SPORTS NIGHT!! BANACEK!! STARLOST!! NASA MISSIONS!! MR. BEAN!! ADAM 12!! HercVault!!

I am – Hercules!!

Aaron Sorkin, who created “Sports Night,” is a funny guy and a blue-chip commodity. He wrote the movies “A Few Good Men,” “An American President” and “Charlie Wilson’s War” (all hugely entertaining) and “Malice” (an Alec Baldwin movie I really should have seen by now). He also created and scripted the first four seasons of “The West Wing” (hilarious, moving, one of the finest series ever forged) and “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” (expensive, flawed, underrated). “Sports Night” was Sorkin’s first TV series. It got a lot better as it went along. ABC put it at the tail end of its 1998 Tuesday night comedy block, after “Home Improvement,” “The Hughleys” and “Spin City.” It made its network money. The prominence of its laughtrack varied wildly from episode to episode in its first season. Some posit that “Sports Night” never gained a more substantial audience because of its title. Girls who might have been drawn to its many romantic components may not have been keen to tune into what they perceived as a comedy about basketball and baseball nuts, while most sports fans were probably turned off by the show’s wordy and pervasive rom-com ambiance. I think it was that ham-handed laughtrack that sent too many fleeing. Its second, 1999-2000 season ran concurrently with Sorkin’s “The West Wing” on NBC, sans laughtrack. Sorkin was a fan of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” (co-starring MSNBC icon Keith Olberman in those days) and concocted the story of a Continental Sports Channel writer-anchor named Casey McCall, who was not dealing well with his new status as a divorced dad. The show revolved around Casey (Peter Krause, now on “Dirty Sexy Money”), producer/potential love interest Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman, now on “Desperate Housewives”), fellow writer-anchor Dan Rydell (Josh Charles, recently of “In Treatment”), managing editor Isaac Jaffe (Robert Guillaume, now lending his voice to something called “Half Life 2”), and lovebird associate producers Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd, recently of “Numb3rs”) and Jeremy Goodwin (Josh Malina, recently of “Big Shots”). The theme music, by Snuffy Walden, sounds pretty much identical to Walden’s music for “Studio 60.” Predictably, “Sports Night” bears many strong similarities to “Studio 60.” A job at “Saturday Night Live” even becomes part of the “Sports Night’s” plot near the end of season two. The first-season finales of “Sports Night,” “The West Wing” and “Studio 60” all sport virtually the same title. There aren’t a lot of modern sitcoms as dramatic and thoughtful as “Sports Night.” Later installments probably carry the same joke-per-hour ratio as “The West Wing.” Like “West Wing,” “Sports Night” featured memorable recurring characters, played here by Jayne Brook (“Boston Legal”), Lisa Edelstein (“House”), Clark Gregg (“Iron Man”), William H. Macy (“Wild Hogs”), Paula Marshall (“Gary Unmarried”), Ted McGinley (“Dancing With The Stars”), Teri Polo (“The West Wing”) and Brenda Strong (“Everwood”). Forty-five half-hours were produced in all. Legend has it ABC wanted a third season, but only if Sorkin continued with the show. Sorkin chose to stick with “West Wing,” which was keeping him plenty occupied. COMMENTARIES: 1.1 “Pilot.” Sorkin and director Tommy Schlamme. Learn that Krause and Sorkin used to tend bar alongside Camryn Mannheim. Learn that the Jeremy role was quickly created for the pilot after Josh Malina did not land a role as one of the anchors. Learn that Larry Gelbart hated the laughtrack on “M*A*S*H,” and once paid for focus-group tests to determine if audiences would like the show any less if the laughtrack disappeared; it turns out they didn’t but CBS ordered the laughtrack to continue anyway. Learn that Sorkin loves “Doonesbury.” Learn that at first scenes of each episode were shot before a live audience, but only the conference room and bullpen sets could be seen from the bleachers built into the set; the studio, the control room and the individual offices could only be seen via monitors. Learn that, post-pilot, almost none of the scenes shot before a live audience were aired. Learn that fourth walls were added to the conference room and bullpen sets. Learn that the applause Josh Malina gets in the pilot came from a real audience. 1.11 “The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee.” Charles, Krause, Lloyd and director Robert Belinger. Learn that Sabrina Lloyd is surprised the laughtrack lasted till episode 11 (the laughtrack actually lasted until episode 23). Learn that Lloyd refers to Elizabeth Hasselbeck as “that ‘Survivor’ girl.” Learn that some of the “Sports Night” crew members acknowledged by the anchors at the end of the show are actual “Sports Night” crew members. 1.13 “Small Town.” Editor Janet Ashikaga. Learn that Ashikaga realized “Sports Night” would be a great show when she saw its set. Learn that Guillaume wasn’t comfortable with long speeches. Learn that Ashikaga thinks Sorkin is “nice to look at.” 1.16 “Sally.” Supporting actors Greg Baker, Kayla Blake, Timothy Davis-Reed and Ron Ostrow. Learn that these actors saw a lot of their scenes cut. Learn that this episode was originally shot as the Christmas episode, but had to be reshot as an Easter episode after the Christmas show wound up getting pre-empted. 