Sports Night (TV Series)

The Quality of Mercy at 29K (1998)

Josh Charles: Dan Rydell

Quotes 

• Natalie Hurley : Two guys have ascended five miles into the sky. They walked up a wall of ice, and are preparing to knock on the door of Heaven itself. There's really no end to what we can do. You know what the trick is?

  Dan Rydell : What?

  Natalie Hurley : Get in the game.

• Isaac Jaffe : Danny, every morning I leave an acre and a half of the most beautiful property in New Canaan, get on a train and come to work in a fifty-four story glass high rise. In between I step over bodies to get here - 20, 30, 50 of 'em a day. So, as I'm stepping over them I reach into my pocket and give them whatever I've got.

  Dan Rydell : Your'e not afraid they're gonna spend it on booze?

  Isaac Jaffe : I'm hoping they're going to spend it on booze. Look, Dan, these people, most of 'em, it's not like they're one hot meal away from turning it around. For most of 'em the clock's pretty much run out. You'll be home soon enough. What's wrong with giving them a little novacaine to get 'em through the night?

• Dana Whitaker : The lights go down, and this woman with a voice like thunder - this woman, she summons all the animals of the jungle to appear and honor the birth of the new lion king. She *summons* the animals with her voice, and do you know - do you know what happens next?

  Dan Rydell : The animals appear?

  Dana Whitaker : The animals *appear*!

• Casey McCall : It's a vicious circle.

  Dan Rydell : It is.

  Casey McCall : It's a neverending circle.

  Dan Rydell : Just keeps going round and round.

  Casey McCall : Never ends.

  Dan Rydell : That's what makes it vicious.

  Casey McCall : And a circle.

• [first lines] 

  Dan Rydell : [on the air]  The Olympic gold-medal-winning gymnast and high school sophomore said that after all those years of hard work, it was a relief to finally realize her life-long dream. Good to get that out of the way at fifteen.

• Casey McCall : I climb. I'm a climber.

  Dan Rydell : You climb at your gym.

  Casey McCall : Darm tootin' I do, and it's a challenging ascent.

  Dan Rydell : It's a wall in a gym.

  Casey McCall : It simulates a Class III mountain.

  Natalie Hurley : I hear the air gets pretty thin up near the juice bar.