Sports Night: Dan/Casey
Oct. 18th, 2004 08:11 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
scrunchy.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ship_manifestoTitle: It's Not Against the Law to Be Vaguely Gay,
Author: scrunchy
E-mail: scrunchy@livejournal.com
Fandom: Sports Night
Pairing: Dan/Casey
Spoilers: All Episodes
THE SHOW
Back in 1998, ABC introduced a half hour comedy into its lineup. The show was funny, cerebral, and unlike anything else on the air. The show was Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night. It had its fans; they loved the fast paced dialogue, the occasional turns towards the wacky, and the lovable, flawed, sometimes uneven characters. It had its detractors; people hated the wordiness of Sorkin's scripts, they hated the repetitive style it often played with, and they hated those sometimes uneven characters.
In 1999, there was a murmur of concern as Aaron Sorkin set out to write and produce both Sports Night and the fledgling The West Wing. In an interview he assured people that he'd always be married to Sports Night, that The West Wing was just his mistress. I, playing scenes from my parents' marriage in my head, took no comfort in this analogy.
And so it came to pass that the last episode of Sports Night's second season was the very last episode we'd ever see. How did such a smart show fail? Well, that "smart" thing's a big part of it. Billed as a comedy, ostensibly about sports, some people tuned in and were confused, and some stayed away entirely. Those who stayed were treated to a network-applied laugh track (at least in the beginning of the first season) so obnoxious and out-of-place, it's a wonder anyone with the words "television" and "professional" anywhere near their resume thought it was a good idea. ABC, aside from pushing the laugh track, pretty well prevented Sports Night from finding a home on the network, and therefore an audience. They shuffled its air-time, they pre-empted it on countless occasions with episodes of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, they promoted like a show they had no interest in seeing succeed. It worked. All this, plus the fact that The West Wing was thriving on NBC, made the cancellation of Sports Night Night after 45 half-hour episodes a logical, if painful, end.
The fans, though. Oh, the fans of shows cancelled before their time. A special breed, undoubtedly, and the fans of Sports Night thrive to this day. Many of them, as seems to be true of most fandoms, are slashers. The slash thrives in the Sports Night fandom thanks to two main characters played by two attractive actors reading scripts with plenty of wiggle room in the imagination's "...and then they made out" category.
THE MEN
DAN RYDELL
Played by Josh Charles, Dan Rydell is among my favorite characters in any medium. In fact, let's go on ahead and give the man the crown, because I honestly can't think of anyone (fictional) I love more. Danny's from Connecticut, even though in the Pilot he says, "I've lived in New York my whole life." That's either due to Aaron Sorkin still tinkering with the character (stranger things have changed between pilots & the rest of TV series), Sorkin playing fast and loose with his own canon (which he will do to an oh my god frustrating extent), or -- as I choose to believe -- the tendency seen in one living in the New York metro area but not in the city proper to spend a lot of time there and consider one's self a native (she says, sitting suddenly self conscious in northern New Jersey).
Danny's Jewish, a Dartmouth grad (Go Big Green!), and he hates soccer. He's got an older brother named David and a mom who both get very little mention in the course of the show. He's got a little brother named Sam who died in a car accident while high, and a father who doesn't seem to like Dan very much. You'd better believe the latter has something to do with the former, because it's these two horribly painful relationships that cling to the edges of Dan's awareness at all times.
We're not to feel bad for him at all times, though. For in front of all his psychological issues is the well-practice façade of someone very confident with who they are and what they do. Danny's attractive and he knows it. He is, by all appearances, a ladies' man, and wants nothing more than to love and be loved by the people around him. Now, is this all endemic of the large chink in his psyche that tells him he killed his brother and cannot, must not be loved? Ohhh yeah, it is. But it's ok. See, Dan's broken in a lot of ways. Hell, on my Sports Night DVD set, parts of the disc with Danny's face on it skip and won't play. The guy can't catch a break. But he can, in the midst of his Murphy's Law led life, come home to the fact that, at least at work, he's surrounded by people who love and care about him.
CASEY MCCALL
Played by Peter Krause, Casey is from some Midwestern state. He went to school, too, somewhere in the Midwest. Basically, we know a whole lot less about Casey than we do Dan. What we know about Casey is largely collected from the most recent decade or so in his life. He was married for a number of miserable years to a woman named Lisa who by all accounts treated him badly (and yes, this was Peter Krause's first role about a character with failed marriage to a woman named Lisa. There would be a second in the years to come.). Their divorce is in progress when the timeline of the show kicks off. Casey has a son with his ex-wife, the adorably tow-headed Charlie, who's eight years old in the Pilot.
Casey, though not afforded the level of mental-health concerns as Danny, is not without issues. He, like the rest of the Sports Night family, is concerned with network interference. He's unhappy with the recent turns towards the thuggery in sports and athletes' lives. He's damaged, seriously, from his marriage, and the fallout results in his ungraceful and spectacularly uncomfortable return to the dating world.