1.19 “Eli’s Coming.” Krause and Berlinger. Learn that the craft services room was a real craft services room. Learn that Krause resented the fact that Casey always had to have his shirt tucked in. Learn that Teri Polo’s hair was styled so it looked less like Huffman’s. Learn that this is the Berlinger-directed episode Berlinger liked most. 2.5 “Kafelnikov.” Charles, Malina, Baker, Blake, Davis-Reed, and Ostrow. Learn that Malina, bespectacled in the series, has had lasik eye surgery. And that he now has a bald spot. Learn that Malina used to wing pencils at crotches of co-workers. Learn that Ostow’s wife played a psychiatric patient in this episode. Be reminded that it was widely rumored that HBO might pick up the series after ABC cancelled it. 2.16 “The Local Weather.” Charles and Malina. Learn that Malina taught Charles how to play poker. Learn that Malina once knocked Gabriel Byrne off a chair. Learn that neither actor can remember the number of the Burbank stage they filmed on. Learn that Charles first met Paula Marshall when he was a teenager. 2.22 “Quo Vadimus.” Sorkin and Schlamme. Learn that Sorkin was more optimistic about a third-season pick-up than Schlamme. Learn that NBC sold “West Wing’s” first season as a ratings success even though its ratings weren’t much higher than “Sports Night’s” at first. Learn that Darren Foreman, who plays the bartender, was Sorkin’s college roommate. Learn that Teri Polo had to ditch the series for a while to make “Meet The Parents.” OTHER EXTRAS: * “The Show” (33:50). “Sports Night” is discussed in new interviews. Learn that a very famous, very successful, very unnamed sitcom director (James Burrows, one assumes) met with Sorkin before Schlamme came along, but was troubled by how unsitcom-like it was. Learn that Larry Gelbart’s “M*A*S*H” series was an inspiration. Learn that Huffman got an audition through friend Clark Gregg, who was in the stage version of “A Few Good Men.” Learn that Lloyd and Huffman auditioned with Malina even though they already had been cast. Learn that Natalie was the hardest part to cast. Be reminded that Sorkin was writing virtually every episode of the second season of “Sports Night” and every episode of the first season of “The West Wing” simultaneously. Learn that Guillaume suffered his first-season stroke in his “Sports Night” dressing room while getting into wardrobe. * “Face-Off: ESPN’s SportsCenter Vs. CSC’s Sports Night” (21:04). Sorkin and “SportsCenter” staffers compare and contrast “Sports Night” and the show that inspired it. Learn that “SportsCenter” really has women producers. Learn that Sorkin traveled to ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn., for research. Learn that Sorkin fell in love with “SportsCenter” while working late nights on “American President.” Learn that Jeremy’s job interview was based on a “SportsCenter” staffer’s job interview. Learn that Josh Charles once ran into Keith Olberman on the street. * “Looking Back With Aaron Sorkin & Thomas Schlamme.” (26:08). The duo discuss their decade-long working relationship. Schlamme remembers his “Miss Firecracker” producer give him the stage version of “A Few Good Men” to read. Schlamme remembers he read both the “Sports Night” and “West Wing” pilots on the same night. Learn that the contiguous sets used for Sorkin’s shows were Schlamme’s idea. Learn that both men objected strenuously to the network’s insistence that they add a laugh track. Learn that a New Yorker reporter had been dispatched to Los Angeles to cover the “Sports Night” laughtrack battle. * “Inside The Locker Room: The Technical Innovations of Sports Night” (21:16). The creators talk about how “Sports Night” combined multicamera (used for sitcoms) and single-camera (used for dramas) techniques. See Sorkin and Schlamme invent the “walk and talks” that would serve as a signature element of “The West Wing.” Learn that for the episode about Casey being menaced by an in-studio insect, a special “fly-cam” shot was devised and filmed, but never aired. Learn of the special challenges that attend shooting on a contiguous set. Learn that the sports footage on all the monitors was tricky to stage. * “Season One Gag Reel” (11:47). Much flubbery, sadly bleeped. But at least they don’t fuzz out everybody’s lips. There’s some Sabrina-on-Felicity makeout action! * “Season Two Gag Reel” (1:53). Much shorter that the season-one gag reel, it’s also almost entirely dialogue-free. * “Original Promos” (1:37). Four of the earliest quick network spots, none of which utilize footage from any episode. * 34-page booklet. On the second and third pages Sorkin explains the genesis of the show. The centerfold is a blueprint of the huge, interconnected CNC set (featuring seating for a live audience that was quickly phased out). The rest is photos, trivia, dialogue and an episode guide that tells you, among other things, where the commentaries are.

