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Well said as usual
Anorak
Very well said, I thoroughly enjoyed your ode to the crew. I remember one day in New York City as a kid, going to a friend's house...this friend was one of those who, because the dad was not home, the dad would get the family good ****t. So they have this weird ****t on the tv and they say "this is cable, and it has no commercials." I still remember HBO as being one of those original channels.
Can't remember when HBO went whole hog into sports, or if they started that way, but what I do remember is the shift from when the fights were more about the fights than the networks. it seems like HBO embraced that change and really developed a class of tragically flawed characters to give us the take...Wasn't Dennis the pompous @zz miller HBO? Wow! what a novelty, a walking thesaurus, can we burn it like the Nazi's did to books mom?
Was HBO deliberate about this? I mean Showtime by comparison... Al Bernstein was always just talented at what he did...But merchant and Letterman? Both guys had an edge...And it had to be taken off daily with intoxicating elements. And what of Kellerman? Everybody's Jewish little brother. I used to feel guilty everytime I saw him because I never sent him anything for his bar Mitzva. kellerman, who was so smart that he went to one of the most elite High schools in the country (Hunter in NYC, in my old hood), could truly be moronic with his commentary.
Its almost as if HBO was trying to play out a greek tragedy. Guys like Merchant who had been Oscar Madison on steriods, were allowed to slowly come apart at the seams in front of us. HBO was more than broadcasting, it was theater, a performance piece of the absurdity of what happens when athletes are validated by extreme sums of money, and the broadcast crew, though talented beyond measure, could be a stand in for Jimmy Breslin's infamous "gang that could not shoot straight" mafia family.
The real irony was that it worked, at least to a degree. Kellerman was consistent, even though he was awful, and Roy, in his most confusing, spinning web obfiscations, would, on occasion call, to the blow, when a fighter was going down. lampley? definitely the straight man in this crew...remember that with the sheer amount of alcohol intoxication present, even a straight man could imbibe in this gang! and judging from his situation at home...Jim hit the bottle almost as hard as Merchant and Ledderman.
I will miss the gang. merchant leaving is the end of an era. Cossell was the patron saint of men like merchant. these men stood for something. Cossell stood by Ali and his decision when the rest of the establishment only wanted to see Ali punished. Merchant is cut from that cloth...and though many see him as rascist because he yelled at Floyd, here is the truth as I see it: merchant had to respect Floyd to get that angry at him. Period. Floyd pissed him off because he had enough respect for Floyd to be pissed off.
So i will miss the gang... Heres to them
Anorak
Very well said, I thoroughly enjoyed your ode to the crew. I remember one day in New York City as a kid, going to a friend's house...this friend was one of those who, because the dad was not home, the dad would get the family good ****t. So they have this weird ****t on the tv and they say "this is cable, and it has no commercials." I still remember HBO as being one of those original channels.
Can't remember when HBO went whole hog into sports, or if they started that way, but what I do remember is the shift from when the fights were more about the fights than the networks. it seems like HBO embraced that change and really developed a class of tragically flawed characters to give us the take...Wasn't Dennis the pompous @zz miller HBO? Wow! what a novelty, a walking thesaurus, can we burn it like the Nazi's did to books mom?
Was HBO deliberate about this? I mean Showtime by comparison... Al Bernstein was always just talented at what he did...But merchant and Letterman? Both guys had an edge...And it had to be taken off daily with intoxicating elements. And what of Kellerman? Everybody's Jewish little brother. I used to feel guilty everytime I saw him because I never sent him anything for his bar Mitzva. kellerman, who was so smart that he went to one of the most elite High schools in the country (Hunter in NYC, in my old hood), could truly be moronic with his commentary.
Its almost as if HBO was trying to play out a greek tragedy. Guys like Merchant who had been Oscar Madison on steriods, were allowed to slowly come apart at the seams in front of us. HBO was more than broadcasting, it was theater, a performance piece of the absurdity of what happens when athletes are validated by extreme sums of money, and the broadcast crew, though talented beyond measure, could be a stand in for Jimmy Breslin's infamous "gang that could not shoot straight" mafia family.
The real irony was that it worked, at least to a degree. Kellerman was consistent, even though he was awful, and Roy, in his most confusing, spinning web obfiscations, would, on occasion call, to the blow, when a fighter was going down. lampley? definitely the straight man in this crew...remember that with the sheer amount of alcohol intoxication present, even a straight man could imbibe in this gang! and judging from his situation at home...Jim hit the bottle almost as hard as Merchant and Ledderman.
I will miss the gang. merchant leaving is the end of an era. Cossell was the patron saint of men like merchant. these men stood for something. Cossell stood by Ali and his decision when the rest of the establishment only wanted to see Ali punished. Merchant is cut from that cloth...and though many see him as rascist because he yelled at Floyd, here is the truth as I see it: merchant had to respect Floyd to get that angry at him. Period. Floyd pissed him off because he had enough respect for Floyd to be pissed off.
So i will miss the gang... Heres to them
I'll never forget the sponsor accent he did before the Pac-Bradley fight. I remember the whole room busting out in laughter when it happened.
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