Entry 017 - Sports Night 114 (Rebecca)
In which we're called on the carpet, whatever that means
SERIES: Sports Night
EPISODE NUMBER: 114
TITLE: Rebecca
PREMIERE: 26 Jan 1999
DIRECTOR: Thomas Schlamme
DRAFT SCRIPT: HTML
Thankfully for everyone involved, Mr. Sorkin had the foresight not to label the draft script we have for this episode as the “final” draft — though I suppose it would be too much to hope for to say he had learned his lesson at this point. In a continuance with the trend, of course, the draft script not labelled as “final” is considerably closer to the final product than a draft script labelled as “final”. In fact, in this particular instance what’s notable for me is what is inexplicably left out of the draft script rather than what got dropped from the script — but that moment will have to wait as we have much to go through with this episode. Let’s get started.
CASEY: Leonard Mooker of Newton, Massachusetts asks, “If the 1927 New York Yankees team played the 1998 New York Yankees team in the World Series, who’d win?” Leonard? Get a grip. The World Series, by tradition, is contested by two different teams made up of players that are alive at the same time.
What the hell, Casey? That’s rude.
DAN: We’ve got more coming up including Michigan—Indiana and a swim in the shark tank, plus you never know when Casey’s gonna freak out on the air.
He’s not that far off, if his last line was any indication.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: How ya doin’
Running count: 7
DAN: Can I spread it out for you in a nutshell?
CASEY: No.
DAN: I can’t?
CASEY: No.
DAN: Why not?
CASEY: ‘Cause I’m tired of you [sic] mixing your metaphors. ‘Spread it out for you in a nutshell’? How ya doin’? I’m a professional writer.
This from the guy who ended a sentence with a preposition two episodes ago…
DANA: Jeremy — we don’t have film on the end of the Michigan game?
JEREMY: No.
DANA: Why not?
JEREMY: We’re waiting for them to play the end of the Michigan game.
Aight, I gotta bring it up again — how the hell are live TV sports news shows timed down to the minute ahead of time? They have to deal with games that literally haven’t even ended yet at the time the broadcast starts, and yet they budget time to recapping the game? Surely the shot sheet couldn’t be properly timed in the heat of the moment of putting it together during the broadcast? sigh Don’t think about it too hard…
DAN: I was riding in the elevator a couple of weeks ago —
CASEY: Riding up to work?
DAN: No, Casey, just riding around.
“Here’s your sign.”
NEW Dialogue Motif: Half my stuff
DAN: The things you need to know, I’m gonna tell you.
CASEY: Yeah, but I married someone once who said that, and now she has half my stuff.
DAN: I don’t want your stuff.
NEW Dialogue Motif: You say that now
CASEY: You say that now…
“But it is pretty good stuff.”foreshadowing detected
NEW Dialogue Motif: Not that guy™
DAN: I didn’t make a pass at her, you know why?
CASEY: ‘Cause you’re not that guy?
DAN: ‘Cause I’m not that guy.
“Besides which, I suck at passing.”
JEREMY: There was record rainfall in Kathmandu.
DANA: You sensitive about being a weather nerd? I mean, if I make fun of your being a weather nerd, will it hurt your feelings?
NATALIE: He prefers ‘meteorology nerd’, don’t you, sweetie?
JEREMY: Actually, yeah…
You three are lucky Isaac’s not in the room — this is not professional behavior.
JEREMY: You understand you’re asking for film of something that hasn’t happened yet.
DANA: Thank you, Mr. Helper.
NATALIE: Don’t get persnickety.
DANA: Was I getting persnickety?
NATALIE: A little persnickety.
DANA: You’re wrong. Where the hell’s 16?
WILL: 16’s up.
CHRIS: You want 16B?
DANA: 16B?
CHRIS: Yeah.
DANA: No, and the way you can tell I don’t want it is that I didn’t ask for it.
CHRIS: (under his breath) That was persnickety.
