The show starts off just before Sports Night ( a show like SportsCenter
on espn) is about to go on the air with the broadcast booth and the studio
talking back and forth to each other while Isaac Jaffee ( who is played
by Robert Guillaume walks into the booth). the main people in the broadcast
are natalie Hurley( who is played by Sabrina Lloyd) and Dana Whitaker (
who is played by Felicity Huffman). the main people in the studio are Dan
Rydell ( who is played by Josh Charles) and Casey McCall ( who is played
by Peter Krause). while the broadcast booth is conferrning things with
the Studio Dan is talking to Casey and trying to get him
to go out on a night fun with him but casey says no and this is where
we learn that Casey is going through a divorce and hasn't slept in his
house for 6 months. in the next scene Dan and Casey are walking through
the office area the next day. they are talking about Jason Grism a basketball
player who after played a good game went to a night club and beat someone
up. Dan goes to kim and elliot to talk it while Casey goes to his office.
Dan goes to Casey in his office and relizes that Casey has slept in his
office then Natalie comes in and with a tape of yesterdays show and tells
the boys that there's a meeting. On the way to the meeting Dana and Isacc
are talking Dana says she want to cut Casey some slack Isacc asks why so
he knows what to tell the network because the network knows about Casey's
problem and Isacc is taking a lot of heat for it. Dana responds that she
owes it to him. they walk in and everyone is allready there. they start
the meeting Isacc asks if there's going to be another hellsinkie problem
(the problem he's referring to is there misinformation they had just before
they went on the air.) Dana replies that they have been short handed lately
and that she is going to meet with Natalie's Finalist this afternoon. Natalie
then go off on how she likes the guy and thinks he's cute. then the from
"The Network"( whos name is JJ) wants to know why they're doing a peace
on a South African Distance runner. Natalie then tells him that the man
fought for peace in his country and that the man had both his legs broken
and wasn't suppose to walk again and age 41 he's running. Dana chimes and
says that the man will
be in the games in which this network is showing tonight at 9. The
Network man than says thats nice but can we find a 22 year old good looking
american. he then goes on about how 11 to 17 year olds that watch the show
in the morning don't want to hear about some 41 year old Distance runners.
Casey then stands up after he's handed a note ans says "I've got Jason
Grism on the phone and I don't want to take my instructions from 11 year
olds and next time I hear the voice of the Network come out of your mouth
i'm going to put my foot on your throat" and leaves the room."The Network
man" asks everyone but dan, Dana, and Isacc to leave the room then threatens
to fire Casey if his on air performence doesn't get better. Dan says he'll
leave if that happens and then leaves the room. Issac then comments to
JJ on the way he's handled his staff. The Network guy then leaves the room.
Issac then tells Dana that its her call and that if he hasn't to do something
he will because he can't let it be their call and then he leaves with Dana
the only one in the room. Later Dana meets Jeremy Goodwin ( played by Joshua
Malina) when she is trying to find out why she can not get good pictures
from a certain satilite. Jeremy tells her that its because theres a hi
perssure system blocking it and that it will pass over in 2 hours. Dana
then asks who the man is. after Jeremy says who he is Dana then relizes
that hes there for the assocate Producer job and tells him that shes not
ready to see him yet and leaves him and goes into Casey's office. Dana
tells Casey that hes screwing up her show and then leaves to interview
Jeremy. Dana asks Jeremy to name three the Knicks need to inprove on after
Jeremy goes on a small rant he then names Three things and gets hired.
while Dan is working on one of his segments for tonights show Casey comes
up to him and tells him that hes thinking of leaving Sports Night because
he's tired of being a PR Man for punks and thugs and that he's got a 10
year old son and he's doesn't like that those guys are his role models.
just as Dan is getting mad Kim come over to them and tells them that there's
something that they might want to see. they go into the office area where
the South African distance runner is on TV and is on his way to break the
world record. Casey then quickly calls his wife and tells her to put Charie
( his son ) on the phone. Casey tells Charlie to turn on the TV and put
it on the his Channel and tells him to just watch and he'll explain later.
Issac comes into the room and asks him if everything is ok. Casey tells
him it is. Casey and Dan do a quick promo for that nights airing of Sport
Night. after doing the promo Casey kisses Dana on the cheek and tells her
that no one but her can produce the show. Dana tells Natalie to check the
satilie feed.