Recently I came across an interview with Peter Krause from his Sports Night days. In it he talks about how, early in production of the show, he and Josh Charles went to Sorkin and asked him what Sports Night was all about. Sorkin's response? The show's about a man and his trusty hound. Krause and Charles were both pretty sure it wasn't Casey in the role of loyal dog. This upset Charles at the time, according to Krause who goes on to say that he felt as if Sorkin had evened out the relationship throughout the show's run. Upon reading this, however, I think Sorkin's original assessment stayed pretty true until the very end. One of the show's most central threads, from the very beginning to the very end, is the profound, crippling sadness that follows Danny like toilet paper on a shoe. Except the toilet paper's made of 2-ply 100% post-consumer recycled angst, and the shoe's his soul. Or something like that. Look, the metaphor may have gotten away from me, but the point's the same. Dan Rydell's got some serious shit going on (and oh how I regret the toilet paper metaphor), including a massive inferiority complex regarding his friend and partner, Casey McCall.
Basically, it all comes down to the woobie factor. Loathe as I am to say that "w" word too many times, its importance in the Dan/Casey dynamic cannot be downplayed. Dan and Casey are, taking turns, woobies extraordinaire. But that's only part of why they're so often slashed.
The Scouting Report (aka, the top 10 Dan & Casey moments that make you go "oooooooh!")
The evidence for expanding Dan and Casey's relationship in fic is rooted firmly within the very canon of the show. You want subtext? We got your subtext right here.
10. The entirety of the first season episode, "Thespis": This episode plays up the obvious importance to Dan of the anniversary of his and Casey's first ever broadcast as partners. Witness the following exchanges:
And then, a short time later,
Now, if we put aside Casey's niggling flirtation with misogyny, the tone for the episode is set. To this point, we're in the camp believing that Casey means more to Dan than vice versa. However, throughout the course of the episode it becomes clear that the situation's far more complicated. The reason for Casey's reticence isn't that he doesn't care. Casey goes to Isaac, as people on the show often do in times of confusion, and the truth is revealed to us.
I adore that scene. Just ... yeah. I love it. Also, it's got a very "You got to treat your woman right"-feel to it (and imagine that I just did a Ray Charles impression and sang that, not for textual relevancy, but -- imagtine also that it was funny), which amuses and thrills me a little.
Even later on, we find out more of what went down. Dan and Casey were doing Lone Star Sports, a little sports show in Texas, when Casey was offered Conan O'Brien's gig, helming the desk on Late Night. Casey turned it down, and Lisa hated him for it. It was, as Danny brings up when Casey finally tells him, the beginning of the end of their marriage. It's easy to say, oh, Casey stayed in Texas to be with Danny. And that's surely true, to some extent. But the larger truth is that Casey turned down Late Night because he was terrified of failing.
They high-five, it's revealed that Isaac's a new grandfather, and that across town at an event, Kathy Lee Gifford has fallen face-first into a plate of tapioca pudding (it's a thing). All is right with the Sports Night family.
9. The Pilot: Casey's embroiled in a very bad patch of his divorce, the network's taken notice of his attitude and is coming down hard. In a meeting, JJ from the network confronts Dan and asks him to start thinking of doing the show with someone else. Dan defends Casey tooth and nail. When JJ suggests that Dan has a very big future with the network, Danny snaps back, saying, "My future is writing and anchoring a sports program with my partner, Casey McCall. Now if it's here, it's here. If it's not, it's someplace else."
Near the end of the episode that aired, we learn that Casey's thinking about leaving the show. His decision comes on the tail of a news story about basketball player Jayson Grissom's pugnacious behavior, the straw that's broken the camel's back in terms of Casey's ability to put up with the ever-increasing relationship between crime and sports. He says he can't stand to be part of something responsible for putting criminals in the pantheon of role models for his son. Dan calls him on his bullshit and basically tells Casey off. He's been a pain in the ass lately, to the very people who are risking their necks to defend his behavior. Quitting won't make the situation in sports any better, plus he'll be unemployed. By the end of his little tirade, Dan is full on shouting in Casey's face. They're interrupted by the news that Ntozake Nelson's about to break a huge world record. The boys run to see, joining the dozens of Sports Night employees who've gathered to watch. In the midst of a professional sports news environment largely clotted with stories about spousal abuse, rape, and violence, there's a 41 year old South African man who had his legs broken while in police custody and who was told he'd never walk without assistance again, and there he is running faster than any man has ever run before. Danny looks over to Casey, smiling as he sees Casey take in the significance of what's happening.
8. "Natalie, I don't have the hiccups."
