Product Details

• Actors: Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, Josh Charles, Robert Guillaume
• Directors: Thomas Schlamme
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 8
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Shout! Factory
• DVD Release Date: September 30, 2008
• Run Time: 1200 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001B187BQ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,182 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Sports Night: The Complete Series 10th Anniversary Edition" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Review

TV wunderkind Aaron Sorkin s first series finally knocks it out of the ballpark on DVD --Video Business

Product Description

With breakout and memorable performances by Josh Charles (In Treatment), Robert Guillaume (Benson), Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Peter Krause (Six Feet Under), Sabrina Lloyd (Sliders) and Joshua Malina (The West Wing), this was writer/producer Aaron Sorkin's (A Few Good Men , The American President) first television series. And it was director Thomas Schlamme's first collaboration with Sorkin. The pair, who would continue to click brilliantly with The West Wing and Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip, may not have known it at the time, but with Sports Night they defined a new style and raised the bar for all television programs to follow.

Critically acclaimed when it debuted on ABC in 1998, Sports Nigh was an innovative half-hour program about a team of funny, smart and likeable people who put on a daily live sports cable newscast, much like ESPN's SportsCenter. They are a group of consummate professionals whose personal lives operate in apparent chaos, communicating every uncensored thought and feeling through a libretto of witty and honest chatter over the hum of the separate-but-integrated live show-within-the-show.

10th Anniversary Special Features:
*The Show: An in-depth look back at Sports Night with creator/writer Aaron Sorkin, directors Thomas Schlamme and Robert Berlinger, cast members Felicity Huffman, Peter Krause, Josh Charles, Joshua Malina, and Robert Guillaume, Emmy(r) award-winning editor Janet Ashikaga, Emmy(r) award-winning director of photography Peter Smokler, producer John Amodeo, and set designer Thomas Azzari. Includes never-before-seen behind-the-scenes home movies shot by John Amodeo.
*Face Off: ESPN's SportsCenter vs. CSC's Sports Night - Sports Night's real-life ESPN counterparts discuss what the series got right and wrong.
*A Conversation with Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme
*Inside The Locker Room - A look at the innovations of Sports Night with Aaron Sorkin, Thomas Schlamme, Robert Berlinger, Janet Ashikaga, Peter Smokler, John Amodeo, and Thomas Azzari.
*Season Gag Reels
*8 Episode Commentaries including creator/writer Aaron Sorkin, director/executive producer Thomas Schlamme, director Robert Berlinger, editor Janet Ashikaga, and cast members Peter Krause, Josh Charles, Joshua Malina, Sabrina Lloyd, Greg Baker, Kayla Blake, Timothy Davis-Reed, and Ron Ostrow.
*Original Promos
*36-Page Booklet including an introduction by creator Aaron Sorkin

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the BEST too-early-canceled series EVER, July 1, 2008

By	K. Rickson "Music is Life!" (SF Bay Area/Barbary Coast, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I of course cannot comment on the actual box set, since there is little information provided by Amazon on disc details at time of writing (early July 2008).

However, this was one of my favorite shows when it was on in the late 90's (I cannot believe it's been 10 years already!!!). And, it is still in my top 5 of all time to this day.

Why? Well, for one thing, just look what some of the key people involved have gone on to do after making Sports Night: The West Wing (Creator/Writer/Producer Aaron Sorkin, actor Josh Malina, plus guest spots by many SportsNight regulars), Six Feet Under (Peter Krause), Desperate Housewives (Felicity Huffman). For each of these pros, 'Sports Night' was a key launchpad for the rest of their careers.

(And, of course, the already well-respected Robert Guillaume was a key member of the cast. He suffered a debilitating stroke mid-production and still gave bravura perfomances on his return.)

This show is one of the rarest of TV gems: a comedy that does not pander, that challenges you to keep up. Anyone who regularly watched the first few seasons of 'The West Wing' will recognize one of Sorkin's favorite devices, the fast-talking, no-pauses, walking-down-the-hallway conversation. This device is not to everyone's taste, but it's a great one for the right actors and writers, and a certain species of TV viewer.

And yet, the show rewards even casual viewers with witty, incisive, insightful commentary and critique of just about everything. It's just plain funny most of the time.

The tagline was "It's about sports. The way Charlie's Angels was about law enforcement". And that about sums it up. Its focus is on human relationships in that most volatile environment, the workplace.

