I've just finished watching the first season of Sports Night, the short-lived Aaron Sorkin show. It's quite good. Watching these first episodes, it's also clear why the show didn't do very well.
The show's content is quite good. But I don't think it was right for network TV. It's not a sit-com but it fits in the half-hour episode format. They try to awkwardly slide in a laugh track but it's not right. This show should not have a laugh track even though it has funny moments. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been better off in a one hour episode format as well.
Sorkin writes fairly tight dialogue and is great with the "walking while talking" routine. Another problem with the program is that there's no good audience for it either. Women won't watch anything that involves "sports" unless it's tennis and figure skating. Men who like sports overall are more interested in the humor displayed on shows like FOX NFL Sunday or segments like "You've Been Sacked" on Monday Night Football. The humor in Sports Night is a little different from this.
If you haven't seen this show, you should.
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2 comments:
There was a laugh track? I thought there was one for the pilot episode, but not for the remainder of the season.
My cousin was telling me that one of the biggest problems with the show when it first came out was that the network didn't get behind it, and they moved the showtime around a lot.
It's a little raw as a sitcom, but might have done better as a one hour drama that happened to be funny. The second season gravitates more towards this format...too late to save the show though.
Now I'm watching an episode of the show, and look -- it's Ed from the show of the same name!
Yes, they did have a laugh track intermittently through season 1 and the scheduling changes must have been a problem too (see 24, 3rd season), especially for a show that has such continuity.
Another person I knew who really liked Sports Night also really liked Ed. I get the impression these two shows are somewhat similar.
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