In "Dear Louise," Dan experiences what seems to be a crippling case of writer's block. Somehow mistaking cures for hiccups with remedies to beat the block, Natalie throws a few glasses of water in Danny's face ("shock therapy," she explains), and later sneaks up on him with an air horn just as he takes sip of his coffee at the anchor desk. The result is one of the most spectacular spit takes I've ever seen, followed by another glass of water tossed in his face by the helpful, if misguided, Natalie. Casey laughs, and after a moment, a dripping wet Danny joins him. It's not a big moment, but it's a great one.
7. Damn right, Danny
Oh, "The Dating Plan." An idea so bad it even made non-slashers stand up and say, "Good GOD, Casey! Just go sleep with Dan, he'd never do this to you." Long story short, Dana decides to begin the relationship aspect of her long, protracted flirtation with Casey not by dating him, but by insisting that he go out on dates with other women for six months first. Her logic, such that it is, is that Casey married one of the first girls he ever dated, and in order for this new relationship to have a chance, she has to be sure Casey won't always be wondering what else is out there. This of course drives Casey insane. In "The Giants Win the Pennant..." (one of my favorite episodes), Dan confronts Dana.
It's this that finally turns Dana around regarding her behavior, though we soon find out it's too late.
6. Drunk and in charge of an antique abacus
Dan's love interest decides to go back to her husband, squashing Dan's heart on the very night he decided to go full steam ahead in trying to convince her that they separated for a very good reason. Danny takes the bottle of wine he'd gotten for her and, after the show, proceeds to get very very drunk. Again, it's not a huge moment when Casey shows up to be there for Danny, but it's good. They hug, and focus shifts to Casey (as it often does). This is in the first season, the night we find out Dana's going to be engaged to Gordon, and Dan's right there, encouraging Casey. There's no need for him to be cheering on any relationships at that moment, given his recent defeat, but he's there for Casey. He always is.
5. Playing doctor
At the beginning of "And the Crowd Goes Wild" Casey expresses concern about his eyesight. Ever-helpful Dan gets up, walks around in front of Casey, and gives him a sort of impromptu eye exam. Ignoring the part where it's all very cute and complete with talk of tumors, I could spend a day talking about the way Dan takes the back of Casey's head in his hand, the way Casey lets him, and the credence Casey lends to Dan's (frankly crackpot) diagnoses. The whole episode is hilarious once Casey gets his eyes checked out (for real, by a doctor) and returns to the office temporarily blind; Dan spends the day pulling pranks on his incapacitated partner. But mostly, it's the way he holds Casey's head.
4. The Apology
The episode after the Pilot, when we find out about Sam. This one makes me all teary eyed every time. We "meet" Sam through the titular apology, made on-air by Dan at the behest of the network following some statements made by Dan in a magazine interview that gave the impression that Dan supported drug use. They insist that he apologize, but they're nonspecific as to who should be the intended recipient. Dan's apology is graceful, painful, and addressed to the little brother who's death he feels responsible for. Dan gets through it, and sends the show to commercial. There's a moment where the studio's silent, where Casey glances over to Dan -- letting him have the time he needs -- followed by the resuming of a conversation they were having earlier. It's a flip little discussion about whether or not Casey's cool that fades out to the end credits, but it's a gorgeously understated moment in their relationship.
3. Celebrities
There's a list of the 100 most influential people in sports. Casey's on it, Dan's not. This revelation is the beginning of a fight that will take us almost to the series' end. It's also the on-screen revelation of an issue that it seems has been bubbling under the surface for quite some time -- that Casey's work is valued far more than Danny's. That Danny's some sort of sidekick. It doesn't get bad in this episode, that part's still to come, but it begins. Casey says he'd give up his spot on the list if it meant Dan could be on it, and it's very sweet. But the storm clouds gather.
2. Speaking of those storm clouds...
Dan and Casey's relationship takes a drastic turn towards the bitchy in "Draft Day" (for the purposes of not having to renumber my list, the events of "Draft Day" - while technically spread over two episodes - I'll consider one event). Dan has plans that will be compromised if weather conditions mean Sports Night will be pulling the televised equivalent of a double shift, and he's unwilling to stay the extra time. Casey questions his dedication, while Dan's still firmly in the camp of "Nobody Cares About Me Anyway, So Fuck Off." aka, fallout from the list in "Celebrities" has stopped festering and is now prepared to eat all of Manhattan. They fight. They fight and it's terrible and it culminates in Dan purposefully asking Casey an unanswerable question on air. He immediately regrets it, and it's evident on his face that he feels like a shit for what he's just done, but it's one of those, "OMG RIFT!" moments one doesn't see very often (unless one watches Smallville, in which case there's a moment like that - on the show or in fandom - nearly every week).
1. Passover makes everything better!
But, of course by this point, everyone knew the show would soon be ending for good. Thank god Aaron Sorkin didn't leave us with a broken Dan and Casey. In "April is the Cruelest Month," Dan and Jeremy host an in-office Seder for the holiday. Originally Casey declines Danny's conciliatory invitation, and it seems as if the divide between them is just too big. But then -- a Passover miracle. At the beginning of the Seder Danny tries to tell the assembled (minus Casey) how he feels; it's his apology for being such an ass of late. Casey knocks on the door in the middle of this and Dan goes outside. Casey says, "I wouldn't trade the last ten years of working with you for anything. Not for anything, Danny, I swear to god." They hug the hug of men who really mean it, and after reaffirming that there's still repairs that need to be done, they rejoin the Seder already in progress.
