NFL on television in the 1970s
During the early 1960s,
Two years later, Rozelle would build on this success as the NFL began a four-year experiment of playing on Monday night, scheduling one game in prime time on CBS during the
During subsequent negotiations on a new television contract that would begin in 1970 (coinciding with a merger between the NFL and AFL), Rozelle concentrated on signing a weekly Monday night deal with one of the three major networks. After sensing reluctance from both NBC and CBS in disturbing their regular programming schedules, Rozelle spoke with ABC.
Despite the network's status at the time as the lowest-
After the final contract for Monday Night Football was signed, ABC Sports producer Roone Arledge immediately saw possibilities for the new program. Setting out to create an entertainment "spectacle" as much as a simple sports broadcast, Arledge hired Chet Forte, who would serve as director of the program for over 22 years. Arledge also ordered twice the usual number of cameras to cover the game, expanded the regular two-man broadcasting booth to three, and used extensive graphic design within the show as well as instant replay.
Year-by-year breakdown
1970
Super Bowl IV was broadcast in the
CBS erased the videotape a few days after the game; the same thing they did with Super Bowls I and II, which they broadcast. Videotape was expensive then and networks did not believe old games were worth saving. The only reason this game exists is because the CBC and the French version on Radio-Canada in Canada and in Québec carried the broadcast and because the Vikings were located so close to Canada and had a lot of Canadian and Québec fans (and Bud Grant was a legendary player and coach in the CFL), the CBC decided to save it for their archives. As previously mentioned, as videotape was too expensive in those days to save, they transferred the footage to black & white film (kinescope). This therefore, enabled them to reuse the videotape.
In 1970, after the NFL and AFL completed their merger, NBC signed a contract with the league to broadcast games from the American Football Conference (AFC). Curt Gowdy, who had covered the first five seasons of the American Football League with broadcast partner Paul Christman on ABC, moved over to NBC in the fall of 1965. For the next decade, Gowdy was the lead play-by-play announcer for the network for both AFL football (AFC from 1970 onward) and Major League Baseball games; however, Gowdy also covered a wide range of sports, earning him the nickname of the "broadcaster of everything." Besides Paul Christman, Curt Gowdy's other football broadcast partners were Kyle Rote, Al DeRogatis, Don Meredith, John Brodie and Merlin Olsen.
Looking for a lightning rod to garner attention, Arledge hired controversial New York City sportscaster Howard Cosell as a commentator, along with veteran football play-by-play announcer Keith Jackson. Arledge had tried to lure Curt Gowdy and then Vin Scully to ABC for the MNF play-by-play role, but settled for Jackson after they proved unable to break their respective existing contracts with NBC Sports and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jack Buck was also considered, but when Arledge assistant Chuck Howard telephoned Buck with the job offer, Buck refused to respond due to anger at his treatment by ABC during an earlier stint with the network.[1] Arledge's original choice for the third member of the trio, Frank Gifford, was unavailable since he was still under contract to CBS Sports. However, Gifford suggested former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith, setting the stage for years of fireworks between the often-pompous Cosell and the laid-back Meredith and sometimes, the good-looking Gifford.
On September 20, 1970, The NFL Today signed industry-pioneering women:
Monday Night Football first aired on ABC on September 21, 1970, with a game between the
1971
On January 17, 1971, NBC's telecast of Super Bowl V between the Baltimore Colts and Dallas Cowboys was viewed in an estimated 23,980,000 homes, the largest household audience ever for a one-day sports event. The game was called by play-by-play announcer Curt Gowdy and color commentator Kyle Rote. Although the Orange Bowl was sold out for the event, unconditional blackout rules in the NFL prohibited the live telecast from being shown in the Miami area on WSVN. The blackout was challenged in Miami-Dade District Court by attorney Ellis Rubin, and although the judge denied Rubin's request since he felt he did not have the power to overrule the NFL, he agreed with Rubin's argument that the blackout rule was unnecessary for the Super Bowl.[2]
The game was also the first Super Bowl to be carried live in the state of Alaska; thanks to NBC's then-parent company RCA acquiring the Alaska Communications System from the United States Air Force.[3] The complete original broadcast, up until Chuck Howley's second interception, the first play of the fourth quarter exists, however the rest of the fourth quarter is missing from network vaults. Broadcast excerpts of the crucial fourth-quarter plays, recovered from the Canadian feed of NBC's original, do exist and circulate among collectors. (Two different NFL Films game compilations also cover the fourth quarter plays, in part.)
