Sports Night
The Sweet Smell of Air
TV Flash files “The Sweet Smell of Air” as hour 35 of 45 in the TV Flash guide — Sports Night (1998–2000) on ABC, season 2, episode 12, aired 2000-01-25, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E12: listed hour 35 of 45 in the Sports Night guide, hour 12 of 22 in season 2. It aired 2000-01-25 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Cut Man Cometh” (S02E11). Next is “Dana Get Your Gun” (S02E13).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Sports Night is offered an exclusive interview with Michael Jordan, but the team struggles to accept the strict conditions attached: they can't ask him about sports at all, but only about his new line of cologne. The Michael Jordan interview was only offered to them out of the perception that they would be the only one of the major sports networks desperate enough for the ratings to agree to Jordan's conditions, but Sam tells Isaac and Dana that they are not. Casey is invited to speak to Charlie's class, but can't figure out what to talk about.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Sweet Smell of Air sit in the Sports Night guide?
S02E12 is listed hour 35 of 45 — hour 12 of 22 in season 2, season 2 episode 12.
When did Sports Night S02E12 air?
The Sweet Smell of Air aired 2000-01-25 and is listed at 30 minutes.
How much of it is there?
Two seasons, 1998–2000. Critical darling, modest ratings, almost no filler — a short cult rather than a long workplace novel.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Sorkin walk-and-talk inside a sports-highlight studio: producers and anchors chasing ratings, ethics, and each other at full velocity. Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, Josh Charles, Robert Guillaume — competence as romance, panic as house style. Two dense ABC seasons, laugh-track fights included, then cancellation. West Wing rhythms with newsroom heartbreak, almost no filler.
Flash: September 22, 1998, ABC, a sports-highlight studio that moves at full velocity. Producers and anchors chase ratings, ethics, and each other with rapid-fire walk-and-talks. Aaron Sorkin packed newsroom heartbreak, screwball romance, and workplace poetry into two dense seasons through 2000. Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, Josh Charles, Robert Guillaume, Joshua Malina, Sabrina Lloyd made the studio a pressure chamber of competence and panic. It previewed West Wing rhythms with sports-media stakes.…
Filed against
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