And don't forget all those personal scandals and early-life traumas to be unearthed and exhibited. What began as a friendly Olympic "Up Close and Personal" focus in the last decade has mutated into a monster. By the end of the women's gymnastics competition, for instance, there must have been at least 10 references to svetlana Boginskaya's "personal tragedy"--her coach's suicide after the 1988 games in Seoul.
The Geraldo Effect
As far as the actual presentation of the games goes, NBC ahs sunk pretty low. Since the day's events are prerecorded and edited together in a predictable manner, viewers can tell who is going to win from which athlete profile clips are shown.
And those profile clips are, without a doubt, the single worst aspect of the 1992 televised Olympic Games. They use a fuzzy, misty effect that brings to mind soap opera flashbacks.
One of the finest of these features swimmer Mike Barrowman sitting (mistily) in a darkened room as he writes in his diary. A voiceover, recounting his quest for vengeance over another swimmer who once defeated him, is interrupted repeatedly by triple replays of his words (of his words, of his words, of his words.)
My personal favorite, though, was one in which an Australian distance swimmer (destined, of course, to take the gold in the 1800m, since NBC was showing his clip) explains why he began to swim.
He describes running into a plate glass window and the leg injury that required him to swim for physical therapy. Meanwhile, the sound of breaking glass is heard as the image of his face shatters into jagged, redtipped pieces. This charming trick is repeated not once but twice more as the swimmer and his parents reminisce about his early training.
The burring question in my mind is: Does NBC really believe anyone likes this stuff? Based on an informal survey conducted in my living room, precisely 0 percent of the American viewing public gives it the thumbs up.
Most people continue to watch it, of course, since their only other choice is to pay for the Triplecast.
Which leads me to the following conspiracy theory: Perhaps the poor coverage is intentional, meant to send the American people fleeing to pay-per-view? Or another possiblility: That every talented producer, scriptwriter, graphic designer, etc. in the industry is working on the Triplecast version of the Olympics, and NBC is making do with the leftovers?
Whatever the reason for this year's flop, we know NBC can do better. And if they don't, a few years from now we may see sportscasters interviewing NBC executives with the smug tones they currently reserve for 14-year-old gymnasts: "So tell us when it all started to go wrong..."
Maggie S. Tucker is managing editor of The Crimson. She wants a shattering glass graphic around her byline.