al michaels-related stories
Posted Nov 22nd 2009 1:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
What does it say about the state of television broadcasting when the voice of television football is a guy who's voice is indiscernible? Is there really nobody that's filled the void since
John Madden stopped acting out in the booth with the booms and the pows and the turducken and horse trailer references? Afraid so. According to
Sporting News' list of the Top 25 Football Broadcasters in America, CBS football broadcaster
Gary Danielson is number one.
Sporting News used a measuring system based on fan reaction and the input of its reporters and editors (including
SportsBusiness Journal/SportsBusiness Daily), and despite the fact that Danielson's voice is pretty much just like
Bob Griese's (I always confuse the two), he's considered the best because "he explains it before most of us have seen it." That's on target. He is pretty smart, just unmemorable.
Continue reading Who's the top football broadcaster on TV today?
Posted Sep 24th 2009 4:45AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Reality-Free, Jay Leno
A talk show can only be as good as its guest. That means
The Jay Leno Show can only get better than
Pee Wee Herman's tornado of suck.
Wednesday's episode was a big step up from the previous night, thanks in part to Vince Vaughn's entertaining sit-down with the big chinned one. Couple that with some entertaining features like "Jaywalking" and the second "Green Car Challenge," and you've got a much better show this time round the track.
Part of that success has to do with the show's choice of guest stars, but this show stuck to what makes it work by introducing new segments that fit the old show's style and building on old ones.
Continue reading The Jay Leno Show: Vince Vaughn
Posted Apr 16th 2009 2:24PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Sports, News, Industry, Interviews, Reality-Free
John Madden is done. NBC announced today that Madden, perhaps the most famous broadcaster in football history apart from Howard Cosell,
is retiring from the booth after covering the NFL for 30 years, winning 16 Emmys and the admiration of football friends everywhere.
Madden
addressed listeners this morning on KCBS in San Francisco about the decision, which was obviously not easy for him. "I decided to retire," he said. "Heck I can't even say it. It's tough, not because I'm not sure it's the right time. I really feel strongly this is the right time. I'm just going to miss everything about it because I enjoyed it so much."
Football is in Madden's blood. He's a Hall of Fame coach, winning the Super Bowl with the Raiders in 1977, a college stand-out offensive tackle from California Polytechnic State University, and his Madden NFL is a perennial best-selling video game on multiple platforms. He joined ABC's
Monday Night Football crew in 2002, and spent the past three years on
NBC's Sunday Night Football.Continue reading Ebersol says Madden retirement will stick; Collinsworth named as replacement
Posted Apr 16th 2009 12:29PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Reality-Free
Boom! Faster than you can say, "Tough actin' Tinactin," NFL Hall of Famer
John Madden, the legendary voice of
Monday Night Football and the creator of EA Sports video game Madden NFL Football, has decided to take himself out of the game.
Madden's retiring from broadcasting. He'll be leaving NBC's
Football Game of the Week as the color commentator; Al Michaels is continuing at the play by play voice.
The fact that Madden has retired at 73 is not really a surprise. This is the same guy that walked away from the Oakland Raiders head coaching position (when it still was a prestigious gig) after winning a Super Bowl and while he was still a young man.
Continue reading John Madden retires from NFL broadcasting
Posted Oct 13th 2008 7:08PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Sports, Reality-Free
Two-and-a-half years ago, I asked the (admittedly) dumb question,
"Could Frank Caliendo take John Madden's place?" At the time, my contention was that Caliendo's loopy Madden impression was no longer that far off reality, and that Madden had become such a caricature of himself that Frank could have stepped in and no one would have known the difference.
If NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol had a sense of daring, he could have tried that experiment this Sunday night, as
Madden is going to sit out NBC's broadcast of the Buccaneers-Seahawks game in Tampa. The week off was Ebersol's idea; last night's game was in San Diego, making a cross-country trek for Madden and his famous Cruiser (he doesn't fly) right before a week off, as NBC defers to the World Series.
Continue reading John Madden parks the Cruiser for a week
Posted Jul 16th 2007 7:41PM by Michael Maloney
Filed under: Programming, Saturday Night Live, Scrubs, My Name Is Earl, The Office, Celebrities, 30 Rock, TCA Press Tour, Casting
NBC's press tour day continued with a panel on Sunday Night Football.
When it concluded, panelists including Tiki Barber, John Madden and Al Michaels tossed out signed footballs to 10 or so lucky members of the press. Score! I caught the ball thrown to me by 2006 Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis, formerly of The Pittsburgh Steelers, now an NBC sports analyst.
In my dreams. It actually sailed over my head to a journalist behind me. "Fumble," he said as he scooped it up.
Sometimes press tour swag can be elusive.
