The Heidi game
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- n American football, the Heidi Game refers to a famous American Football League (AFL) game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders, played on November 17, 1968 in Oakland, California. The fame of this game is the result of a decision by the NBC television network to terminate their broadcast with 65 seconds left to play in the game and instead broadcast a pre-scheduled airing of Heidi, a new made-for-TV version of the classic children's story.
With the Jets leading 32-29 with only 65 seconds left in the game, NBC programmers concluded that the outcome of the football game was decided. And while only 65 seconds remained on the game clock, in American football-with timeouts and other clock-stopping strategies-a minute can easily last ten or fifteen real-time minutes. Eager to maintain their evening schedule, the network switched off the ostensibly-decided game.
However, the Raiders came back and scored 14 points, winning 32-43. But millions of American football fans were unable to see Oakland's comeback. The complaints to the network switchboard signaled a new height of popularity for the game in the United States.
I was watching with my dad also. He yelled at the screen, and my mom, in a joyous voice, said "Oh good, Heidi"! It still makes me laugh thinking about her reaction.
The Nfl called Heidi bowl
The Heidi Game is the reason football games are shown to the end.
When your game goes beyond three hours and you are still watching it, thank Heidi.
I think maybe that applies to all professional sports games now.
It does. Note many later Sunday games start at 4:25 Eastern Time.
This problem would have kept recurring until it was fixed. The collision was inevitable.
@George Vreeland Hill(open): That's now why, all these years later, CBS and *60 Minutes* have contract language that allows the news magazine to skip that night's airing if the game in question goes to overtime and ends well past 7:30pm Eastern.
Exactly. An august occasion for sports fans, albeit in November.
The score scrolling on the bottom of the screen as a girl tries desperately to walk was unintentionally hilarious
This is coming from someone who has had to re-learn how to walk multiple times, because of my disability I agree with you.
There's a key fact totally missed by this video:
The NBC tech who pressed the button to switch to the Heidi special was under strict orders to do so as NBC was getting paid a crap-ton of money by sponsors to air Heidi. With the phone lines tied up, probably by football fans begging for the game to be run to its end, no one could reach anyone else at NBC headquarters and the tech did as he was told.
The following Monday, he was called into his boss' office. Had he done anything other than what he did, he was told, he'd be packing his belongings that very moment.
Also no AFL game had ever run past 3 hours. Then the phones were literally getting blown up from both football fans and the Heidi fans. In addition, Timex had bought the entire 2 hours to show the movie (I think that was unusual even then), so NBC had one sponsor who'd paid $$$$ and would get very upset should their movie get delayed.
From reading the wiki, it seems there were two techs - (1) a guy in LA that would take the raw feed from Oakland then insert commercials and the network announcement at 6:58:20 that said "Heidi's coming on next" then send it on to Chicago, and (2) a guy in the field in Chicago that would stop the game feed coming out of LA and start the feed up from NYC to ensure Heidi would go out to the right timezone at the right time.
The guy you're talking about was the broadcasting operations center (BOC) manager who was in NYC at the time - he had called his boss around 6:40-6:45, who then called the highest-ups, who had agreed to push the start time for Heidi back.
Problem is, no one could get to the BOC manager or anyone else in NYC due to the phones getting tied up (the various highest-ups were at home), and when the BOC manager's boss tried to contact the folks in LA, they requested someone higher ranking.
For added fun, turns out the spread had the Raiders favored by 7 1/2, and the last touchdown meant the Raiders had beaten the spread as well as won the game outright. This game was also a great moment in gambling history.