So that's a little list. There are more, so many more moments that could have been included. The majority of Dan and Casey's relationship is evidenced in big scenes or speeches. It's the hundred little looks and gestures throughout the series, wielded by the extremely talented Charles and Krause, that give Dan and Casey such depth and emotion.
How I Learned To Stop Covering My Ears And Accept The Slash
So, yeah. Funny story. I'm not actually a Dan/Casey slasher. It's a terribly kept secret within my tiny corner of the fandom, and I'm ok with it. I've written Dan/Casey slash, sure. There's a considerable slash population in my aforementioned fandom chunk, and it's not a hardship for me to just -- write 'em what they want. Let them eat slash, and all that. Besides, as I hope has been elucidated in the rest of this, the show is irrevocably in itself "slashy." There's no textual man-on-man action in Sorkin's creation, and fanfic written in that mold will (ideally) be just as slashy, intentionally or not, as the show.
Here's how I see it. Dan and Casey are two characters written in a really unique way. They're attractive men (manly men, they'd insist we believe), best friends who love each other and don't see shame or anything societally "funny" in that. They hug, they high five, they reassure the other one that they are of pleasing appearance (and I have no idea where that phrasing came from); they work in close quarters and have been seen pantsless in said quarters together.
Plus, by virtue of their occupation, they're "partners." That makes things easier.
For me, at the end of the day, slash is about reading between the lines. The space between Sorkin's lines is so full it's seeping up into the commas.
The Sell
If I didn't do a good job of wooing you towards this fandom and its chief pairing yet, let me try one more thing. Being part of the Sports Night fandom is a singular experience, at least it has been for me. Speaking from my own time, I can say that it's a pleasant, supportive, cool place. I like the phrase "boutique fandom" to describe it -- it's not something you're going to see everywhere, but what there is is unique and awesome. I've come across very little bad fanfic in the fandom, and that alone makes it a welcome place. The fics tends to be, achingly sad, hilariously funny, or deeply profound. The best satisfy all three.
Resources & Fic
The following came up most often when I posed the question, "Which fics exemplify the Dan/Casey relationship to you?" to the Sports Night fans I know:
Debchan's A Sandwich is a Transitory Thing
Charlemagne's Gynecology
Bone's Two-Player Game
Sabine's Where Have You Gone, Tom Glavine?
lanning's Being an Anchor
pearl_o's Nutrition and Other Needs
In addition, other stories by these authors plus anything by shrift, celli, nestra, or annie, I can almost guarantee will be top quality.
This is by no stretch of the imagination a complete list. It's laughably short, but like I said, the volume of good fic in the fandom is a little overwhelming. I welcome fans to reply with fic they consider essential to the fandom.
Also, a good idea is to discover which stories ring truest for you. Check out:
The Sports Night Fanfiction Archive
Our Boys, Punk and Sabine's Sports Night and West Wing recs page
Polyamorous Recommendations, Shrift and Nestra's recs page
This essay would have been even more incomprehensible if not for the following sites:
Sports Night scripts & transcripts
Sports Night - TKTV
And the following fans:
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out_there, celli, vic_ramsey, estrella30, bexless, phoebesmum, storydivagirl, ilexa, dammitcarl, zebra363, laylee, ahab99, tstar78, chicklet_girl, blueraccoon
[It's somewhat fitting that this was very nearly late because of baseball.]
Author: scrunchy
E-mail: scrunchy@livejournal.com
Fandom: Sports Night
Pairing: Dan/Casey
Spoilers: All Episodes
THE SHOW
Back in 1998, ABC introduced a half hour comedy into its lineup. The show was funny, cerebral, and unlike anything else on the air. The show was Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night. It had its fans; they loved the fast paced dialogue, the occasional turns towards the wacky, and the lovable, flawed, sometimes uneven characters. It had its detractors; people hated the wordiness of Sorkin's scripts, they hated the repetitive style it often played with, and they hated those sometimes uneven characters.
In 1999, there was a murmur of concern as Aaron Sorkin set out to write and produce both Sports Night and the fledgling The West Wing. In an interview he assured people that he'd always be married to Sports Night, that The West Wing was just his mistress. I, playing scenes from my parents' marriage in my head, took no comfort in this analogy.
