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Sound The Trumpets, The Games Are Here
Aug. 13th, 2004 08:30 amToday is the start of the Athens Summer Olympics. Given the time difference, some of the events have already started, but NBC, as usual, will tape delay it all. This year they are making a bigger effort to carry some events live on their various cable holdings, but their on during the workday. I hate to say that I'm not nearly as interested in the games this year as I have been in the past.
The first Summer Olympics I can remember was Munich, 1972, that was marred by terrorism. I can remember more of the decathlon win of Bruce Jenner in 1976. When I went to Montreal in 2002, one of the first places I went was Parque Olympic. The stadium hasn't aged well, and the whole area is run-down. So much for olympic magic.
I can also remember the boycott of 1980, and the steamroller of 1984, watching American win after win. While I remember The Men's gymnastics teams, who's win gave us "Gymkata", and perky Mary Lou Retton. At the time, her coach, and also the coach of Nadia Comaniche (ok, I'm not going to look up the spelling), Bela Karolya lived four houses down from me.
Somewhere after that, the Olympics seemed to get less and less important. ABC lost the coverage, and the NBC coverage got worse and worse. While ABC introduced the "Up Close and Personal" interview, to help us get to know these people we only saw once ever four years, NBC couldn't stop trying to develop a storyline for everything, no matter how boring. they would end up changing schedules, tape delaying and manipulating just to develop some sort of soap opera out of it. Suddenly, it wasn't about the games.
Then there was also the crass commercialization. More than just the Wheaties ad, or Suzy Chapstick, there were Olympians on everything before and after the games. Anyone remember the bust that Reebok's Dan vs. Dan ads were? One didn't even make it to the games!
There was one bright spot...the 1992 Barcelona Games featured the NBC Pay-Per-View TripleCast. Our family actually bought it. We were the only ones in town who did. Three special channels with live, uninterrupted feeds. They had different events, but my sister watched diving, while I, on summer break from school, and working part-time, watched hours and hours of wrestling. It was the first time i could actually watch more that the one match covered on regular TV.
Bruce Baumgartner, where have you gone?
We actually got a refund on the TripleCast. It was such a big flop, they never tried it again. This years cable coverage is the biggest expansion of coverage since then. I looked at some of the listings, and I see some weightlifting, which I may try to catch for Shane Hamman. I haven't seen any listings for wrestling yet.
I'll probably look for waterpolo coverage, and maybe some team handball, which, despite being a cool name, has the distinction on having the most dirty sounding name.
And why do they insist on showing all of the running events in track and field when we all know the hot guys are throwing discus, shotput and javelin? Let's have the chance to watch those events!
I always hear that the CBC does a much better job covering the games. You guys up north have it good sometimes. I also heard good things about Australia's Channel 7's irreverent comedy show at the Sydney olympics. i would have loved to see that.
Of course the readiness of Athens, and the treat of terrorism actually makes a bigger story that of any of the actual events. Hopefully it won't be an issue, but there isn't anything compelling about the games since the end of the cold war. Sure, there's that US against the world kind of thing, but we deal with that every damn day now, so why should I want to have that at the games.
heck, their just games, right?
The first Summer Olympics I can remember was Munich, 1972, that was marred by terrorism. I can remember more of the decathlon win of Bruce Jenner in 1976. When I went to Montreal in 2002, one of the first places I went was Parque Olympic. The stadium hasn't aged well, and the whole area is run-down. So much for olympic magic.
I can also remember the boycott of 1980, and the steamroller of 1984, watching American win after win. While I remember The Men's gymnastics teams, who's win gave us "Gymkata", and perky Mary Lou Retton. At the time, her coach, and also the coach of Nadia Comaniche (ok, I'm not going to look up the spelling), Bela Karolya lived four houses down from me.
Somewhere after that, the Olympics seemed to get less and less important. ABC lost the coverage, and the NBC coverage got worse and worse. While ABC introduced the "Up Close and Personal" interview, to help us get to know these people we only saw once ever four years, NBC couldn't stop trying to develop a storyline for everything, no matter how boring. they would end up changing schedules, tape delaying and manipulating just to develop some sort of soap opera out of it. Suddenly, it wasn't about the games.
Then there was also the crass commercialization. More than just the Wheaties ad, or Suzy Chapstick, there were Olympians on everything before and after the games. Anyone remember the bust that Reebok's Dan vs. Dan ads were? One didn't even make it to the games!
There was one bright spot...the 1992 Barcelona Games featured the NBC Pay-Per-View TripleCast. Our family actually bought it. We were the only ones in town who did. Three special channels with live, uninterrupted feeds. They had different events, but my sister watched diving, while I, on summer break from school, and working part-time, watched hours and hours of wrestling. It was the first time i could actually watch more that the one match covered on regular TV.
Bruce Baumgartner, where have you gone?
We actually got a refund on the TripleCast. It was such a big flop, they never tried it again. This years cable coverage is the biggest expansion of coverage since then. I looked at some of the listings, and I see some weightlifting, which I may try to catch for Shane Hamman. I haven't seen any listings for wrestling yet.
I'll probably look for waterpolo coverage, and maybe some team handball, which, despite being a cool name, has the distinction on having the most dirty sounding name.
And why do they insist on showing all of the running events in track and field when we all know the hot guys are throwing discus, shotput and javelin? Let's have the chance to watch those events!
I always hear that the CBC does a much better job covering the games. You guys up north have it good sometimes. I also heard good things about Australia's Channel 7's irreverent comedy show at the Sydney olympics. i would have loved to see that.
Of course the readiness of Athens, and the treat of terrorism actually makes a bigger story that of any of the actual events. Hopefully it won't be an issue, but there isn't anything compelling about the games since the end of the cold war. Sure, there's that US against the world kind of thing, but we deal with that every damn day now, so why should I want to have that at the games.
heck, their just games, right?
