Sports Night: “The Head Coach, Dinner and the Morning Mail”

Date: January 30, 2021

Season 1, Episode 6

Music Video of the Day:

Interstellar News: I strongly dislike they did not use the Oxford comma in the title of this episode. I aim to be back writing about Trek in February, which is right around the corner.

Favorite Quote:

Dan: Make it some place that you like. Restaurants – they don’t impress women as much as we think they do, and food always tastes good on a first date. You’re not in Vegas, and you’re not in L.A. You are in the most magnificent city in the world. It’s the city of Gershwin and Cole Porter, Damon Runyon and Fiorello La Guardia. Surprise her, but make her feel comfortable. Make it different, but make her feel at home. But mostly, make it some place that you like.

Jeremy: Where is that restaurant?

Dan: I’ll let you know when I find it.

Dan giving some of the best first date advice ever.

“You’ve been screwing up all week and it’s gotta stop. Get your act together and do it fast. Got it?“: This episode picks up after “Mary Pat Shelby“, so Natalie is distracted and screwing up at work and everyone is trying to cover for her. It’s freezing in the studio, which leads to some amazingly funny scenes during commercial break as it takes Kim almost as long to dress Danny in a scarf and coat as it does to take him out of it. Jeremy is clearly in love with Natalie, but doesn’t think she likes him back and doesn’t want to throw himself all over her. He spends most of the episode being told to “go to sleep” and then falls asleep in Natalie’s lap at the end where she’s so taken by the gesture of candles, wine, and food on the office floor. I absolutely love that he wrote a program to go through all of the food options available, mostly because I’ve totally done that myself.

I love that Casey is all over a coach until Gordon agrees with him and he understands the pressure said coach must be under. It’s the same way I look back at these episodes, or that of Trek, and I can think of several different ways to have done it differently – but if that was a real life situation I only have maybe a split second to make a really hard choice. I also love that Dana gets the “crash and burn” sound completely wrong and she eventually understands she can’t coddle Natalie. She gives Natalie the gentle kick in the pants she wants and all is well in the world. This isn’t the best episode, but it’s surely not a terrible one.

TA Out!