Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [257]
When Max left and got a big fat deal from Fox Sports Net—which is a double misnomer; it’s not sports and it’s not a net—I wanted to become the host. I had designed this show; I deserved that show. It was my thing. But Shapiro wouldn’t even think about it. I wasn’t really that close to Shapiro. He was a big blustery guy who would cut your balls off and he was really known to be a very tough character.
It’s not that he was physically big; I could bust his face open. I mean, I’m not scared of him physically. But he was the kind of guy who was ruthless, a tough guy who would do what had to be done and not have a lot of sentiment about it. And I’m not that sort of person. So I was a little bit intimated by him, and I never approached him directly. And when I didn’t get the host job, I had hard feelings. I had very hard feelings. So when Fox Sports asked me if I would come be Max Kellerman’s EP [executive producer] on their show, I said, “Yes, for a 50 percent raise,” and they gave it to me! So I left again.
ERIK RYDHOLM:
The turbulence wasn’t because the show wasn’t doing well, it was precisely because the show was doing well. Max’s contract came up, and he wanted a lot of money. Little Tony Reali guested a couple times when Max didn’t show up for work because of contract negotiations, and then Max decided he didn’t want to do the show anymore. Max took along the producer, the director, and, eventually, the executive producer. Jim came to me and said, “Will you take it over?” We made a few slight changes and then went from there.
TIM COWLISHAW, Columnist:
In my mind, at the beginning, Woody [Paige] didn’t fit into the show. It turns out I was dead wrong. Woody was the key to the show. Once I embraced that fact and figured out how to play off it, I had a lot of fun. The show got much better once it changed hosts. I like Max a lot, but the show was about him; with Reali, who does such a good job, the show became about us.
TONY REALI, Host:
My start on Around the Horn was probably the low point of television history. I went to work that morning thinking I was just going to be helping out on research for PTI as usual, but Max had a sty in his eye, so they knocked on the door and said, “We need you to host Around the Horn.” I’m twenty-four years old, and this isn’t just talking, it’s “Ten seconds to break; look at camera 5 right now; get to the commercial,” things like that. I had no clothes to wear so I used Max’s, and before I went on, I went into the bathroom and said a Hail Mary. I remember not being able to focus on the camera, looking all around. It was not good. Then I did it another time when Max was sick. Bill [Wolff] was always very complimentary afterward, but I really didn’t know what anybody thought of how I did.
Then Super Bowl night, the Patriots and Panthers are playing and it’s about ten-thirty. I get a call from Bill, who tells me Max is in negotiations to continue on, but they aren’t going well. Then he tells me, “Max is not going to be doing Around the Horn tomorrow. We need you to fill in. You’re the only one nearby and we can’t call someone up late on a Sunday night and expect them to be good tomorrow. You’ve done it twice before; just do it tomorrow.” But this was