Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [166]
HARRIET SEITLER:
Lenny Kennedy came up with “This Is SportsCenter.” I mean, maybe it was John Lack, but I think it was Wieden + Kennedy.
We really were focused on, okay, how can we create something that is a definitional place on ESPN? What one vehicle can we use to create a singular statement about ESPN that would change the way people think about ESPN? And because SportsCenter was on so much and because there was so much to mine within SportsCenter, we really focused on that to say, “This is ESPN—SportsCenter is ESPN.”
HANK PEARLMAN:
When they first showed the early SportsCenter commercials to all the talent, Keith Olbermann’s reaction was, “When is the Craig Kilborn action figure coming out?” I think it was because we’d done a lot of Kilborn commercials the first round and I think Olbermann was taking notes and I think he was very conscious of who got how many commercials. A lot of people didn’t want ESPN to do the campaign. There was a fear from the beginning that it was going to put too much emphasis on the talent. That was Bornstein’s thing: “You’re going to make stars out of these guys and then they’re going to think it’s all about them.” And he was right—to a certain extent.
For better or worse, the talent kind of fell into roles. Bob Ley was a great straight man to deliver the setup, like the documentary-style interview. In one of my favorite spots, it’s about the kid who comes out of school too early and then becomes a SportsCenter anchor and then Bob Ley sets it up: “We grab the kids right out of high school, you know.” Bob Ley is the ultimate straight man.
Charley Steiner was one of my favorite guys. I loved him. He was a go-to guy in terms of comedy. He knew it and he was good at it. He knew we could cut to Charley either wearing or doing something silly. Then Dan and Keith understood the comedy really well and they could do both things; they could set up a spot or they could act with one of the athletes. Dan was great in all the spots. We did a “we are the world” kind of thing. We did a spot in the first round where he’s confronted in the stairwell by professional wrestlers who are mad because they never show professional wrestling highlights on SportsCenter, and Dan did some funny improv with these seven-foot-tall professional wrestlers. Dan was great, I loved Dan.
Keith was injured in the Gordie Howe spot. He let us know the next day that Gordie Howe had stick-checked him in the back and he was a little upset about that. We just kind of heard that he had gotten hurt doing the spot. I wasn’t privy to the conversation he had with management. Keith had opinions about the spots, but he also got it. He understood the sense of humor. He’s a big Monty Python fan, and he understood comedy pretty well. But he did think Craig got too many spots in the first round. A lot of people felt that.
CHARLEY STEINER:
I remember the first time in particular that I got recognized after the commercials started airing. It made me laugh and pissed me off at the same time. I was running through the airport and—you remember that Holyfield commercial, “Come get your whopping”?—I had this five-year-old kid, who came up to my knee cap, tap me and say, “Come get your whopping!” I wanted to drop-kick him through the goal post of life.
But my personal favorite spot was being traded to Melrose Place. I was traded for Andrew Shue. He was the young buck who became the big star on SportsCenter; I became Bobby the pool boy. It was the only time in my life where I wore a sleeveless shirt, and I thought it was so cool being out there. Of course, the woman I did the commercial with had no idea who the fuck I was. She was thinking it was the end of her career.
JUDY FEARING:
I knew we had struck gold when one day I was on the phone with a friend of mine, John Shue, who was in L.A. to see his sister Elizabeth at the Academy Awards for Leaving Las Vegas, and he says to me, “I’m with my brother Andrew. He’s interested in doing the spot.” Then my assistant came in and told me Bill Cosby was holding for me on the other line. I thought