How to Spend $20

By Eric Hughes

September 30, 2008

If you don't get this joke, you've revealed yourself as someone who hasn't watched Sports Night.

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For people who adore ESPN's SportsCenter: For people who adore ESPN's SportsCenter: Sports Night: The Complete Series (10th Anniversary Edition)

Before The West Wing, there was Sports Night, Aaron Sorkin's short-lived, debut television effort about the behind-the-scenes happenings on a sports show (a la SportsCenter). Lasting just two seasons on ABC due to lackluster ratings, the series stars Robert Guillaume as managing editor Isaac Jaffe, Felicity Huffman as executive producer Dana Whitaker, Peter Krause and Josh Charles as anchors Casey McCall and Dan Rydell, respectively, and Joshua Malina as associate producer Jeremy Goodwin.

Sports Night, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, is oftentimes regarded as a breakthrough sitcom, chiefly because of its dramatic storyline elements and gradual abandonment of the traditional network laugh track. Its characters spoke to one another at a rapid-fire pace and Sorkin frequently made use of the "walk and talk" technique, which audiences grew more familiar with in Sorkin's The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Disc includes: The Show: An In-depth Look Back at Sports Night featurette; Face Off: SportsCenter vs. CSC's Sports Night featurette; A Conversation with Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme, Inside the Locker Room: A Look at the Innovations of Sports Night featurette, season gag reels, eight audio commentaries, original promos, 36-page Sports Night Booklet.




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For people who are glad our nation's basketball team still "has it": 2008 Olympics: General Highlights/2008 Olympics: Opening Ceremony

As per usual, Team USA dominated at this summer's Olympic games. Led by Michael Phelps' record eight gold medals in the pool, the team earned a total of 36 golds and 110 medals overall. Host nation China ended with an even 100 (51 of them gold), while Russia finished third with 72. Available today is three hours worth of clips from Beijing 2008, which highlights the games' best moments over the competition's two-week event schedule.

What I like most about the Olympics is its convenient ability to peak your interest in sports that you never knew you cared about. Women's (and men's) beach volleyball? Better make sure to have that sucker scheduled on the home DVR. And that goes for water polo and horse trotting, too. (OK, maybe not horse trotting). Also in stores today is NBC's four-hour coverage of the raved about opening ceremony.

Disc includes: None/unknown

For people who find it hard to have any real idols anymore: Bigger, Stronger, Faster*

From professional wrestling to cycling to practically any team sport, the use of anabolic steroids as performance-enhancing drugs is incredibly rampant. In Christopher Bell's documentary on the subject, the writer-director examines steroid use by speaking with professional athletes, medical experts, fitness center members and even U.S. Congressmen.

And beyond the typical steroid issues that routinely make their way into the news, the docu also discusses the lack of consistency among American sports. Why, for instance, is it legal for Tiger Woods to get laser eye surgery, which allows the man to see five feet further than a person with perfect eyesight? In a game that heartily depends on visual perception, those five feet can surely go a long way. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and ended with a high 97 percent positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Disc includes: Deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurette.

September 30, 2008

Adam-12: Season Two
Ally McBeal (Gift Set)
Angel In The Family
B.L. Stryker: The Complete Series (Boxed Set)
Banacek: The Complete Series (Boxed Set)
Band Waggon
Barack Obama: The Power of Change
Beaufort (Widescreen)
Beauty & The Beast: The Complete Series
Bellini: Norma
The Best of Mr. Bean: Volume 2
The Blood-Spattered Bride
Bloody Moon
Brittown
Broken Trail (Single Disc)
Buried Alive (Widescreen)
Butterfly
Can't Hardly Wait (10th Anniversary Edition)
Case Closed: Season 2
A Christmas Visitor
COPS: TV Set
CSNY Deja Vu (Widescreen)
Daredevil (Director's Cut)
Dawn of the Dead (Director's Cut)
Deadly Duo
DragonBlade: The Beginning (Widescreen)
Edward the King (Set)
Gasbags
Geordie
Ghost Boat
Ghouls
The Good Boy (Widescreen)
The Hairdresser's Husband
Happy Funeral (Full Screen)
I Dreamt Under the Water (Widescreen)
Jellyfish (Widescreen)
Jewel In The Crown (25th Anniversary Edition)
Jive Turkey
Juiced (Collector's Edition)
Jump Offs
Justice of Life
Kiss Attack
Land of the Dead (Director's Cut)
Laredo: Season 2, Part 1
Larry Flynt: The Right to be Left Alone
The Last Laugh (Restored)
Legend Of The Wolf (Widescreen)
Lewis Black's Root of All Evil
Lost In Space: Season Two Volume One
The Man Who Saved Christmas
Michael Phelps: Greatest Olympic Champion
Mighty Machines: 1st Season (Boxed Set)
Mostly Ghostly
My Name Is Earl: Season 3 (Widescreen)
My Three Sons: The First Season, Volume One
Numb3rs: The Fourth Season
Numbers: Seasons 1-4 (Set)
Orphans
Over There: Season 1
Pink Eye
Possession
Pulse 2: Afterlife (Widescreen)
Puzzle
Queens of Heart
Rapture
Re-Cycle
The Rebel (Ultimate Edition)
Redneck Zombies (20th Anniversary Edition)
Salem Witch Trials
See You In You Tube (Widescreen)
Slogan (Special Edition)
Soccer Mom
Son Of The Beach: Volume 1
Summer Scars (Widescreen)
Taxi to the Dark Side
Thunderball (Widescreen)
Time Tunnel: Season 1, Volume 1
Time Tunnel: Season 1, Volume 2
U2: The Rebirth Of Cool U2 In The Third Millennium
U2: Under a Blood Red Sky


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