The Window Opens
Posted January 4th, 2006 by RD Heldenfels
My heart's still pounding from the end of the Rose Bowl, won by Texas in thrilling fashion. (I watched the early part on ABC, then listened to the later stages on ESPN Radio, where the drama kept me from drifting off to sleep.) But those of you who don't care a fig about football should care that the game is done, because it means we get back to regular television.
The big bowls have delayed the start of lots of fresh television several days into the new year, since few progammers want to waste their good stuff against football games likely to draw big audiences. Now that's done, so Thursday night we will see, among other things, a new season of "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC and NBC's move of "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" into a Thursday comedy block with "Will & Grace" and the new (and not noteworthy) "Four Kings."
I have seen two upcoming episodes of "The Office," so I can warn fans to expect a big plot turn that will add to the show's poignancy. Also some additional humanizing of the characters, which may make this acquired-taste show more palatable to new viewers sampling it on Thursday. And some very funny scenes. I have seen 1 1/3 new episodes of "Earl" — since my review disc from NBC froze early in the second episode on it — and this show is very much on its game.
Viewers, though, will have to stay sharp when it comes to keeping track of the TV schedule, since this window of viewing opportunities may not be open long. The college football season is over, but we're heading into the NFL playoffs, the Super Bowl and — in February — many, many hours of Winter Olympics.
January 5th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Rich, just curious becaue you've been talking about football. I wanted to get your thoughts on who you think are the best football announcers going today? Personally, I love Dick Enberg, but that might be because he called one of those Browns Championship games in the 1980s. Joe Buck is good, too. I liked the guys who called the FSU/PSU game, Mike Tirico and Kirk Herbstreit.
Kudos on the blog. You've been doing a heck of a job on this.
January 6th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Oh, gosh, football announcers. I go back to at least the days of Curt Gowdy, whom I didn't care for much; I remember him calling a sudden-death overtime and repeatedly referring to it as ''sudden victory." It may have been a mandated phrase, but it sounded really odd.
I thought Tirico and Herbstreit were very good in what I heard of their coverage. The guys who did the Rose Bowl for ESPN Radio were great — can't remember their names, unfortunately — although they also had an amazing game to cover. I remember listening to that last Texas drive and just feeling that Vince Young was undeniable.
I've also liked John Madden's "regular guy" way of doing things, although I thought he was better paired with Pat Summerall when Summerall was on his game than with Al Michaels.
Enberg is very polished — and his autobiography is an interesting read, by the way. Joe Buck is sometimes very good, sometimes not. (He seems to get louder when he gets worse.)
There are times when I miss Cosell and Meredith, usually during a badly played game or a blowout when they could make things more interesting.
I'll have to think more about this. I watch a lot of sports with the sound off. As I think I said in a previous posting here, that can make the action even more intense. And, especially in these graphics-heavy days, you can pretty much see the whole story without having someone tell it to you, too.