By 1971, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced the Prime Time Access Rule, which freed local network affiliates in the top 50 markets (in practice, the entire network) to take a half-hour of prime time from the networks on Mondays through Saturdays and one full hour on Sundays. Because nearly all affiliates found production costs for the FCC's intended goal of increased public affairs programming very high and the ratings (and by association, advertising revenues) low, making it mostly unprofitable, the FCC created an exception for network-authored news and public affairs. After a six-month hiatus in late 1971, CBS would find a prime place for 60 Minutes in a portion of that displaced time, 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. (Eastern; 5:00 to 6:00 Central Time) on Sundays, in January 1972.[4] This proved somewhat less than satisfactory, however, because in order to accommodate CBS' telecasts of late afternoon National Football League games, 60 Minutes went on hiatus during the fall from 1972 to 1975 (and the summer of 1972). This took place because football telecasts were protected contractually from interruptions in the wake of the infamous "Heidi Game" incident on NBC in November 1968.
Due largely to CBS' live broadcast of NFL games, as well as other sports events aired by the network that run past their scheduled end time, 60 Minutes sometimes does not start until after 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with the program starting right after the conclusion of game coverage (however, on the West Coast, because the actual end of the live games is much earlier in the afternoon in comparison to the Eastern and Central Time Zones, 60 Minutes is always able to start at its normal 7:00 p.m. Pacific start time, leaving affiliates free to broadcast local newscasts, the CBS Evening News, and other local or syndicated programming leading up to 60 Minutes). The program's success has also led CBS Sports to schedule events leading into 60 Minutes and the rest of the network's primetime lineup, causing (again, except on the West Coast) the pre-emptions of the Sunday editions of the CBS Evening News and affiliates' local newscasts.
In
Howard Cosell's abrasive personality gave him enough recognition to host a live variety show on ABC in the fall of 1975. That show is remembered today only as a trivia question, as its title, Saturday Night Live, prevented a new late-night sketch comedy program on NBC from using that title until the ABC show was canceled. That seeming popularity was in contrast to the repeated criticisms in the media, as well as bar room contests in which winners were allowed to throw a brick through a television image of Cosell.
1972
On January 16, 1972, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Miami Dolphins 24–3 in Super Bowl VI in New Orleans. The CBS telecast had an estimated household viewership of 27,450,000 homes, the highest-rated single-day telecast ever at the time. Although Tulane Stadium was sold out for the game, unconditional blackout rules in the NFL prohibited the live telecast from being shown in the New Orleans market. This would be the last Super Bowl to be blacked out in the television market in which the game was played. The following year, the NFL allowed Super Bowl VII to be televised live in the host city (Los Angeles) when all tickets were sold. In 1973, the NFL changed its blackout policy to allow games to be broadcast in the home team's market if tickets are sold out 72 hours in advance (all Super Bowls since the second have sold out, as it is the main event on the NFL schedule, and there is high demand for Super Bowl tickets).
1973
On January 14, 1973, NBC's telecast of Super Bowl VII between the Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins was watched by approximately 75 million viewers. The game, called by Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis, was the first Super Bowl to be televised live in the city where it was being played. Despite the league's unconditional blackout rules that normally would have prohibited the live telecast from being shown locally, the NFL allowed the game to be telecast in the Los Angeles area on KNBC on an experimental basis when all tickets for the game were sold. The league then changed its blackout rules the following season to allow games sold out at least 72 hours in advance to be televised in the host market. No subsequent Super Bowl has ever been blacked out in the city it has been played in, since all of them have been sold out.
