A Few Good Sports

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Josh Charles plays smug, smirky talking head
Dan Rydell on ABC's new hit show "Sports Night."

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"Sports Night's" Dream Team, from left: Joshua Malina as Jeremy Goodwin, Sabrina
Lloyd as Natalie Rosen, Josh Charles as Dan Rydell, Felicity Huffman as Dana
Whitaker, Casey McCall as Peter Krause and Robert Guillaume as Isaac Jaffee.

JULIE WEINGARDEN

Special to The Jewish News

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Open for Lunch anO Dinner

7- Days

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12/11
1998

88 Detroit Jewish News

f you are watching ABC's
"Sports Night" on Tuesday
evenings wondering why that
anchor guy with the quick wit
and good body looks so familiar, it's
because you've seen him in the movies.
Josh Charles made an impression
on the big screen playing the shy, love-
struck Knox in the much acclaimed
1989 film Dead Poets Society, and
starred opposite Stephen Baldwin and
Lara Flynn-Boyle in 1994's Threesome.
So what's an aspiring film actor
doing on a TV series? Simple. A good
script is a good script.
On "Sports Night," Charles stars as
sports anchor Dan Rydell, who with
co-anchor Casey McCall, heads up a
fictional national cable sports news
show much like ESPN's "SportsCen-
ter."
But non-sports fans needn't fear.
Charles assures channel surfers the
show is not predominately about
sports, even though it offers a behind-
the-scenes look at a cable sports pro-
gram.

Julie Weingarden is a freelance writer
based in West Bloomfield

The show's creator and executive
producer is playwright and screen-
writer Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good
Men, The American President), who
pens the majority of the show's scripts.
Sandwiched between "Spin City"
and "N.Y.P.D. Blue," "Sports Night"
is a mishmash of sitcom and drama. It
focuses on six characters whose lives
center around their high-energy
broadcasting jobs.
Joining Charles is Peter Krause
("Carol & Company," "Cybill") as co-
anchor McCall; Felicity Huffman
("Law & Order," Reversal of Fortune)
as the show's producer, Dana Whitak-
er; Sabrina Lloyd (Sliders) as Natalie
Rosen and Joshua Malina (A Few
Good Men, "From the Earth to the
Moon") as Jeremy Goodwin, the asso-
ciate producers; and Emmy Award
winner Robert Guillaume ("Soap,"
"Benson") as the show's executive pro-
ducer and head honcho, Isaac Jaffee.
"Sports Night's" director is Thomas
Schlamme ("Chicago Hope"), who
ably gets under the skins of his fiction-
al ensemble.
"I had been offered TV for years
and I never wanted to do [a show],
and this is the first script I read for a
half-hour show that didn't read like a
sitcom," says Charles. "I like shows