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07-08-2002, 01:12 AM
The Big Picture: SuperCelebration worth more time
Monday, July 08, 2002
Ten of an available baker's dozen Steelers greats gathered Saturday for an unprecedented reunion that transformed a popular part of Heinz Field into the Great Hall of Fame. Another member of their elite group, an ailing Mike Webster, stayed behind in an upstairs suite. He didn't feel up to joining the rest of the guys for the television show taping. What a pity. For what a party it was.
The KDKA-TV production will be a keeper when it airs Aug. 24, all right. A warm and fuzzy program. You'll laugh, you'll cry. The feel-good Steelers video of the summer. Or something.
These reunion shows rarely work. Yet "Gilligan's Island" never met Mean Joe Greene's humor. "L.A. Law" never met John Stallworth's grace. This nostalgia trip was a hit with the 500-plus fans inside the Great Hall Saturday, and it will be one with the TV audience in seven weeks.
And it would've been even better, if only ...
Webster could've made it through an afternoon on the set.
Jack Lambert could've made it instead of having family commitments.
Terry Bradshaw could've made it, period. (Maybe he indeed was occupied with a previous engagement. Or maybe it was the fact that Lynn Swann asked, and you remember their Canton misconnection last year -- Bradshaw signed books here while Swann stewed about old passes. Who knows what the deal was? But no one should have expected him.)
And now, the No. 1 reason why it would've been even better: if only KDKA could air all in two hours.
Station types plan to pare the 122 minutes of footage into something around 50 minutes, not counting commercials, and play it between 7-8 p.m. Aug. 24 -- the night of the Steelers-Lions exhibition game. Sure, the program dragged at points Saturday. But Steelers fans would love even a 90-minute version of this reunion party organized by Swann, who also served as host, and Gail Balph, the former director of the Mario Lemieux golf tournament. Just imagine the commercial and video sale possibilities of a two-hour special rather than a one-hour slot. Just imagine the appeal for a director's cut.
Bill Dudley and a mirthful Ernie Stautner were first up, stirring cheers of "Dee-fense" from the throng. Asked by Swann what transformed a smallish defensive lineman into a Hall of Famer, Stautner quipped: "I was always afraid I was going to get cut."
Next came team president Dan Rooney and The Emperor Chas, Chuck Noll. They recalled the gory days of 1969, when Rooney brought a new coach aboard a stinking ship. "Obviously," Noll remembered with a grin, "we needed a lot of help."
That dovetailed nicely into calling to the stage Noll's first building block, Greene. The only current enshrined Steelers player-coach who didn't don his mustard-colored Hall of Fame blazer Saturday -- he hastily hopped a flight from Texas in the morning, then had to leave the taping early to fly back -- Greene didn't forget to bring his wit. He traded barbs with Swann, once remarking about the chronological recollections of the Steelers of the early 1970s: "It was all good until you came along."
A Bradshaw video was introduced, then Mel Blount, Jack Ham and Franco Harris were summoned to the set. Ham, next to Greene on the stage and in the jovial spirit, teased that Harris was a No. 1 pick well spent because "there were a lot of miles left on Franco" after their alma mater, Penn State, ran Lydell Mitchell mostly. They all relived the Immaculate Reception, Noll saying it instilled a Team of Destiny feeling in what had hardly been a team of density. Then came the Class of '74: the absent Lambert and Webster, the present Swann and Stallworth.
Stallworth, who will get his Hall of Fame blazer in three weeks, talked about how in those early days he hoped to change ground-Chuck's proclivity against passing. To which Swann asked, "We're you planning on drugging him?"
"I have to say," Rooney concluded late in the show, "this football team was the best football team that was ever put together. There's no other group, no other coach that went to four Super Bowls together and won them all. This is the only group to do that."
Soon after, the players and Rooney were giving Noll a standing ovation.
Yes, it was a grand reunion party -- the first time so many of the club's Hall of Famers came together for autographs and TV time, for (as it was billed) a SuperCelebration.
