March TV Madness

Some TV screen reflections on March Madness Weekend.....

• That hour or so of viewing on Friday night when the Ohio U., Norfolk State, and Lehigh upset wins were hurtling to their final buzzers was about as good as sports TV watching could possibly get. Thank goodness for that "Alt Ch" button on the TV remote!




• The four network coverage of the first weekend, particularly on Thursday and Friday, is fantastic. While out driving on Saturday afternoon, host Jory Rand on The Fan was saying he liked it better when only ONE network covered all the games and they had to cut away to the other games. Is he insane? Or, could his opinion just possibly be colored by the fact that he also works for Channel 2 (the CBS affiliate here for you out-of-town readers)?




• High Definition TV does not do any favors for Marv Albert. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but every time there was a shot of Marv on camera, the camera was pointing down and to the right, Marv's left. Never a full facial shot of Marv. Was that intentional or just a fact of TV logistics? One thing you could see was that there had to be more pancake make-up covering Marv's mug than on any other four female sideline reporters.




• Marv, btw, will turn 71 in June of this year. I looked it up, and is he still an outstanding play-by-play guy? Yessssssss, he is.




• For the most part, though, all those announcers and analysts over all those games in all those locations seemed to run together for me




• Speaking of appearances, I hope that Leslie Visser is suing the bejesus out of her plastic surgeon. If Visser was never a knockout like Jillian Barbery or Erin Andrews, she was always an above average attractive woman. When you look at her now, all you can say is "My, God, why did she do that to herself?"




• Now, the commercials....




• Loved the Chevy commercial with the three passengers singing Spandau Ballet




• Loved the Enterprise Rent-a-Car one that talked about how they hire more new college grads than any other company and featuring former NCAA athletes




• Love the NCAA PSA that states "there are thousands of NCAA athletes, and most of them will be going pro in something other than sports"




• Top to bottom, the Bud Light commercials are always good




• Liked the McDonald's commercial of the suspicious wife who "loves" the mint shamrock shake her husband bought her




• The Buffalo Wild Wings commercial with the guy popping a champagne cork in the direction of the guy with the eye patch made me squeamish




• Hate the State Farm commercial with Bob Knight. Hate seeing this guy cash in on the fact that he was a horse's ass for his entire career. This commercial won't make me cancel my State Farm auto and homeowners, but if I was not already a policyholder, it would certainly NOT attract me to the company.




• On the other hand, I did like the State Farm commercial of the two guys dancing on the Jumbotron Fan Cam




• Again on the other hand, the Knight commercial makes State Farm's Aaron Rodgers Discount Double Check commercials look good by comparison