Travis Vogan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520292956
- eISBN:
- 9780520966260
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292956.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Chapter 2 turns to Wide World of Sports, ABC Sports’ signature show and the primary testing ground for its creative approach. The Saturday afternoon anthology possessed a meager budget that permitted ...
More
Chapter 2 turns to Wide World of Sports, ABC Sports’ signature show and the primary testing ground for its creative approach. The Saturday afternoon anthology possessed a meager budget that permitted it to secure rights to televise only the most marginal sports. Ski jumping and demolition derbies, for instance, were commonplace during its early years. The Cold War provided a way to dramatize many of the show’s prerecorded and otherwise unpopular events. The program established its popularity and gained much-needed acclaim when it carried a series of track meets between the United States and the Soviet Union that at once emphasized sports television’s capacity to cultivate international harmony and advertised ABC Sports as innovative and edifying.Less
Chapter 2 turns to Wide World of Sports, ABC Sports’ signature show and the primary testing ground for its creative approach. The Saturday afternoon anthology possessed a meager budget that permitted it to secure rights to televise only the most marginal sports. Ski jumping and demolition derbies, for instance, were commonplace during its early years. The Cold War provided a way to dramatize many of the show’s prerecorded and otherwise unpopular events. The program established its popularity and gained much-needed acclaim when it carried a series of track meets between the United States and the Soviet Union that at once emphasized sports television’s capacity to cultivate international harmony and advertised ABC Sports as innovative and edifying.
Travis Vogan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520292956
- eISBN:
- 9780520966260
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520292956.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Chapter 3 discusses how ABC adapted Wide World of Sports to cover the Olympics. The show offered year-round promotion for the athletes who would eventually compete in the Olympics, and the high ...
More
Chapter 3 discusses how ABC adapted Wide World of Sports to cover the Olympics. The show offered year-round promotion for the athletes who would eventually compete in the Olympics, and the high profile event built interest in the show’s weekly installments. Wide World of Sports introduced two of its biggest stars— Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell—between ABC’s first Olympics, in 1964, and its second, in 1968, when it began to cover the event consistently and bill itself as the “Network of the Olympics.” The duo’s many appearances capitalized on Ali’s polarizing views and Cosell’s similarly divisive defense of the boxer. A key thread in ABC’s coverage of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City concerned whether the African American athletes—many of whom were inspired by the outspokenness Ali exhibited on Wide World of Sports —would use the games to protest the racism they faced in the country they represented. Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s famous demonstration was ABC’s biggest story of the event, much of which aired during prime time. Wide World of Sports’s creative approach, programming practices, and stars fueled ABC’s investment in and identification with the Olympics.Less
Chapter 3 discusses how ABC adapted Wide World of Sports to cover the Olympics. The show offered year-round promotion for the athletes who would eventually compete in the Olympics, and the high profile event built interest in the show’s weekly installments. Wide World of Sports introduced two of its biggest stars— Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell—between ABC’s first Olympics, in 1964, and its second, in 1968, when it began to cover the event consistently and bill itself as the “Network of the Olympics.” The duo’s many appearances capitalized on Ali’s polarizing views and Cosell’s similarly divisive defense of the boxer. A key thread in ABC’s coverage of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City concerned whether the African American athletes—many of whom were inspired by the outspokenness Ali exhibited on Wide World of Sports —would use the games to protest the racism they faced in the country they represented. Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s famous demonstration was ABC’s biggest story of the event, much of which aired during prime time. Wide World of Sports’s creative approach, programming practices, and stars fueled ABC’s investment in and identification with the Olympics.
