The Sports Writers on TV was a sports talk show produced by John E. Roach for the Chicago-based SportsChannel and syndicated to most of the other regional outlets across the SportsChannel America network. Bill Jauss, Bill Gleason, Ben Bentley and Rick Telander were the usual panelists discussing the topical sports issues of the day, usually Chicago-oriented, but also frequently national in scope. Joe Mooshill and Lester Munson also appeared semi-regularly, sometimes as fill-in panelists.
The show was a forerunner of sportswriter TV shows that are more common now (The Sports Reporters, Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, etc.), and also presaged the rapid expansion of the sports-talk radio genre in the 1980s and 1990s. The weekly program also featured occasional guest appearances by longtime baseball owner Bill Veeck and rock musician Billy Corgan of Chicago-based Smashing Pumpkins.
The show was a video adaptation of The Sportswriters, a long-running radio program on Chicago's WGN. The first airing of Sportswriters on TV was on WFLD in 1985. The set remained the same over the next 15 years of existence. The panel of three sportswriters (usually Jauss, Gleason and Telander) and moderator Bentley (a former public relations executive with the Bulls and before that a longtime boxing promoter) would sit around a poker table, littered with newspapers, and talk sports (frequently veering onto other topics as well).
Unlike most other shows of this nature, the background was usually dark while the table, and the sportswriters sitting around it, was lit. Gleason and Bentley would constantly smoke cigars, and the sportswriters would wear casual clothes (although Bentley normally wore a tie). It was not uncommon to see Jauss wearing a faded pair of blue jeans and a T-shirt with the name of an area bar.
Adding to the informal nature of the show, they would often call each other by their surnames (e.g., "Jauss," "Gleason") as guys sitting around a bar might do. Although the show was meant to evoke the banter of a sports bar, the panelists did not drink beer on camera. While Bentley was introduced as the 'moderator' of the program, and usually did introduce the first topic, individual panelists would introduce topics as part of the flow of conversation, and Bentley usually participated in the discussions, offering opinions along with the others.
The show offered generational variety: Bentley was born in 1920, Gleason 1922, Jauss 1931 and Telander in 1950. Telander often assumed the role of young iconoclast on the show.
After a year on WFLD, it moved to SportsVision, the precursor to SportsChannel Chicago. During its original production run, the show was also syndicated to other regional sports networks in the Midwest, including outlets in Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. When the Fox Sports Network purchased SportsChannel in 1997, the show continued until 2000, when Fox decided not to renew the show.
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. Meet the Press specializes in interviews with leaders in Washington, D.C., across the country and even the world on issues of politics, economics, foreign policy, and other public affairs, along with panel discussions that provide opinions and analysis. In January 2021, production moved to NBC's bureau on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
The McLaughlin Group is a syndicated half-hour weekly public affairs television program in the United States, during which a group of four pundits, prompted by the host, discusses current political issues in a round table format. John McLaughlin hosted from its first episode in 1982 until his death in 2016, after which the original show came to an end.
Pardon the Interruption is a sports television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stories of the day in "sports... and other stuff". Tony Reali has also appeared as the statistician for thirteen years, correcting errors that Mike and Tony made.
What's My Line? was a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists to question contestants in order to determine their occupation, i.e. "line of work", with panelists being called on to question and identify a weekly celebrity "mystery guest" while blindfolded. It is on the list of longest-running U.S. primetime network television game-shows. Originally hosted by John Charles Daly and with regular panelists Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf, What's My Line? won three Emmy Awards for "Best Quiz or Audience Participation Show" in 1952, 1953, and 1958 and the Golden Globe Awards for Best TV Show in 1962.
WGN is a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on the 18th floor of 303 East Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop, while its transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village. Since around 1990, WGN has maintained a news/talk format.
Bud Collyer was an American radio actor and announcer and game show host, who became one of the nation's first major television game show stars. He is best remembered for his work as the first host of the TV game shows Beat the Clock and To Tell the Truth, but he was also famous in the roles of Clark Kent/Superman on radio and in animated cartoons, initially in theatrical short subjects and later on television. He also recorded a number of long-playing 33 1/3 R.P.M. record albums for children. Some of these had Bible stories, in keeping with his strong connections with his church and deep spirituality.
