Television and Entertainment
The game was broadcast in the United States by ABC with play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and color commentators Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf. Keith Jackson hosted the pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage for ABC. Jackson was joined by analysts Lynn Swann and Mike Adamle. Also helping with ABC's coverage were Jack Whitaker, Jim Hill and Becky Dixon. This would be the first Super Bowl broadcast on ABC to have the broadcast team of Michaels, Gifford, and Dierdorf in the booth (as the 1987 season was the first year the trio was together, with Dierdorf moving to ABC from CBS; Gifford was the only holdover from ABC's Super Bowl XIX telecast). The trio would man the booth for ABC's Monday Night Football from 1987 to 1997 and call Super Bowls XXV and XXIX. It was simulcast in Canada on CTV and in the United Kingdom on Channel 4. It was also the first Super Bowl to be aired on Televisa in Mexico, airing on its Canal de las Estrellas.
The pregame festivities featured a tribute to entertainer Bob Hope, who was approaching the age of 85. Trumpeter Herb Alpert performed "The Star-Spangled Banner", while Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Don Hutson participated in the coin toss ceremony (the game happened to coincide with Hutson's 75th birthday). Alpert's performance was the last non-vocal performance of the National Anthem in a Super Bowl to date.
The halftime show, produced by Radio City Music Hall, was titled "Something Grand" and featured performances by vocalist Chubby Checker, The Rockettes, and 88 grand pianos.
The Wonder Years premiered on ABC immediately following the game. This was only the second successful series to debut following a Super Bowl up to that time (The A-Team, which had premiered following Super Bowl XVII, was the other).
Read more about this topic: Super Bowl XXII
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“So why do people keep on watching? The answer, by now, should be perfectly obvious: we love television because television brings us a world in which television does not exist. In fact, deep in their hearts, this is what the spuds crave most: a rich, new, participatory life.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)