In 1973, The NFL Today began originating from CBS' New York City studios; the program also began to include reports from stadiums around the country; however, it continued to be pre-recorded before each week's game day.
After beginning with critical acclaim, Don Meredith began to take his weekly assignments less seriously, while also beginning an acting career. By 1973, his behavior on the broadcasts seemed highly suspect, given incidents during a trio of contests. On October 29, Meredith was drinking during the Buffalo Bills–Kansas City Chiefs game, which was preceded one week earlier by his pre-game analysis of the Denver Broncos–Oakland Raiders game: "We're in the Mile High City and I sure am" – a not-so-subtle reference to his use of marijuana at the time. Finally, during the Pittsburgh Steelers–Washington Redskins game on November 5, he referred to U.S. President Richard Nixon as "Tricky Dick".
On November 4, 1973, local San Francisco CBS affiliate KPIX (now an owned-and-operated station of the network) experimented with a "simulcast" in which the station kept switching back and forth between the network's broadcasts of a San Francisco 49ers game (against the Detroit Lions) and an Oakland Raiders game (against the New York Giants) that were being played at the same time, with frequent cuts to studio host Barry Tompkins. The station received many complaints from viewers, however, and the experiment was not repeated. This resulted in the NFL instituting new rules for markets that had two teams, which basically state that teams televised in two markets must play their games at different times in the day or week, or one of the teams must be on the road, or the teams' games must be on different networks. (For example, an NFL schedule for a given week in markets with two team franchises might look like this: Oakland at Kansas City, 1:00 p.m.; New York Giants at Philadelphia, 1:00 p.m.; San Diego at San Francisco, 4:15 p.m.; and New England at New York Jets, 8:00 p.m.)
On December 16, 1973, NBC cameras were there to cover O. J. Simpson as he rushed for 2,000 yards in one season. On that particular day, Simpson's Buffalo Bills would go on to beat the New York Jets at Shea Stadium.
1974
Super Bowl VIII was televised in the United States by
In 1974, CBS abandoned the pre-recorded NFL Today broadcast and its short-form wrap-up show, Pro Football Report, for a live, wraparound style program titled The NFL on CBS.[5] It started a half-hour prior to kickoff of either the singleheader or doubleheader telecast (12:30, 1:30 or 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time). On September 15, 1974, the revamped program debuted with a new three-segment format: the first segment featured highlights of the day's games and commentary, special features shot during the week were broadcast during the second segment, and the third segment covered the day's sports news, including scores and highlights at halftime. The program's hosts were Jack Whitaker (who was brought into the studio after quite a few years serving as a play-by-play announcer for the network's NFL broadcasts) and Lee Leonard.
The program broke ground in a number of ways: it was the first live pre-game show, the first to show halftime highlights of other games televised by CBS, and the first to wrap-up as a post-game show. CBS also began referring to its stadium studios or its pre-game set, previously known as "CBS Control," as the "CBS Sports Center". The program also no longer featured a third member of the on-air crew stationed at CBS Control to provide scores, halftime information and – time permitting – post-game interviews, a position often held by Dick Stockton during his early days at the network.
Don Meredith would be absent from Monday Night Football for a broadcasting and acting career on rival NBC from 1974 to 1976. Fred Williamson, a former Kansas City Chiefs defensive back nicknamed "The Hammer" for his often-brutal hits, was selected by ABC to replace Meredith in 1974, but following a few pre-season broadcasts, proved so inarticulate that he was relieved of his duties prior to the start of the regular season, becoming the first MNF personality not to last an entire season (much less no part of the regular season at all). Williamson was replaced by fellow Gary, Indiana native Alex Karras, formerly of the Detroit Lions. The highlight of Williamson's MNF career was probably at the introductory press conference where he quipped that he was hired to "bring some color to the booth."
Karras made his debut on September 16, 1974 and immediately made an impact when he jokingly referred to Oakland Raiders' defensive lineman Otis Sistrunk as having attended "The University of Mars." That would essentially be the high point of Karras' three-year tenure, with a developing movie career often distracting him from showing any improvement (in reality, Sistrunk did not attend any college but enlisted in the United States Marine Corps after high school and played semi-professional football before getting a tryout with the Raiders; the Raiders team guide listed his college alma mater as "U.S. Mars").
