TV events that used to be big

[nomadcowatbk]

The Pro Bowlers tour

 

[mleach]

Other than Macys..parades on TV in general.

Back in the day such things were seen on multiple of stations and in some cases such as with Indianapolis, Hollywood and Winchester, VA..it was nationwide..

*Indianapolis 500 Parade
*The Winchester ( Virginia ) Shenandoah Apple Blossom Grand Feature Parade
*Louisville-Kentucky Derby Parade
*The Denver Festival of Lights Parade
*The Hudsons Detroit Christmas Parade
*Chicago Christmas Parade
*Hollywood Christmas Parade
*Toronto Christmas Parade ( ?)

..and I am sure that there were many many others.

 

[BMR]

Two more I should have mentioned-

Big boxing matches- Barry Mcguigan got 18 million viewers a couple of times in the 80s. But the sport got greedy and went PPV. Now it's little more than a niche sport in the UK.

The Royal Variety Performance- this made-for-TV variety show was the ratings topper in 1984 http://www.barb.co.uk/facts/since1981?year=1984&view=top10

 

[johnnya2k6]

Two more I should have mentioned-

Big boxing matches- Barry Mcguigan got 18 million viewers a couple of times in the 80s. But the sport got greedy and went PPV. Now it's little more than a niche sport in the UK.

And prior to PPV, those big boxing matches were also on closed-circuit TV in theaters/arenas here in the States.

 

[tlyle]

Remember ABC's Wide World of Sports before ESPN? They always promoted big events. One event in particular which came off as a "dud" was Evel Kneval's attempted jump of the Snake River. I remember all the hype of the event on tv prior to it happening.

However, there were other big events that you had to wait until WWS to see them.

I also remember how the first live televised NASCAR race was big also for CBS.

 

[landtuna]

Two more I should have mentioned-

Big boxing matches- Barry Mcguigan got 18 million viewers a couple of times in the 80s. But the sport got greedy and went PPV. Now it's little more than a niche sport in the UK.

And prior to PPV, those big boxing matches were also on closed-circuit TV in theaters/arenas here in the States.

And prior to closed-circuit TV they were on network TV every Friday evening sponsored by razor blades.

 

[ShawnHill1]

The only really big TV event anymore seems to be the Super Bowl, and usually it's the commercials and half time show instead of the actual game

I think, at least in my humble opinion, that the trend here is somewhat reversing. The games themselves over the last decade have been much more competitive, where for the most part in the 80s into the mid-90s, the games became very one-sided. Of course, all this matters if you're a die-hard football. The commercials, on the other hand, have become increasingly worse each year...the hype over the anticipation of these commercials themselves have become so overblown. As for the musical acts, unless it's someone I'm interested in seeing, I usually skip over them and either take a quick nap or change the channel.

 

[firepoint525]

Remember back in the days of just the "big three" networks, sayings by actors on sitcoms would become "buzzwords" that you would hear at school the next day. You know the ones: "Aaaayy!!," "Dyn-o-Mite!!," "Up your nose with a rubber hose!," and, of course, "Whutchutalkin' 'bout, Willis?" Some of these even became screen-printed t-shirts. Can't see that happening now!

 

[firepoint525]

The Pro Bowlers tour

That one was a favorite of my mother's. She was even able to identify Earl Anthony when he appeared on an episode of To Tell the Truth.

Remember ABC's Wide World of Sports before ESPN?

"The agony of defeat" became a "catch phrase" because of that footage of the skier wiping out. Used to see that every Saturday, remember?

And CBS Sports Spectacular popularized the "Fire on High" instrumental by ELO. TV programming just doesn't seem to have such wide-reaching effects anymore.

 

[flashback]

Remember back in the days of just the "big three" networks, sayings by actors on sitcoms would become "buzzwords" that you would hear at school the next day. You know the ones: "Aaaayy!!," "Dyn-o-Mite!!," "Up your nose with a rubber hose!," and, of course, "Whutchutalkin' 'bout, Willis?" Some of these even became screen-printed t-shirts. Can't see that happening now!

i stil sometimes say" whutchutalkin` about willis" sometimes.ansd i didn`t watch the show that much.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

The only really big TV event anymore seems to be the Super Bowl, and usually it's the commercials and half time show instead of the actual game

I think, at least in my humble opinion, that the trend here is somewhat reversing. The games themselves over the last decade have been much more competitive, where for the most part in the 80s into the mid-90s, the games became very one-sided. Of course, all this matters if you're a die-hard football. The commercials, on the other hand, have become increasingly worse each year...the hype over the anticipation of these commercials themselves have become so overblown. As for the musical acts, unless it's someone I'm interested in seeing, I usually skip over them and either take a quick nap or change the channel.

I agree--and I wonder if this trend will continue to reverse even if there is a 2011 NFL season and a Super Bowl XLVI next Feb. 5, with the aftermath of the lockout--and the NFL owners continuing to lock the players out of their practice facilities despite Monday's court order--still fresh in people's minds. Would any of you be surprised if NFL ratings decline next season due to the lockout, we could see something along the lines of, say, ABC deciding to counter-program a "very special" Desperate Housewives or Dancing with the Stars against the Super Bowl next February?

