For Openers, NBC Spectacular at Capturing Spectacle

Bob Costas may be accused of gushing at times, but if there was ever a time for gushing, this was it.

The Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony Friday night was spectacular and so was NBC’s coverage.

It started off with Jim McKay’s voice and ended not long after members of the 1980 Olympic hockey team ignited the caldron. In between, came the emotion, the color, the fashions and the spirit of the Olympics. And NBC captured it all.

Costas set the tone about an hour-and-a-half after NBC went on the air and moments before the official start of the opening ceremony.

“You couldn’t stage a scene more perfect than this ... light snow and fireworks overhead,” he said.

It was a night of near perfection, and NBC was at its technical and artistic best, even if there were a few audio problems right at the end.

Costas and Katie Couric, NBC’s co-hosts for the opening ceremony, were almost flawless in their presentation.

About the only thing Costas said that might have been irritating, at least to West Coast viewers, came early in the parade of nations, when Australia entered Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium.

“I’ve been waiting a year-and-a-half to say this, it’s Australian and we’re live,” he said.

He was referring to the fact that the Summer Olympics at Sydney, Australia, in the fall of 2000, were shown by NBC on tape.

Much of NBC’s prime-time coverage from Utah over the next 16 days will be live, but not here in the Pacific time zone.

So when Costas and any of the other NBC announcers talk about live TV, they’re ignoring all of us that live west of the Rocky Mountains.

It’s an insult you’d better get used to. On most nights, as was the case Friday night, NBC’s coverage will be 2 1/2 hours old by the time it reaches your living room, and NBC will barely be acknowledging that.

It was fitting that the first voice we heard when NBC went on the air was that of McKay, the voice many Americans associate with the Olympics.

McKay, at the end of his part in the opening, said: “Sixteen months after the Olympic flame was extinguished an ocean away and a long time ago, it is about to be rekindled in a country thrust without warning to the center of history.”

McKay, 80, came on live after the opening, and he appeared uncomfortable. The words don’t come as easily now. “You got me stuttering,” he told Couric at one point.

This was the first Olympics McKay has worked since the 1988 Winter Games at Calgary. So, sure, he was rusty. But by the end of the telecast, he’d nearly found his old groove.

As severely injured skier Bill Johnson helped skier Phil Mahre carry the Olympic torch, McKay said, “This man walking in the stadium is a miracle.”

This was the 12th Olympics McKay has worked as an announcer, and it was comforting having him there, bringing back memories.

It was a great night all the way around. Even the commercials didn’t seem intrusive.

Early in the telecast, Couric apologized for the number of “pauses,” explaining most of the commercial breaks were coming at this point so there would be fewer later on. A highlight of the early part of NBC’s coverage was Costas’ interview with President Bush, who once again showed a strong knowledge of sports.

When Costas asked Bush to name his fondest Olympic memory or athlete, Bush singled out Bobby Morrow, a fellow west Texan.

Most viewers probably wondered who he was talking about. Costas noted that Morrow was a sprinter, but left out that Morrow, from Abilene Christian, won the 100 and 200 meters at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Bush is also a dedicated runner. He said he runs an hour a day and can cover three miles in 21 minutes. A seven-minute mile pace is very good for a 55-year-old man.

Bush became the first U.S. president to open an Olympic Games. Usually, it has been a vice president.

It was fitting that Bush opened the Games while standing among U.S. athletes. Figure skater Sasha Cohen handed him a cell phone to talk with her mother.

“How great is that,” Costas said.

On this night, the word “great” was not gushing.

From Brigham Young alum and Olympic volunteer Steve Young carrying Great Britain’s name placard to athletes from other nations waving tiny American flags to U.S. troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan, it was a great night.

NBC brought us all the red, white and blue, and if that’s jingoism, or whatever you call it, so be it.