Eagle-eyed readers will recall that this ‘persnickety’ gag was a repurposing of an exchange riffing on the word that got cut from a draft script three episodes ago, with the target of the gag being transfered from Casey to Dana. She deserves the word more, if you ask me.
NATALIE: She thinks Gordon’s about to break up with her.
DANA: Natalie, are you able to distinguish between conversations we have in private and conversations we have in a room full of people?
Sources point to no.
NATALIE: Also, she’s secretly in love with Casey.
Oh, for fuck’s sake, are we seriously back to that bullshit?
ISAAC: I’d like the senior staff in the conference room after the show.
DANA: Why?
ISAAC: Because I said so.
DANA: Oh, and that’s not persnickety?
ELLIOT: He makes it work.
Oh, yes, he certainly does — it’s a necessary skill to keeping his rebels on-task.
DAN: … now it would be wrong for me to call this girl and ask her out even though Natalie keeps telling her that I’m gonna.
CASEY: Telling who?
DAN: The girl from the elevator — there’s only one girl in this story, Casey.
CASEY: There were three girls in that story.
No, there weren’t any girls in the story, there were three WOMEN!
DAN: Trainer Tubby Likk said he thought Fool’s Ransom could run the table and win the Triple Crown. Fool’s Ransom declined to comment.
“— though witnesses report hearing Fool’s Ransom in his stable shouting ‘Tristar Pictures’ at the top of his lungs.”
Side note: I had to look it up to make sure, but Fool’s Ransom is indeed a fictional horse’s name — at least for now.
CASEY: We’d like to welcome the Four Corners Cable System in Penablanca [sic], New Mexico to the Continental Sports Channel family. Any of you out there in Penablanca [sic], New Mexico who are watching us right now — turn off your television sets and go outside, you live in New Mexico, for crying out loud.
Only if you pronounce Peña Blanca correctly first, Casey!
DAN: So I’m gonna try telling you this story one more time.
CASEY: Can I just make a suggestion?
DAN: Sure.
CASEY: What if, instead of you [sic] telling me the story right this second, you never told me the story ever?
Fat chance of that, Casey.
NEW Sorkin Name: Rebecca
DAN: I’m riding in the elevator with Natalie, when Natalie says, “Oh, hey, Rebecca.”
CASEY: And Natalie wasn’t talking to you?
DAN: No, I think she was talking to Rebecca.
CASEY: ‘Cause I thought maybe you had a new nickname.
DAN: I don’t.
CASEY: So if I shout, “Yo, Rebecca,” you won’t turn around?
DAN: No.
CASEY: What about Becky?
“Or what about Maxine?”foreshadowing detected
DAN: A couple of days later, Natalie tells me that Rebecca really liked me and that I should call her, so I said I would. A couple days go by, Natalie keeps telling me how much Rebecca likes me and wants me to call her…
(sigh) We’re gonna press Save on this line and come back to it later. I have words.
NATALIE: You know who you should talk to?
DANA: Who?
NATALIE: Casey.
DANA: Would you please, in the name of everything holy, give that up?
Yes! She says what we’re all thinking!
NATALIE: You should talk to Casey.
DANA: That’s your only advice?
NATALIE: No, I have other advice.
DANA: What?
NATALIE: (beat) That was my only advice.
No kidding!
NATALIE: You should talk to Casey.
DANA: Why should I talk to Casey?
NATALIE: Casey’s good at this.
Uh… well, that’s actually a surprisingly adult line of reasoning, Nat. I’m not 100% sure you’re correct, but at least you seem to have thought about it.
NATALIE: Also, you’re secretly in love with him.
Never mind, I take it back — fuck me, we really are back to this shit. You would think with Natalie’s character’s getting an upgrade last episode that the upgrade would continue on, but nope, we get a reversion back to her shitty mean. And as if that wasn’t enough, that’s not even the worst of Natalie in this episode:
NATALIE: Are you gonna call Rebecca?
