They’ll Fit a Game in There Somewhere

There’s a reason the Super Bowl game has become Super Bowl Sunday. It goes on all day long.

It will begin at 9 a.m., when Channel 11 shows one of the most anticipated sports programs of the year, NFL Films’ “Road to the Super Bowl,” for a second time. It’s also on Saturday at 4 p.m.

This one-hour show offers the best of the best from the recent season--the hardest hits, the loudest tirades, the most dramatic moments--done only as NFL Films can do it.

Viewers get an up-close, inside look at the NFL, such as Kansas City Coach Marty Schottenheimer, just before kickoff, saying to defensive end Neil Smith, “You know, you still got your earring on,” and Smith replying, “Yeah, it’s OK.”

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Next up on Fox at 10 a.m. is an entertaining 90-minute feature, the “All-Time All-Madden Super Bowl,” with John Madden and Pat Summerall.

There are some ground rules--no Raiders who played for Madden can be on the team, nor can any of his Fox colleagues--Terry Bradshaw, Ronnie Lott, Howie Long or Matt Millen. But don’t worry. There’s a whole poker-game segment with guys who played for Madden, and the Fox group isn’t forgotten.

This show ends with Madden’s 44-player team--30 from the NFC, 14 from the AFC--gathering in a locker room in Chicago, with the guys suiting up one last time.

Madden’s light touch is what makes this show a must-see.

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The Super Bowl pregame show lasts 3 1/2 hours, from 11:30 to 3 p.m.

“This will give you guys more stuff to criticize,” David Hill, Fox sports president, quipped during a conference call with sports TV writers this week.

Fox, in televising its first Super Bowl, believes it has come up with an idea that will make its pregame show better than previous ones. Fox commissioned crews from NFL Films to follow players and coaches around during the two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl and record video diaries of what goes on behind the scenes.

These diaries were put together into three six-minute segments that will be interspersed throughout the pregame show.

“Viewers will see things they’ve never seen before; they’ll see what the players go through,” said Fox’s pregame show producer, Scott Ackerson. “My favorite part was hearing [the Packers’] Don Beebe on the phone going over who gets tickets and who doesn’t. You can hear the name of one guy who Beebe rejects, saying, ‘No, no, take him off the list.’ Can you imagine this guy’s reaction when he hears this on national television?”

Is the pregame show too long?

“I wish we had another hour,” Ackerson said. “We certainly have enough material to fill another hour.

“I don’t expect anyone to watch every minute except my parents, and they might not even watch it all. We know people will be tuning in and tuning out, and we’ll do the show with that in mind. We think we’ll have a little bit of everything for everyone.”

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To say the Fox people are a little excited about doing their first Super Bowl is an understatement.

Hill, who heads the crew, said, “If I die Monday, I’ll die happy. I’ve produced some amazing stuff in the various countries of the world, but to think for three hours on Sunday all the world will be watching us. . . . Well, it’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever done.”

The Super Bowl telecast will be shown in 160 countries, with 90% of them showing it live.

Fox is getting $1.2 million per 30 seconds for commercials. When sponsors spend that kind of money for the time, they also spend a lot on production, and that’s why the commercials often are better than the game.

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A little advertising controversy arose this week at the Superdome.

When ABC televised the Sugar Bowl there Jan. 2, a big Marlboro sign kept appearing on camera.

Well, cigarette advertising is prohibited on television. So, under threat of government action, Philip Morris agreed to take down the Marlboro sign during Sunday’s game.

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If you really want to get off to an early start Sunday, there’s CNN’s one-hour “NFL Preview” show at 8 a.m.

Besides host Vince Cellini and analysts James Lofton and Ron Meyer, CNN will use Sports Illustrated writers and reporters on the show.

One of the features will be on Patriot receiver Shawn Jefferson, the former Charger, and his brother Khalid, who is on death row at a prison in Florida.

CNN’s postgame show will be simulcast on CNN and CNN/SI.

Meanwhile, TNT’s five hours of Super Bowl-related programming begins today at 4 p.m. with the Throwback Bowl, a flag game featuring former players. Saturday, TNT’s big two-hour special, “Super Bowl Saturday Night,” is on at 6 p.m.

TV-Radio Notes

CBS offers radio coverage of the Super Bowl, with Howard David and Matt Millen announcing. . . . ESPN sent 31 announcers to New Orleans for Super Bowl Week, and when it’s all over, will have devoted 135 hours and 60 programs to Super Bowl XXXI. The Bart Starr Award show will be on ESPN Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The candidates, picked for their exemplary character, are Irving Fryar, Darrell Green, Jim Harbaugh and Brent Jones. On Saturday at 6:30, Roy Firestone’s Super Bowl prime-time special will be shown.

For Internet surfers, there’s ESPNET SportsZone. Also, the NFL, along with Fox, has its own web site at www.Superbowl.com. This site concludes the week with a “cybercast” of the game. . . . NFL Films is everywhere this weekend. The film company based in Mount Laurel, N.J., taped the Pop Warner championship game in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 15 and edited it into a one-hour special. That show will be on NBC Saturday at 12:30 p.m. . . . MTV’s celebrity-filled “Rock N’ Jock Super Bowl” will be televised Saturday at 1 p.m.

There are other things besides Super Bowl programming on television Sunday. NBC has an NBA doubleheader, including the Lakers at Seattle at noon. . . . ABC has the Senior Skins Game from Hawaii on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. . . . The Gymnastics Cup at the Anaheim Convention Center on Saturday night is being taped to be shown by NBC on Saturday, Feb. 1.

The Oscar De La Hoya-Miguel Angel Gonzalez fight, to be replayed by HBO tonight at 6:30, attracted more than 400,000 pay-per-view buys. By comparison, last month’s much-anticipated Riddick Bowe-Andrew Golota fight had 250,000 buys. . . . Van Earl Wright, who had a cult following during his five years (1989-93) at CNN, is now doing the morning sports for KFWB at 15 and 45 minutes after the hour, 5-9:45 a.m. Wright, who popularized “taking it DEEEEEP,” went to the NBC-TV affiliate in Detroit after leaving CNN.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for sports programs Jan. 18-19.

SATURDAY

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Event Ch. Rating Share College basketball: Arizona at UCLA 7 4.6 13 Golf: Bob Hope Classic 4 3.3 10 Hockey: NHL All-Star game 11 3.1 6 Wide World of Sports: figure skating, boxing 7 3.0 6 College basketball: Arkansas at Cincinnati 2 1.9 6 College basketball: UMass at BC (first hour only) 2 1.2 4 College basketball: Louisville at Texas 2 0.8 2

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SUNDAY

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Pro basketball: Chicago at Houston 4 8.6 25 Golf: Bob Hope Classic 4 5.6 15 Pro basketball: Orlando at Miami 4 4.0 12 College basketball: Iowa at Michigan 2 1.3 4 College basketball: Kansas at Connecticut 2 0.8 2

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Note: Each rating point represents 49,424 L.A. households.