Sportsnight, West Wing, Studio 60?

Cafe Society
1

I’m in the middle of rewatching Sportsnight. What are things we assume will at some point happen on Studio 60, to make the trifecta complete?

(1) Ted McGinley will show up (he was Gordon, Dana’s jerk fiance, on SN; and a pundit on TWW).

(2) Lisa Edelstein will show up (she was Bobbi Bernstein, who kept insisting that Dan had slept with her and not called her, on SN; and Laurie the call girl on TWW) (and, btw, is it ever explained on SN how Dan not only forgot he had slept with her, but forgot that he’d ever been in Spain?)

(3) Joshua Malina will join the cast

(4) An episode will use someone-writing-a-letter as its plot conceipt

(5) An episode will use “someone is doing something amazing like almost-beating-Pete-Sampras or filibustering-forever” as its plot conceipt
What else?

2

She was using the name Roberta then, not Bobbie, so that clears him in the name department. And was it actually a hotel in Spain, or just a hotel with a name of a Spanish city?

Last year I half-jokingly said that Sorkin will get bored within a couple of seasons, and the show will get cancelled or turned over to a new creative team.

3

Yes.

It was a combination of Dan being very, very drunk, Bobbi going by what we guess was her full name, and Bobbi also going through her awkward teenager phase.
He did vaguely remember sleeping with a girl named Roberta during a trip to what he thought was Portugal.

4

Lisa Edelstein is super-hot, so I hope she shows up on Studio 60, but she’s probably very busy playing Dr. Cuddy on House.

5

Malina’s already started campaigning for childhood buddy Sorkin to write him in. I’d say it’ll happen by the end of the season.

6

Everyone will spend most of their time walking around in two shots spouting perfectly written sentences. Most exchanges will end with “OK.”

7

I’d like to see Janel Malonney show up. She was, of course, Donna Moss in The West Wing, and had a one-epsiode role as a wardrobe assistant giving Danny (or was it Casey?) grief for not giving the wardrobe matron her due on “The View” on Sports Night.

8

Does this mean it’s available on DVD or something?

Nice to find other fans of Sports Night. It was an excellent show cancelled far too soon IMHO.

9

it’s been on DVD for a couple of years now, at least in the US.

10

Also, on Studio 60, there will be:

  • an episode titled “What Kind Of Day Has It Been”

  • a character who’s parents are divorcing. That character will deal with it by obsessing over some trivial event in the past.

  • Tom’s father will eventually tell him “the only thing you needed to do to make me proud was to come home at the end of the day.”

11

Not only will his parents be divorcing, but he’ll discover his father’s been having an affair with the same woman for almost as long as he’s been alive.

And don’t forget some character making an ass out of themselves in front of somebody they respect and admire. (Dan and Hillary, Sam and … I can’t remember who it was for Sam–it might even have been Hillary again.)

12

I’ve recently (in the last 6 months) rewatched both all of Sports Night and all of The West Wing, and was amused by this sort of thing. I had no idea Janel Maloney had been on Sports Night and was shocked to see her.

I notice Ed Asner is shaping into the wise old mentor role that’s required in Sorkinlandia.

13

Yes, TWoP had a link in that episode recap to a website that explained it. Basically, it was cut from the script, which made it very confusing.

Danny got drunk in France with his friends and hooked up with Bobbi. They crossed the border into Spain and spend the night at Hotel Espana. He was too drunk to remember the road trip.

For me:

Some woman will have legs that go all the way to the floor (Sally and Amy)

Sam made a fool of himself in front of some reporter, not Hillary.

14

Oh, and there will be poker.

15

Yes, that’s it. I couldn’t remember it off the top of my head. :slight_smile:

16

Done. One episode (maybe it was the Ricky & Ron quit episode) had a basketball game going into multiple-overtimes in the background. I believe it was a college game, meant to be Bradley Whitford’s character’s alma mater…(Cal?)

17

That didn’t hold them up, like the tennis match or the filibuster. The show was over.

18

Yeah, I’m expecting a show that’s delayed because there’s some sporting event that NBS is broadcasting that just doesn’t end and they can’t, of course, stop airing the sporting event, so the cast is all sitting around waiting to do the show and, I dunno, getting nervous or something.

19

And somehow, Alberto Fedregotti will be involved.

20

A plot will revolve around an offstage character named Alberto Fedregotti.