The Sports Pages is a made for cable anthology movie.  It consists of two stories, one of which is a comic gem, and the other a so-so story that drags the movie down.

The first story, How Doc Waddems Finally Broke 100, is set in a court room.  Dr. Waddems (Bob Newhart) is on trial for the murder of his golfing partner, Howard Green (Kelsey Grammar.)  Against the advice of his lawyer, the doctor takes the stand, and admits to the prosecution that he did indeed kill Mr. Green.  In his defense, the doctor explains the events leading up to the murder, when he and Green were playing golf.

This was an incredibly funny piece. Bob Newhart and his dry humor were prefect for this role.  Kelsey Grammar also did a wonderful job as the irritatingly precise Mr. Green.  The story started out strong, and the jokes were constant throughout the show.  Typical of the humor is this early exchange between Doc Waddems who is on the stand and his lawyer:
 
Lawyer: ...my question is not how you came to kill Mr. Green, but why.
Waddems: Because, for some unknown reason, no one else had.

The second story in the film, The Heidi Bowl, was not as successful.  This tells the story of several people in New York City on one Sunday in 1968 when the Jets were playing the Raiders out on the west coast.  The game was broadcast live on NBC.  As many people probably remember, the game ran long, as football games often do.  At 7:00, the Jets were leading 32-29 with 50 seconds on the clock.  Strangely, the network decided to cut away from the last minutes of the game so that they could broadcast Heidi uncut.  This movie looks at the fallout from this strange event.

The problem with this section is that it isn't too funny.  It is more of an exaggerated slice of life than a comedy.  The just aren't too many jokes, though there are some amusing situations, most of them fall flat.  They show cuts in clips of  Bill Plympton and Ed Koch, among others, commenting on the situation running up to the switch over.  These were cute, but not really funny.  It also took way too long to get to the actual Heidi broadcast, and the aftermath seemed a little anticlimactic after waiting so long.

The cast are all very talented, but they can't save this dud of a script.  Eugene Levy does a good job as the master control operator who leaves a trainee in charge of programing at NBC.  The look on his face when he realizes that he's responsible for the mix up is classic.  Unfortunately he grabs his chest soon after and starts to have a heart attack, which saps any comic value his earlier reaction had.  Gary Basaraba was great as the out of work used car salesman who unexpectedly finds himself hosting a huge party while his wife is at work.

A good effort overall, but it still falls short of the first story.

Audio:

The stereo soundtrack sounded pretty good overall.  The movie is mainly dialog based, so the two channels were appropriate.  The dialog was clear and the background music was reproduced well.  Overall an adequate sounding disc.

Video:

The full frame video was good.  Being a recent show, the image was clear with the colors accurate.  There was some aliasing in the background, but it wasn't a significant problem.

Extras:

There were no extras included on this disc.

Final Thoughts:

The second part of this move was fairly mediocre, with a script that never really knew what it wanted to do.  The disc is definitely worth renting though to see Bob Newhart and Kelsey Grammar in How Doc Waddems Finally Broke 100.   Rent it.