During the October 13, 1974, New Orleans Saints–Denver Broncos game, the broadcasting duo of play-by-play announcer Don Criqui and color commentator Irv Cross was supplemented by the contributions of the first woman ever on an NFL telecast, Jane Chastain, a sports reporter for WTVJ, Miami's CBS affiliate. While providing limited commentary, Chastain was used on an irregular basis over the rest of the season.
1975
Super Bowl IX was broadcast in the
In
Meanwhile, NBC's first official NFL pre-game show, GrandStand,
Also by
One of the trademarks of Monday Night Football is a music cue used during the opening teasers of each program, a
In 1975, because of NBC's coverage of Game 2 of the World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox, NBC's 1:00 p.m. NFL telecasts were cancelled.[9][10] All games except for the New England Patriots–Cincinnati Bengals match were picked up by local stations in the markets of the visiting team. Meanwhile, at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, NBC aired a game between the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs nationally. As the 1975 World Series progressed, NBC would advertise its upcoming weekend schedule during the breaks:
If we have a Game 7, we'll have The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola at 12:30 and Game 7 from
for most of you at 1:00. Either way, you win at NBC.
As it turned out, no baseball was played that Sunday. Three days of rain in Boston forced Game 6 to be postponed until the following Tuesday, October 21, followed by Game 7 the next night.
1976
CBS' 1976 telecast of
Hosting television coverage was The NFL Today crew of Brent Musburger; Irv Cross and Phyllis George. During this game, CBS began using Jack Trombey's "Horizontal Hold" as the theme music. That would be used the following season for the NFL Today pregame show between 1976 and 1980 in its original form, with a remake for 1981 followed by updates for 1984 and 1989 before its retirement.
By this time, The NFL Today began the complex process of producing three separate live pre-game, halftime and postgame programs for 1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m. (through 1981) and 4:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) games. Also for the first time, signature musical pieces are produced for NFL coverage. The show's signature theme was "Horizontal Hold," a piece by Jan Stoeckart (recorded under his pseudonym of Jack Trombey). The NFL Today was among the recipients of the Sports Emmy Awards in its inaugural event in 1979.
In
Leonard (who would later become a co-host of
On October 12, 1976, Commissioner Pete Rozelle negotiated contracts with the three television networks to televise all NFL regular-season and postseason games, as well as selected preseason games, for four years beginning with the 1978 season. ABC was awarded yearly rights to 16 Monday night games, four prime time games, the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, and the Hall of Fame Games. CBS received the rights to all NFC regular season and postseason games (except those in the ABC package) and to Super Bowls XIV and XVI. NBC received the rights to all AFC regular season and postseason games (except those in the ABC package) and to Super Bowls XIII and XV. Industry sources considered it the largest single television package ever negotiated.
1977
On January 9, 1977, 81.9 million people (the largest audience ever for a sports event at that point) watched NBC's telecast of
At the height of the disco fad, from 1977 to 1979, CBS used Meco's "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band," a disco arrangement of John Williams's theme from Star Wars, as a musical theme.
In 1977, NBC dropped the GrandStand moniker in favor of NFL, which the title being paired with a year number that corresponded to the then-current NFL season (such as NFL '77 and NFL '78).[12] Beginning with NFL '80, NBC would pioneer the use of the in-game highlight packages[13] ("Let's go to New York for an NFL '80 update") NBC would use this particular method of titling their pregame show until the 1987 season.
Meredith returned to the ABC booth in 1977, but seemed to lack the enthusiasm that had marked his first stint from 1970 to 1973. While the NFL moved to a 16-week schedule in 1978, Meredith was contractually obligated to work only 14 games, leaving Cosell and Gifford to work games as a duo or with newly retired Fran Tarkenton beginning in 1979.
From 1977 to 1986, ABC also aired occasional NFL games on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Each of these telecasts would be billed by the network as a "Special Thursday/Saturday/Sunday Night Edition of Monday Night Football".
