john madden-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 Aug 21st 2009 9:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Industry, Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
If there's one night of television that NBC has a handle on, it's Sunday. At least during football season.
Football Night In America works, and you know the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That said,
NBC has renewed its NFL deal for two more years. The new deal – the extension – secures that NBC will be broadcasting NFL games through 2013, so there will be plenty of games for all those analysts to yap about.
NBC has nearly enough guys to field a team on the pre-game show: Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Tony Dungy, Tiki Barber, Rodney Harrison ... with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth calling the games. Will we notice that
John Madden is gone? Probably not, especially if the games are good.
Continue reading NBC renews deal with the NFL
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 12:04PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Casting, Reality-Free
NBC continues to play musical chairs on
Football Night in America, the network's Sunday night blanket coverage of the NFL including a prime time game. (I'm surprised NBC hasn't added
Jay Leno to the broadcast!) The latest change is an interesting one: Super Bowl winning coach
Tony Dungy is joining the panel and former running back Jerome Bettis is out. What's interesting is that they are two completely different types.
Bettis, whose nickname is "The Bus," is well-known as the smiling winner from the 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers' Super Bowl team. He's loud, boisterous and a larger-than-life personality. Dungy, on the other hand, was the architect and head man for the 2007 Indianapolis Colts' Super Bowl championship. He is cerebral and thoughtful and the author of a bestselling memoir,
Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life. You could say that the two men are the anti-thesis of each other, which is likely why NBC has made the switch.
Continue reading Dungy in, Bettis Out at NBC's Football Night in America
Posted May 18th 2009 3:37PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Celebrities, Reality-Free
There'll be a new face in the
Monday Night Football booth this season.
Pardon The Interruption's Tony Kornheiser is out after three years and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach – and Super Bowl winner -- Jon Gruden, is in. Gruden, who was dumped by the Bucs at the end of last season, has been sitting in on ESPN as a commentator, so this is a logical progression for him, although he does claim that he wants to be a head coach again some time in the future.
That's an interesting notion because usually when a guy gets into the booth, he doesn't get out. Dick Vermeil is one of the few to jump back and forth;
John Madden, who retired from NBC less than a month ago, was one who never returned to the sidelines.
Continue reading Monday Night Football shakeup: Kornheiser out, Gruden in
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 Mar 6th 2009 1:31PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Cancellations, Reality-Free
The first season of Frank Caliendo' s
Frank TV debuted with some of the strongest numbers TBS had seen with over three million viewers for its first episode. That was bolstered by a constant barrage of spots during the MLB playoffs, and although that first run was cut to five episodes by the writers' strike, the show's future seemed bright.
Now season two is in the books, and that will do it for
Frank TV.
Broadcasting & Cable reported yesterday that Caliendo's series has been canceled.
Caliendo entered the second season in an optimistic mood. He had made some changes with the bigger budget TBS gave him, adding people to the cast to address the major criticism from Season One that Caliendo was playing every part. When doing impressions is your main strength, you're probably going to need an ensemble cast. Caliendo is one of the most talented mimics in comedy - watch his face during his signature George W. Bush or John Madden impressions. He gets the physical tics, as well as the voice, perfect.
Continue reading Say goodbye to Frank TV
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 22nd 2008 10:28PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Sports, TCA Press Tour, Chuck, Life, Lipstick Jungle, Reality-Free
Today was the very last day of the press tour here in Beverly Hills. It was "TCA Day," with members of the association (including me) going to the Warner Brothers lot to visit the sets of
ER, Pushing Daisies, and
Chuck, where we spoke to cast members and producers (Oh, we went to the set of
America's Best Dance Crew, but let's just forget I mentioned that one). Then we bused it over to the Fox lot, where Joss Whedon showed us around the set of
Dollhouse, and the entire cast of
King of the Hill gave a table read of their 250th episode. All this fun will be in upcoming posts later this summer.
Despite some of the griping you may have seen from me, it's been lots of fun. It's just a very tiring experience. Case in point: On Monday, NBC decided to close out the press conference portion of the tour by having us sit through ten panels, five of them after lunch. Here's a wrap-up post that goes over some of what went on yesterday that I haven't already covered.
Continue reading NBC wrap-up: Slater's split personality, and Selma Blair's a wise-ass - TCA Report
Posted Aug 16th 2006 3:36PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Sports, Cable, Talent, Celebrities
Ah, yes, the two-bit weasel slug. I remember seeing something about this on Animal Planet. They're only found in certain climates around the world, and are usually harmless, unless provoked by sports columnists.
A few days ago we talked about Tony Kornheiser's worry that he would be a flop on Monday Night Football. I didn't see his first performance so I can't comment on it (but you can go ahead and put your comments below), but his coworker at The Washington Post did and wrote a review of it. And now Kornheiser is fighting back at Paul Farhi's review, calling him a two-bit weasel slug and saying he's someone "I would gladly run over with a Mack truck."
For the record, the coworkers here at TV Squad never say bad things about each other. Ever.
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 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.
Posted Feb 6th 2006 11:06PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Sports, ABC, Late Night, OpEd, TV Sports, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities
Being an impressionist is one of the toughest careers to maintain in
the world of comedy. Instead of being able to do new material, audiences want you to do certain voices all the time.
And at a certain point, your impressions become so outdated no one wants to hear them anymore (I'm sure
Fred Travalena isn't getting requests for his Jimmy Carter
impression, for instance).
Which is why I'm proposing this request to
MadTV's Frank Caliendo: get a
job as an analyst in an NFL booth. Now.
For those who've never seen
Caliendo, he does some pretty good impressions: Al Pacino, Terry Bradshaw,
Robin Williams, even President Bush; all of them are pitch-perfect (he does one of the most true-to-life Dubya
impressions out there). But his signature impression is of soon-to-be-NBC football analyst John Madden. It's amazing
how good it is; close your eyes and you'll swear that you're hearing the man himself. What Caliendo adds to the
impression, though, is a sense that the cheese has slipped off Madden's cracker a bit, as he repeats himself, talks in
circles, and states the obvious.
Continue reading Frank Caliendo: Can he take Madden's place?
Posted Dec 23rd 2005 11:49AM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Sports, ABC, Talent, Programming
This Monday night marks the
final airing
of
Monday Night Football on ABC. As was announced a few months ago,
MNF moves to ESPN starting with
the 2006 NFL season. However, ABC is planning on pulling out all the stops for the final telecast. Joining current
hosts Al Michaels and John Madden are former hosts Frank Gifford and Don Meredith. Gifford and Meredith will not appear
live, but will highlight some of the biggest moments from
MNF past in numerous taped segments. Over the years.
MNF has had numerous hosts from both the sports and entertainment fields including OJ Simpson, Joe Namath, and Dennis
Miller. The final match-up between the Patriots and Jets airs this Monday night at 9pm ET.
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