Once upon a time there was a TV series so superior,
each episode left behind the taste of fine wine.
But then ABC showed little taste when it pulled the plug
after too brief a time. A prophetic line from year two
captures the crass commercialism of that event:
Anybody who can't make money on Sports Night
needs to get out of the money-making business.
Sports Night meets you at the point of your need to learn
from creative minds how to see the heights of humor,
the depths of despair with utter delight in the outcome,
life's trustworthiness. Bravo! to the graceful cast and crew
who met all expectations for The Unexpected; casting agents, too.
Thank goodness for the DVD and reruns on the Comedy Channel
that allow you to drink as needed from That Cup.
Aaron Sorkin, the worder behind the orchid West Wing,
took a sports show that's not really about sports and created
a sitcom that's not really a sitcom, but a spiritual testament
for those with eyes to see, ears to hear, and a keen sense
of contemplative action. The fast dialogue impresses and that's
the signature of the worder from his theater days. Yet
the gauzy foundation of the script looms more like scripture.
The true measure of Sports Night is that play and players take you,
without jarring you, to hallowed ground as they point to the place
where the intimate and the ultimate meet to meld the rift between
the pain of the human heart and the prospect of the human mind.
Not so much a place, That Crossroads is a state of minding each
and every aspect of being, of delighting in The Great Unknown
by which each moment must ask every other, Quo Vadimus?
Click here for the rerun schedule on Comedy Central.
Or here for the DVD from Amazon.com.
