Hey, it’s Awesomeness Wednesday again!
Today’s first bit of awesomeness comes from my beloved Sports Night, which lasted only two seasons but told great stories about friendship, love, and asshole corporate media overlords. In this condensed version of the episode “The Six Southern Gentlemen Of Tennessee,” Isaac (Robert Guillaume) struggles with how to respond after his network boss, Luther Sachs, orders him to do something he knows is not right. This show could be really preachy (it was Sorkin, after all), but somehow, it worked for me, and this is no exception. I’d love to show you all the full episode, complete with the hilarious discussions of the Play Of The Year, but we’ll have to leave it here for now.
In the second Sports Night clip of the day, the adorable Jeremy Goodwin ‘fesses up to having freaked out while working on a hunting segment. Try to ignore the goofiness of Jeremy’s “hunting is mean” rant (which rings painfully false for me given my friendships with some hunters in Minnesota who assuredly do not hunt to be “mean”), and focus your attention on Isaac’s discussion of how a smart manager deals with smart people. I admit, it’s no “divide and conquer,” but it’s pretty great.
And finally, because it’s hysterical, I bring you this. What makes it wonderful is the title. It’s not that I expect you to care about the new Starbucks roast — though it’s pretty tasty — but the title of this document is like something out of a particularly biting piece of satire.
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April 9, 2008 at 8:24 am
Courtenay
Sports Night, seriously, is the Best Show Ever. Or at least damn close. I’ve loved Josh A. Charles ever since he had one line in the original Hairspray (”Would you swim in an (pause) integrated swimming pool?”). For reasons that escape me, Sorkin’s the only one who’s ever used his particular brand of gawky, schnozy hotness to its full advantage.
Shoe money tonight!
April 9, 2008 at 8:50 am
rinaldo302
Unless I’ve done something wrong (always a possibility), the second clip is the same as the first.
April 9, 2008 at 8:53 am
Linda
Hey, good point!
Fixed. Sorry. I always have to redo those embeds to get them to work, and I picked the wrong one to redo.
April 9, 2008 at 9:38 am
Jenn
Awwww, Jeremy. He was always my favorite on that show. “I told many, many people.”
April 9, 2008 at 10:39 am
Chantal
I would say “this is SO weird” but I’ve come to believe that awesomeness is not weird — it’s random and that’s part of what makes it awesome. So anyway… I just watched Six Southern Gentlemen last night. I’ve seen every episode of Sports Night at least 6-7 times. In fact, I own two sets of the DVDs. (The story is too long to tell in comments.) So I decided the other night to start from the beginning of Sports Night and re-watch them all again. I need a good Sorkin fix. I needed catchy, sometimes-preachy dialog and some of Dana’s neurotic awesomeness. And Isaac’s just general awesomeness. And for some reason, I needed the little fixes of getting-choked-up I get when I watch The Apology and The Quality of Mercury and Six Southern Gentlemen. And I have that moment every time I watch Robert Guilliame do that editorial about the confederate flag. And I always get a little misty when he says the line, “God go with you, Roland Shephard and you six southern gentlemen of Tennessee. God isn’t finished with you yet.” That’s a whole lot of awesomeness, right there.
April 9, 2008 at 11:18 am
LisaJunior
Note to self: re-watch Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee.
Of all the things I love about Linda (It is very weird to type your real name!) that she introduced me to SN is very high on the list.
“I didn’t know we could do that.”
April 9, 2008 at 11:27 am
Linda
I will always answer to my various internet aliases, but I kind of like using my actual name. I think, honestly, that aliases lead to more of a sense of you becoming a character, and you become less of a person. I wrote a bio once and, without thinking, wrote, “My name is Linda Holmes, and I play Miss Alli.” I mean, it’s mostly the result of listening to too many DVD commentaries, but when that happened, I was like, “Whoa.”
Aaaanyway, I’m glad to see some SN fans enjoying a little Isaac greatness. I miss this show SO MUCH, and I am SO SAD that it didn’t last longer.
April 9, 2008 at 11:29 am
Mark Jackson
Two years was not enough – my wife & I love watching our DVD set but when we get to the end it’s like they’re taking away our friends & locking them in a box where we’ll never see them again.
“Six Southern Gentlemen” rings so true for me as a person who has lived a substantial part of his life in the South. For all of the racist crap that goes, there are southern gentlemen out there who will stand for what is right & true.
“You shouldn’t think that just because I’m looking at you while you’re talking to me, that I’m necessarily listening to or caring about what you’re saying. It’s just something I do to be polite.”
April 9, 2008 at 11:40 am
corgi-ears
“Asshole corporate media overlords”: heeeeee. I’m sure you’re not thinking of anyone in particular.
April 9, 2008 at 11:54 am
Bill
Watching these clips reminds me of how sad I was at he end of the series and how up in the air we were all left with th impending sale of the network…
I miss it a lot.
April 9, 2008 at 12:15 pm
M Cubed
Following the TAR crowd over . . .
Seeing Sports Night always makes me a little sad, like re-reading a favorite book whose author is dead. On the one hand, still awesome. On the other hand, I know there will never be any more. I actually started watching Friday Night Lights just because someone told me it was going to die for the same reason Sports Night did (women didn’t watch because they thought it was about sports, men didn’t watch because they discovered it was about people.)
April 9, 2008 at 2:50 pm
JeniMull
SN was fantastic. Thanks for the reminder.
And that Starbuck’s memo is fantastic – like something I would have expected in The Onion many years ago.
April 9, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Chantal
The Friday Night Lights / Sports Night connection is really true, M Cubed. It’s funny — the reason I started re-watching Sports Night is because I had just finished watching all the Friday Night Lights episodes. I realized along the way that there is a lot of shared awesomeness about these two shows. They are both ostensibly about sports, but they are really about the people who happen to love sports. Tami Taylor is a lot like Dana – awesome and strong and crazy and wonderful. And Coach is like Isaac — just full of general awesomeness.
April 9, 2008 at 8:27 pm
It'sJessMe
I adored Sportsnight and miss it so much! It’s so funny that you bring it up now; after not referring to the show for ages, I’ve used Isaac’s quote about smart managers several times just in the last few days. (Not to get into politics, but I’ve used it in discussions about why Sen. Obama having a close relationship with Rev. Wright doesn’t bother me – since I think he’s a smart person who surrounds himself with smart people who disagree with him. I’ve also used it in discussions about Bush and surrounding yourself with yes men.)
I’ve been meaning to rewatch the episodes again and you’ve just inspired me.
April 9, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Bo
Loved Sportsnight and every time I see someone who was on it it’s like an old friend popped in for a visit. The thing was, every episode you’d get at least one laugh out loud moment and at least one gasp. It’s also fun to see Peter Krause in his boyhood, before we knew his last name had two syllables.
April 10, 2008 at 9:52 am
Kate
I just love good Sorkin Dialog! (as opposed to bad Sorkin Dialog). The first season of Sports Night was wonderful for that. And I never minded preachy. I minded being scolded. Thanks Linda, you made my Wednesday.