Game to Go On, Even if TV Makes a Switch to News

Super Bowl play will not be held up for news reports on the war in the Persian Gulf, so it’s possible some of Sunday’s game action will be missed.

“The NFL will manage the game separately from our broadcast,” Dennis Swanson, ABC Sports president, said at a news conference in Tampa, Fla., Thursday. “Other than the delays already worked out for breaks, we don’t plan any others.”

Updates on the war will be programmed into the pregame show and broadcast as needed during the game, Swanson said.

Don’t expect any advertising, which costs $800,000 per 30-second spot, to be preempted.

The game will be telecast in 55 foreign countries and to troops in the Middle East.

There has been talk of delaying the game until Monday or Tuesday if developments warranted it, but Swanson said rescheduling the game would be difficult because ABC has the “American Music Awards” show scheduled for Monday night, and President Bush is supposed to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

There’s so much Super Bowl-related programming scheduled for this weekend, it’s difficult to pick and choose.

Dan Dierdorf and John Madden each have specials; ESPN has 17 hours of NFL material, and ABC has a two-hour pregame show with Brent Musburger and a big supporting cast.

It all gets a little confusing, but the one thing not to miss, besides the game itself, scheduled to begin at 3:18 p.m., PST, is NFL Films’ “Road to the Super Bowl.”

This one-hour show will be on Channel 2 at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Because NFL Films had only one week to prepare the show, it wasn’t completed until late Thursday. But a sneak-preview tape was sent to the media, and it shows enough to conclude this will be another NFL Films-quality program. That means first-rate.

The miked-coaches segment, always the most popular of the annual “Road to the Super Bowl” shows, is tremendous.

Madden actually has two specials this weekend.

There’s his Super Bowl preview on Channel 2 at noon Saturday, a one-hour show produced by TWI with help from GGP Sports.

Madden will be joined by Pat Summerall, with Dan Fouts and Jim Gray providing reports and Jennifer Montana, Joe’s wife, contributing a feature.

Then there’s the seventh annual “All-Madden Team” presentation, a TWI-CBS show, which has been moved to prime time for the first time. It will be on Channel 2 at 9 p.m.

Madden credits his lifelong friend John Robinson with giving him the idea for the show.

“We were doing a Ram game and sitting around talking with John,” Madden said. “He started saying, ‘This guy’s a good guy, you’d really like him.’

“Then he said, ‘You know what you ought to do? You ought to make up a team at the end of the year of guys you like.’

“I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ and the next thing you know, we’re doing it.”

Former Ram Jack Youngblood was among those on Madden’s first team, but he was almost scratched. When Madden did the voice-overs, he noticed the footage of Youngblood had him in a clean uniform.

“No mud, no grass, no Madden,” he said.

The crew found some new footage of Youngblood.

Madden is everywhere. On top of everything else, he has a new autobiographical 60-minute video, “John Madden: the American Dream Comes True,” that is now in most video stores and costs $19.95.

Among the people Madden talks about is his former boss, Al Davis.

“Al Davis is probably the most misunderstood person in sports,” Madden says. “He’s a very compassionate person. He’s a very giving person. He’s a very warm person. If someone needs something, he’s there. And his public persona doesn’t come across that way.

“I mean, he is a tough guy. He’s a tough businessman, a tough football man. But I’ve always felt that if anything happened, if I had one call that I could make for help, wherever I was, I’d call Al Davis. I don’t think you can say anymore about a person. And I don’t think I’d be the only guy that would call Al Davis.”

Dierdorf’s Super Bowl preview, produced by GGP, will be carried by ABC at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Guests include the Raiders’ Bob Golic, ABC commentator Dick Vermeil, New Orleans Saint Coach Jim Mora and oddsmaker Danny Sheridan.

Among the subjects are the city of Buffalo and the reaction there to the Bills’ first Super Bowl appearance, the beefed-up security for the game and--no surprise here--ABC’s behind-the-scenes preparations for the game.

ESPN’s Super Bowl preview will be shown Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and repeated Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

ESPN will show highlights of past Super Bowls, beginning at 10 p.m. Saturday.

The cable network’s “NFL GameDay” Super Bowl edition will be on at 9 a.m. Sunday for 1 1/2 hours and will be followed by more Super Bowl highlights.

Dream Bowl II, with the 1989 San Francisco 49ers facing the 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers, will be on ESPN at noon Sunday.

In Dream Bowl I last year, the ’78 Steelers beat the 1972 Miami Dolphins, 21-20.

The Learning Channel is offering something different--a two-hour Super Bowl Tele-Clinic at 11 a.m. Saturday. It is designed to encourage young people to stay in school and avoid drugs.

Greg Gumbel is the host, and guests include Joe Montana, Anthony Munoz, Mike Singletary, Bernie Kosar, Warren Moon, Lynn Swann and Marty Schottenheimer.

Programming snafu: Raycom is covering Saturday’s UCLA-Oregon basketball game, but it won’t be seen in Los Angeles because Channel 2 is preempting it for CBS’ coverage of the Phoenix Open golf tournament.

However, Channel 2 plans to show Raycom’s coverage of the Arizona-California basketball game at 3 p.m., or following the golf.

It seems it would make more sense to show the UCLA game delayed after the golf. Or, better yet, show UCLA live, delay the third round of the Phoenix Open and forget Arizona-Cal.

Deception game: NBC’s NBA coverage resumes Sunday with the Lakers’ game against the Boston Celtics, and the NBC promotion department is trying to pull a fast one.

The network is saying the game begins at 9 a.m., but it doesn’t begin until 9:30. The pregame show is at 9.

TV-Radio Notes

Super Bowl radio coverage on KNX will be provided by CBS announcers Jack Buck and Hank Stram. . . . XTRA has had two reporters, Steve Hartman and Randy Hahn, in Tampa all week, and Lee Hamilton has been getting plenty of guests for his 4-to-8 p.m. “Sportsnite” shows. Tonight’s scheduled guests include Dan Dierdorf and Frank Gifford of ABC, Bob Trumpy of NBC, Pat Haden of CBS Radio and Joe Theismann of ESPN. . . . Joe McDonnell’s KFI Sunday show goes back to 8-to-midnight this weekend.

Kings’ announcer Bob Miller, who will miss his second Prime Ticket telecast tonight because of minor surgery, will be back next week. . . . The first segment of the MCA-distributed “Roggin’s Heroes,” which got an 11.1 rating in Los Angeles, also did well nationally, averaging a 4.5 in 160 markets.

Magic Johnson will join Channel 7 rock music reporter Francesca Cappucci as co-host of “Countdown to the American Music Awards” Monday from 7:30 to 8 p.m., before ABC’s coverage of the awards show. . . . The Senior Skins Game will be on ABC Saturday delayed at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday live at 10:30 a.m. This year’s event has five competitors--Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Gary Player.