For my generous friends who may be wondering what I'd like for a (late) birthday or (early) Christmas present...

Wonder no more. Sports Night, the show so good it made me love a show (I thought was) about sports, is being re-released on DVD in a 10th Anniversary edition.

Marking 10 years after Sports Night's initial premiere on network television, the multiple award-winning cast and creative team come together for the first time on DVD when Shout! Factory presents Sports Night: The Complete Series 10th Anniversary Edition DVD box set on September 30, 2008. Offering the first comprehensive Sports Night experience ever, the 8-DVD collector's box set contains all 45 acclaimed episodes, a special 10th Anniversary book, and 2 full discs of exclusive bonus features that reveal the genesis, life and afterlife of the series with all-new interviews, behind-the-scenes featurettes, gag reels, deleted scenes, and commentaries featuring the principal cast and creative team. You don't have to know sports to enjoy Sports Night.

From creator and executive producer Aaron Sorkin, executive produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Tony Krantz, Thomas Schlamme and Rob Scheidlinger, and produced by Imagine Television in association with Touchstone Television, Sports Night debuted on ABC on September 22, 1998 and received an extraordinary reception from television critics and fans alike. Brimming with wry wit and high-brow humor, Sports Night is not a program about sports. The show provides an all-access pass to the inner workings of a high pressure cable newsroom and sheds lights on those dedicated news anchors and crew who ultimately push personal conflicts aside to bring their audience the best sports program offered on television...sometimes against considerable personal odds.

To illustrate the point, a quote and a clip:

"You need therapy"
"I'm in therapy."
"You need more."

-"Kyle Whitaker's Got Two Sacks," Sports Night.

I missed this show the first time around. Although I had regard for Aaron Sorkin (who created the series and wrote all but a handful of episodes) at the time, it wasn't as high as it would become. Not quite high enough to vault the wall of my sports ignorance.

That changed after West Wing, and I "rediscovered" Sorkin's first series when Comedy Central began running the repeats.