Should TSW start an EGTV Football Movement?

[DazedandConfused]

Yet another recent TSW thread ranting about the ongoing NFL TV coverage travesty as Dan Dierdorf like announcers screw up the game coverage as they try to imitate John Madden got me thinking.

 

The screeds reminded me again of a late 70s game which the networks ran without announcers. The game coverage consisted of ambient sound and the infrequent showing of the game clock which was the practice back in the day. My recollection was that it was a somewhat frustrating experience as things occurred in the game which were simply opaque to the viewer who only had the crowd reaction and primitive replay (if any as I do not remember), visual signals by the ref, and little else to rely upon to try to understand what was happening.

 

The game was routinely panned by newspaper coverage from writers who like deep down aspired to be the next John Madden or Bob Costas before such a personality even existed.

 

However, modern techniques such as constant display of the game clock and a summary of the down and distance of each play strike me as offering a completely different experience today if it were used.

 

In fact, if a game producer were employed to present the game with an eye toward presenting split screens. uncommented upon replays of bang bang close plays I think that a game broadcast which consisted mostly if not entirely of ambient sound would be a great option.

 

Option is also the key word as with the emergence of HDTV which allows multiple feeds of an event, being able to select a channel without the verbal blather but even using existing technology which would allow a viewer to choose and select augmented computer based game stats would make for far better coverage to me than listening to some announcer try to avoid dead air or worship the sound of their own voice.

 

My proposal is that TSW make it self the home for a movement to call for for the networks to deliver to its customers alternative game feeds which take advantage of the modern information technologies available and simply dispense with the annoying blather which actually has gotten many TV viewers to simply turn down the sound on their TVs but instead watch the visuals on TV with John Murphy or Van Miller from the radio providing the sound feed they listen to.

 

Even the Miller inaccuracies were annoying but gave many a better visual product as they watched the TV feed and relied on the radio announcer trying to draw a visual picture for the listener with their words.

 

I would love to see TSW become a voice calling for the TV networks to offer alternative verballu minimalist but ENHANCED GRAPHICS (EGTV) presentations of NFL games.

 

The TV networks likely would not publicize well the existence of an alternative presentation which gave viewers the option to do without their overly pad mouthpieces. However, if internet outlets like TSW were to publicly and consistently advocate the availability of such a resource I would not be surprised to see this begin to happen.

 

Folks could get their chance to rant against the stupid Dierdoresque announcers but actually advocate doing something real about it.

[BuffaloBill]

 

 

Isn't it easy just to hit the mute button?

[DazedandConfused]

Isn't it easy just to hit the mute button?

Yeah it is, but with mute alone one loses the ambient crowd noise which helps one feel the game and also interpret the impact of what you see on the screen.

 

Also, as the TV show producer is relying on the blathering to tell a big part of the story, they do not make fuller use of visual graphics that would enhance understanding the game situation if they went beyond simply relying on the announcers to tell the story/

 

I think that viewing would be enhanced if they did not rely so much on the fill the sir cliches of many announcers but instead spent more effort to tell the story with good use of stats and better use of replays.

 

This is the difference between what I would love to see and simply muting the blather.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

You're completely right Dazed. In the other thread which mentioned pet peeves of NFL broadcasts this came up as you know. The one thing I didn't mention over there is that in the days before the NFL Sunday Ticket/DirecTV, a few bars and (well-to-do) families had those huge satellite dishes which would enable you to watch your team's home games even when they were blacked out locally.

 

The fun thing about those broadcasts is that during commercial breaks, there were no commercials and the microphones were rarely killed. So during what would have been commercial breaks, you could hear the announcers speaking to each other and their responses to the director, etc. While listening to this you'd also see the video of the director changing the camera shots and generally pre-planning the broadcast.

 

As I recall, at least one announcer got into trouble for making comments about the cheerleaders, assuming that no one would hear his comments.

[DazedandConfused]

You're completely right Dazed. In the other thread which mentioned pet peeves of NFL broadcasts this came up as you know. The one thing I didn't mention over there is that in the days before the NFL Sunday Ticket/DirecTV, a few bars and (well-to-do) families had those huge satellite dishes which would enable you to watch your team's home games even when they were blacked out locally.

 

The fun thing about those broadcasts is that during commercial breaks, there were no commercials and the microphones were rarely killed. So during what would have been commercial breaks, you could hear the announcers speaking to each other and their responses to the director, etc. While listening to this you'd also see the video of the director changing the camera shots and generally pre-planning the broadcast.

 

As I recall, at least one announcer got into trouble for making comments about the cheerleaders, assuming that no one would hear his comments.

A neat Buffalo connection to the use of satellite feeds was done by a fellow who used to work at the Polish Community Center serving the Seneca Babcock are in the late 80s or early 90s. He put together a feature length piece called Spin (which I have somewhere in the stygian depths of my old tape collection (I hope its not on Betamax if I ever look for it.

 

The fellow (I think his name was Brian) had an early satellite dish and hooked into the feeds of various news events covering politicos. The technical habit (probably still the case) is that they activate these feeds and send them over the satellite early and then simply connect this feed into the broadcast signal when they are ready to broadcast. The feed is available thru the satellite well before it is broadcast so that they can be sure the source feed works without keeping it all dead until broadcast time and relying on every piece to work from a synchronized cold start.

 

At any rate, SPIN has footage of such ditties as Larry King and George Bush 41 discussing which drugs work best to take long plane trips, Al Gore getting made up before a speech, Pat Robertson ragging on gays when he thinks the camera is dead and other stupidities which happened because the "star" thought the camera was dead.

 

Even though Directors did not succeed in killing these off camera feeds to satellites they have taken action to get TV talking heads to hold their tongues generally during this pretend down time.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

When I worked at Channel 4, we received lots of satellite network feeds. I was waiting to receive some highlights one night...had the Sony Umatic VCR all cued up and Maria Schriver who was a CBS correspondent and is now Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife and the First Lady of California was standing by to do some sort of live report involving the Philadelphia Eagles. So she's waiting around for the cue to start doing her stand-up and starts kidding around with her photog and producer about football terms. She starts saying "I'd play tight end...could you see me as a tight end?" While she's saying this she turns around and starts shaking her butt. Well that got my attention because at the time she was pretty good looking and now she's getting lascivious. Then she goes on by saying that she'd like to play "special teams." Then it was "why do those guys have to huddle up after every play? What are they doing in there? I'd like to find out that's for sure." Then jokes about pylons (pile-ons) and getting down in the four point stance and all the while she's smiling and laughing and winking at someone off camera...I was so mesmerized watching her that I didn't think to hit the record on the VCR! Wish I'd taped it. At the very least it'd been good for some laughs.

[hotwing]

Isn't it easy just to hit the mute button?

 

 

Agree

[DazedandConfused]

Isn't it easy just to hit the mute button?

 

 

Agree

I agree that many folks simply go through life recognizing that it is usually easier to hit the mute button. That's a fine choice for those who choose to take it!