And it also has to be remembered while people rightfully complained and it led to NFL rules requiring games to air in their entireties, had NBC not done that, they likely would have been sued by the sponsor of Heidi for millions for it starting late but also possibly run afoul of what were MUCH STRICTER FCC regulations at the time about 7:00-8:00 PM (6:00-7:00 CT) being "The Family Hour" where news or Children's program is still technically required to air and especially at that time. Back then, there would have been VERY LOUD blowback from churches that even in 2020 STILL associate pro sports with gambling who in 1968 had MUCH GREATER INFLUENCE than they do now. That was why this happened as NBC likely would have faced MASSIVE FINES from the FCC on top of lawsuits had that not been done.
czcams.com/video/C8DhEGcwgkc/video.html
Final score:
Jets 32 Raiders 29 Heidi 14
I'm sorry, but the image of the little girl falling over as they announced that the Jets came back is pretty funny to me.
Jets lost. Raiders came back.
That was the first time I heard my Dad drop the F-bomb. He called the network and called them a "Bunch of GD Catholics." I have no idea what he meant by that statement, but when I got older I used to send him a "Happy Heidi Game" Anniversary card. To this day it makes me laugh and miss my Dad...
I'm guessing that little girl wasn't the only one to fall out of her chair when the final score flashed across the screen!
This would NEVER HAPPEN TO AN NFL GAME TODAY. Still remember being Pissed off, when they cut to Hiedi, although from Wisconsin and a Packet Fan (and owner) I love Broaway Joe... eleven rooted for the Jets and the AFL in the Super Bowl
But if it did then most likely everyone will riot
I was 11, and I was watching this game with my dad. Even at that young age, it blew me away when NBC switched over to Heidi.
I was a 9 year old girl anxiously awating Heidi on this date. I will never forget the look on my father's face, or the phone calls coming in, when the game switched to Heidi. My sister and I were jumping up and down because the movie had started. Dad was jumping up and down for other reasons. We still laugh about it today.
😂😂😂😂
imagine if someone in nbc decided to switch back to football like in a few seconds saying game or Heidi over and over again ah hell game it ain't their fault so he switches into the game until the :00 was shown on the game clock then put back on the movie. You know it's stupid to put a child movie on the same day as football I mean think on it what if that game is a playoff spot boy nbc got lucky that rioters didn't attack them
At 2:49 😂😂😂 Perfect timing for a metaphoric image, as the update reveals the great comeback by the Raiders!
There were reports at the time that some irate Jets' fans went to public libraries in their areas to tear out the last few pages of Heidi.This may be an urban legend.
Tom Dockery HAHAHAHHA!! Yodeell!!
Yodeell!!🎶🎶🎶
I was watching the game, a Jets fan. Then the movie came on, with the scroll and my Dad just came unglued. Raiders fan of course.
Thank God for my transistor radio on WABC 77! As a ten year old Raider fan in New Jersey, I cried when the Raiders went ahead and my mom hearing that the Raiders went ahead, came in and gave me a big hug. My father wasn't surprised. He was a Giant fan 🤣
I was working as a cashier in my early 20s and had an elderly man as a customer--after I had rang him up and was handing back his change, he looks at my name badge and starts yelling: "You. Messed. Up. My. Game!!!!" 😋😋😋--i never could figure out what he was referring to until much later on.
I remember my dad watching the game and him yelling at the TV when "Heidi" came on. I was only 6 at the time, but remember it like yesterday. Dad was an AFL fan, especially of the Chiefs, and he was hoping the Raiders would get trounced. No such luck dad.
November 17, 1968 a day which will live in Infamy!!
I was 12 years old and watching my Jets...I couldn't beleive it when they
turned the game off..I was even more distraught when I read that my Jets ended up
losing as the news scrolled across the bottom of my black and white TV.
Two months later we beat the Colts in Super Bowl III...I'm still waiting..
When I'm watching ESPN or Fox to get scores or other sports news and checking the "bar" at the bottom of the screen I HATE it when they show a worthless ad like a local car dealership and you lose that bar while the local ads run!
For die-hard football fans...especially Jets fans watching a nailbiter of a game..."Heidi" would be about the most insanely surrealistic thing to cut away to.
This is one of the craziest moments to ever happen on television. It is now part of television history and folklore. It would make a great comedy movie
"I didn't see it, but I heard it was great." --- Joe Namath on the *Heidi* flick.
