Walt Disney Television: "Sports Night" - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

stevearino · 10-25-2017, 07:59 PM

Hello everyone,

Steve here: in loving memory of Robert Guillaume, who died yesterday of Prostate Cancer at age 69, I'd like to share with you information on one of Guillaume's final roles: the short-lived '90s Disney sitcom "Sports Night."

Created by Aaron Sorkin, "Sports Night" was originally conceived by Sorkin as a fiction book centering on the fictional eponymous sports newscast, which admittedly Sorkin based on the friendship between ESPN anchors Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann.

Sorkin rechristened them, respectively, as Danny Rydell (Josh Charles) and Casey McCall (Peter Krause), with other characters including, respectively, Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman) and Isaac Jaffee (Robert Guillaume), the respective employers of "Sports Night" on the fictional Continental Sports Channel network.

After much persuasion, Disney persuaded Sorkin to re-tool the book and adapt the unpublished book into a TV series--which debuted on September 22, 1998 at 9 P.M. ET / PT (right after "Spin City") on the ABC Television Network (owned by Disney since 1995, when Disney purchased ABC from its prior owner, the independent firm Capital Cities, Inc.).

Despite critical acclaim, ABC, citing poor ratings, canceled "Sports Night" in March 2000 after 2 seasons, with the final episode airing on May 16, 2000; after ABC's cancellation, Aaron Sorkin attempted to persuade other networks e.g. HBO, USA Network and Showtime to pick up "Sports Night," all to no avail, causing "Sports Night" to be permanently benched from TV.

In the years since, however, "Sports Night" has become a cult hit, via reruns on such basic cable channels as Comedy Central and FXX, as well as the Complete Series DVD sets (first released in November 2002 by Disney/Buena Vista and later re-released in 2008 by SHOUT! Factory).

"Sports Night" was produced by Imagine Television & Walt Disney Television (folded in May 2007 to ABC Studios).

10-25-2017, 07:59 PM	#1
stevearino Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Oct 15, 2017 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 249	Hello everyone, Steve here: in loving memory of Robert Guillaume, who died yesterday of Prostate Cancer at age 69, I'd like to share with you information on one of Guillaume's final roles: the short-lived '90s Disney sitcom "Sports Night." Created by Aaron Sorkin, "Sports Night" was originally conceived by Sorkin as a fiction book centering on the fictional eponymous sports newscast, which admittedly Sorkin based on the friendship between ESPN anchors Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. Sorkin rechristened them, respectively, as Danny Rydell (Josh Charles) and Casey McCall (Peter Krause), with other characters including, respectively, Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman) and Isaac Jaffee (Robert Guillaume), the respective employers of "Sports Night" on the fictional Continental Sports Channel network. After much persuasion, Disney persuaded Sorkin to re-tool the book and adapt the unpublished book into a TV series--which debuted on September 22, 1998 at 9 P.M. ET / PT (right after "Spin City") on the ABC Television Network (owned by Disney since 1995, when Disney purchased ABC from its prior owner, the independent firm Capital Cities, Inc.). Despite critical acclaim, ABC, citing poor ratings, canceled "Sports Night" in March 2000 after 2 seasons, with the final episode airing on May 16, 2000; after ABC's cancellation, Aaron Sorkin attempted to persuade other networks e.g. HBO, USA Network and Showtime to pick up "Sports Night," all to no avail, causing "Sports Night" to be permanently benched from TV. In the years since, however, "Sports Night" has become a cult hit, via reruns on such basic cable channels as Comedy Central and FXX, as well as the Complete Series DVD sets (first released in November 2002 by Disney/Buena Vista and later re-released in 2008 by SHOUT! Factory). "Sports Night" was produced by Imagine Television & Walt Disney Television (folded in May 2007 to ABC Studios).