This is the most surprising one of all I have seen. When I saw the team roster, I thought ABC had this. They had William Shatner, Doug Barr, John James, John Davidson, Thelma Hopkins, and Donna Dixon. And I wrote CBS off because they have Pernell Roberts who was 52 at the time, and they had Brian Mitchell and Robert Walden whom I was uncertain of. And NBC had Daniel J. Travanti,and Lynn Redgrave. I was also uncertain of Bruce Weitz. And also Joe Pescopo because he's a comedian. I'm sorry to say that in the past I don't think comedians did well like Arte Johnson, Jane Curtin, Melanie Chartoff, and Robin Williams. But to my amazement he did well. It was years later I learned that he's a body builder. NBC almost dominated it. And to my amazement ABC ended in third place. NBC and CBS met in the tug of war, and CBS would have three women on their team. But in the end CBS won. I guess it came down to a battle of the front men Tom Wopat and Mark Harmon. But I also wonder, I believe that going into the Tug of War NBC had a 100 point lead over CBS. And in the third one the same thing happened when ABC had a 100 point lead over NBC. NBC won the Tug of War but the score would end in a tie but because ABC won more events they were declared the winner. Shouldn't have the same thing happened here?
3 Reviews
Here's my review...thirty years later...
Mccadoo19 June 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I'm sure that no one is ever going to read this, not many people are interested in a 30 year old episode of Battle of the Network Stars, but hey, when this show first aired there was no such thing as the internet so, I couldn't very well have written my review then could I.
Truth be told I didn't watch this broadcast when it was originally aired, I was just out of college in 1982 and while I have a vague memory of these shows, I never really watched them. I did watch this episode and a few others recently on ESPN Classics and was surprised to find them very entertaining.
It was fun to see all the "network stars" knowing now what became of most of them. Well, not always fun because some are no longer with us and some came to bad ends, but still interesting. And it was fun to be reminded of a bygone era when a show like this worked and was popular.
But that's not why I came to this site or decided to write a review on a thirty year old show, a review that probably no one will ever read. I decided to that that because of one event on this broadcast, the final one, the tug of war to decide the winner. It went on for almost ten minutes and was actually kind of brutal. No one involved was acting, they were busting their butts for real to win. It was really something to see, it was real reality TV, not the scripted reality TV we have now.
The participants who really made an impression on me were Pernell Roberts, Joan Van Ark, and Katherine Bach, the last two probably because I'm a guy. They held on during this event for almost ten minutes and they were in serious pain most of that time, you could see it on their faces, and they exhausted themselves to win a tug of war on a silly reality show for what? For the sake of competition, for the sake of winning, nothing else. It was the most real moment I've ever seen on "reality TV".
Pernell Roberts has since passed away, Joan Van Ark has turned into a plastic surgery horror and Katherine Bach's career never really reached great heights. But thirty years ago, on a cheesy network reality show, during a span of only ten minutes, they proved themselves to be winners, not actors, not someone playing a role, but real winners. They showed that they really had heart.
Howard Cosell made the comment during the tug of war that he'd seen million dollar athletes who didn't work as hard as the celebrities in that event did and he was right. We still see that every day. But if you want to see pure competition, a display of the raw will to win, to not give up, get your hands on a copy of this broadcast and watch the last ten minutes. It's really a beautiful thing to see, from the most unlikely source.
Truth be told I didn't watch this broadcast when it was originally aired, I was just out of college in 1982 and while I have a vague memory of these shows, I never really watched them. I did watch this episode and a few others recently on ESPN Classics and was surprised to find them very entertaining.
It was fun to see all the "network stars" knowing now what became of most of them. Well, not always fun because some are no longer with us and some came to bad ends, but still interesting. And it was fun to be reminded of a bygone era when a show like this worked and was popular.
But that's not why I came to this site or decided to write a review on a thirty year old show, a review that probably no one will ever read. I decided to that that because of one event on this broadcast, the final one, the tug of war to decide the winner. It went on for almost ten minutes and was actually kind of brutal. No one involved was acting, they were busting their butts for real to win. It was really something to see, it was real reality TV, not the scripted reality TV we have now.
The participants who really made an impression on me were Pernell Roberts, Joan Van Ark, and Katherine Bach, the last two probably because I'm a guy. They held on during this event for almost ten minutes and they were in serious pain most of that time, you could see it on their faces, and they exhausted themselves to win a tug of war on a silly reality show for what? For the sake of competition, for the sake of winning, nothing else. It was the most real moment I've ever seen on "reality TV".
Pernell Roberts has since passed away, Joan Van Ark has turned into a plastic surgery horror and Katherine Bach's career never really reached great heights. But thirty years ago, on a cheesy network reality show, during a span of only ten minutes, they proved themselves to be winners, not actors, not someone playing a role, but real winners. They showed that they really had heart.
Howard Cosell made the comment during the tug of war that he'd seen million dollar athletes who didn't work as hard as the celebrities in that event did and he was right. We still see that every day. But if you want to see pure competition, a display of the raw will to win, to not give up, get your hands on a copy of this broadcast and watch the last ten minutes. It's really a beautiful thing to see, from the most unlikely source.
great job by CBS team
vsellis19 July 2015
All right, BOTNS was kind of cheesy and Cosell's commentary, as if each segment were the Olympics, can give you a chuckle. Plus, we can all point and laugh at the hairstyles and such, at least before we remember (some of us anyway) that we used to wear such styles ourselves. But still, it's great fun to watch these old shows. The stars tended to acquit themselves better as amateur athletes than as intellectuals at Celebrity Jeopardy. :)
That tug of war is something else, a triumph of the underdog. Remember, one of the three women on the CBS team was only a 13- year-old slip of a girl, Danielle Brisebois. And Pernell Roberts was not, as one reviewer said, 52; he was 54 (born in 1928) and had anywhere from 12 years to 23 years on any of the other men. He was amazing as the anchor, the "rock of Gibraltar," as Cosell put it.
Harmon and Wopat were the same age (almost to the day) and fairly evenly matched; Harmon as a trained athlete might even have had an edge. But Pernell is who made the difference. He just dug in there and wouldn't let go. And the women gave it their all, too. And with Catherine Bach suffering from an earlier injury. Go, CBS women! :)
That tug of war is something else, a triumph of the underdog. Remember, one of the three women on the CBS team was only a 13- year-old slip of a girl, Danielle Brisebois. And Pernell Roberts was not, as one reviewer said, 52; he was 54 (born in 1928) and had anywhere from 12 years to 23 years on any of the other men. He was amazing as the anchor, the "rock of Gibraltar," as Cosell put it.
Harmon and Wopat were the same age (almost to the day) and fairly evenly matched; Harmon as a trained athlete might even have had an edge. But Pernell is who made the difference. He just dug in there and wouldn't let go. And the women gave it their all, too. And with Catherine Bach suffering from an earlier injury. Go, CBS women! :)
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