Wide World of Sports (US TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- You might also be looking for the Australian television show of the same name.
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.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
The show debuted April 29, 1961, featuring the Drake Relays from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, 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.
[edit] Sports featured on Wide World of Sports
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 afternoon 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.
[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 on 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 a different crash in a different race.
[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. Most recently, the Wide World of Sports name has been used as an umbrella title for ABC's weekend sports programming.
In August 2006, ABC Sports was effectively displaced by the concept of ESPN on ABC. The future of Wide World of Sports is unclear.
[edit] Logos
 The Wide World of Sports logo. |
Alternate WWOS logo |
 WWOS logo from 1995 |
 WWOS Sports logo from 1998 |
