Sports Night is one of my favorite TV shows and easily the most Sorkin-y show that was ever Sorkin-y (read:  people walk and talk while repeating themselves and others). He spoke a bit about the show in a recent GQ article:

"GQ: Sports Night ran for just two years. I gotta say, It always seemed like a weird fit for ABC.

AS:  Yeah. Sports Night was on right between The Drew Carey Show and Spin City. ABC would tell me, “You’re losing 20 percent of Drew Carey’s audience.” I would tell them, “I don’t think so. I think I’m losing 100 percent of Drew Carey’s audience.”


GQ:  Sports Night ends with a classic line: “Anybody who can’t make money off of Sports Night should get out of the moneymaking business.” Zing!

AS:  I’m not crazy about stepping outside the show and winking at the audience. But it felt good to write it. And the crew liked listening to it.


GQ:  So much of Sports Night was about fathers. I remember watching one scene in which a dad rejects his son’s ringside seats to a boxing match because he thinks his kid is showing off, and thinking that had to have come from real life.

AS:  Oh yeah. My father was an intellectual-property lawyer. He was born in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, fought in World War II on the GI Bill. The greasier side of this business turns him off. And ought to. My father is the reason why I tend to write as idealistically and romantically as I do. He is a guy who has one foot in the last century. He’s out to civilize people—but with great wit and humor."

I already own the series on DVD, but I'm clearly going to have to buy the special edition set.

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