And so it came to pass that the last episode of Sports Night's second season was the very last episode we'd ever see. How did such a smart show fail? Well, that "smart" thing's a big part of it. Billed as a comedy, ostensibly about sports, some people tuned in and were confused, and some stayed away entirely. Those who stayed were treated to a network-applied laugh track (at least in the beginning of the first season) so obnoxious and out-of-place, it's a wonder anyone with the words "television" and "professional" anywhere near their resume thought it was a good idea. ABC, aside from pushing the laugh track, pretty well prevented Sports Night from finding a home on the network, and therefore an audience. They shuffled its air-time, they pre-empted it on countless occasions with episodes of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, they promoted like a show they had no interest in seeing succeed. It worked. All this, plus the fact that The West Wing was thriving on NBC, made the cancellation of Sports Night Night after 45 half-hour episodes a logical, if painful, end.
The fans, though. Oh, the fans of shows cancelled before their time. A special breed, undoubtedly, and the fans of Sports Night thrive to this day. Many of them, as seems to be true of most fandoms, are slashers. The slash thrives in the Sports Night fandom thanks to two main characters played by two attractive actors reading scripts with plenty of wiggle room in the imagination's "...and then they made out" category.
THE MEN
DAN RYDELL
Played by Josh Charles, Dan Rydell is among my favorite characters in any medium. In fact, let's go on ahead and give the man the crown, because I honestly can't think of anyone (fictional) I love more. Danny's from Connecticut, even though in the Pilot he says, "I've lived in New York my whole life." That's either due to Aaron Sorkin still tinkering with the character (stranger things have changed between pilots & the rest of TV series), Sorkin playing fast and loose with his own canon (which he will do to an oh my god frustrating extent), or -- as I choose to believe -- the tendency seen in one living in the New York metro area but not in the city proper to spend a lot of time there and consider one's self a native (she says, sitting suddenly self conscious in northern New Jersey).
Danny's Jewish, a Dartmouth grad (Go Big Green!), and he hates soccer. He's got an older brother named David and a mom who both get very little mention in the course of the show. He's got a little brother named Sam who died in a car accident while high, and a father who doesn't seem to like Dan very much. You'd better believe the latter has something to do with the former, because it's these two horribly painful relationships that cling to the edges of Dan's awareness at all times.
We're not to feel bad for him at all times, though. For in front of all his psychological issues is the well-practice façade of someone very confident with who they are and what they do. Danny's attractive and he knows it. He is, by all appearances, a ladies' man, and wants nothing more than to love and be loved by the people around him. Now, is this all endemic of the large chink in his psyche that tells him he killed his brother and cannot, must not be loved? Ohhh yeah, it is. But it's ok. See, Dan's broken in a lot of ways. Hell, on my Sports Night DVD set, parts of the disc with Danny's face on it skip and won't play. The guy can't catch a break. But he can, in the midst of his Murphy's Law led life, come home to the fact that, at least at work, he's surrounded by people who love and care about him.
CASEY MCCALL
Played by Peter Krause, Casey is from some Midwestern state. He went to school, too, somewhere in the Midwest. Basically, we know a whole lot less about Casey than we do Dan. What we know about Casey is largely collected from the most recent decade or so in his life. He was married for a number of miserable years to a woman named Lisa who by all accounts treated him badly (and yes, this was Peter Krause's first role about a character with failed marriage to a woman named Lisa. There would be a second in the years to come.). Their divorce is in progress when the timeline of the show kicks off. Casey has a son with his ex-wife, the adorably tow-headed Charlie, who's eight years old in the Pilot.
Casey, though not afforded the level of mental-health concerns as Danny, is not without issues. He, like the rest of the Sports Night family, is concerned with network interference. He's unhappy with the recent turns towards the thuggery in sports and athletes' lives. He's damaged, seriously, from his marriage, and the fallout results in his ungraceful and spectacularly uncomfortable return to the dating world.
Recently I came across an interview with Peter Krause from his Sports Night days. In it he talks about how, early in production of the show, he and Josh Charles went to Sorkin and asked him what Sports Night was all about. Sorkin's response? The show's about a man and his trusty hound. Krause and Charles were both pretty sure it wasn't Casey in the role of loyal dog. This upset Charles at the time, according to Krause who goes on to say that he felt as if Sorkin had evened out the relationship throughout the show's run. Upon reading this, however, I think Sorkin's original assessment stayed pretty true until the very end. One of the show's most central threads, from the very beginning to the very end, is the profound, crippling sadness that follows Danny like toilet paper on a shoe. Except the toilet paper's made of 2-ply 100% post-consumer recycled angst, and the shoe's his soul. Or something like that. Look, the metaphor may have gotten away from me, but the point's the same. Dan Rydell's got some serious shit going on (and oh how I regret the toilet paper metaphor), including a massive inferiority complex regarding his friend and partner, Casey McCall.
Basically, it all comes down to the woobie factor. Loathe as I am to say that "w" word too many times, its importance in the Dan/Casey dynamic cannot be downplayed. Dan and Casey are, taking turns, woobies extraordinaire. But that's only part of why they're so often slashed.
The Scouting Report (aka, the top 10 Dan & Casey moments that make you go "oooooooh!")