DAN: (pause) Absolutely.
NATALIE: Yeah?
DAN: I’m absolutely gonna call Rebecca.
NATALIE: She can’t wait.
Oh, she can’t, can she? I’m sure that statement totally isn’t made up…
CASEY: What’s with her?
NATALIE: Nothing.
CASEY: Is it nature’s special time?
What the fuck, Casey?!
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Bite me
Running count: 2
DANA: Oh, you know what, bite me so hard for that.
I’d say that’s an appropriate response!
CASEY: Sixty-six degrees in Denver today.
JEREMY: Two inches of rain in Kathmandu.
DANA: Geek boys…
Something to note: Kathmandu is misspelled both times it appears in the draft script. Another week off for Carol, I suppose…
NEW Dialogue Motif: Agatha Christie shoutout
ISAAC: There’s gonna be a piece in tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal. Don’t worry about it. That’s all. (starts to leave)
DAN: Whoa, whoa…
CASEY: Isaac —
ISAAC: What?
DAN: What are you, Agatha Christie?
DANA: What’s in the Journal?
ISAAC: Don’t worry about it. G’night.
We once again have Isaac continuing the trend of bringing things up he simply did not need to bring up. Mentioning the fight with Esther, randomly letting it out that he’s shrinking, and now this — it’s almost like he’s baiting his employees into reacting incorrectly. Oh, but we’re all one big sappy happy family, right?
CASEY: How long has he been in there?
DANA: About twenty minutes.
CASEY: How long have you been out here?
DANA: About five minutes.
CASEY: What do you think [is gonna happen —]
DANA: [How many more questions] do I have in my future, Casey?
The future always has questions in store for everyone, Dana. … Wait, that’s not what you meant.
DANA: Who do you think the source is on the quote?
CASEY: Danny thinks it’s Luther.
Of course he does, that’s just the sort of thing Dan would expect from a KA asshole.
DANA: Who do you think it is?
CASEY: I think it’s Luther, too.
DANA: You’re both idiots.
CASEY: Who do you think it is?
DANA: Oh, I think it’s Luther, I’m just saying you’re both idiots.
Ah, fuck, I had almost forgotten about the laugh track…
DAN: Knock on the door and say you’re looking for a pencil.
CASEY: Nah, a pencil’s too obvious.
DAN: Yeah, you’re right, we need something [a little less —]
CASEY: [A staple] remover.
DAN: (snaps) Staple remover is good.
(DANA waves her arms around quickly)
CASEY: What are you doing?
DANA: I was trying a magic trick on the off-chance that the two of you would burst into flames.
Yeah, that wasn’t really a high percentage attempt, was it?foreshadowing detected
J.J.: You’re a hundred percent right to be upset.
ISAAC: I’m not upset.
J.J.: You seem upset.
ISAAC: I’m about to be upset.
J.J.: Isaac, you —
ISAAC: When I’m upset, you’ll know it.
“You’ll have a crowbar coming at you down a steel corridor and everything.”
ISAAC: Who was the spokesperson?
J.J.: Betty Gates in P.R.
ISAAC: I’ve heard stronger denials.
J.J.: She’s already been called on the carpet.
I’m sorry, she was what now? Hold on…
Hmm… I gotta be honest, Luther Sachs seems less like someone who would carpet his office and more like someone who would pay people to spit-shine a marble floor.
NEW Dialogue Motif: I put my name on it
ISAAC: Who’s the unnamed source?
J.J.: We have no idea. (beat) Isaac, we have no idea.
ISAAC: When I say something, I put my name next to it.
He’s right — just watch three episodes ago! Side note: dropped between draft script and the final product is Isaac amending this line with “this is chicken-ass”. Frankly, I think dropping that adds more power to the line, so I don’t miss it.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: How ya doin’
Running count: 8
JEREMY: I’m sorry to bother you, Isaac, I was just wondering if you had a staple remover. Hey, J.J.
