Sorkinverse Challenge #35: Top Five Sorkin Characters
1. Dan Rydell (Josh Charles): for he is Dan.
Really, that should be all one need say, but this is supposed to be at least three sentences long, so …
Dan Rydell is as close to perfect as a character can get. He's intelligent, educated, smart, witty, incisive, handsome - all good things, but his most outstanding and sterling characteristics are his loyalty, his generosity and his sheer kindness. Over the course of the series we see him stand up for, comfort or reassure almost every other member of the team: Casey, Natalie, Jeremy, Dana, Isaac, Sam Donovan, even Sally. All this, mind you, whilst suffering himself from mammoth insecurities - yes, I'm afraid he has manpain, but he also has the grace to carry it off. And it isn't unjustified: he blames himself for the tragic death of his younger brother, he's alienated from his father, the woman he thinks he loves leaves him to go back to her abusive husband - and what a perfect gentleman he was about that, too - whilst career-wise he's relegated to playing second fiddle to Casey. He is not, of course, completely perfect - which of us is? - he can be snarky, thoughtless, sometimes even downright rude, but, when he is, he realises it, admits it, and apologises.
Here's what many people consider Danny's finest hour:
Click to view
If Dan Rydell is the heart of Sports Night, then 2. Isaac Jaffee (Robert Guillaume) is the soul. Isaac is the boss we all wish we could have: wise, understanding, compassionate, but never soft: Isaac is as tough as nails. He takes no prisoners, and will fight for his people, and for his beliefs, to the very limit of his strength. In the course of season one, he's felled by a stroke (a scriptwriting necessity mirroring Robert Guillaume's own medical condition), but he doesn't let that stop him: he's back in the studio by the season ender, striding on set like the wrath of god and demanding of Dana, "Hey, lady! You planning to get my show on air any time soon?!"
Isaac - although he would probably deny it in horror - is the father to Dan that Dan's own father is not:
Danny? You know I love you, don't you? And because I love you I can say this: no rich young white guy has ever gotten anywhere with me comparing himself to Rosa Parks. Got it?
3. Kim Cornell (Kayla Blake): beautiful, sexy, joyfully sexual Kim. Kim reminds me very much of Petra, the maid in A Little Night Music, who may marry the miller's son one day but, in the meantime, is far too busy having a good time. Kim who, when Dana is flapping over the prospect of going snorkelling with her boyfriend (Dana is afraid of fish), merely observes, "The guys I'm with, it's enough if I wear the outfit." Kim who, when Dan wants her to ask a friend for a favour, tells him that if she does he'll want to sleep with her and, when Dan, naturally, recoils, explains casually that she wants to sleep with him, just not in her crappy apartment. One hotel rental later, and everything's set. Kim who cheerfully lets Danny believe she's his secretary, just for the pleasure of seeing him squirm when the penny finally drops. Kim who, of all the smart, sarcastic people with whom Sports Night is populated, may just be the smartest - and almost certainly the most sarcastic.
It's NASCAR. And who gives a damn?"
4. Mrs [Dolores] Landingham (Kathryn Joosten): For The West Wing's first two seasons, Mrs Landingham was the power behind President Bartlet, the dragon who guarded the door of the Oval Office, took no nonsense from anyone, and doled out cookies according to some Byzantine system of favouritism understood only by herself. She'd known Bartlet since he was a boy in college, and was neither impressed not intimidated by him - nor by anyone on his staff. And she was the mother of twin sons who had waived medical exemption to serve in Vietnam because they thought it was the right thing to do, and who had died together there. When Toby Ziegler arranged a military burial for a veteran who'd died on the street, Mrs Landingham was the one who, quietly and without fuss, left the White House Christmas party to go with him: "I miss my boys," was all she said.
Ahhhh, sarcasm. The grumpy man's wit.
Bartlet: She lost two sons in Vietnam. What would make her want to serve her country is beyond me, but she hasn't missed a day of work in 14 years."
Then she bought the first new car she'd ever owned and was killed by a drunk driver on her way back to the White House to let Bartlet 'kick the tyres', causing Bartlet to have very strong words with the Almighty. In Latin. For which sort of behaviour Mrs Landingham herself would not have stood for a moment.
5. Monica Brazelton (Janel Moloney): Monica Brazelton, a wardrobe assistant on "Sports Night", only appears in one episode (The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee), and is on screen for a sum total of maybe five minutes. But in those five minutes she calls Casey out on being vain, selfish, self-centred and thoughtless, and for that alone you have to love her.
Monica: Do you know what colour this is?
Casey: It's grey.
Monica: It's called gunmetal. Grey has more ivory in it, gunmetal has more blue. Can you tell me which of these shirts you should wear it with?
Casey: I dunno.
Monica: No you don't. There's no reason why you should. You're not expected to know what shirt goes with what suit or how the colour of a necktie can pick up your eyes. You're not expected to know what's going to clash with what Dan's wearing or what pattern's going to bleed when Dave changes the lighting. Mr McCall, you get so much attention and so much praise for what you actually do and all of it's deserved. When you go on a talk show and get complimented on something you didn't do, how hard would it be to say, "That's not me. That's a woman named Maureen who's been working for us since the first day. It's Maureen who dresses me every night and without Maureen I wouldn't know gunmetal from a hole in the ground." Do you have any idea what that would have meant to her? Do you have any idea how many time she would have played that tape for her husband and her kids?
I can't find a screencap from the episode, so a publicity shot will have to do:
ETA: Ha. Have taken screencap from YouTube clip. Am genius:
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