"My tombstone will say: 'She was responsible for a great moment in football'."
- Jennifer Edwards, the Heidi actress
That last quote by Joe Namath LOL. Man this is a great part of history.
21 years later, NBC had "Heidi Game 2" when on the final day of Classic Concentration's Tounament of Champions, President (Father) Bush had a press conference & it lasted up to Wheel of Fortune.
The following Monday, NBC informed viewers of what happened at the end of that tournament before starting Classic Concentration.
Lightning strikes twice on the same network!
I was 12, in 7th grade. I had to watch "Heidi" as an assignment in English class. I'd rather have watched the end of the game. Heidi was for girls.
(Giving Barry a high-five for that opening post.)
@Andy Fennell That's not sexist, that's the truth.
@Andy Fennell their fault for making a movie with a biased demographic
"A nation of pre-adolescent girls rejoiced." ROTFL
Blackjack115 I was a preadolescent girl and I was outraged and screamed at the tv...”Heidi! Who wants to see Heidi..what happened to the game.” In still ticked off almost 50 years later.
Incidentally, my niece loves the Dolphins and she's happy with how they are playing.
David Clayton Thomas of 'Blood Sweat & Tears' began one of their late 60's hits with:, ¶"Heidi Ho, Heidi Hi"¶
@@PegasusBYU
NBC was contractually obligated to show Heidi at exactly 7:00. They couldn’t delay the movie. They sold the time to Timex, who now got to control NBC for two hours.
Delbert Mann tells us, "tough" and then screams like a little girl when we get a final score ..."whew!" it really takes something to keep from just tell'n this guy off, "put your little kid show on Saturday morning where it belongs"
The director seems like a stuffed shirt.
He was a suit who directed Heidi. What the hell was he supposed to say. Of course he is going to say "Tough" when the game got cut off to go to Heidi, and then scream like a little bitch when his precious movie was interrupted by a final score.
Ironically enough the first nationally televised women's college basketball game between Immaculata and Maryland was preempted near the end for the same movie Heidi.
R. I. P.
#13 Don Maynard 🏈
"Mr. NY Jet"
"Mr. AFL"
God bless our pro football heroes from a by-gone era.
This is why the announcement is made that the Sunday shows will be seen in their entirety
Now if they had cut off the game to start the classic version of HEIDI with Shirley Temple, that would have been different!! LOL
y'all remember the Married With Children episode when Al Bundy was watching the game and it cut to Heidi???
LOL Ooooh the look on his face. lol
Awe. A really good friend that passed away always told me this story. RIP Bougan.
Ever notice that every team's 'Greatest Games' are always with the Raiders?
The Raiders teams from that era just had a sense of history.
I was so upset, I was still thinking the game was *somehow going to come back on* after watching Heidi for like an *hour*....my dad, who had come in about 7:15, to just sit and relax, had no idea what happened and thought I was going nuts..
“Heidi” is the reason we’d hear Pat Summerall say at 7:00 ET: “Those of you expecting to see 60 Minutes, you’re watching the NFL on CBS and the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. I’m Pat Summerall along with John Madden. Following the game, 60 Minutes will be seen in its entirety.”
I remember this till today, I was 8 back then and a Raider fan, in Ohio no less, and I remember pounding my fist on the floor, when it first came on saying, "I don't wanna watch this crap"my father was a bit more vocal, and I went into my room and turned on the radio and heard the score a half hour later, I was glad they won, but I was outta there. And then Monday in school, the first thing the teacher asked was, if we watched Heidi, that was the last time she asked that question.
You may have won that day but New York got the last laugh
As a then 8-year-old girl named Heidi, that game has been my bete noire ever since it happened. It seems every American football fan in the world has to get in a dig at my namesake *and* at me personally for preempting the end of the game. Still. You'd think the'd get tired of it after the first 40 years or so :P
deadrose23 me too! I was only a year & 1/2 and have heard it my whole life!
Back then, shows started right on time no matter what.