DAN: Hey, Jeremy, you got that staple remover that we’re all — hey, J.J.
J.J.: Hi, Dan.
ISAAC: Who else is out there?
CASEY: How ya doin’?
DANA: Hi.
All this scene is missing is a tray of hard-boiled eggs falling through the door to the ground.
NEW Dialogue Motif: Close the door, with you on the other side
JEREMY: Should I close the door?
ISAAC: As long as you’re all on the other side of it, yes.
We’re once again rather obliquely seeing the benevolent boss characterization of Isaac, this time the side of the equation where he actively shields his staff from the corporate politics of the organization at-large. As curious as his staff is on the matter, he’s making sure the only person at Sports Night interacting with J.J. (and by extension Luther) is himself. If only this anonymous source had the same compartmentalization technique…
CASEY: You feel like doing some tape work?
DAN: Yeah, in a minute, but I’m gonna go see Rebecca first.
CASEY: Elevator woman?
DAN: It’s the menschy thing to do.
Slight tweak from how this conversation plays in the draft script: in the draft, Dan refers to Rebecca as “that person” instead of by name, and Casey simply asks for confirmation that he’s “gonna see her” instead of referring to her as “elevator woman”. Thumbs up for the change, I’d say — I wouldn’t consider it very menschy to refer to someone whose name you know as “that person”. She’s not a crime boss.
DANA: What makes you think Casey’s interested in advising me on how I can get Gordon not to break up with me?
NATALIE: He’s not, but he’ll do it anyway.
DANA: Why?
Because you two are good friends who’ve known and supported each other for years, that’s why.
NATALIE: ‘Cause he’s secretly in love with you.
SHUT THE FUCK UP, NATALIE!
DANA: We’ve been through this, you and I. He’s pretending he’s pretending he’s not so I’ll think he is, but he’s not, but he thinks he is.
NO, DANA! Stop joining in on the Natalie psychosis! I’m still needing a reason to cheer for you, don’t rack up the points against you!
DANA: What do you need?
JEREMY: This’ll sound ridiculous, but I actually need a staple remover.
In the draft script, this line is inexplicably written to have Jeremy ask for a “paper clip remover”.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Here’s the thing
Running count: 6
DAN: Here’s the thing — I did tell Natalie that I liked you when I met you in the elevator and I did tell Natalie that I was gonna call you, but then, like a day later, I went out on a date with this woman named Elaine, and then I went out on another date with her and it’s gotten a little serious, which is why I never called you. But I wanted to come up and tell you personally, first of all because I thought it was the menschy thing to do, and second of all because I really did like you when we met in the elevator. Now you should feel free to yell at me.
REBECCA: Who the hell are you?
Wait, what? What is this? Does Rebecca have an identical twin or something?
NEW Sorkin Name: Jennifer/Jenny
REBECCA: Jennifer didn’t put you up to this?
DAN: I don’t know Jennifer.
REBECCA: I don’t know you.
DAN: I’m Dan Rydell.
REBECCA: (remembering) We met in the elevator!
Nope, this is the same woman — what are we missing here?
DAN: Natalie told me that you were expecting me to call you.
REBECCA: No.
DAN: You didn’t think I was gonna call you?
REBECCA: No.
(sigh) Okay, Natalie, fess up - what the fuck is wrong with you? You continually insist to Dan that Rebecca is waiting for his call when she has no such desire. Not only is that unnecessarily rude to Dan to lift his spirits falsely like that, it is incredibly asinine to Rebecca who rightfully gets the feeling she’s being pranked — only she doesn’t know it’s Natalie doing the pranking instead of Jennifer, whoever she is. Your apparent fetish for playing matchmaker is a problem, Nat, as we’ve already seen with Casey. I am desperately waiting for this show to perform an intervention.
NEW Dialogue Motif: Any ten people I know
DANA: What do you need?
CASEY: (beat) What do I need?
