GaryMrMets
12-26-2005, 09:56 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/story/377728p-320910c.html
Clock runs out for 'MNF'
After a 35-yr. run, it's leaving ABC
http://www.nydailynews.com/images/columnists/bianculli_d.jpg
While every other network this evening is showing reruns, ABC is airing something that's not only original, and live, but the swan song of a TV institution.
"Monday Night Football," after 35 years, is down to its last four quarters starting at 9 p.m.
The predictable, even inevitable signoff, is the country-and-Western lyric "Turn out the lights, the party's over," which Don Meredith used to sing at the first sign of a blowout (often to the annoyance of more serious announcing booth mate Howard Cosell). And Meredith will show up tonight to do just that, and to help open the show - though not, reportedly, in person.
Former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Meredith, and famously abrasive yet talented sportscaster Cosell, were two-thirds of the unprecedentedly crowded booth fielded by ABC executive Roone Arledge for that first game on Sept. 21, 1970. ABC's Keith Jackson was the other - replaced, the following year, by Frank Gifford. They're the troika that made "MNF" must-See TV regardless of which teams were playing.
There was Cosell's eagerly awaited halftime package of highlights from the previous day's games. Hard to imagine, but in those pre-ESPN days, that was considered a breathlessly fast turnaround - and breathlessly is precisely how Cosell narrated the clips. Also, there was the byplay in the booth, especially the antagonistic banter between Meredith and Cosell, that had to be heard, just as the drop-in special guests - including John Lennon - had to be seen.
(It was Cosell on "Monday Night Football," in fact, who announced to the nation Lennon's shooting during a December game in 1980.)
The Cosell-Meredith-Gifford troika was the show's all-time best announcing team, followed by the current team of Al Michaels and John Madden.
All-time worst? Twenty years ago, for a single stinker of a season, Gifford had to deal with both Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson.
It was an enjoyable show to watch, and often as much the source of water-cooler talk the next day as "Desperate Housewives" is today. It first cracked the Top 10 during the 1982-83 season, and has been up in, or hovering near, that ratings stratosphere ever since. And in terms of a continually running prime-time series still on the air, only "60 Minutes," which premiered two years before, is older.
All these achievements and elements are scheduled to be saluted tonight, the last night before the "MNF" moves to ESPN next season. As for the game itself, the New England Patriots and New York Jets are on the field - but with one team a playoff lock and the other locked out, the real interest here will be in the final "MNF" packaging around the event.
Originally published on December 26, 2005
http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/159-mnf.JPG
Howard Cosell (l.) and Don Meredith of the original 'MNF' team
Clock runs out for 'MNF'
After a 35-yr. run, it's leaving ABC
http://www.nydailynews.com/images/columnists/bianculli_d.jpg
While every other network this evening is showing reruns, ABC is airing something that's not only original, and live, but the swan song of a TV institution.
"Monday Night Football," after 35 years, is down to its last four quarters starting at 9 p.m.
The predictable, even inevitable signoff, is the country-and-Western lyric "Turn out the lights, the party's over," which Don Meredith used to sing at the first sign of a blowout (often to the annoyance of more serious announcing booth mate Howard Cosell). And Meredith will show up tonight to do just that, and to help open the show - though not, reportedly, in person.
Former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Meredith, and famously abrasive yet talented sportscaster Cosell, were two-thirds of the unprecedentedly crowded booth fielded by ABC executive Roone Arledge for that first game on Sept. 21, 1970. ABC's Keith Jackson was the other - replaced, the following year, by Frank Gifford. They're the troika that made "MNF" must-See TV regardless of which teams were playing.
There was Cosell's eagerly awaited halftime package of highlights from the previous day's games. Hard to imagine, but in those pre-ESPN days, that was considered a breathlessly fast turnaround - and breathlessly is precisely how Cosell narrated the clips. Also, there was the byplay in the booth, especially the antagonistic banter between Meredith and Cosell, that had to be heard, just as the drop-in special guests - including John Lennon - had to be seen.
(It was Cosell on "Monday Night Football," in fact, who announced to the nation Lennon's shooting during a December game in 1980.)
The Cosell-Meredith-Gifford troika was the show's all-time best announcing team, followed by the current team of Al Michaels and John Madden.
All-time worst? Twenty years ago, for a single stinker of a season, Gifford had to deal with both Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson.
It was an enjoyable show to watch, and often as much the source of water-cooler talk the next day as "Desperate Housewives" is today. It first cracked the Top 10 during the 1982-83 season, and has been up in, or hovering near, that ratings stratosphere ever since. And in terms of a continually running prime-time series still on the air, only "60 Minutes," which premiered two years before, is older.
All these achievements and elements are scheduled to be saluted tonight, the last night before the "MNF" moves to ESPN next season. As for the game itself, the New England Patriots and New York Jets are on the field - but with one team a playoff lock and the other locked out, the real interest here will be in the final "MNF" packaging around the event.
Originally published on December 26, 2005
http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/159-mnf.JPG
Howard Cosell (l.) and Don Meredith of the original 'MNF' team