I remember reading about “The Starlost” in Starlog Magazine when I was a kid, and kind of going completely nuts in those pre-VCR days over the fact that it was never syndicated to a station in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. It was a 1973 Canadian sci-fi show created by Harlan Ellison, a great author whose print work I loved and devoured. Another big-deal sci-fi author I read and admired, Ben Bova, served as its science advisor. It was about an 8,0000-mile-long interstellar space-ark that had been in transit so long – more than 500 years – that almost everyone aboard it somehow no longer understood they were on a ship at all. It starred Keir Dullea, who five years earlier played astronaut Dave Bowman on “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which I had come to believe was the greatest motion picture ever made. Douglas Trumbull, one of the special effects supervisors for “2001,” was the series’ executive producer. By virtually every account, it is a terrible show. Critics despised it. Ellison, disgusted by budget cuts and changes producers made to his pilot, quit the show long before it aired and took his name off it. Bova quit the day he saw the final cut of the first episode. He even eventually wrote a fictionalized account of his experiences on the show titled “The Starcrossed.” 16 episodes were made before the plug was finally pulled. Ellison’s original pilot script (the one not altered by producers) earned a Writers Guild of America Award for best original screenplay! Edward Bryant wrote a novel titled “Phoenix Without Ashes,” based on the same script. What a waste of potential! And now you can buy the entire, apparently horrible, series for $36.99.

“Banacek” was about a supersmart Polish-American who grew very rich solving thefts no one else could. A post-“Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” pre-“A-Team” George Peppard proved exceedingly likeable as the cultured and easygoing immigrant’s son Thomas Banacek, always quick with a quip or one of his dad’s Polish proverbs. I’m also a big fan of the show’s supporting cast, which featured 23-year-old Christine Belford as the superhot rival investigator Banacek often bedded and always outwitted, and Murray Matheson as Felix Mulholland, a rare-book dealer who could be relied upon to know the few things Banacek did not. First-season guest-stars included a 24-year-old Margot Kidder as well as Khan associate Madlyn Rhue, Penny Marshall, Paul Gleason, Roger C. Carmel, Jessica Walter, Stefanie Powers, Stella Stevens, Broderick Crawford, Kevin McCarthy, Brenda Vaccaro, Pernell Roberts, Gregory Sierra, Mike Farrell, William Schallert and Ted “You Rang?” Cassidy. Season two guest stars included “Forbidden Planet” hottie Anne Francis, “2001’s” William Sylvester and Gary Lockwood, “Strangelove’s” Sterling Hayden, an “American Graffiti”-era Candy Clark, Anne Baxter, Richard Jordan, Cesar Romero and “Rockford Files” babe Gretchen Corbett. These originally ran from 1972 to 1974 as components of NBC’s Wednesday Mystery Movie wheel, so there were only eight TV-movies in each season. For $36.99 you get all 17 movies, including the pilot “Detour To Nowhere.”

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