DANA: Yeah.
CASEY: You came in here.
DANA: Right.
CASEY: Yeah —
DAN: (enters) I just had a strange experience.
CASEY: Wait. (to DANA) Why’d you come in here?
DANA: (laughing) I honestly can’t remember, I’ll see you later. (exits)
CASEY: That woman is crazier than any ten people I know.
Deep reader’s bonus — this last line from Casey bears a striking resemblance to a line in the screenplay for A Few Good Men that didn’t make it into the final product:
DRAFT GALLOWAY: (sing-song) Kaffee’s got his case now, Kaffee’s got his case now…
DRAFT KAFFEE: You are like seven of the strangest women I have ever met.
I’d say it’s appropriate to consider Dana crazier than Galloway by three people.
NEW Verbal Tic: Standing (t)here
CASEY: She didn’t remember you from the elevator?
DAN: Eventually — but first she thought Jennifer was playing a practical joke.
CASEY: Who’s Jennifer?
DAN: Who cares? I was standin’ up there!
CASEY: So Natalie blew the call?
DAN: Oh, Natalie blew the call in a big ol’ way, yes…
I’m sorry, Dan, how exactly can you conclude she “blew the call”? Natalie insisted Rebecca told her she was waiting for Dan to call. Natalie didn’t blow the call, she straight up fucking lied!
DAN: … but that’s not my real problem.
CASEY: I want you to take note right now, I am not asking you what your real problem is.
DAN: My real problem is that I seem to have made no impression on her at all in the elevator.
I feel for you, Casey — Dan is giving in to Natalie’s enforced heteronormativity and it’s painful to watch.
CASEY: … the reason you went up there was to tell her you couldn’t go out with her in the first place.
DAN: Right now that seems beside the point.
Is it, though? I get that Sports Night is one big happy family, but your apparent inability to assign malicious intent to Natalie’s actions is thoroughly beyond my understanding.
DAN: I’m gonna go talk to her again. (exits)
CASEY: Okay — I’m gonna stay here and do our job.
A couple of lines in the draft script after the above got dropped by the final product:
DRAFT DAN: Those guys are going pretty fast.
DRAFT CASEY: They do it professionally.
I can understand why those lines got cut considering their context is hard for the average viewer to grasp, but I actually find myself wishing the lines had stayed in. In echoing the half-hearted exchange Dana has with Casey at the beginning of the scene, these lines serve to emphasize how Dan, like Dana, is too distracted by matters of romance to interface with his job properly that day. Whether that was the intent of the parallel is another question, of course, but it is nonetheless easily inferred by anyone paying attention.
J.J.: Isaac, I’m on your team. You know, I know you don’t think of me that way, but I’m a good go-between.
ISAAC: I don’t need a go-between, J.J. — Luther isn’t hiding out in the mountains with the rebel army.
“Besides which, the Midwest doesn’t have any proper mountains.”foreshadowing detected
ISAAC: I worked on newspapers for 23 years and I know how to read one.
J.J.: Isaac, that —
ISAAC: “More to do with problems on camera”? That’s not good for the show, that’s not good for CSC, it’s not good for Continental Corp, and it’s not good for Luther.
The leadup to this musical line from Isaac got truncated from how it is in the draft script: J.J. reprises the vague “called on the carpet” idiom in reference to the P.R. office, to which Isaac expresses disbelief in their getting their “signals crossed”. Isaac then interrupts another attempt by J.J. to relay Luther’s apologies with a blunt line stating Luther knows his phone number if he wants to have him replaced. It’s a level of calling an inferred bluff that borders on insubordination, so it’s probably for the best that got cut, as much as I think keeping those lines would have beefed up the scene.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Missed a name
Running count: 2
DAN: Hello.
REBECCA: Hey, Don.
DAN: Dan.
REBECCA: Dan.
Abort, Dan!
REBECCA: Dan, there’s really no need to feel bad about any of our meetings.
