Taking a page from last September 11, herein is a list of my top 11 recurring characters on Sports Night. OK, they don't all recur. Anyway:

11. Louise Goodwin. She never appeared on screen, but her presence allowed for one of the more interesting episodes of season one (even if it was ripped off from the various MASH episodes where Hawkeye writes his dad). She also crops up in the second season when Jeremy learns she's communicating with Natalie, and it freaks him out a bit. I can understand that now, as I worry every time Sarah says she's talked with my sister without me being present.

10. Jenny, played by Paula Marshall. You might think a rebound girlfriend who is also a porn star would be just the ticket, but in this case it doesn't work out so well for Jeremy. I do find these episodes fairly entertaining, though I am often distracted by the heavy make-up on Jenny. I guess it's some sort of visual cue.

9. Chris, Will, Dave, Elliot, and Kim played by Timothy Davis-Reed, Ron Ostrow, Jeff Mooring, Greg Baker, and Kayla Blake. Yes, they all kind of run together (except for Kim, being the only woman), but you'd usually get one good comic relief moment out of the group. Any more would have been too much.

8. Gordon Gage, played by Ted McGinley. The man who could have taken the show down in season one but didn't, part of me thinks I should have rated him higher, especially for the scene where Casey tries to one-up Gordon and gets smacked down. I suppose I don't rate him as highly because, as much of a part of the plot as he was in season one, I never felt like he was there to do more than underscore the Dana and Casey thing. Had Gordon been more sympathetic I think it would have made the tension more interesting. As it was Gordon was so visibly wrong for Dana that you wound up focusing more on how it was going to end rather than whether it would end.

7. Abby Jacobs, played by Jayne Brooks. When Dan thinks he's picked her up at a bar, he's surprised to learn that his charm and candor have only landed him a therapist. The tension from that confusion plays out during their sessions, which Abby plays off for maximum value.

6. Rebecca Wells, played by Teri Polo. Probably the best thing to happen to Dan during the course of the show, but also probably the worst thing given that their split likely accelerated his breakdown in season two. One wonders what her return would have meant for season three.

I've never been a huge Teri Polo fan, but I thought she played Rebecca well, smart enough to keep up with Dan but still not so smart that she could sort her own life out.

5. Jay Rydell, played by Peter Riegert. He's on one episode, and even then for a very short time, but the feeling of dread and discomfort is palpable. Even hearing Dan talk about his dad later in the episode, you get the sense that they weren't the type to go out in the yard and play catch.

Riegert is best known for playing Boon in Animal House and the detective on the trail of Jim Carrey in The Mask. I imagine this turn helped him prepare for his recurring role as Assemblyman Zellman in The Sopranos.

4. JJ, played by Robert Mailhouse. The Continental Corp suit that rides herd on the Sports Night crew, JJ is played as a sugar-coated menace, someone who says he wants what's best for the development of the show, but is clearly interested in using the show to best promote his career with the parent company. One has to wonder how closely drawn JJ is to network types that Sorkin et. al. had to deal with, especially during the second season, when JJ is more clearly threatening the survival of the show.

3. Bobbi Bernstein, played by Lisa Edelstein. More of Dan's past comes to light when he has to work with Bobbi, who claims they slept together in Spain and he never called her afterwards. Dan is convinced she's nuts, and at first Bobbi's is played in such a way that it seems like Dan's right.

Edelstein went on to play the call girl law student who gets mixed up with Sam Seaborn on The West Wing, keeping things in the Sorkin family.

2. Sally Sasser, played by Brenda Strong. Sally was perhaps the most threatening character to Sports Night; she clearly wanted Dana's job, and seemed to think that having Dana's men was an acceptable substitute. Dan classified her with vampires, Stepford producers and other things that go bump in the night.

But what made her threat seem so unusual were the times when she showed vulnerability and self-loathing. Consider how she lost it during Isaac's stroke when Dan just said hi to her. Also consider the soul-sucking emptiness of her brief time with Casey, when neither seemed particularly interested in being there other than to just be with someone.

1. Sam Donovan, played by William H. Macy. Sam Donovan was a ratings expert, brought in by CSC to shake things up and make changes that would increase viewership. And while this didn't happen for the real show, the brief tenure of Sam Donovan as a Sports Night character did shake things up and bring new energy to a show that was suffering from both a tenuous spot on air and from a lengthy plot line that was beginning to show some wear (Casey and Dana).

Donovan was a big-mouth and highly egocentric, beautifully played by Macy (who, for those who don't know, is the real-life husband of Felicity Huffman, who played Dana). I've mentioned my Macy fandom before, and it has no better vehicle than this role.