On October 12, 1977, Commissioner Pete Rozelle negotiated contracts with the three television networks to televise all NFL regular season and postseason games, as well as select preseason games, for four years beginning with the 1978 season. ABC was awarded yearly rights to 16 Monday night games, four prime time games, the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, and the Hall of Fame Games. CBS received the rights to all National Football Conference (NFC) regular season and postseason games (except those in the ABC package) and to Super Bowls XIV and XVI. NBC received the rights to all AFC regular-season and postseason games (except those in the ABC package) and to Super Bowls XIII and XV. Industry sources considered it the largest single television package ever negotiated.
1978
On January 15, 1978, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII in front of the largest audience ever to watch a sporting event. CBS scored a 47.2/67 national household rating/share, the highest-rated Super Bowl to date.
This game was the first Super Bowl to be played in
An interesting aspect was the use of what was called an Electronic Palette graphics system
As in their previous Super Bowl; CBS used the Frank Sinatra song "Winners" to play over the closing montage.
Prior to 1978, Monday night games were not scheduled in the final week (Week 14) of the regular season. From 1974 to 1977, a Saturday night game was scheduled for Week 14 and televised live by ABC in lieu of a game on Monday night.
One of the more somber contests in the run of the Monday Night Football series came on November 27, 1978 when the
After the
1979
NBC's January 21, 1979 telecast of Super Bowl XIII between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys was viewed in 35,090,000 households, by an estimated 96.6 million fans. The game – called by Curt Gowdy on play-by-play, with Merlin Olsen and John Brodie on color commentary and Dick Enberg served as the pregame host for the broadcast with Bryant Gumbel and Mike Adamle as sideline reporters – was Gowdy's seventh and final Super Bowl telecast, and his last major event for NBC before moving to CBS later in 1979. Enberg had essentially succeeded Gowdy as NBC's lead NFL play-by-play announcer in the 1978 regular season, and network producers did not decide until nearly the last minute which of them would conduct play-by-play for that year's Super Bowl. NBC preceded the game with the first network broadcast of Black Sunday, a 1977 film that depicts a terrorist attack on a fictitious Super Bowl game in the Orange Bowl between Pittsburgh and Dallas (and which utilized footage shot during Super Bowl X). The pregame festivities featured the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and several military bands. The Colgate Thirteen performed the national anthem. The coin toss ceremony featured Pro Football Hall of Famer and longtime Chicago Bears owner/head coach George Halas.
The opening Monday night contest of the
References
- ^ Jack Buck; Rob Rains (1997). That's a Winner!. Sports Publishing LLC. p. 140.
- ^ William N. Wallace (January 14, 1971). "All of a Sudden, Miami Is Excited About Super Bowl, as Indicated by TV Blackout Fight". The New York Times.
- ^ http://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1971/1971-01-18-BC.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ Madsen 15
- ^ Brulia, Tim. "A CHRONOLOGY OF PRO FOOTBALL ON TELEVISION: Part 2" (PDF). Pro Football Researchers.
- ^ Kirkpatrick, Curry. "GETTING INTO THE PICTURE".
- ^ ""GrandStand" debuts". NBC Sports History Page.
- ^ Brulia, Tim. "A CHRONOLOGY OF PRO FOOTBALL ON TELEVISION: Part 2" (PDF). Pro Football Researchers.
- ^ Jeff Hagger (December 17, 2014). "The last untelevised NFL regular season game (1975)". Classic TV Sports.
- ^ Ken Fang (December 18, 2014). "It's been almost four decades since the NFL's last untelevised game". Awful Announcing.
- ^ "Fancy Figures Vs. Plain Facts". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc.
- YouTube
- YouTube
- ^ "Press release" (PDF). www.cbspressexpress.com. May 11, 1977. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
- ^ "Broadcasting" (PDF). www.americanradiohistory.com. 1978-01-16. Retrieved 2019-05-04.
- ^ "Broadcasting" (PDF). www.americanradiohistory.com. 1978-01-23. Retrieved 2019-05-04.