Sports Night is an American television series about a fictional sports news show (also called Sports Night) and the people who worked there. It focused on the friendships, pitfalls, and ethical issues they face while trying to produce a good show under constant network pressure. Created by Aaron Sorkin, the half-hour prime time comedy-drama aired on ABC for two seasons, from 1998 to 2000.
The show starred Robert Guillaume as managing editor Isaac Jaffe, Felicity Huffman as Executive Producer Dana Whitaker, Peter Krause as anchor Casey McCall, Josh Charles as anchor Dan Rydell, Sabrina Lloyd as senior Associate Producer Natalie Hurley, and Joshua Malina as Associate Producer Jeremy Goodwin. Regular guest stars included William H. Macy as ratings expert Sam Donovan and Brenda Strong as Sally Sasser, the producer of West Coast Update (another show on the same network as Sports Night) and rival of Dana.
Malina, Joshua (Jeremy Goodwin) originally auditioned for the role of Dan Rydell
Guillaume, Robert's real-life stroke was written into the story line as a stroke suffered by his character, executive producer Isaac Jaffee.
The character of Casey is loosely based on former ESPN SportsCenter anchor Kilborn, Craig.
During one episode, Dan shakes writer's block by reminding himself why he got into writing in the first place - to impress women. Josh Charles (I), who plays Dan Rydell, was also in Dead Poets Society (1989) in which Josh Charles' character writes poetry is to woo a woman.
Throughout episode 2-20, "Bells and a Siren", Dan jokes that his young publicist should be at home watching "Felicity" (1998). Felicity was produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Tony Krantz (I)- the same team responsible for this show.
Originally conceived as a movie, Aaron Sorkin was unable to devise a coherent plot. The episodic nature of television solved this.
The show was finally canceled when Aaron Sorkin decided to concentrate on his other show, "West Wing, The" (1999). Low ratings on ABC also contributed to its demise. But it did receive several attractive offers to continue on cable TV. However, all the deals included Sorkin as a writer but Sorkin declined.
