Wide World of Sports (U.S. TV series)

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This article is about is about a TV show on America's ABC Network. For other TV shows by the same name, see Wide World of Sports.

ABC's Wide World of Sports is a long-running sports anthology show on American television. As the title suggests, it aired on the ABC Television Network.

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[edit] Origins

The show debuted April 29, 1961, featuring the Drake Relays from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, along with the Penn Relays from Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was the creation of Edgar J. Scherick through his company, Sports Programs, Inc. After selling his company to the American Broadcasting Company, Scherick hired a young Roone Arledge, to produce the show. Arledge would eventually go on to become the executive producer of ABC Sports (as well as president of ABC News). Scherick became Vice President of Network Programming at ABC. Several years later, he became a film and television producer, with over seventy titles to his credit. The show was hosted by Jim McKay.

[edit] Sports featured on Wide World of Sports

Drag racer Don Nicholson during a Wide World of Sports interview in 1966
Drag racer Don Nicholson during a Wide World of Sports interview in 1966

Wide World of Sports was intended to be a "fill-in" show for a single summer season, until the start of fall sports seasons, but became unexpectedly popular. The goal of the show, which originally ran for ninety minutes on Saturday afternoons and featuring two or three sports, was to showcase sports from around the globe. These included many types not normally seen on American television, such as hurling, rodeo, curling, jai-alai, firefighter's competitions, surfing, logger sports, demolition derby and badminton. Traditional Olympic sports such as figure skating, skiing, gymnastics, and track and field competitions were also regular features of the show. The broadcast was hosted for most of its history by Jim McKay.

Wide World of Sports aired from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time and later 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 Eastern Time.

[edit] Introduction

The show was introduced by a stirring, brassy fanfare over a montage of sports clips and dramatic accompanying narration by McKay:

“ Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… this is ABC's Wide World of Sports! ”

It was written by Stanley Ralph Ross.

[edit] "The Thrill of Victory..."

The melodramatic introduction became a national catch phrase that is often heard to this day. While "the thrill of victory" had several symbols over the decades, ski jumper Vinko Bogataj, whose dreadful misjump and crash of March 21, 1970 was featured from the late 1970s onward under the words "...and the agony of defeat", became a hard-luck hero of sorts, and an affectionate icon for stunning failure. Previously, the footage played with that phrase was of another ski jumper who made a long, almost successful jump, but whose skis lost vertical alignment shortly before landing, leading to a crash. Later in the 1990s, an additional clip was added to the "agony of defeat" sequence after Bogataj's accident. Footage of a crash by Alessandro Zampedri, Roberto Guerrero and Eliseo Salazar during the 1996 Indianapolis 500 shows a car flipping up into the catchfence. The "oh no!" commentary that accompanies it, however, is dubbed from commentary by Benny Parsons of a different crash in a different race (1997 NASCAR Purolator 500). Bogataj's mishap is also commemorated in Rich Hall's book Sniglets as "agonosis," which is defined as "The syndrome of tuning in on Wide World of Sports every weekend just to watch the skier rack himself."

[edit] Successful Spinoffs

In 1961, Wide World of Sports covered a bowling event in which Roy Lown beat Pat Patterson, it was so successful that in 1962, ABC Sports began covering the Pro Bowlers Tour.

In 1973 The SuperStars was first televised as a segment on Wide World of Sports, the following year, The SuperStars debut as a weekly winter series that lasted for 10 years.

[edit] Athlete of the Year

In 1963, the producers of ABC Sports began selecting the Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year. Its first winner was track and field star Jim Beatty for its first under 4 minute mile run indoors. Through the years, this award was won by the likes of Muhammad Ali, Jim Ryun, Lance Armstrong, Mario Andretti, Wayne Gretzky, Carl Lewis and Tiger Woods. The award was discontinued in 2001.

[edit] Canadian version

During the 1970s and 1980s, a Canadian version was aired by the CTV Television Network. Licensed by ABC, the CTV broadcast included a mix of content from the American show, and segments produced by CTV and its affiliates.

[edit] The end of Wide World of Sports

In later years, with the rise of cable television offering more outlets for sports programming, Wide World of Sports lost much of its appeal. Ultimately, the Wide World of Sports name was used as an umbrella title for ABC's weekend sports programming. Wide World of Sports discontinued its traditional anthology series format in 1997.

In August 2006, ABC Sports was effectively displaced by the concept of ESPN on ABC. The future of Wide World of Sports is apparently over, although ESPN Classic reruns the show from time to time.


[edit] Miscellany

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_World_of_Sports_%28U.S._TV_series%29"
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