DAN: That’s easy for you to say, you don’t remember any of our meetings.
REBECCA: It was ten seconds in an elevator.
DAN: Yeah, but you’ve seen me on TV.
REBECCA: When have I seen you on TV?
DAN: I’m Dan Rydell.
REBECCA: And we’re back to the starting gate.
Hmm… interesting to have Rebecca use a sports-related metaphor for this quip…
RETURNING Verbal Tic: I would think/imagine
Running count: 2
REBECCA: They don’t make me watch the show.
DAN: (laughs) There are people who watch it voluntarily.
REBECCA: I’m sure there are.
DAN: (beat) It’s a good show.
REBECCA: Yeah, I liked the part where you said your names.
DAN: We do more than that.
REBECCA: I would think.
Seriously, Dan, abort!
RETURNING Verbal Tic: You bet
Running count: 4
REBECCA: Well… thanks for stopping by.
DAN: (under his breath) You bet. (gets up to leave)
Oh, finally, now I can breathe.
DAN: (reenters) Hi.
Fuck.
DAN: I really like you — I mean, these little conversations have been kinda fun, and I was wondering if you’d like to maybe have a drink later.
REBECCA: Oh, that’s, that’s really sweet of you — but no thanks.
DAN: This thing with Elaine isn’t that serious.
REBECCA: Who’s Elaine?
DAN: Exactly.
NO MEANS NO, DAN!
RETURNING Dialogue Motif: Hit over the head
Previous instance: The American President
REBECCA: Dan? I’m flattered, honestly — but I’m just not interested.
DAN: (beat) Hey… you don’t have to hit me over the head.
All evidence to the contrary.
CASEY: You like Zambonis.
DANA: Everybody likes Zambonis.
CASEY: Eh, I think you’re wrong.
DANA: There are people who don’t like them?
CASEY: I wouldn’t say that, but I would say that most people are probably indifferent to them.
DANA: Do you think I’m weird?
CASEY: In so many different ways.
Please, oh, please take that as a compliment, Dana.
DANA: Because I like Zambonis?
Uh… did she? Jury’s out, for me…
DANA: I don’t know how to keep Gordon, I don’t know what to say to him.
CASEY: What do you want to say to him?
DANA: “Don’t break up with me.”
CASEY: That’s not going to work.
Damn, Case, way to get straight to the point — brownie points to you, brother.
CASEY: What else you got?
DANA: Nothing.
CASEY: You’re wrong.
DANA: No, I’m not.
CASEY: You’ve got the truth.
DANA: I don’t have the truth.
CASEY: You’d be amazed at how attractive the truth can be sometimes.
DANA: Not for a woman.
Come on, Dana! Of course the truth is attractive! You only think it isn’t because you insist on submitting yourself to the toxic heteronormativity of American culture! Buck the trend, damnit!
DANA: The truth is, I have a job that involves me and stimulates me and rewards me and takes up a lot of my time, and I’m not willing to do my job just a little bit, I want to do all of it. It’s part of me and I’m different without it, and that is who I am, and that is who you need to love.
Ahem — I think you meant “whom you need to love”?
In all seriousness, though… this is the closest we’ve gotten so far to being given a reason to cheer for Dana. Having her explicitly verbalize her all-encompassing commitment to her profession makes for a wonderful character beat that I honestly wish had come several episodes earlier. It also makes me wish further she didn’t feel the need to conform to the aforementioned toxic heteronormativity on top of that commitment — but it’ll still be quite a while before that lesson gets drilled into her head.
CASEY: Dana, any man who hears that and doesn’t say, “for a woman like you, for a person, for you, I will take whatever time you can give me and be grateful for that all my life…” any man who hears that and doesn’t throw you down on the nearest flat surface is just taking up space for the rest of us.
