugh track (which was axed because frankly, it’s weird to have a laugh track over picture that’s clearly been cut from multiple camera angles) to the super whimsical musical stings coming in and out of commercial breaks is NOT cheesy to me now. If anything it’s heartwarming. It fills me with a sense of nostalgia for what TV was like when it was an event that couldn’t be reserved on a Tivo, when you had to remember to “tune-in” and park your butt in front of the TV at the time that they say you needed to.

Most of all, I wish that in some ways audiences could stop being afraid of melodrama, for fear of it being “cheesy” or “cliche”. There are plenty of moments in “Sports Night” that prove that what is considered “cheesy” by today’s standards, is still damn good.

With that, I leave you with an clip from my favorite moment thus far from the show…a MONOLOGUE!

Some background: Jeremy is going out with Natalie, but he is having a fight with her.
They’re playing poker to pass the time in between their 11pm show and the 2am show.
The rest is so well gleaned from the clip that you should just watch it.