Of course, this game changed all that and to this day, games continue until the end.
George Vreeland Hill
If I were alive at the time of this game(I'm paused at 1:10 right now) and old enough to have any kind of man thinking, I'd have asked for directions to Delbert Mann's office so I could punch his lights out.
West coast television wasn't affected, but this is the east coast television we're talking about. My dad was 9 at the time.
(4-22-2022) - the Mad Bomber - R.I.P.
What you don't know:That was the second AFL game that NBC cut away from that day.They left Chargers-Bills to cover the beginning of Jets-Raiders.
Also,some 30-35 years,Jennifer Edwards was on the same NY-LA flight as was Joe.She went up to him and introduced herself as Heidi.
I was an 11 year-old girl at the time, but I was not waiting for "Heidi ".
I can understand both sides of the story. Back in the day when the game went over, which was ALWAYS, you would get the show in progress. My suggestion is put the games on 12:00/11:00 central and 3:30/2:30 central.
That's why games now start at 1:00 and 4:25 PM. Plus, we have had Sunday Night Football for many years with an 8:20 PM ET kickoff. MUCH DIFFERENT time and place now.
I remember it very well. I was watching the game with my father, and brother. My brother and I were young enough, that we didn't care all that much. My father, on the other hand.........
This clip implies that NBC cut from the game to the beginning of Heidi and from what I've read, they went to commercial after the TD or the kickoff and never came back. Yeah, seems they didn't come back for the Jetts kickoff.
That's how I remember it. In Bama we were furious to see about 10 minutes worth of commercials! Joe Played for Bama; and those commercials burned us up!!!
Yes. A commercial came on after the Jets scored. Then, Heidi came on and I was thinking...OK, I guess its a preview. I kept watching, becoming more anxious every second that ticked by. I was a kid whose life revolved around the Jets and Broadway Joe. I was one of those inconsolable fans that day. I have hated the movie Heidi ever since, and I find it difficult to even like people named Heidi (except Heidi Klum).
Tom Grasse LOL. I can understand the feeling. For me, it would have been the other way around probably. I was a big fan of movies based on books when I was kid, and had the movie been delayed instead of the game being cut off, I probably would have hated football. Not that I was around at the time this movie came out, but I guess you can see that either way there's going to be someone disappointed no matter what the station decides to do.
Giving up two touchdowns in the final minute what a Jets way to lose😂
Some things never change!
Back in the 70's I was a diehard Vikings fan. But I missed TWO of what are amongs the Vikings most dramatic plays in what is considered they're most dramatic victory. The Rashad "Hail Mary Game" against the Browns in 1980.
The hook and lateral, and then the game winning bomb to Rashad.
But just before, the station changed to the Dolphins game so I missed them.The NFL had/has a contract that a home teams' game had to be seen entirely and I lived in Miami and the Dolphins played at 4.
Johnny Sample at 1:02 is funny.
He's the only player to have won an NFL, AFL, and Super Bowl Championship.
I had heard that the game was shown to conclusion on the West Coast.
That's why Curt Gowdy's call of Oakland's comeback exists.
In retrospect, "Heidi" should have been pushed back (in the Eastern and Central time zones) five minutes.
One story I heard was that the head of NBC News (who also ran NBC Sports) tried to call master control in New York to tell them to "slide" prime-time back, but couldn't get through because the master-control operator was on the phone, talking to his girlfriend!
This game makes me think of the scene from everybody loves Raymond when a football game is stopped by Raymond and Deborah's wedding. Good thing social media didn't exist back then because fans would of slammed the NBC twitter page.
Honestly, that would be better than what actually happened. A social media server today can take an outcry like that. Instead, they had two telephone switchboard's that couldn't take it and ended up blowing several fuses.
It happened again last Sunday when NBC cut away from a NASCAR Playoff race at Talladega to show Sunday Night Football.
Didn't a cable network a few years ago run the 1968 "Heidi" movies head-to-head against a Super Bowl game?