The evidence for expanding Dan and Casey's relationship in fic is rooted firmly within the very canon of the show. You want subtext? We got your subtext right here.
10. The entirety of the first season episode, "Thespis": This episode plays up the obvious importance to Dan of the anniversary of his and Casey's first ever broadcast as partners. Witness the following exchanges:
Casey: Let me take one more shot at it. Is it, um--
Dan: Our anniversary.
Casey: Our anniversary?
Dan: Our anniversary. Today is our anniversary.
Casey: Jeez, Danny, that night in Minneapolis with the Jaegermeister, we didn't do anything untoward, did we?
Dan: You mean did we get married?
Casey: Yeah.
Dan: No.
Casey: Good.
Dan: You recited the St. Crispin's Day speech from the lobby of the St. Paul Radisson.
Casey: Well, was it untoward?
Dan: No, it was just embarrassing.
Casey: So, how is it our anniversary?
Dan: It's the anniversary of our first show. November 23rd, five years ago.
Casey: We went on the air two years ago last July.
Dan: I'm not talking about Sports Night. I'm talking about our first broadcast.
Casey: Lone Star.
Dan: Lone Star Sports.
Casey: November 23rd?
Dan: That's right.
And then, a short time later,
Dan: I remember what you were wearing. Do you remember what I was wearing?
Casey: I remember not thinking at the time that you were a woman.
Now, if we put aside Casey's niggling flirtation with misogyny, the tone for the episode is set. To this point, we're in the camp believing that Casey means more to Dan than vice versa. However, throughout the course of the episode it becomes clear that the situation's far more complicated. The reason for Casey's reticence isn't that he doesn't care. Casey goes to Isaac, as people on the show often do in times of confusion, and the truth is revealed to us.
Casey: In a funny way, Danny and I are having the same fight right now. Only he doesn't know it's about a fight Lisa and I had five years ago.
Isaac: You've never told him, have you?
Casey: No.
Isaac: Why?
Casey: I don't know....
Isaac: You gotta learn to show people how you feel aobut them, Casey.
Casey: Why do I have to prove it to him?
Isaac: 'Cause he feels like a consolation prize.
Casey: He's not.
Isaac: Tell him. So you say a few words. You make a gesture. You remember an important date. A small price to pay for what you get in return. For what you get in return, it's a steal.
I adore that scene. Just ... yeah. I love it. Also, it's got a very "You got to treat your woman right"-feel to it (and imagine that I just did a Ray Charles impression and sang that, not for textual relevancy, but -- imagtine also that it was funny), which amuses and thrills me a little.
Even later on, we find out more of what went down. Dan and Casey were doing Lone Star Sports, a little sports show in Texas, when Casey was offered Conan O'Brien's gig, helming the desk on Late Night. Casey turned it down, and Lisa hated him for it. It was, as Danny brings up when Casey finally tells him, the beginning of the end of their marriage. It's easy to say, oh, Casey stayed in Texas to be with Danny. And that's surely true, to some extent. But the larger truth is that Casey turned down Late Night because he was terrified of failing.
Dan: You turned down Late Night?
Casey: I wouldn't have been any good on it.
Dan: Yes, you would've.
Casey: No, I wouldn't have.
Dan: You would've been great.
Casey: Danny--
Dan: You would've been great.
Casey: I would've been embarrassing.
Dan: That is flat out not true. (beat) What did that woman do to your confidence? How many hits did you have to take to your ego?
...
Dan: You would've been great. You would have been very good.
Casey: (beat) Thank you.
Dan: You're very good on this show.
Casey: Oh, yeah, I know. But thanks for saying so. I appreciate the gesture.
They high-five, it's revealed that Isaac's a new grandfather, and that across town at an event, Kathy Lee Gifford has fallen face-first into a plate of tapioca pudding (it's a thing). All is right with the Sports Night family.
9. The Pilot: Casey's embroiled in a very bad patch of his divorce, the network's taken notice of his attitude and is coming down hard. In a meeting, JJ from the network confronts Dan and asks him to start thinking of doing the show with someone else. Dan defends Casey tooth and nail. When JJ suggests that Dan has a very big future with the network, Danny snaps back, saying, "My future is writing and anchoring a sports program with my partner, Casey McCall. Now if it's here, it's here. If it's not, it's someplace else."
Near the end of the episode that aired, we learn that Casey's thinking about leaving the show. His decision comes on the tail of a news story about basketball player Jayson Grissom's pugnacious behavior, the straw that's broken the camel's back in terms of Casey's ability to put up with the ever-increasing relationship between crime and sports. He says he can't stand to be part of something responsible for putting criminals in the pantheon of role models for his son. Dan calls him on his bullshit and basically tells Casey off. He's been a pain in the ass lately, to the very people who are risking their necks to defend his behavior. Quitting won't make the situation in sports any better, plus he'll be unemployed. By the end of his little tirade, Dan is full on shouting in Casey's face. They're interrupted by the news that Ntozake Nelson's about to break a huge world record. The boys run to see, joining the dozens of Sports Night employees who've gathered to watch. In the midst of a professional sports news environment largely clotted with stories about spousal abuse, rape, and violence, there's a 41 year old South African man who had his legs broken while in police custody and who was told he'd never walk without assistance again, and there he is running faster than any man has ever run before. Danny looks over to Casey, smiling as he sees Casey take in the significance of what's happening.