If only KDKA could air more than one hour of it.
Monday, July 08, 2002
Ten of an available baker's dozen Steelers greats gathered Saturday for an unprecedented reunion that transformed a popular part of Heinz Field into the Great Hall of Fame. Another member of their elite group, an ailing Mike Webster, stayed behind in an upstairs suite. He didn't feel up to joining the rest of the guys for the television show taping. What a pity. For what a party it was.
The KDKA-TV production will be a keeper when it airs Aug. 24, all right. A warm and fuzzy program. You'll laugh, you'll cry. The feel-good Steelers video of the summer. Or something.
These reunion shows rarely work. Yet "Gilligan's Island" never met Mean Joe Greene's humor. "L.A. Law" never met John Stallworth's grace. This nostalgia trip was a hit with the 500-plus fans inside the Great Hall Saturday, and it will be one with the TV audience in seven weeks.
And it would've been even better, if only ...
Webster could've made it through an afternoon on the set.
Jack Lambert could've made it instead of having family commitments.
Terry Bradshaw could've made it, period. (Maybe he indeed was occupied with a previous engagement. Or maybe it was the fact that Lynn Swann asked, and you remember their Canton misconnection last year -- Bradshaw signed books here while Swann stewed about old passes. Who knows what the deal was? But no one should have expected him.)
And now, the No. 1 reason why it would've been even better: if only KDKA could air all in two hours.
Station types plan to pare the 122 minutes of footage into something around 50 minutes, not counting commercials, and play it between 7-8 p.m. Aug. 24 -- the night of the Steelers-Lions exhibition game. Sure, the program dragged at points Saturday. But Steelers fans would love even a 90-minute version of this reunion party organized by Swann, who also served as host, and Gail Balph, the former director of the Mario Lemieux golf tournament. Just imagine the commercial and video sale possibilities of a two-hour special rather than a one-hour slot. Just imagine the appeal for a director's cut.
Bill Dudley and a mirthful Ernie Stautner were first up, stirring cheers of "Dee-fense" from the throng. Asked by Swann what transformed a smallish defensive lineman into a Hall of Famer, Stautner quipped: "I was always afraid I was going to get cut."
Next came team president Dan Rooney and The Emperor Chas, Chuck Noll. They recalled the gory days of 1969, when Rooney brought a new coach aboard a stinking ship. "Obviously," Noll remembered with a grin, "we needed a lot of help."
That dovetailed nicely into calling to the stage Noll's first building block, Greene. The only current enshrined Steelers player-coach who didn't don his mustard-colored Hall of Fame blazer Saturday -- he hastily hopped a flight from Texas in the morning, then had to leave the taping early to fly back -- Greene didn't forget to bring his wit. He traded barbs with Swann, once remarking about the chronological recollections of the Steelers of the early 1970s: "It was all good until you came along."
A Bradshaw video was introduced, then Mel Blount, Jack Ham and Franco Harris were summoned to the set. Ham, next to Greene on the stage and in the jovial spirit, teased that Harris was a No. 1 pick well spent because "there were a lot of miles left on Franco" after their alma mater, Penn State, ran Lydell Mitchell mostly. They all relived the Immaculate Reception, Noll saying it instilled a Team of Destiny feeling in what had hardly been a team of density. Then came the Class of '74: the absent Lambert and Webster, the present Swann and Stallworth.
Stallworth, who will get his Hall of Fame blazer in three weeks, talked about how in those early days he hoped to change ground-Chuck's proclivity against passing. To which Swann asked, "We're you planning on drugging him?"
"I have to say," Rooney concluded late in the show, "this football team was the best football team that was ever put together. There's no other group, no other coach that went to four Super Bowls together and won them all. This is the only group to do that."
Soon after, the players and Rooney were giving Noll a standing ovation.
Yes, it was a grand reunion party -- the first time so many of the club's Hall of Famers came together for autographs and TV time, for (as it was billed) a SuperCelebration.
If only KDKA could air more than one hour of it.