Posted on 12/27/2005 7:36:36 AM PST by Zechariah11
ABC TV's Monday Night Football promotion is like a restaurant that tries to attract customers by telling you how entertaining its waiters are. Then when one of them keeps dropping dishes, management will bring in a new one, and then another, all the time keeping the pitch going about how this is a promotion not to be missed.
The food? Naah, nobody cares about that. It's our waiters they're interested in, our stars.
The sick thing is that journalists buy into this nonsense ... TV columnists, molders of public opinion. I've already begun to read the hand-wringing about the departure of ABC as purveyor of Monday Night Football, as if some great monument were being torn down. ABC is leaving? Who cares? Certainly not me. Bring in the next network, the next set of waiters to serve our food. Make sure it's hot.
I've never bought into ABC's "We Are the Show" approach, especially during what they (and few others) like to call their Golden Age. You know, Howard Cosell and Don Meredith, the limos, the parties and the fabulous expense accounts. Oh, the byplay was occasionally amusing. It's fun when a waiter drops an occasional gag on you. But OK, let's get through it and get to the reason why we came to the restaurant. The meal. The food.
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
"I've never bought into ABC's "We Are the Show" approach, especially during what they (and few others) like to call their Golden Age. You know, Howard Cosell and Don Meredith, the limos, the parties and the fabulous expense accounts. Oh, the byplay was occasionally amusing. It's fun when a waiter drops an occasional gag on you. But OK, let's get through it and get to the reason why we came to the restaurant. The meal. The food."
If that were the case, the ratings should have remained high post Cosell.
In the Cosell era the ratings were high because the show attracted beyod the "Joe sixpack " demographic.
The Monday Night Football production values in the past five years have been horrible. I don't want to see MTV, I don't want twenty friggin minutes of introduction, I don't want that irritating half-time clip package set to the same country tune with insipid "new" lyrics each week.
It was crap, and good RIDDANCE to its demise.
MNF used to have a GREAT theme song. They would play it, give a two minute intro, and kick the damn ball.
Start at 9:00, and kick at 9:02!
Unfortunately for me, ESPN is only going to be worse. Beware the suffocating and omnipresent ego of Chris "Boomer" Berman and the *FLASH* gaudy *SWOOSH* special *BAM!* effects of the four-letter network and its Disney masters.
Just wait until Joe Theisman is the booth guy. If you thought people turned down their volume for Howard, just wait until this dope starts to speak.
His "commentary" on the Sunday night games is horrid. EVERY play is always the "Best play in NFL history". Every player is "one of hte best players in NFL history". He is a joke, and MNF on ESPN is going to stink on ice with this tool in the booth.
The four-letter network has become
UNWATCHABLE
Frankly,
Since I don't have Cable.. I am glad I won't see 3 hours of a network tied up with football.... lets see if you can come up with some orignal series that are worth watching.
I understand it's the nature of the business, but trying to attract non-football fans to watch a football game on TV between two (usually) meaningless teams is a recipe for disaster.
Oh, I totally agree with that. Joe does have a good restaurant in Old Town though.
I'm sure it will be available on free TV in the local markets of the teams that are playing. That's been the case with the ESPN Sunday night games.
ML/NJ
I see your point -- but I see this as more evidence that the broadcast media is now a cultural and technological anachronism.
The big 3 networks got in on the ground floor of TV and became national institutions by default. They have squandered the privelege, and lost the monopoly -- this is a pretty big shot to network prestige, and another step on the path to irrelevancy.
Exactly right. I happen to like football. I happen to like country music. But when the tiresome "Are you ready ..." introduction was made to look good by comparison with the incredibly stupid country music halftime "highlights," it was apparent that ABC MNF had set a new record for shark jumping.
Last night made me realize how much I missed Cosell and Dandy Don.
Does it feature broken turkey legs?
Most die-hard football fans will tell you that the best games in any given season are the conference championship games. Heck, I've been a huge football fan for a long time -- and I haven't even watched a Super Bowl game in more than ten years.
Also, back in the day the halftime highlights were the only way you could see some of the plays from your favorite team. ABC would get angry phone calls from people whose teams were left off. Hard to imagine in this day of 24-hour sports channels.
Talk about hubris and hype. The last MNF on ABC was filled with self-congratulation and self-importance. The action on the field was secondary to the thanks to the ABC crew and the memories of the announcers. Who cares? This was another example of the MSM eclipsing the news they were covering. Let's hope ESPN does a better job.
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