This workplace just happens to be an even more of a pressure-cooker than most: a TV studio producing live sports news shows. Think 'ESPN SportsCenter'. Yet, it's not supposed to actually be SportsCenter, since they wisely wink to reality and refer to "Bristol" (the actual city where ESPN is headquartered) as their competition. I always thought this was a clever device, since ESPN is a sister company to ABC, the network 'Sports Night' ran on. Eveyone else (Fox, CNN, et al) has tried to beat ESPN at its own game, and lost, and 'Sports Night' keeps that feeling of being a decided underdog.

Though the stakes aren't as high for the rest of the world, the pressure of the environment to the people in it (and therefore by extension to the viewer) is much like Sorkin's 'West Wing' -- not as many dramatic world crises, but still plenty of "must react NOW!!!" raw material that Sorkin and team mine for sublime comic effect.

Yes, it's funny, very funny in fact. But what appealed to me most is that quite often Sports Night could be poignant, even at times dramatic. Again, not the faux-gavitas that most sitcoms try to attain with that corny, "a very special episode of...", ripe-for-satire phoniness. When there is deep human emotion to be felt, the show portrays it in just the right quantities. Breakups, lost career opportunities, even some of the ficitious "real world" storylines have just that much more feeling of real human emotion than do just about any other TV comedy, or even many TV dramas. Most of that reality is due to the characters being portrayed as fleshed-out human beings, at least as much as can be done in a 30-minute TV format. They aren't exactly true to life, but they aren't just cardboard cut-outs either. An excellent example is how Robert Guillaume's real-life stroke, and subsequent return to the show, was handled onscreen: brilliantly, of course.

In the end, if you are like me, you will love Sports Night mainly for the charcaters themselves. I really came to like them, a lot. I wanted to know more about them. Even the guest spots were intriguing, like Felicity Huffman's real-life husband, William H. Macy, as a show "fixer". That's why the cancellation was so painful for so many. I had to wait another five years for another TV comedy that could rival it -- 'Arrested Development', another cult fav that was killed too early. I think if a show like 'Sports Night' was pitched today, it would probably find a comfy home on cable, and live for many seasons. However, it was at least five years ahead of its time for that. And network TV is notorious for handling quality shows badly.

If you watched it while it was on, this box set is a great chance to relive its greatness. If you never had the pleasure, please take the opportunity now to explore something very special.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just good television!, September 5, 2008

By	Michael A. Brown "maniacmedia" (Salt Lake City, UT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Writer/creator Aaron Sorkin and director Thomas Schlamme went on to develop NBC's "The West Wing" during the second season of this wonderful series.

From the beginning, ABC had no clue of how to handle this show. First, they insisted that the producers ad a laugh track, because you don't know when to laugh. Then, they started to promote it like a soap opera, because it had serious issues to deal with at times.

Ultimately, the quality of the show came through. A fabulous cast provided excellent performances. Josh Charles ("A Few Good Men", "SWAT") and Sabrina Lloyd ("Sliders") are the MVPs here, consistently giving the show it's heart. Peter Krause ("Six Feet Under", "Dirty Sexy Money"), initially stiff in his "on air" role as Casey McCall, settled in well mid-first season.

The real gem here is Robert Guilamme ("Benson"), his Issac Jaffe is an excellent character brought to life with his gentle touch. Guilamme's real-life stroke was written into the series, and when he returned in the second season made for some wonderful moments and sly dialogue delivered by the veteran actor.

Unfortunately, try though they may, Shout! Factory has been unable to provide the option of killing the laugh track in the set. Fortunately, they have provided a great new set which beats the original cheap, no-frills set that Disney provided several years ago.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sports Night is not about sports, September 18, 2008

By	Stephen C. Ehrmann "Steve Ehrmann" (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you liked "West Wing," you'll like Sports Night (even if you don't like sports). The fatal mistake in the development of Sports Night was probably the title of the series. The best thing about it was also, for some people, probably a weakness: it's not a drama, not a comedy. It doesn't fit any customary category. A typical half-hour espisode is a drama that makes you laugh for 20 minutes because the people in the drama love to make one another laugh (and you laugh with them). And then, in the last 5-10 minutes, it will nail some truth about human beings in a way that will probably bring tears to your eyes. Quite a lot to draw from an insider look at the production of a television program (a program that happens to be about sports). If you never saw Sports Night, you're in for a very special experience.