8. "Natalie, I don't have the hiccups."
In "Dear Louise," Dan experiences what seems to be a crippling case of writer's block. Somehow mistaking cures for hiccups with remedies to beat the block, Natalie throws a few glasses of water in Danny's face ("shock therapy," she explains), and later sneaks up on him with an air horn just as he takes sip of his coffee at the anchor desk. The result is one of the most spectacular spit takes I've ever seen, followed by another glass of water tossed in his face by the helpful, if misguided, Natalie. Casey laughs, and after a moment, a dripping wet Danny joins him. It's not a big moment, but it's a great one.
7. Damn right, Danny
Oh, "The Dating Plan." An idea so bad it even made non-slashers stand up and say, "Good GOD, Casey! Just go sleep with Dan, he'd never do this to you." Long story short, Dana decides to begin the relationship aspect of her long, protracted flirtation with Casey not by dating him, but by insisting that he go out on dates with other women for six months first. Her logic, such that it is, is that Casey married one of the first girls he ever dated, and in order for this new relationship to have a chance, she has to be sure Casey won't always be wondering what else is out there. This of course drives Casey insane. In "The Giants Win the Pennant..." (one of my favorite episodes), Dan confronts Dana.
Dan: All this is doing is making him feel a lot less like the man he is, which is why he left Lisa in the first place. I know what he wants, and I gotta say, he's done a pretty good job of going after it, which isn't, like, the most natural thing in the world for Casey to do. And I know what you want. And all I've seen you do is hide behind this psychotic behavior all dressed up as cute. He wanted you, and he told you every possible way he could.
It's this that finally turns Dana around regarding her behavior, though we soon find out it's too late.
6. Drunk and in charge of an antique abacus
Dan's love interest decides to go back to her husband, squashing Dan's heart on the very night he decided to go full steam ahead in trying to convince her that they separated for a very good reason. Danny takes the bottle of wine he'd gotten for her and, after the show, proceeds to get very very drunk. Again, it's not a huge moment when Casey shows up to be there for Danny, but it's good. They hug, and focus shifts to Casey (as it often does). This is in the first season, the night we find out Dana's going to be engaged to Gordon, and Dan's right there, encouraging Casey. There's no need for him to be cheering on any relationships at that moment, given his recent defeat, but he's there for Casey. He always is.
5. Playing doctor
At the beginning of "And the Crowd Goes Wild" Casey expresses concern about his eyesight. Ever-helpful Dan gets up, walks around in front of Casey, and gives him a sort of impromptu eye exam. Ignoring the part where it's all very cute and complete with talk of tumors, I could spend a day talking about the way Dan takes the back of Casey's head in his hand, the way Casey lets him, and the credence Casey lends to Dan's (frankly crackpot) diagnoses. The whole episode is hilarious once Casey gets his eyes checked out (for real, by a doctor) and returns to the office temporarily blind; Dan spends the day pulling pranks on his incapacitated partner. But mostly, it's the way he holds Casey's head.
4. The Apology
The episode after the Pilot, when we find out about Sam. This one makes me all teary eyed every time. We "meet" Sam through the titular apology, made on-air by Dan at the behest of the network following some statements made by Dan in a magazine interview that gave the impression that Dan supported drug use. They insist that he apologize, but they're nonspecific as to who should be the intended recipient. Dan's apology is graceful, painful, and addressed to the little brother who's death he feels responsible for. Dan gets through it, and sends the show to commercial. There's a moment where the studio's silent, where Casey glances over to Dan -- letting him have the time he needs -- followed by the resuming of a conversation they were having earlier. It's a flip little discussion about whether or not Casey's cool that fades out to the end credits, but it's a gorgeously understated moment in their relationship.
3. Celebrities
There's a list of the 100 most influential people in sports. Casey's on it, Dan's not. This revelation is the beginning of a fight that will take us almost to the series' end. It's also the on-screen revelation of an issue that it seems has been bubbling under the surface for quite some time -- that Casey's work is valued far more than Danny's. That Danny's some sort of sidekick. It doesn't get bad in this episode, that part's still to come, but it begins. Casey says he'd give up his spot on the list if it meant Dan could be on it, and it's very sweet. But the storm clouds gather.
