Television and Entertainment
The game was broadcast in the United States by NBC with play-by-play announcer Curt Gowdy and color commentators Al DeRogatis and Don Meredith. Charlie Jones served as the event's host, field reporter and would cover the trophy presentation (prior to the 1975 NFL season, NBC did not have a pregame show).
The Grambling State University Band performed during both the pregame festivities and the national anthem. During the national anthem, they were backed by a Mardi Gras choir. The halftime show was a tribute to American jazz composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington, also featuring the Grambling State University Band along with Ellington's son Mercer. Ellington had died the previous May.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show on CBS (which was set in Minneapolis) used this game as a plotline on the episode aired the night before the game. Lou Grant was teaching Ted Baxter how to bet on football games, and used Ted's money, as well as some of his own to bet on the hometown Vikings winning the Super Bowl. The Vikings won the Super Bowl in this episode but Ted's hopes were dashed when it was revealed that Lou actually bet all the money on the Steelers. At the end of the show, Mary Tyler Moore announced the following over the credits: "If the Pittsburgh Steelers win the actual Super Bowl tomorrow, we want to apologize to the Pittsburgh team and their fans for this purely fictional story. If on the other hand, they lose, remember, you heard it here first." And, as it turned out, her apology did go into effect.
Read more about this topic: Super Bowl IX
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)