Continue reading Free footballs and scoops from NBC's Thursday night sitcoms - TCA report
Posted Dec 6th 2006 7:00AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, Friday Night Lights
(S01E09) After a week off, the Panthers have another big game. And although there was a lot of hype about how tough this game would be in the promos, the game itself was almost an afterthought. As the show moves along there is less and less focus on the actual football. If my clock is right, we didn't get any actual game footage until 53 minutes into the hour. And that's fine by me. All three of the stories from this week were great, and the little bit of the game that we did get covered everything we needed to know.
First up, lots of development for the William's family. The Smash on steroids story seems to suffer from some of the time issues that the Street recovery does. It's all happening a little fast. Given that he just started on his cycle last week, I don't think he should be seeing a skin reaction or whatever the episode during his workout was. I'm willing to accept that time moves faster in Dillon though, because I really liked the William's family story this week.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: Full Hearts
Posted Aug 14th 2006 4:09PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Cable, Talent, Celebrities
The ESPN sports show host (and subject of that lame Jason Alexander sitcom from a couple of years ago, Listen Up) makes his debut tonight on Monday Night Football, a preseason game between the Raiders and the Vikings, and he's a little worried about it. As he says in a not-so-subtle way in this New York Times piece, "I'm going to bomb."
Maybe this is just a way of lowering expectations. He's not going to bomb or be terrible. I mean, Tony, it can't be any worse than Listen Up, can it?
Posted Aug 4th 2006 2:36PM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: OpEd, Lost, Smallville, The Five
From John Madden to Sarah Paulson, Bradley Whitford, and superheroes on the small screen (where they
really flourish) -- here are the five things I'm looking forward to this Fall TV season:
1.
Lex, Lana, and General Zod love triangle: Forget Bryan Singer's not-too-bad film, forget the foul and execrable
My Super Ex-Girlfriend,
Smallville does comics right. And no ditzy bimbo sidekick for television's Lex Luthor, who appears to have won the heart of Clark's ex, Lana Lang, over the course of last season, and now he's possessed by the
Superman II film villain, Zod. That's character development that movies, (even 2 hour 45 minute movies) just don't have time for. A
Smallville cast addition:
Jimmy Olsen? Who cares. And is that freckled goofball the best they can do as a love interest for adorable Chloe (
Allison Mack)? Also, I'm thankful the suits passed on Aquaman. There's a reason
Aquaman is the fake movie on
Entourage -- the very idea is just ridiculous. A superhero should have powers that at least outweigh his weaknesses. (Has gills and the ability to bond with lobster and other entrees, but can't be out of water more than
one hour?) Now,
Justin Hartley is freed up to play Green Arrow on a
Smallville arc. Come to think of it, cut Chloe a break and hook her up with Green Arrow.
Continue reading The Five: Mike C's fall picks
Posted Feb 9th 2006 3:10PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Sports, ABC, NBC, Cable, Talent, Industry, TV Sports
Well, it wasn't the
proverbial bucket of balls, but it was close. A day after
ESPN announced
a Monday Night Football team from which Al Michaels was consipcuously absent comes official word that
NBC has signed
Michaels to rejoin John Madden in the booth for their new Sunday night football package.
But NBC didn't
get Michaels for nothing. According to the SI.com article, ESPN and its parent company, Disney, received the following
items in exchange for Michaels, who was under contract with the cable network: the cable rights to the Friday
broadcasts of the next four Ryder Cups, "increased usage of Olympic highlights" (whatever that means), and
the rights to the cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which appeared in silent Disney cartoon shorts in the late
1920s.
(More detailed information can be found in this
USAToday.com article.)
Continue reading Al Michaels traded to NBC for... Oswald the Lucky Rabbit?
Posted Feb 8th 2006 5:42PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Sports, ABC, NBC, Cable, Talent, Industry, TV Sports
In a development that surprised no one,
ESPN has
announced that Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser will join Joe Theismann in the booth for their version of
Monday
Night Football, set to debut this fall. Because Kornheiser also co-hosts the popular ESPN show
Pardon The
Interruption, this means that Tony and his
PTI compadre Michael Wilbon will take the show on the road
every Monday during the football season, airing the show from the location of that night's game.
So, what
happened with Al Michaels? Wasn't he supposed to be doing
MNF next year? Well, considering the fact that a) he
has also been removed as ABC's number-one NBA announcer (to be replaced by Mike Breen), and b)
there
have been rumors floating around that he wanted to break his newly-signed ESPN contract and join John Madden on
NBC's new Sunday Night broadcast, chances are good that Super Bowl XL was the last game Michaels called in his
thirty-year ABC career. No official announcement has come out yet, but expect to see Michaels on the Peacock Network
next fall.
More information can be found in this
Reuters article, with actual quotes on Michaels from
ESPN executives included.
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