nfl baseball
This Week in Baseball is a weekly television program, originally designed to show highlights of the previous week's Major League Baseball action.[1]
TWIB (pronounced phonetically; the acronym is often familiarly used by viewers, and came to be used by the host also) debuted in 1977When Commissioner Bowie Kuhn first took office in 1969,[3] the only network television series that Major League Baseball had was the Saturday afternoon Game of the Week on NBC. Meanwhile, the National Football League in sharp contrast, blanketed TV syndication with NFL Films produced programs like the NFL Films Game of the Week. Kuhn craved a weekly half-hour show of highlights, lowlights, features, and other fare. So This Week in Baseball was, in a sense, meant to be baseball's answer to NFL FilmsVeteran sportscaster Mel Allen[4] hosted and narrated the show from its inception until his death[5] in 1996. Warner Fusselle filled-in for Allen when needed, and Allen was succeeded for a time by former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith.
While TWIB was originally syndicated to various stations around the country, the FOX network relaunched the series in 2000 (after a one year absence off of television). It returned as a pregame show for its Saturday afternoon Major League Baseball telecasts, replacing In the Zone, which had a similar format to NBA Inside Stuff and was listed as part of the Fox Kids line-up.
During the heyday of TWIB, the program would air on stations that also had television rights to major league franchises like WTBS in Atlanta or KTTV in Los Angeles. TWIB would also air on owned and operated NBC[6] stations as a prelude to the Game of the WeekThe show also airs on regional sports networks around the country, on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada, and is also often played as part of the pre-game entertainment on the TV screens of major league stadiums. Buzz Brainard is the current host of TWIB, while a current major league player is profiled each week. Also, in 2004-2005, segments of the show were hosted by U.S. fast-pitch softball sensation Jennie Finch. In 2007, TWIB was slated for 26 episodes running from April to the end of September, focusing on stories of various clubs and different baseball themes each week. The segment "Front Row Fan" features celebrities reminiscing about their favorite baseball memories. Guests have included Tom Hanks, Bernie Mac, Alyssa Milano and Kevin James.
Highlights of the past week's action are used less frequently, except for a closing highlight reel set to popular songs. The highlight reel is named How 'Bout That?, in reference to Mel Allen's well-known catchphrase. Video is gathered from each of the 30 Clubs' Stadium Loggers, who compile highlights of each game and send them to MLB Productions in New York City.
The program also uses educational segments to help it qualify for E/I status in the United States.
The opening theme music to TWIB is called "Jet Set" composed by Mike Vickers, a former member of the original Manfred Mann band. "Jet Set" was first used as the theme for the original 1974-75 version of the game show Jackpot. It has also been used as introductory music for productions as company training films. When FOX brought TWIB back, a slightly revamped version of "Jet Set" is written.
The closing theme "Gathering Crowds", composed by Patrick J. O'Hara Scott, a pseudonym for the same Mike Vickers. It is typically played over a montage of baseball's greatest moments, building to a crescendo with a punctuated 3-note chord as the MLB logo slides into view. This tune, which replaced "Jet Set" as the theme of the 1974-75 Jackpot, has also been known to be used to similar effect for montages and credits at the end of local TV newscasts and the like.
The broadcast's distinctive theme music has been used since its inception in 1994. Derivatives of the NFL on FOX theme have been incorporated throughout Fox Sports' programming, including Fox Sports Net, as Fox Sports' overall theme, and FOX is in the process of registering the original theme as a trademark. [1] The theme was produced by Scott Schreer through his production company NJJ Music. The theme was composed by Scott Schreer, Reed Hays and Phil Garrod.
Though FOX was growing rapidly as a network, and had established itself as a presence, it was still not considered a major competitor to the "big three" broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). FOX management, having seen the critical role that soccer programming had played in the growth of British satellite service BSkyB, believed that sports, and specifically professional football, would be the engine that would make FOX a major network the quickestTo this end, FOX bid aggressively for football from the start. In 1987 (FOX's first full year on the air), after ABC initially hedged on renewing its contract to carry Monday Night Football, FOX offered the NFL to pick up the contract for the same amount ABC had been paying, about $1.3 billion at the time. However, the NFL, in part because FOX had not established itself as a major network, chose to renew their contract with ABC.
Despite a few successful shows, the network did not have a significant market share until the early 1990s when News Corp. bought more TV station groups, such as New World Communications, Chris-Craft Industries, BHC Communications, and United Television, making it the largest owner of television stations in the United States.
Six years later, when the football contract was up for renewal again, FOX made what at the time, was a bold and aggressive move to acquire the rights. Knowing that they would likely need to bid considerably more than the incumbent networks to acquire a piece of the package, FOX bid $1.58 billion for four years of rights to the NFC. The NFC was considered the more desirable conference (as opposed to the AFC package that NBC carried at the time) due to its presence in most of the largest U.S. markets, such as New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. To the surprise and shock of many, in late 1993, the NFL selected the FOX bid, in the process stripping CBS of football for the first time since 1956. FOX's coverage would start in the 1994 season.
CBS apparently underestimated the value of its rights with respect to its advertising revenues and to its promotional opportunities for other network programming. Indeed, FOX was still an upstart player in 1993, not yet considered on par with the "Big Three" networks--CBS, NBC and ABC. It had already had offbeat hits such as The Simpsons, but had no news or sports divisions, and its coverage was significantly weaker than that of its elder counterparts.
However, the vast resources of Rupert Murdoch allowed the network to grow quickly, primarily to the detriment of CBS. After bringing in David Hill from Murdoch's U.K.-based Sky Sports to head-up the new Fox Sports division, FOX raided the CBS Sports staff, hiring longtime producer Ed Goren as Hill's second-in-command, plus CBS personalities such as Pat Summerall, John Madden, James Brown, Terry Bradshaw, Matt Millen, and Dick Stockton, all of whom were prominently featured in FOX's NFL coverage.
In spring 1994, FOX's parent News Corporation struck an alliance with New World Communications, by now a key ownership group with several VHF CBS affiliates in NFC markets, and wary of a CBS without football. Nearly all of New World's stations converted en masse to FOX beginning that fall. The rights gave FOX many new viewers (and affiliates) and a platform for advertising its other shows.
See also: Fox affiliate switches of 1994 FOX's acquisition of football was a watershed event not only for the network but for the NFL as well. Not only was it the event that placed FOX on a par with the "big three" broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) but it also ushered in an era of growth for the NFL which continues on largely to this day.
While the heavy concentration of population in NFC markets - as opposed to the smaller markets generally served by the AFC - virtually guaranteed a substantial audience, its instant success has nonetheless been remarkable given the substantial differences between FOX's coverage and the coverage provided by ABC, CBS, ESPN, TNT, and NBC up to that time.
Fox's launch slogan was "Same Game, New Attitude." Indeed, its studio show focused more on entertainment and less on in-depth discussion of X's and O's. It also introduced bolder and innovative graphics, for instance, a continuous on-screen time-and-score graphic that Hill had originally used on Sky's soccer coverage. And it made much greater use of the sounds in the stands and on the field thanks to parabolic microphones. These innovations were quickly adopted by rival networks and helped to drive the development of further innovations such as the virtual first-down line.
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