Mischer to supervise Bowl show

The National Football League, in recovery mode after this year’s risque Super Bowl halftime show with Janet Jackson prompted a national debate over media indecency, has hired veteran live-television producer Don Mischer to oversee entertainment for Super Bowl XXXIX, to be telecast on Fox on Feb. 6, the league announced Thursday.

Mischer said he had just begun talking with NFL officials about the program’s content and said no performers had been signed yet. But “certainly the NFL is conscious of what happened last year, and they don’t want anything like that to happen again,” Mischer said.

At the same time, he added, “we’re all conscious of [the need for] not overreacting to what happened last year. We’ve still got to create an exciting, entertaining program.”

Jackson’s performance, telecast on CBS, caused a furor after a portion of her costume was ripped away, revealing one of her breasts. The incident led to a Federal Communications Commission crackdown on broadcasts deemed indecent. The FCC last month fined 20 CBS stations a record $550,000 for the Super Bowl stunt. Just this week, Fox was hit with an even bigger fine -- $1.2 million -- for a raunchy episode of the reality show “Married by America.”

As a precaution, NFL officials and Fox have discussed using a delay that would allow producers to edit out any objectionable material, although league spokesman Brian McCarthy said no final decision had been made.

Unlike last time, when the NFL hired MTV to oversee the halftime event, the league will pay close attention to every detail of the 12-minute halftime performance, including song selection, choreography “and, yes, wardrobe,” McCarthy said.

Mischer and the NFL have discussed an Americana theme for the entertainment segment, according to one person familiar with the situation, but McCarthy declined to comment on the content or tone.

A longtime producer of the Emmy Awards telecast, Mischer produced the 1993 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Michael Jackson and 3,500 young fans crowding the field. He also earned a measure of notoriety during the Democratic National Convention earlier this year when he uttered a profanity while speaking to a crew covering the event; the remarks were accidentally aired live on CNN. Mischer later apologized.