TV Review: New 'MNF' broadcast trio makes its debut on ESPN
[SIZE=-1]10:45 PM CDT on Monday, August 14, 2006
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[SIZE=-1]Associated Press[/SIZE]
Listen up! Tony Kornheiser had to be better than the short-lived sitcom loosely based on his life.
And he was. Much better. And that's even putting aside such a low standard as the Washington Post columnist and ESPN personality's 2004 show "Listen Up."
Kornheiser joined Mike Tirico and Joe Theismann in the booth for "Monday Night Football," which moved to ESPN this season after 3½ decades on ABC.
Because of the ill-fated Dennis Miller Experiment a few years ago, many ears were cocked to wiseacre Kornheiser, who once wondered how Jackonville snagged the Super Bowl, asking: "What, Tuscaloosa was booked?"
As Monday night's debut approached, Kornheiser played the expectations game like a Beltway spindoctor in a way that would make James Carville and Mary Matalin proud.
He was so nervous that he perspired not just through his shirt, but through his suit, Kornheiser wrote in his "Monday Night Diary" in The Washington Post Monday. He worried that on live television "it's very possible that there'll be so much water pouring off my body that I'll short out the entire electrical system at the Metrodome."
His flopsweat wasn't visible like Albert Brooks' gushers in "Broadcast News." And he already has the job – unlike Brooks' character, who blew his on-air audition.
Still, the low-expectations game continued through the show's opening. Tirico noted Kornheiser's 35 years as a writer, as well as his success on radio and ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption," adding: "And now you've made it to 'Monday Night Football."'
"I made it to it. Now will I make it through it?" Kornheiser responded as the other two laughed.
Both Theismann and Kornheiser quickly delved into the "ugly past" of the Minnesota Vikings, who were playing the Oalkand Raiders, with Kornheiser more pointedly talking about how the Vikings were "the most scandal-plagued team in the entire NFL last year."
"I won't go through the whole laundry list, but the sex-boat thing, that was a show-stopper. As they say on 'Seinfeld' – 'That's gold, Jerry. That's gold."'
(A reminder of what wasn't gold, Jerry: Jason Alexander playing Kornheiser in that CBS series.)
Tirico sustained the broadcast's tradition of solid, straightforward play-by-play men, while Theismann sometimes sounded – as he often does – too empathetic with the players. He also can overstate the obvious. (And while we're at it, let's just trot out that Theismann once said: "Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.")
When Kornheiser pointed out that Raiders quarterback Aaron Brooks missed his first four pass attempts, Theismann quickly stated than everyone was still learning so early in the exhibition season.
Theismann also came across as a little too self-serious, especially when he and Kornheiser clashed about how far removed from football new Raiders offensive coordinator Tom Walsh was. Walsh ran a bed & breakfast for about seven years.
"Now I know you're going to say he stayed in football. But does that look like a guy who's staying in football?," Kornheiser said as bucolic photos with Walsh were flashed on the screen. "He's preparing menus and making beds. ... You comfortable with that, Joe?"
"Actually I am," Theismann said.
"Would you be comfortable if Bob Newhart were also hired? He ran a B&B," Kornheiser said.
The chemistry among the new "MNF" broadcast trio failed to approach what Kornheiser has with "PTI" co-host Michael Wilbon. But that's extremely high, so it would be difficult to replicate anyway.
Back on "PTI" on Monday, by the way, Wilbon goodnaturedly zinged Kornheiser by saying he couldn't stay up late enough to watch (something Kornheiser often says about an event) and offered a facetious "TV Pick" touting Ryan Seacrest on E! as an alternative.
At least Kornheiser doesn't have to worry about Phil Bengston Syndrome – in which someone takes the thankless job of replacing a legend and never quite measures up. (The affliction is named after the man who succeeded Vince Lombardi as coach in Green Bay.)
In television, there have been notable sufferers, Dan Rather and Jay Leno among them. And for years, analysts on "Monday Night Football" have usually felt like poor replacements for Howard Cosell and "Dandy" Don Meredith, the original duo who served as color commentators. Even John Madden didn't quite feel right, maybe because as good as Al Michaels is – and the two remain a team on NBC on Sunday nights – his best years were with Pat Summerall.
Kornheiser shouldn't have to worry, either, about the ESPN Peter Principle – in which the cable channel's sportscasters rise to their level of incompetence. Craig Kilborn – who at least has done us the favor of fading into obscurity – and Keith Olbermann have already beaten him to that.
But after Monday night's performance, it looks like he won't be following them.
LINK
It was like music to my ears, doing my house work with football in the background.