2. Speaking of those storm clouds...
Dan and Casey's relationship takes a drastic turn towards the bitchy in "Draft Day" (for the purposes of not having to renumber my list, the events of "Draft Day" - while technically spread over two episodes - I'll consider one event). Dan has plans that will be compromised if weather conditions mean Sports Night will be pulling the televised equivalent of a double shift, and he's unwilling to stay the extra time. Casey questions his dedication, while Dan's still firmly in the camp of "Nobody Cares About Me Anyway, So Fuck Off." aka, fallout from the list in "Celebrities" has stopped festering and is now prepared to eat all of Manhattan. They fight. They fight and it's terrible and it culminates in Dan purposefully asking Casey an unanswerable question on air. He immediately regrets it, and it's evident on his face that he feels like a shit for what he's just done, but it's one of those, "OMG RIFT!" moments one doesn't see very often (unless one watches Smallville, in which case there's a moment like that - on the show or in fandom - nearly every week).
1. Passover makes everything better!
But, of course by this point, everyone knew the show would soon be ending for good. Thank god Aaron Sorkin didn't leave us with a broken Dan and Casey. In "April is the Cruelest Month," Dan and Jeremy host an in-office Seder for the holiday. Originally Casey declines Danny's conciliatory invitation, and it seems as if the divide between them is just too big. But then -- a Passover miracle. At the beginning of the Seder Danny tries to tell the assembled (minus Casey) how he feels; it's his apology for being such an ass of late. Casey knocks on the door in the middle of this and Dan goes outside. Casey says, "I wouldn't trade the last ten years of working with you for anything. Not for anything, Danny, I swear to god." They hug the hug of men who really mean it, and after reaffirming that there's still repairs that need to be done, they rejoin the Seder already in progress.
So that's a little list. There are more, so many more moments that could have been included. The majority of Dan and Casey's relationship is evidenced in big scenes or speeches. It's the hundred little looks and gestures throughout the series, wielded by the extremely talented Charles and Krause, that give Dan and Casey such depth and emotion.
How I Learned To Stop Covering My Ears And Accept The Slash
So, yeah. Funny story. I'm not actually a Dan/Casey slasher. It's a terribly kept secret within my tiny corner of the fandom, and I'm ok with it. I've written Dan/Casey slash, sure. There's a considerable slash population in my aforementioned fandom chunk, and it's not a hardship for me to just -- write 'em what they want. Let them eat slash, and all that. Besides, as I hope has been elucidated in the rest of this, the show is irrevocably in itself "slashy." There's no textual man-on-man action in Sorkin's creation, and fanfic written in that mold will (ideally) be just as slashy, intentionally or not, as the show.
Here's how I see it. Dan and Casey are two characters written in a really unique way. They're attractive men (manly men, they'd insist we believe), best friends who love each other and don't see shame or anything societally "funny" in that. They hug, they high five, they reassure the other one that they are of pleasing appearance (and I have no idea where that phrasing came from); they work in close quarters and have been seen pantsless in said quarters together.
Plus, by virtue of their occupation, they're "partners." That makes things easier.
For me, at the end of the day, slash is about reading between the lines. The space between Sorkin's lines is so full it's seeping up into the commas.
The Sell
If I didn't do a good job of wooing you towards this fandom and its chief pairing yet, let me try one more thing. Being part of the Sports Night fandom is a singular experience, at least it has been for me. Speaking from my own time, I can say that it's a pleasant, supportive, cool place. I like the phrase "boutique fandom" to describe it -- it's not something you're going to see everywhere, but what there is is unique and awesome. I've come across very little bad fanfic in the fandom, and that alone makes it a welcome place. The fics tends to be, achingly sad, hilariously funny, or deeply profound. The best satisfy all three.
Resources & Fic
The following came up most often when I posed the question, "Which fics exemplify the Dan/Casey relationship to you?" to the Sports Night fans I know:
Debchan's A Sandwich is a Transitory Thing
Charlemagne's Gynecology
Bone's Two-Player Game
Sabine's Where Have You Gone, Tom Glavine?
lanning's Being an Anchor
pearl_o's Nutrition and Other Needs
In addition, other stories by these authors plus anything by shrift, celli, nestra, or annie, I can almost guarantee will be top quality.
This is by no stretch of the imagination a complete list. It's laughably short, but like I said, the volume of good fic in the fandom is a little overwhelming. I welcome fans to reply with fic they consider essential to the fandom.
Also, a good idea is to discover which stories ring truest for you. Check out:
The Sports Night Fanfiction Archive
Our Boys, Punk and Sabine's Sports Night and West Wing recs page
Polyamorous Recommendations, Shrift and Nestra's recs page
This essay would have been even more incomprehensible if not for the following sites:
Sports Night scripts & transcripts
Sports Night - TKTV
And the following fans:
out_there, celli, vic_ramsey, estrella30, bexless, phoebesmum, storydivagirl, ilexa, dammitcarl, zebra363, laylee, ahab99, tstar78, chicklet_girl, blueraccoon [It's somewhat fitting that this was very nearly late because of baseball.]
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