My wife was at this game and left before the comeback..she listened to the victory from the car radio.
"Maybe when I grow up, I WON'T be silly..." oooooh, foreshadowing....
Luckily I wasn't born until 1971, so I missed it. I can't imagine "60 Minutes" interrupting our late games today. Us football fans need our games in their entirety!
They went to commercial with :50 left and then Heidi started after the break.
And west coast audiences saw the end...Heidi came on at 7/6 central.
Yup. Game stayed on here.
Immediately after that disaster of a decision by NBC, it was decided that henceforth and forever more a football game will be shown to its end before the regularly scheduled program can begin. I guess you always wondered why 60 Minutes is sometimes delayed past 7 PM as well as all other network programming when there is a football game in progress on Sunday. Now you know why. :-)
@Dominick: Becuase it might cause confusion for some viewers, and because the hard-core fans will only want to see the game rather than the other program.
@Greenwolfe Gren(open): Now, on CBS, the *60 Minutes* show has, as part of its contract, that they could forego any given Sunday Night presentaion if a given game goes past the scheduled 7pm timeslot.
I just noticed that at the end of the video is that Heidi has an evil smile on her face as if she is happy that the game was cut off for her movie.
This has never happened since then and will never happen again...
pa Millar funny enough, the west coast didn’t have to worry at all (different time zone).
In February 2012 Fox did just the opposite when the highly marketed winter finale of the last season of House was completely pre-empted by coverage of the 56th annual Daytona 500, which began at 7:00 that night due to a rain delay(originally scheduled at noon) and ran until 1:25 in the morning, completely pre-empting House on both the East and West Coasts.
The Nascar called House 500 game
What's forgotten is that the game WAS shown in its entirety on the West Coast, where it was still only 4pm. (I assume the Mountain Time Zone cities also saw the whole thing.) It was only the Eastern and Central zones that cut to "Heidi"...unfortunately for NBC, that was (and still is) where the majority of Americans live!
Yes, in the Mountain Time Zone the game was seen in it's entirety. I don't know if it was blacked out in the Bay Area but if so that's the only part of the Western US where it wasn't seen on TV.
Actually, it was not seen in its entirety in the Mountain Time Zone, at least in the Denver and Salt lake markets. I was living in northwest Colorado at the time and we got Salt Lake TV and the telecast cut over to Heidi at 5 PM Mountain Time. A friend of mine who got Denver TV said that the game also cut to Heidi on the Denver channel at 5 PM. Maybe there were other Mountain Time Zone stations that showed the game in its entirety, but not Denver and Salt Lake City.
chrisbacos Yes, the game was blacked out in the Bay Area per the rules at the time.
Ron Flesher Thanks for the reply. Here in Los Angeles my brother told me he saw the game in it's entirety.
So...the whole game was seen only in the Pacific Time Zone, outside the Bay Area, then?
LMAO, people overloaded the switchboard and the NYPD. I missed that episode of NYPD Blues
The reason so many people acted so violently after the game got cut off was because they were drunk but it could have be worse. If bars and restaurants had be open when that game got cut there might have been fights and people storming NBC.
This happened recently when CBS interrupted The Billy Joel concert with local news all over the country
Today I just realized NBC scrolled the game's score over a scene that came very close to being the live-action version of the "Heidi pushing Clara off a cliff" meme.
All football fans had to be crushed because a family and kids one day we may get our events in our own Heidi game
While I'm a football watcher, I respect how the producer defended his show, to the end.
I wonder, did anyone watch and remember any of Heidi in 1968?
The irony of irony was the sole TV sponsor of the movie was Timex and ran only their commercials.
It should be noted that this game did NOT air in the Boston and Providence markets. Instead, viewers saw the New England Patriots (then known as the Boston Patriots) play the Kansas City Chiefs. I wonder if NBC switched to this game after the conclusion of the Patriots Chiefs game, or went right to Heidi.
We will never know.
+Nick Gazerro probably will never know.....i guess games rarely went over 3 hours back then...so I'd say the NE-KC game probably finished at or before Heidi time.