Hmm… Casey definitely provided the correct response to Dana here, but the framing kind of went off the rails at the end by inserting himself into the comparison. Yes, any man who doesn’t accept Dana’s manifesto isn’t worthy of her, but “taking up space for the rest of us” borders on inappropriate. Thankfully for everyone involved, Dana doesn’t seem to mind — or at least didn’t seem to notice.
CASEY: And you shouldn’t need Natalie to shove you in here any time you want to talk about something.
He’s right — you’ve been friends with Casey for years, it shouldn’t be this awkward for you, Dana.
DAVE: Two minutes to VTR, two and a half live.
J.J.: ‘VTR’ — that means Video Tape Record, that’s the taped intro, then they come live to the studio 30 seconds later.
Fourteen episodes in, and we finally get someone explicitly verbalizing the meaning of VTR — further proof most of the jargon doesn’t matter in Sorkin works, as long as it sounds good.
Actually, I need to double-check something… yep, VTR timings are inconsistent:
- Episodes 1, 3, 6, 8, 11, and 12: VTR is 60 seconds long
- Episodes 10 and 14: VTR is 30 seconds long
Oops.
ISAAC: I was thinking about what I said earlier.
J.J.: About what?
ISAAC: About creating division between the show and the network — I said it’s not good for CSC, it’s not good for the show, it’s not good for Continental Corp, and it’s not good for Luther Sachs.
J.J.: Yeah…
ISAAC: So I asked myself, “Who would it be good for?”
This last line from Isaac? Not in the draft script! I’m honestly perplexed how that line wasn’t there in the first place, considering it’s a very natural progression from his previous line. How Mr. Sorkin had to be led to the water on this one is almost certainly lost to time…
NEW Dialogue Motif: I’ll own your ass
ISAAC: I find that quote in the Journal came from you, I’m gonna own your ass. (beat) I mean I’ll absolutely own it.
“Your contract will be open to the highest bidder and everything.”
DANA: Jeremy, what do you have for a thirty second fill?
JEREMY: What do you need?
DANA: Something that’s thirty seconds.
JEREMY: How ‘bout a precocious little high pressure system moving in over the Rocky Mountain region creating winds up to 30 miles per hour out of the Northwest? (at DANA’s glare) Or how ‘bout something having to do with sports?
DANA: Excellent.
You know… Jeremy’s character got seriously sidelined this episode. His entire role today is to be the butt of weather nerd jokes. He ain’t firing on all cylinders this go around.
DAN: I don’t think she’s playing hard to get, I think she has no interest in me at all. You gotta respect her for that.
Oh, good, you finally learned that lesson.
DAN: I don’t even know her — and no joke, I really like her. It’s a little painful that I won’t be seeing her tonight.
Never mind, I guess not.
DAN: You understand what I’m saying?
CASEY: Truthfully? Yes, I do.
You do? Good lord, Casey, could you make up your mind?
DAN: Bats and balls, balls and strikes, let’s play ball, it’s time for spring training.
Airdate: 26 Jan 1999. We have another episode that takes place… in the future! (ghost noises)
I’ll be honest, I want to like this episode… but I can’t. There’s plenty to like from a dialogic music perspective, and Isaac’s new lease on his professional life is a pleasure to see, but for the most part plotwise the rest of the episode leaves a sour taste in my mouth. As cute as Dan’s plot this episode may seem to many people, it seems overbearingly close to depicting harassment — especially considering what has happened in the 26 years since this episode. Natalie’s complete downgrade in character particularly hurts after seeing how hard she can go last episode, which isn’t helped by Jeremy’s corresponding lobotomization for this episode. Aside from Isaac, the closest thing we get to proper character development is Dana’s work manifesto getting verbalized, but at this point I fear it might be a too-little-too-late situation with her. I suppose I should be holding judgement there at this point, though… but that’s for another entry.
If you’re still holding on at this point to my less-than-stellar reviews of a beloved television series, you’d do well to subscribe to this blog so you’ll see closer-to-stellar reviews in entries to come. Coming up next: Revenge of the Diction Coach.
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