Mike and Mike in the Morning
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| Mike and Mike in the Morning | |
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| Genre | Sports talk |
| Running time | 4 hours |
| Starring | Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Home Station | ESPN Radio (1998-), ESPNEWS (2004-2005) and ESPN2 (2006-) |
| Original run | October 12, 1998 – Present |
Mike and Mike in the Morning is a sports talk radio show hosted by Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg (aka "Greeny") and broadcast on ESPN Radio. The show is also simulcast on ESPN2, with cameras inside the show's studio. The show is broadcast from 6:00 am ET to 10:00 am ET, Monday through Friday. The ESPN Radio SportsCenter update anchors for the show are Bob Picozzi and Christine Lisi. The show's motto for all commercials on radio and television is: "What makes them different, makes them great." The program is sponsored by AT&T.
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[edit] Design
The show centers on an Odd Couple relationship between its hosts, and how it relates to their views on sports. Mike Greenberg is portrayed as a stereotypical nerd and metrosexual. Conversely, Mike Golic, a former football player for Notre Dame and the Philadelphia Eagles, is set up in the role of the tough and boisterous "man's man", a former pro athlete who likes nothing more than to eat and "tell it like it is."
Despite Golic's insistence that his co-host knows little about sports, Mike Greenberg has been a sports journalist for 16 years, working in radio and print out of Chicago. And, though Greenberg has proclaimed that Golic is a slow-witted Neanderthal, Golic, in fact, graduated from the well-respected University of Notre Dame with a degree in finance and management, and worked as a color analyst for college football for ABC and ESPN for several years after his professional football career ended.
The usual substitute for Mike Greenberg is Erik Kuselias, who is also the host of The SportsBash on ESPN Radio and the usual replacement for Golic is generally a former athlete or a sportswriter. Prior to Kuselias, Dana Jacobson frequently substituted before she was named co-host of the ESPN2 show Cold Pizza. The show also incorporates some sports alumni to add color and depth as weekly guests, including Joe Theismann, Mark Schlereth, Eric Wynalda, Sean Salisbury, Buster Olney, Peter Gammons, Bill Curry, and Dick Vitale.
[edit] Features
Tuesdays on the show have been deemed "Just Shut Up Tuesday", a reference to the McDonald's Just Shut Up Award, an honor bestowed on the sports-related figure of the past week voted by listeners as the person who most needs to just shut up. Past winners (and examples of the types of actions that could induce a nomination) include Bode Miller bragging about partying in Torino, Terrell Owens fighting with his teammates, and Latrell Sprewell turning down a multi-million dollar contract extension and asking for more money, claiming "I've got a family to feed."
On Fridays during the NFL season, Mike and Mike do a segment called "Stone Cold Lead Pipe Locks", where both of them pick 3 NFL games (two of their own and then one head-to-head) based on point spreads. These picks have comical undertones with soundbites (sport stars, celebrities, TV/Movie quotes) in between analysis of the game.
For the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, the Mike's fill out brackets and go head to head. The competition, known as Sheet of Integrity, usually has a bet that goes along with it. After the 2004 tournament, won by Greenberg, Golic had to have his eyebrows waxed on air. The past two years have been won by Golic, with Greeny dressing as a Notre Dame leprechan when the two go on the road for a big Notre Dame game (USC in 2005, Stanford in 2006).
Song parodies are also a big part of the show. Often they do postseason award campaigning for a player they like by doing a parody of a song. In December of 2005, Mike and Mike parodied Christmas carols for the NFL season. Possibly the most famous parody has been of the Billy Joel song Honesty. Both Mikes did their own parody of the song for the Sheet of Integrity contest in 2005 where Greeny thought it was not ethical to submit more than one NCAA Bracket while Golic planned on entering as many as he could. While it was decided that only one sheet could be submitted, the song received plenty of air time during the 2005 contest and during the 2006 contest. Other parodies include multiple ones of Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones and a campaign for Chris Carpenter to win the 2005 National League Cy Young Award using the song Rainbow Connection.
[edit] Marriage Madness
In January 2006, Mike and Mike revealed an event known as "Mike and Mike's Marriage Madness," a contest in which engaged couples would compete to earn the right to be married at ESPN headquarters, live on the radio and on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD. After an initial selection process, the field was pared down to 16 and placed into a NCAA tournament style bracket, in which listeners could go online and vote to determine who would advance [1]. The wedding occurred on Friday, May 26, 2006.
[edit] Off Mikes
In 2005, ESPN and Animax Entertainment began producing two to three minute cartoons of Mike and Mike in the Morning with Greeny and Golic, called Off Mikes. They take live conversations and arguments of the two from the show and make animations for them. Most of the episodes have nothing to do with sports like arguing if you've ever peed in your pants during a football game, if fishing is a real sport and Golic and Greeny taking the metrosexual quiz. Off Mikes can be found on ESPN Motion and ESPN 360 both on ESPN.com. The cartoons won an Emmy award and are animated by Animax Entertainment.
[edit] External links
- ESPN Show page
- ESPN Radio
- Emmy winning Off-Mikes Cartoon Show
- Mike Greenberg's Official Fan Page
- Mike Golic's Unofficial Fan Page
