Sports Night/What Kind of Day Has It Been

What Kind of Day Has It Been
Season 1, Episode 23
Airdate	May 4, 1999
Production Number	N-323
Written by	Aaron Sorkin
Directed by	Thomas Schlamme
← 1x22 Napoleon's Battle Plan	2x01 → Special Powers
Sports Night — Season One

What Kind of Day Has It Been is the twenty-third episode of the first season of Sports Night.

It's been a proud day for Casey, who has a fatherly chat with his baseball prodigy son. It's been a terrible day for Dana, who gets a surprise visit from Gordon. Jeremy wishes he could watch a ninth-inning rally, and there's only one man who can bring it to him...

Starring: Josh Charles (Dan Rydell), Peter Krause (Casey McCall), Felicity Huffman (Dana Whitaker), Joshua Malina (Jeremy Goodwin), Sabrina Lloyd (Natalie Hurley) and Robert Guillaume (Isaac Jaffe)

Guest Starring: Kayla Blake (Kim), Greg Baker (Elliott), Ted McGinley (Gordon), Cory Buck (Charlie), Nina Siemaszko (Holly), Jeff Mooring (Dave), Ron Ostrow (Will), Timothy Davis-Reed (Chris)

Co-Starring: Suzanne Kellogg (Alyson), Justine Io Shoemaker (Ginger)

Plot Overview

While getting final makeup touches, Casey worries to Dan about his nine-year old son Charlie, who's taken to shaking hands rather than hugging his father. On the other hand, Casey can't stop bragging about his son's baseball abilities; in his last game, he went three-for-three with two RBIs, two walks and a stolen base. Dan tolerates some parental gloating before he returns to complaining about Rebecca. Dan expected her to have finally rejected Steve Sisco and come back by now, but no luck.

Dana's much-anticipated camera has arrived, and she demands that the staff wear nice clothes for the inaugural photo tomorrow. Jeremy comes in glum because a baseball game's ninth inning ended in only seven pitches. He wonders why the show can't feature a ninth-inning rally, which gets misunderstood by Dana and Natalie as an insult to the broadcast.

The next day, Jeremy has finally managed to explain it to Natalie when Dana stops them. With an abundance of camera equipment, including a bright strobe, she is ready to take the staff photo, but Casey is missing. He's doing an interview out of the office, so Dana decides to take a practice picture so that hyper-critical Casey won't make fun of her later. But Dana's practice run is foiled when the camera timer malfunctions and the flash goes off too late.

The newsroom phone rings, and it's Gordon calling to ask Dana if he can meet her. While she answers, Casey's son Charlie arrives into the studio with his nanny Holly. Dana greets him, although she is somewhat distracted. Charlie is distracted too, and repeatedly asks Holly about leaving on time to meet his mother. Jeremy escorts them both into the conference room to await Casey's return.

Later, Dana is in the studio when Gordon arrives. She asks him what was so important that he came over in the middle of the day, and then she reads his nervousness and realizes that Gordon is about to call off their engagement. Distraught and on the verge of tears, Dana takes Gordon on a painful walk to Isaac's office for privacy.

Behind closed doors, Dana cracks a grim joke, then starts to vent her anger when Gordon tells her that she's hung up on Casey. As evidence, he cites that she forgave him with relative ease when she found out he slept with Sally, then flew into a rage when she found out Casey had done the deed as well. At first, Dana begs Gordon not to go, but after a moment to consider, she returns his ring and gives him a final goodbye. With an apologetic nod, Gordon departs from her life.

Dan, with a videotape in his hands, finds Charlie in the conference room and greets him. Holly gives them a moment alone, and Dan quizzes him about his baseball performance. When Charlie draws a blank, Dan plays the tape, showing that his "three-for-three with two RBIs, two walks and a stolen base" is merely a direct quote from one of Dan's broadcasts. Charlie admits that he really can't play baseball at all, but before he can go further Casey rushes in with a smile.

Dan pulls Casey out for a minute to tell him the truth about his son's baseball performance. Casey is mad, but Dan cautions him to go easy. In Casey's office, Charlie admits that he can't play baseball, and he lied so his father would be proud. Casey is touched by this, and holding back tears, he promises his son that he will always be proud.

