The post below about "Friday Night Lights" inspired me to poll WatchDog Nation on the following question.
(I will use your answers to form a future column in the newspaper, probably.)
What is the best fictional, sports-themed show in TV history? (The worst?)
Discuss among yourselves.
Comments (5)
The best: "White Shadow" not only for Ken Howard's Manhasset references.
The worst:
"Ball Four" - the sitcom!
You CAN look it up.
Not only was Jim Bouton in it, but the former great Raider Ben Davidson! It was on CBS and was taped in NYC.
Second worst is NBC's "Waverly Wonders" starring one J.W. Namath of Beaver Falls, PA.
I liked Bay City Blues with Dennis Franz and a young Sharon Stone, but it was only on for 30 minutes.
My favorite was SportsNight starring Peter Krause, Josh Charles, Felicity Huffman, Robert Guillaume and a score of others. Featured the great dialogue of Aaron Sorkin and it was on for just two short seasons, but was one of the best sitcoms in the 1990's.
Friday Night Lights as a book and movie are each amazing but I may be in the minority when I say, I do not like the series. First season was good but it seems that the writers were already packing it in after that with all the story lines since the second season was just so unrealistic. I concede White Shadow was the best. The worst was this show Clubhouse with Dean Cain as this star baseball player in NY. It only lasted like a few episodes but the baseball scenes looked so unrealistic. It was suppose to focus on the batboy but there was so much melodrama it might as well been an episode of DeGrassi.
FNL.. and its not even close
I think its best summed up by ESPN.com writer Bill Simmons here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070919