You Are Looking Live!: How The NFL Today Revolutionized Sports Broadcasting

by Rich Podolsky

Overview

You Are Looking Live! is the story of how one live television show in 1975 captured the excitement of the country, and launched four magnetic personalities to stardom: Brent Musburger, Phyllis George, Irv Cross and Jimmy The Greek Snyder. It explores some of America’s most enduring obsessions - football, sex, race, and gambling-- all told through the lens of the fashion, music, and pop culture of the 70’s and 80’s. It’s the Madmen of NFL Broadcasting—a close-up look at the people who created the The NFL Today—including their human flaws and their battles for airtime that often led to front-page headlines. Those four personalities battled each other and the competition, and as a result became pop culture icons.

On the East Coast and the Midwest, people would literally rush home from church to hear what they had to say, and on the West Coast fans loved waking up to it. The NFL Today became so popular that it not only dominated the ratings, but also won its time slot 18 straight years, from 1975 to 1993, until CBS lost its NFL package to Fox. And today, looking back, these four personalities, like any family, had their own battles, and became even more famous for them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493073016
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/01/2023
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	345,903
Product dimensions:	6.07(w) x 8.76(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Rich Podolsky has been an established writer and reporter since the 1970s, covering the Miami Dolphins and writing for The NFL Today. He has been a staff writer for CBS Sports, and has written for The Philadelphia Daily News, The Palm Beach Post, The Wilmington News-Journal, TV Guide and ESPN. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Keystone Press Award for writing excellence from the Pennsylvania Publishers Association. He has written about the business of sports on television many times and is a columnist for David Halberstam's Sports Broadcast Journal. His passion for music of the '60s and '70s fueled his desire to write about it. In Don Kirshner: The Man with the Golden Ear (foreword by Tony Orlando), and Neil Sedaka, Rock 'n' Roll Survivor (foreword by Elton John), he tells the inside story of their success.

Table of Contents

Foreword Jim Nantz vii

Author's Note ix

Chapter 1 CBS Sports: And That's the Way It Was 1

Chapter 2 Brent Musburger: The Natural 16

Chapter 3 Phyllis George: More Than a Pretty Face 25

Chapter 4 Bob Wussler: The Visionary 36

Chapter 5 Pearl and Fishman: They Made the Magic 50

Chapter 6 Jimmy The Greek: His Life and Times 62

Chapter 7 Irv Cross: Mr. Reliable 73

Chapter 8 On the Road: Live! from Miami 83

Chapter 9 Jayne Kennedy: The Greatest Talent Hunt Since Scarlett O'Hara 96

Chapter 10 The Fight at Peartrees 109

Chapter 11 AI Michaels's Wild and Crazy Year at CBS 121

Chapter 12 Phyllis Gets Married … Again 127

Chapter 13 The Greek's Luck Finally Runs Out 135

Chapter 14 The Firing of Brent Musburger 144

Chapter 15 Greg Gumbel: Filling Brent's Shoes 149

Chapter 16 Who Let the FOX In? 160

Chapter 17 Jim Nantz: The Future of CBS Sports Arrives 164

Epilogue: Where They Are, Where They Went 178

Notes 200

Index 209

Acknowledgments 224

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“That NFL Today Show was simply the greatest pregame show of all time. And everybody for the last 40 years has tried to copy it.” —Tony Kornheiser, host of ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption “Hiring Phyllis was a bold, gutsy brilliant move. The result was the gold standard for pregame shows.” —Howard Katz, former president of ABC Sports and member of the ports Broadcasting Hall of Fame “CBS and The NFL Today set the template. They invented the form. They have pioneer status. They got it right on their own terms first.” —Bob Costas, member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame “You Are Looking Live! is great fun, loaded with wonderful stories about the show’s birth and growth. With first person authority and a knack for rich detail, Rich Podolsky reveals how much TV sports has changed, but also how the ingredients of a great studio show have not.” — Chris Fowler, legendary host of ESPN’s College GameDay “Rich Podolsky has captured the rollicking, personal stories of everyone involved in The NFL Today. We get to know the people, the time, and how television worked. We also get to see how the big name personalities moved through their careers to unite on such a legendary show."—Lesley Visser, a member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and a former panelist on The NFL Today. “The term ‘studio chemistry’ was created by Brent & Irv. They were magical together!The Show became the standard by which all live Studio shows would be measured. In America’s heartland fans were changing times they worshipped and hurrying home to see it. There’s not a Studio show on any Network today that doesn’t owe The NFL Today a debt of thanks.” Tim Brando, first host of ESPN’s CollegeGameDay, current play-by-play voice for Fox Sports. "For freshened holiday gift o' gab, a sure fireplace anecdote starter is a crisply engaging book titled, "You Are Looking Live!"          Written by former CBS Sports staffer Rich Podolsky, it is an informed, well-paced history of "The NFL Today." With football studio shows and other empty-calorie TV sports talk blather now a dime a gross, Podolsky takes a reverent, chatty look at the talent, executives and key support personnel who made the landmark game-day show go."—Jim O'Donnell, Chicago's Daily Herald.com

Editorial Reviews

"Rich Podolsky’s You are Looking Live! gives readers an opportunity to relive those golden years of TV sports and get fascinating first-hand looks behind the scenes; the in-fighting, back-stabbing and shenanigans."

Sports Broadcast Journal

"In the end, You Are Looking LIVE! is a tribute to a piece of television history that became the blueprint for broadcast sports journalism as Podolsky states, “In the first year, the show became so popular that people rearranged their church-going schedules to be home." Overall, a recommended read to those who want to relive and learn about a piece of American broadcast history that became a fall and winter Sunday backdrop to millions and generations throughout the United States."

Boxscore News

"Rich Podolsky’s You are Looking Live! gives readers an opportunity to relive those golden years of TV sports and get fascinating first-hand looks behind the scenes; the in-fighting, back-stabbing and shenanigans." - Sports Broadcast Journal

"In the end, You Are Looking LIVE! is a tribute to a piece of television history that became the blueprint for broadcast sports journalism as Podolsky states, “In the first year, the show became so popular that people rearranged their church-going schedules to be home." Overall, a recommended read to those who want to relive and learn about a piece of American broadcast history that became a fall and winter Sunday backdrop to millions and generations throughout the United States." - Boxscore News

From the Publisher