Recap / Sports Night S 01 E 08 Thespis

Directed by Thomas Schlamme

Written by Aaron Sorkin

Isaac is panicking because his daughter Kathy, who's due to give birth in 10 days, has to go to the hospital instead, and she's in San Francisco while he's waiting to get a plane in the studio. Dan is upset because Casey doesn't remember the anniversary of their first broadcast together, and also because he thinks Casey is hiding something from him. Dana is worried about cooking Thanksgiving for her family, especially with her mother there. Finally, the show is plagued by all kinds of mishaps, which Jeremy attributes to the spirit of Thespis, the very first actor.

This episode contains examples of:

• An Aesop: Jeremy delivers one to Dana after she groans that she just wanted a nice Thanksgiving dinner.
  Jeremy: You're underestimating your mother. You get to see your family, what, twice a year? Savor it. Your mother's gonna love you whether or not you screw up the turkey.
  Dana: My mother's gonna annoy me whether or not I screw up the turkey.
  Jeremy: Which leads us to the conclusion that your mother loves you, even though she annoys you, and it's Thanksgiving, so which do you wanna focus on?
• Call-Back: To Casey and Lisa's divorce. Also, during the broadcast, Casey brings up Jason Grisham.
• Comically Missing the Point: After Dan asks Casey what the significance is of that day:
  Casey: Boston College upsets Notre Dame.
  Dan: Wrong.
  Casey: Gretzky's 500th goal.
  Dan: Think.
  Casey: Alberto Salazar wins his fourth New York Marathon.
  Dan: No.
  Casey: Alberto Salazar wins his third New York Marathon.
  Dan: Casey, you're not...
  Casey: Does it have anything to do with Alberto Salazar or the New York Marathon?
  Dan: No.
  Casey: Let me take one more stab at it.
  Dan: Go.
  Casey: Alberto Salazar wins his second New York Marathon.
• Forgotten Anniversary: Though, to be fair, Casey has a reason for not wanting to remember.
• Heroic BSoD: Isaac after he finds out his daughter is bleeding and has to have an emergency c-section; what makes him feel worse is he had a fight with his wife over whether he was enthusiastic enough about the baby, and he told his daughter he was too young to be a grandfather.
• Insistent Terminology:
  Dan: Dana, Elliot wants to know why there's a 20 pound frozen turkey on the light grid
  Dana: It's 24 pounds.
  Dan: I'll tell him, but he'll probably just want to know why there's a 24-pound frozen turkey on the light grid.
• My Beloved Smother: The reason why Dana is defrosting a 24-pound turkey on the light grid; she really doesn't want to take crap from her mother.
  Dana: I've named this Thanksgiving. I'm calling it 'The Thanksgiving of Mom's Disapproval." Included on the 2-record set are the hit songs "Why aren't you married?" and "Sports isn't the place for an educated woman" and "Didn't anyone ever tell you how to cook a turkey?"
  Jeremy: On the turkey front, she may have a reasonable point.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: According to Jeremy, ghosts offer humility; they point out what's important by mocking what's not.
• Papa Wolf: Isaac's worried his son-in-law Douglas hasn't rehearsed the route to the hospital so he can get Isaac's daughter there on time for the baby.
  Dana: Isn't Douglas a radar officer in the navy?
  Isaac: Yes, and if we were scrambling F-16s, I'd trust him to find the flight deck of the USS Coral Sea, but you can't find Berkeley General unless you rehearse the route.
• Proud Papa Passes Out the Cigars: Or grandfather, in this case, as Isaac passes out cigars to Casey and Dan after his grandson is born.
• Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: When Jeremy tells Dana she should focus more on the fact she's getting to see her mother rather than how much her mother is going to annoy her (see An Aesop above), Dana responds, "For a guy who's read The Hobbit 14 times, you're not so dumb."
• Shout-Out: At one point, Dana compares Thespis' ghost to Jacob Marley.
  • Shout-Out to Shakespeare:
  Dan: We recited the St. Crispin's Day speech in the lobby of the St. Paul Radisson.
  Casey: Was it untoward?
  Dan: No, it was just embarrassing.
• Tempting Fate: Dana acts as if Thespis isn't going to cause a problem at all.
  Dana: I'm not gonna be beaten by a 6000 year old Roman god!
  Jeremy: He's a 3000-year old Greek ghost.
  Dana: Well I'm a 33-year old television producer and for one hour ever night this is my little corner of the world and nothing screws up here unless I screw it up!
  *Dana's turkey falls out of the lighting grid onto the newsdesk*
• What Could Have Been: In-Universe; Casey was offered a chance to work on Conan O'Brien's show, but passed to stay with Dan.
• You Do Not Want To Know:
  Isaac: Did a big frozen turkey fall down on the anchor desk during the last commercial?
  Casey: Yes.
  Isaac: Why?
  Casey: Oh Isaac, is there really an answer I can give to that question that will satisfy you?
  Isaac: I don't think so.
  Casey: Then don't worry about it.