This is true of the Chiefs local markets as well, although per contractual obligations at the time, the game would have been blacked out within a ninety mile radius of the stadium.
The Pats-Chiefs game must have concluded prior to the Heidi broadcast because it is not mentioned as having been cut-off in the Press Reports. The next late game which is mentioned as having run over its time slot was the Oakland-San Diego game on December 16th. Due to the Heidi disaster, NBC was prepared for the contingency in that case.
With that being the case, my guess would be that after the conclusion of the Pats-Chiefs game, NBC switched over to the Jets-Raiders feed. If so, then when the network switched over to Heidi, the Patriots markets would have gone over as well. The game feed was being received through NBC's Broadcast Operations Control station in Burbank, California, transmitted through the Chicago BOC to the New York BOC before being disseminated to the local markets. The feed coming in from Burbank was cut for the New York BOC at a switching station west of Chicago at the scheduled time. Hence, the jurisdiction of the New York BOC, which encompassed all NBC markets east of the Mississippi River lost the feed.
The Chiefs markets would not have been affected though, because the feed was only cut for the New York BOC. In other words, it was cut at the switching station between the Chicago and New York BOC's.
On another note, I know that Julian Goodman, who was the President of NBC at the time, said following the incident that he was watching the game and when the network cut the feed of the game, contacted first the head of NBC Sports, a man named Carl Lindemann, who told him to contact the New York BOC directly. Goodman said that he followed by contacting Dick Cline, who was the network BOC supervisor on duty in New York in an attempt to get him to return to the game, but there was nothing that Cline could have done about it. The New York BOC was no longer even receiving the feed of the game as it had been cut at the switching station outside of Chicago. They would have had to get ahold of that station operator directly in order to get the feed back and I am sure that by this time the game would have been over anyways.
Just think, Joe Namath ended up marrying someone who WAS in that 6-10 age range at the time this game aired.
Heidi was a bit too young for Joe
What an ass you are. The woman Namath married was 22, and yes, he was 20 years her senior. But she was an adult and could make whatever choices she wanted. They were married for 17 years, something I doubt you will ever achieve.
That's hilarious
@@farleyxwilbur655 I'm happily married 30 years. If you need proof, I'll be happy to supply it. My marriage has certainly been happier than theirs was. By the way, Namath and his wife weren't happily married. Alcohol ended that, and she messed around on him because she found him boring.
Get your facts straight before you make assumptions about people.
The Robert Goulet Special was on ABC!
This is the reason football games stay on the air until the end.
Back then however, shows started on time and that meant on time.
George Vreeland Hill
I was there...and remember it well.
Also know that will never happen again.
Not sure how people can sit through that boring crapolla to begin with.
Especially in this fast paced day and age.
Heidi....you rock!!!!!!!!!
I was at a dinner with a my family's friends when this happened, grown men went beserk and started jumping up and down.
In Mexico is worse, in the 80s the state channel (now TV Azteca) cut one live and exclusive game of the NBA Finals broadcast with a minute left to put a shitty newscast and 30 minutes later show the rest of the game.
Didn't affect the Birmingham AL TV market. WAPI (now WVTM) didn't carry the Raiders-Jets game that afternoon. WBMG (now WIAT) did. Even though WAPI and WBMG were both NBC/CBS affiliates at the time, the former carried the best of both networks (cherry-picking), leaving the latter station with the "scraps". Therefore, no "Heidi" controversy in Birmingham.
If I live in 1968 and I was watching a game on the east coast and Heidi came on early,I would yell HEY WHAT'S THE HELL!!!!
@Mark(open): Me as well; I'd say, "What in the living FUCK?!?!"
@@Emigdiosback I switched on the radio to the Jets' local station,WABC.
I wasn't born for this one. Closest we ever got in my time was Bill Clinton delaying the Purdue-Duke tournament game in '94 with his state of the union address. He even joked about people wanting him to shut so the game can start.