Around the Horn (ATH) is an American sports roundtable discussion show, conducted in the style of a panel game, produced by ESPN. The show premiered on November 4, 2002, as a replacement for Unscripted with Chris Connelly, and has aired daily at 5:00 p.m. ET on ESPN ever since. The show has been recorded in New York City since September 8, 2014, and has had over 2,500 episodes aired. The program emanated from Washington, D.C., where it was located in the same studio as Pardon the Interruption (PTI). The moderator for the show is Tony Reali, who has hosted the program since 2004, replacing Max Kellerman, and also served as the statistician on Pardon the Interruption until the show's relocation to New York.
"Bill Swerski's Superfans" was a recurring sketch about Chicago sports fans on the American sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live. It was a prominent feature from 1991 to 1992, and its characters have made various other appearances since its inception. The sketch is notable as a media portrayal of the Inland North dialect of American English that predominates in Chicago, most famously through the distinctive pronunciation of the phrase "Da Bears".
WFLD, virtual channel 32, is a Fox owned-and-operated television station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, United States. The station is owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corporation, as part of a duopoly with Gary, Indiana-licensed MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station WPWR-TV. The two stations share studios at Michigan Plaza on North Michigan Avenue in the Chicago Loop, and transmitter facilities atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Loop business district. On cable, WFLD can be seen on Comcast Xfinity channel 12 in most parts of the Chicago area.
WCIU-TV, virtual channel 26, is a CW-affiliated television station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, United States. It serves as the flagship television property, as well as the largest directly-owned property, of locally based Weigel Broadcasting, and is sister to independent outlet WMEU-CD and MeTV flagship WWME-CD, both of which are simulcast on WCIU-TV's respective second and third digital subchannels. The three stations share studios on Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood; WCIU-TV's transmitter is located atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop.
WMAQ-TV, virtual channel 5, is an NBC owned-and-operated television station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, United States. The station is owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal, as part of a duopoly with Telemundo owned-and-operated station WSNS-TV ; NBCUniversal, a Comcast subsidiary, owns both networks, along with regional sports network NBC Sports Chicago. WMAQ-TV and WSNS-TV share studios at the NBC Tower on North Columbus Drive in the city's Streeterville neighborhood and transmitter facilities atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop.
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WKBD-TV, virtual channel 50, is a CW owned-and-operated television station licensed to Detroit, Michigan, United States and also serving Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The station is owned by the CBS Television Stations subsidiary of ViacomCBS, as part of a duopoly with CBS owned-and-operated station WWJ-TV. The two stations share studios on 11 Mile Road in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, where WKBD-TV's transmitter is also located.
Tucker is an American television program on MSNBC that focused on politics, hosted by Tucker Carlson. The show aired from June 13, 2005 to March 14, 2008.
The Sports Reporters is a sports talk show that aired on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning. It featured a roundtable discussion among four sports media personalities, with one regular host and three rotating guests. The show began in 1988, patterned to some extent after the Chicago-based syndicated show called Sportswriters on TV.
Rick Telander is the senior sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Hired in 1995 from Sports Illustrated, where he was a Senior Writer, Telander's presence at the newspaper was expected to counter the stable of sports columnists the rival Chicago Tribune had.
Daily News Live, presented by AT&T, was a live, sports oriented talk show that aired weeknights from 5:00PM to 6:00PM ET on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. The show featured host Michael Barkann joined by a rotating panel of writers from the Philadelphia Daily News and athletes and sports experts from around the country for a roundtable discussion about the top sports stories from both the city and the nation.
The Chris Matthews Show was a half-hour weekend news and political round table program produced by NBC News. It was taped in Washington, D.C., and nationally syndicated by NBCUniversal Television Distribution. The program debuted on September 22, 2002 and its final episode aired July 21, 2013.
Jay Mariotti is an American sports journalist and commentator who currently hosts the sports-related podcast Unmuted. He previously spent 17 years as a Chicago Sun-Times columnist and eight years as a regular panelist on the ESPN sports-talk program Around the Horn.
Highly Questionable is a daily sports talk television program on ESPN. Created as a vehicle for former Miami Herald sportswriter and ESPN contributor Dan Le Batard, who also hosted his own radio show for the network, the show premiered on September 12, 2011. It airs on weekdays at 4:30 PM Eastern and then repeats later at 5:30 on ESPN2 as well as throughout the night on ESPNews.
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