That night, Jeremy exhorts the control room crew not to abandon blowouts, using the Phillies' 14-1 ninth inning deficit as an example. Dana begins gathering people for her picture, beginning with Casey. Casey notices that Dana isn't wearing her engagement ring, and she invents an excuse about "the ring cleaners," which confuses him. Dana sets the camera, everyone poses, but this time the camera malfunctions even worse and the strobe bursts. Dana completely loses her cool, screams at the staff, screams at the camera, and demands that "one good thing" happen before the day is over.

"Hey lady," a voice asks, "are you thinking about getting my show on the air anytime soon?" It's Isaac! Dana is first to give him a big hug as the newsroom bursts into cheers. Dana resets the camera for one last try, while Jeremy turns up the TV volume as the last Phillies batter comes to the plate. Dan and Casey give Isaac some warm teasing, then Dan hugs him.

Casey asks Dana about the camera, and laughs at one of her jokes, which is all it takes to make her smile. The now-complete cast forms up for one last picture. The camera beeps three times, and at the last second everyone's attention is distracted by a solid hit by the Phillies. CLICK! Season One ends with a freeze frame, and we hear a montage of Dan and Casey's show intros from all the episodes, ending with "...you're watching Sports Night on CSC, so stick around."

Jeremy gets his ninth-inning rally.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Isaac returns to the office following recovery from a stroke.
• Gordon calls off the engagement with Dana.

Characters

• We see here that Dan is a little more sensitive to father/son issues then Casey, possibly because of the arms-length relationship he has with his own father. (see 2x11)

Referbacks

• When speaking with his son, Casey's voice becomes emotionally strained. We haven't heard him sound like this since... the last time we saw him speak to his son, way back in the pilot episode.
• We found out that Gordon and Casey both slept with Sally in 1x16. Dana found out last episode, after obsessing over camera purchases.

Trivia

The Show

• One version of the script had Dana give her hometown as Denver, not Cedar Rapids.
• That same version of the script had an additional scene of Jeremy talking to young Charlie. Jeremy recommends that when Charlie begins fifth grade, he study on Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Charlie tells Jeremy that his father told him that he liked Jeremy "right away," which makes Jeremy's day.
• Nina Siemaszko, who plays Charlie's nanny Holly in this episode, would later have a recurring role in Aaron Sorkin's next project, The West Wing, as the President's daughter Ellie Bartlet.
• Ted McGinley's final appearance on Sports Night.

Behind the Scenes

• Visible crew goof: When Dana shows Dan her new camera equipment (right before Dan's "Annie Leibovitz" line), a crew member can be seen hiding under a desk in the bottom right corner.

Allusions and References

• Dan: We'll show you what a long, strange trip it's been for the Grateful Reds at Riverfront.
  Casey: And we'll show you how Geraldo Garcia can just keep on truckin' at Three Rivers.

One of the more famous songs by American rock band The Grateful Dead is "Truckin'", featuring the lyric which would become a signature slogan of the 60's: "What a long, strange trip it's been." Casey's line, "Keep on truckin'", does not appear in the song, but nevertheless appeared on buttons and stickers of the era. Geraldo Garcia also shares a last name with Jerry Garcia, the Dead's leader.

• Jeremy: I've read Doctor Zhivago cover to cover, it doesn't make me the Czar.

Doctor Zhivago is a novel by Boris Pasternak, a drama about a medical doctor torn between two women set during the time of the 1917 Russian Revolution.

• Dan: (seeing Dana's camera) Annie Leibovitz doesn't have this...

Annie Leibovitz is an American photographer who has been on the staff of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. She is best known for her portraits of celebrities and rock musicians.

• Dan: Michelle Kwan doesn't like me.
  Natalie: You're wrong.
  Dan: She dissed me at the ESPYs.

Figure skater Michelle Kwan has medaled at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics. The ESPYs are the awards ceremonies run by sports network ESPN. (So why would Dan, a sports anchor from a rival network, have been invited?)

• Jeremy: A writer once wrote, "As if it matters how a man falls down. When the fall is all that's left, it matters very much."

That writer was James Goldman, who wrote the play "The Lion In Winter" as well as the feature film. The two lines are actually spoken by two separate characters: As Princes Geoffrey, John and Richard await their execution, Richard tells his brothers not to cower at the moment of death. Geoffrey exclaims the first line, Richard responds with the second.