18 years later there was a Bears game which I cna't remember the other team, CBS interuppted the game for for some conferrence with Pope John Paul the II and the same thing happened with everyone calling CBS and the CBS affiliate in Chicago.
No one learned the first time.
I remember watching the game with my father and two brothers. We were so shocked to see Heidi appear. Then my brother put the radio on and said, "Oakland won!" Not a great memory...lol If Heidi was soooo important, why not start it at the beginning a couple of minutes late and cut a couple of commercials!!! OH no can't do that!
Anyone remember in the 1980s when a lot of football games would got out with technical difficulties please stand by screens? Sometimes you would have the audio in the background and sometimes you wouldn't Any idea what use to cause those problems?
That seems like it would be worse then the Heidi mess.
I bet the Raiders had a huge sigh of relief when it announced they had a comeback
The Jets on the other hand....
Do don't blame Delbert for the game not being showed. But how can he possibly say it's wrong for football fans to get upset when an important moment wasn't shown and then become angry himself when the same thing happens to his show.
Hollywood types are *very* ego-centric: me, me, me, me, me!!!!
I remember the Heidi game.
Heidi game
Is this Delbert Mann dude for real? He needs to hand in his "Mann" card.
Good call! As much as wanted to throat punch him during this clip, I also admire him for standing up for his work!
The Heidi game triggered that change...that's why it's so important to sports broadcasting. The game happened BEFORE networks were required to show NFL games in their entirety.
That's why games are now scheduled for 3:15, why the 2nd doubleheader was moved from 4PM to 4:15PM. Today the average game takes over 3 hours, partially because of more passing (which stops the clock more). They even put in timing rules to shorten the game (out of bounds only stops the clock until the ball is set, where it used to be till the next snap), but with all the commercials... nueveramas said it well. 3 commercials in 4 plays!
If they had shown the game on time and then pushed HEIDI back so they could show it without joining it in progress, how much would that have pushed back everything else that was on that night?
this happened in 1968, there were like 3-6 channels and newspapers were the #1 source of news available
That would have meant EVERYTHING got pushed back that night, including the 11 o'clock news, which probably would have started at 11:15.
Heidi Game
Ice Bowl
Bottlegate
Immaculate Reception
21 years later, NBC had "Heidi Game 2", when the final minutes of the Classic Concentration tournament was pre-empted by Father Bush giving a speech. Fans were upset, that on Monday, NBC did announce the results of that game show tournament before the next episode of Classic Concentration.
Lighning strikes twice!
+Truth Seeker: Actually you're correct. It was critically acclaimed for its particular genre - Disneyesque family entertainment. We're talking, specifically, about wholesome "Sound of Music-ish"/"Waltons-ish" 6-11age group entertainment. But ask 12> ages and you'll find it had no audience of any consequence, and that this lack of age crossover appeal caused relatively flat box office sales. Now maybe you can comprehend why NFL fans 13> ages reacted viscerally to it eliminating a key football game.
WALT DISNEY'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR got pre-empted for this, then 25 years later Disney made a version for their cable network so they didn't have to deal with football overruns anymore.
Coincidentally, one of the first Disney Channel Original Movies, 1984's LOVE LEADS THE WAY, was also directed by Delbert Mann.
What do we remember most, the game or the movie? As the viewer, you decide what is important.
Stupidest decision in the history of television. Everyone in my home (I was nine) was outraged, and WE DIDN'T WATCH ONE SECOND OF HEIDI.
As a result of all that "60 Minutes" has it written into their contract that they can bump the network if games run long. The other shows begin after they've finished.
what a self involved director. Heidi more important than the game?/ Hahahaha
Sure that director wasn't related to Michael Bay?
Typical Hollywood attitude: My vision is more important than the Unwashed Masses.
Yes, the 1975 game was won by Oakland over Washington 26-23 in OT. The game was played in Washington.
Back then Joe Nameth, never met an endorsement he didn't like. Even today with senior citizen ads.