Filmmakers Behind ‘Sports Pages’ Had to Make Tough Plays

Producing the lighthearted anthology film “The Sports Pages,” which premieres Sunday on Showtime, was a bit more difficult than the filmmakers anticipated.

The comedy features two classic sports tales: “How Doc Waddems Finally Broke 100,” about a hack golfer (Bob Newhart) who goes on trial for killing his by-the-book partner (Kelsey Grammer), and “The Heidi Bowl,” a fictional retelling of the infamous 1968 New York Jets-Oakland Raiders football game that was cut short on NBC by the network’s airing of the kids’ film “Heidi,” thereby causing riots and mayhem among angry sports fans.

Executive producer and “Heidi Bowl” scribe George Zaloom acknowledges that there were all sorts of roadblocks in making his installment.

“What we were doing was sort of a fictionalization of what happened,” Zaloom says. “We had to be very careful about what we did. We didn’t want to get sued. It took a long time to pull everything together. This is based on [what happened at] NBC, and since we were true to the facts, we were able to [use the name of the network].”

The National Football League, though, didn’t cooperate, “which is a shame,” says Zaloom. So the production was not allowed to use footage of football games. Director Richard Benjamin got around the problem by having flash across TV sets such football-related scenes as fans cheering in bleachers and footballs flying through the air.

At the last minute, Joe Namath, who was the Jets’ superstar quarterback at the time, allowed them to use his image in the film. But the biggest problem, says Benjamin, is that the production wasn’t allowed to use clips from the 1968 “Heidi.” The “Heidi” seen in the film is actually from a Disney Channel miniseries adaptation.

“It was a big thing about getting the rights to ‘Heidi,’ ” says Benjamin. “It is in some kind of legal limbo somewhere. Physically, we could get our hands on it, but legally we couldn’t.”

The Original ‘Heidi’ Was Off-Limits

They were able, however, to get the actress who played Heidi 32 years ago. Jennifer Edwards appears in “The Heidi Bowl” commenting on the events of that fateful showing.

Before getting the rights to the Disney “Heidi,” Benjamin went so far as to “make up” a “Heidi” movie.

“Thank God, it’s not in [the film] anymore,” says Benjamin. “It was a Heidi just kind of walking through the woods. Somewhere outside of Vancouver, we found woods and it looked like the Black Forest.”

“The Heidi Bowl” is semiautobiographical, Zaloom says. “I remember I was 8 years old at the time and was at home waiting for ‘Heidi’ to come on. I remember my dad saying, ‘What the hell? What is this?’ He called a couple of his friends. So it is a little bit based on truth, I guess. He didn’t go down and riot at the nearby bar, but he was quite upset.”

Zaloom also has a bit of fun with his friend Peyton Reed, who directed the summer hit “Bring It On.” Peyton Reed just happens to be the name of the young, troubled Vietnam vet in “The Heidi Bowl.”

Though there was no Vietnam vet involved in the “Heidi” snafu, Zaloom added the Reed character to flesh out what America was like in 1968.

“This was all going on at the same time--the Vietnam War, the paranoia and this incredible patriotism. That was one of the underlying things we added in there. It was the perfect opportunity to write all of this in the story.”

The Hard Part Was Playing Golf Badly

Bob Newhart’s biggest problem shooting “Doc Waddems,” based on Don Marquis’ classic story, “Why Doc Waddems Never Broke 100,” was learning how to be a bad golfer.

“He’s superb [at golf],” says Benjamin.

“I have a 9 handicap,” says the buttoned-down star of such classic sitcoms as “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart.”

“I like the expression on people’s faces when I say I’m a 9.”

But in order to keep the handicap, Newhart deadpans, “what I have done is I never play a full 18 holes, so I never have to turn in a score! What I actually am is an 11 or a 12.”

Trying to reverse his golf swing was the “closest thing I’ve ever gotten to Method acting. I had to come up with a swing that wasn’t my own.”

So he went to his local golf club and observed players teeing off. “I would make mental notes of terrible swings and what terrible golfers do and then incorporate them,” says Newhart, who is also the subject of a two-hour A&E; “Biography” on Sunday.

“If anyone found out that I had used them--because some of them are fairly famous people--I would be persona non grata.”

Newhart relished working with Benjamin. “We had worked together on ‘Catch-22’ [in 1969],” says Newhart. “We were in Mexico together for three months, and that’s a permanent bond. If you are in Mexico for three months, you form a bond that lasts.”

Grammer was the first actor attached to the project, and after Benjamin was signed to direct, he approached Newhart. Grammer, says Benjamin, was thrilled when he learned Newhart would be his co-star.

“Bob was his idol. Here are the two top TV psychologists [Newhart played Dr. Bob Hartley on ‘The Bob Newhart Show’ and Grammer is Dr. Frasier Crane on ‘Frasier’],” says Benjamin. “They were so happy to be working with each other.”

“He is such a wonderful actor,” Newhart says of Grammer. “You want to work against strength because you come up with things you ordinarily wouldn’t come up with if the person were a lesser actor.”

“Doc Waddems” was shot in just five days. “I tell you, it was a marathon,” says Benjamin. “I had two days to shoot on the golf course.”

So as not to interrupt the course’s patrons, Benjamin and company had to start filming at the crack of dawn. “There are a couple of scenes where I think you see our breath,” says Newhart. “We would get there early but then would have to wait for the fairways to thaw out because they were all covered with rim ice.”

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“The Sports Pages” airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on Showtime. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).