 

[azumanga]

Remember ABC's Wide World of Sports before ESPN?

"The agony of defeat" became a "catch phrase" because of that footage of the skier wiping out.

And it seems that every year the intro would change with new clips of past sporting events that were featured on "Wide World", but from 1970 on, "The Agony of Defeat" was always represented by Vinko Bogataj's spill at a skiing championship in West Germany.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Remember back in the days of just the "big three" networks, sayings by actors on sitcoms would become "buzzwords" that you would hear at school the next day. You know the ones: "Aaaayy!!," "Dyn-o-Mite!!," "Up your nose with a rubber hose!," and, of course, "Whutchutalkin' 'bout, Willis?" Some of these even became screen-printed t-shirts. Can't see that happening now!

Urkel's "Did I do that?" was probably the last sitcom catch phrase or possibly "Oh you god, they killed Kenny"

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Bowl games were bigger when there fewer of them

 

[firepoint525]

Remember back in the days of just the "big three" networks, sayings by actors on sitcoms would become "buzzwords" that you would hear at school the next day. You know the ones: "Aaaayy!!," "Dyn-o-Mite!!," "Up your nose with a rubber hose!," and, of course, "Whutchutalkin' 'bout, Willis?" Some of these even became screen-printed t-shirts. Can't see that happening now!

i stil sometimes say" whutchutalkin` about willis" sometimes.ansd i didn`t watch the show that much.

Interesting that you should say that. I remember kids at school going around saying "up your nose with a rubber hose" and I had no idea where that came from, since I never watched Welcome Back Kotter. It wasn't until YEARS later that I was watching a Kotter rerun on TV Land, and heard Travolta/Barbarino say that, and I said to myself, "so THAT'S where that came from!" ;D

 

[ixnay]

Remember back in the days of just the "big three" networks, sayings by actors on sitcoms would become "buzzwords" that you would hear at school the next day. You know the ones: "Aaaayy!!," "Dyn-o-Mite!!," "Up your nose with a rubber hose!," and, of course, "Whutchutalkin' 'bout, Willis?" Some of these even became screen-printed t-shirts. Can't see that happening now!

i stil sometimes say" whutchutalkin` about willis" sometimes.ansd i didn`t watch the show that much.

Interesting that you should say that. I remember kids at school going around saying "up your nose with a rubber hose" and I had no idea where that came from, since I never watched Welcome Back Kotter. It wasn't until YEARS later that I was watching a Kotter rerun on TV Land, and heard Travolta/Barbarino say that, and I said to myself, "so THAT'S where that came from!" ;D

I remember kids (well, fellow 9th graders) telling me "Sit on it!" and I didn't know where *that* came from - until I started watching Happy Days later in my frosh year.

ixnay

 

[Ultimajock]

Coverage of space-related events were already out of fashion by the mid-1980s, until Challenger blew up in 1986 -- when it did, only CNN was covering it live, and the other networks had to scramble to get the news out.

...actually, only CNN provided live TV coverage. CBS Radio had Christopher Glenn at Canaveral that morning, giving a live report for affiliated stations that bothered to carry it...

 

[Ultimajock]

Reading an article on Wikipedia*, the UCP still has a local version of a telethon, over Green Bay's WBAY-TV each March.

Actually, an unrelated Cerebral palsy organisation, Cerebral Palsy, Inc., sponsors the WBAY telethon, even though Dennis James (who was involved in both local and national UCP telethons) took part in some editions.

...I recall James losing that Green Bay gig when someone called in a bomb threat to WBAY during the final hour of one year's telethon and James became so incensed that he started swearing at the threat perpetrator over the air (stuff like "hell" and "damn," which was really mild in general but still verboten circa '73 with children present). The next year, they got Shari Lewis as the celebrity emcee, and Helen Reddy the year after that IIRC...

 

[Ultimajock]

Other than Macys..parades on TV in general.

Back in the day such things were seen on multiple of stations and in some cases such as with Indianapolis, Hollywood and Winchester, VA..it was nationwide..

*Indianapolis 500 Parade
*The Winchester ( Virginia ) Shenandoah Apple Blossom Grand Feature Parade
*Louisville-Kentucky Derby Parade
*The Denver Festival of Lights Parade
*The Hudsons Detroit Christmas Parade
*Chicago Christmas Parade
*Hollywood Christmas Parade
*Toronto Christmas Parade ( ?)

..and I am sure that there were many many others.

...does anybody still do the New York Columbus Day Parade or Chicago's Bud Billiken Parade?...

 

[Ultimajock]

I remember kids at school going around saying "up your nose with a rubber hose" and I had no idea where that came from, since I never watched Welcome Back Kotter. It wasn't until YEARS later that I was watching a Kotter rerun on TV Land, and heard Travolta/Barbarino say that, and I said to myself, "so THAT'S where that came from!" ;D

...actually, it's an old street-level "rank" common to almost any urban area in the '50s and '60s. Gabe Kaplan did a comedy album for ABC Records circa '72 titled Holes & Mello-Rolls, the title bit being what eventually got fleshed out to be the basis for Welcome Back, Kotter...