Sports Night
How Are Things In Glocca Morra?

Episode Report Card
Daniel: B | 1 USERS: A+
This guy won't die

To bring everybody up to speed, this episode of Sports Night opens up with "Previously on Sports Night" clips that remind us all that Gordon and Dana are having problems; Casey slept with Sally; Dan digs Rebecca; and Gordon was wearing Casey's shirts. Sports Night only occasionally uses these clips at the beginning of the show, and I'm always sort of faintly confused as to why they even bother, since Sorkin always manages to work in tons of backstory into everyone's dialogue. The need for the clips is further obviated in this episode because it's another of Jeremy's letter-writing episodes where he explains it all to Louise anyway.

So we fade up on the show ready to go. The gang is milling about in the control room, more or less all watching some tennis match, and people keep saying, "He won't die." Then the Jeremy narration begins as we hear what he's writing in his letter to his sister Louise. He explains that Pete Sampras is playing a nobody tennis player named Alberto Fedrigatti in a match being broadcast by CSC. Problem is, Fedrigatti has battled back from being down two sets, and Sports Night has about two minutes to air with the match not about to end. The Sports Night gang isn't happy about this; if Fedrigatti forces a fourth set, they're going to have to hold the show for half an hour.

Oh, it's this episode. The episode that's responsible for 95 per cent of the posts in the "Sports Night creeps into real life" topic in the bulletin boards, the ones that are posted whenever a top-ranked tennis player (usually Sampras, but not always) is given a good match, like this episode was a total prophecy.

Anyway, Dan and Casey are sitting at the desk waiting for their cue. Meanwhile, Jeremy says that Dan is doing what he always does before the show -- annoying Casey. This time, he's prodding Casey to talk about something, but Casey doesn't want to. Dan wants to know if it has something to do with the shirt. You know, the wine-stained shirt left behind when he, shall we say, gave Sally the "two minutes to air" signal? Casey keeps saying, "You're wired," confusing Dan, who says he's perfectly calm. Casey has to actually grab Dan's lapel to show him the microphone.

In the control room, everybody's still hanging on the tennis match. Dana's sudden persecution complex has her thinking that Fedrigatti is doing this to her personally, but Natalie assures them that "[her] Pete" will straighten things out. Then we unfortunately have to listen to Natalie talk about her annoying Pete Sampras fantasies. Luckily, though, Jeremy interrupts her as they see Fedrigatti force a fourth set. Everybody groans. Back at the desk, Dan has taken off his microphone so Casey can open up, but Casey still won't. Dana comes up to the desk to break the news about the fourth set, and Sorkin gets off a lame joke by having Dana mistakenly call the guy "Fettuccine Alfredo." Casey wants to know how Fedrigatti can do that to him, and Dana says that he's doing it to her.

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Sports Night




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