Memorable Moments

• "Ow ow! Pain pain pain!" as Natalie pinches Jeremy's ear.
• Dana takes a long walk to Isaac's office, trying not to cry.
• Dana gives Gordon the telling-off he's deserved for a long while, then hands back the ring with a serene smile.
• Casey's heart-to-heart with Charlie.
• Dana blows her top, followed immediately by "Isaac!"

Quotes

• Dan: (re: Casey's son Charlie) There's nothing he can learn in fourth grade that he can't pick up in a good minor league farm system.
• Dan: Wouldn't you think she'd have come crawling back to me by now?
  Casey: Rebecca?
  Dan: Yes.
  Casey: I would have thought so, but instead she went crawling back to her husband.
  Dan: It's a world gone mad, Casey.
• Jeremy: Whatever happened to the ninth inning rally, huh?
  Dana: Yeah, and why don't we use semicolons anymore?
• Casey: Try not to traumatize the new nanny.
  Dan: Why would I traumatize the new nanny?
  Casey: I don't know, but you always do.
  Dan: I like nannies.
  Casey: I know.
  Dan: I'm thinking of getting one for myself.
  Casey: Good.
  Dan: 'Course she'd probably end up going back to her ex-husband.
• Natalie: (to Jeremy) Your haberdashery parable cleared it up for me.
• Jeremy: Dana, do you have the first idea how to operate any of this equipment?
  Dana: (waving her new camera's manual) This is called an owner's manual, my friend, and I've read it cover to cover.
  Jeremy: I've read Doctor Zhivago cover to cover, it doesn't make me the Czar.
• Dana: (preparing to photograph the crew) You're gonna hear three beeps -- beep, beep, beep -- followed by a one-and-a-half second pause then a flash from my Exeter 220g strobe with the 18 inch parabolic reflector. Ready?
  Jeremy: Could you tell us again what the beeps are gonna sound like?
• Jeremy: There are 28 teams playing tonight. What we want is for one of them to be getting absolutely humiliated in the late innings.
  Natalie: Why?
  Jeremy: 'Cause we're sports fans.
  Natalie: In a haberdashery!
• Dana: (to Gordon) You spend six months making me feel guilty for liking my job, then propose to me, then two days later you tell me you've slept with the woman who wants my job, I say fine. I say fine! Then six days after that you tell me you wanna break off the engagement? Here's the thing: I think only one of us should be angry at a time, and I have a hunch it's gonna be me.
• Dana: This is a cheap excuse to get out of marrying me which you never wanted to do in the third place, and the only reason you proposed in the second place was out of guilt for having slept with Sally in the first place.
  Gordon: You say fine? I sleep with Sally and you say fine? Casey sleeps with Sally, you have a level three nervous breakdown!
  Dana: You're calling off the engagement because I wasn't mad enough when I found out you were sleeping around? Let's do the whole thing all over again and this time I'll just beat the living crap outta you!
• Gordon: (after calling off the engagement) Maybe we can talk more about this later.
  Dana: (small laugh) Yeah, let's talk about it as much as humanly possible. (takes off the ring) This is yours.
• Casey: (re: his son Charlie) Wait, he lied to me?
  Dan: Yeah, and you know what else? It's actually the first time in history that a son has lied to his father, so I would definitely go off the deep end.
• Casey: (to Charlie) The only thing you have to do to make me and your mom happy is come home at the end of the day. In your lifetime, you'll never embarrass me. You know why? (Charlie shakes his head) 'Cause I'm your father. Who'd you think I was?
• Jeremy: A writer once wrote, "As if it matters how a man falls down. When the fall is all that's left, it matters very much." What did he mean by that? He meant do not abandon blow-outs! Watching proud and accomplished athletes battle in the face of odds that are virtually hopeless is one of the more stirring sights in all of sports. The Phillies have been down 14 to 1 since the third inning, and I think it's the best game we've got. That is all.
• Dan: (to Dana) I've forgotten, do the three beeps come before or after the strobe blows up?
• Dan: Casey and I were talking before and, well...
  Isaac: What?
  Dan: We think you're a bit of a cheese danish.
  Isaac: Hey!
  Casey: A strawberry parfait, Isaac.
  Isaac: I had a stroke.
  Casey: Out six weeks on the D.L. with a stroke? I've seen gored matadors get up off the floor faster than you.
  Dan: You're a bit of a crumbcake there, aren't ya, pal?