Have a new favourite show – the terrific Aaron Sorkin comedy-drama, Sports Night, a little known show which aired before West Wing.
Why Sports Night is better than Studio 60 on Sunset:
a) the two lead guys actually have a genuine friendship that we see in action all the time whereas on Studio 60 after the pilot we hardly saw Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry be mates
b) they work harder – sure its hard to do an hour of live comedy but not as hard to do an hour of sports five nights a week – so they are genuinely busier (a lot of the trouble on Studio 60 seemed to be due to Matthew Perry’s inefficient work methods)
c) the stakes are bigger – even though a sports show is only a sports show it can still genuinely make or break someone’s career eg false reporting – whereas a comedy show if it doesn’t go on, really, so what?
d) Its half an hour so it feels less weighty and the tone feels right whereas it never did for Studio 60
e) The two lead males seem the right age (Matt Perry and Bradley Whitford are both excellent actors but a bit too old)
f) It didn’t run out of storylines too early and have to fall back on flash back episodes in the first season
g) It wasn’t obsessed with bagging Christians (NB admittedly Sports Night was pre Bush and Sept 11)
h) Its feeling of family and support feels more genuine
Sports Night isn’t flawless – Peter Karuse smiles a bit too much, it does get a bit too self righteous at times (eg the homeless man episode), there’s the erratic laugh track. Some of the flaws are the same of both shows – in both every now and then you feel Sorkin should really be making a show about a hard news show, and in both shows the urst between the lead couple is dragged out to a really contrived degree. But they are both brilliantly written, entertaining shows, extremely well directed.
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