Bud Greenspan, the legendary Olympics filmmaker, missed the 1992 Winter Games. Why? Because nobody invited him.
But Greenspan returns to his craft with the two-hour “Barcelona ’92: 16 Days of Glory,” which debuts at 8 p.m. Sunday on the Disney Channel.
While done on tape instead of film, because of problems with Barcelona and Spanish Olympic officials, “Barcelona” touches on the kind of heartwarming stories that have always marked Greenspan’s documentaries. They range from the comeback of Canadian rower Silken Laumann to the courage of British runner Derek Redmond, and are complete with the usual funereal narration of Nick Michaels.
One story not seen is the Dream Team, which Greenspan found a bore. “I said beforehand the Dream Team didn’t interest me,” he says. “It was my philosophy that 10 multimillionaires, half of whom wanted to play golf, were doing us a favor by showing up. Inspiration is still terribly important to me. I’m more into the overcoming.”
Which is something Greenspan had to do just to make “Barcelona.” As Greenspan points out, this program “is not the official film. We thought they (Barcelona officials) wanted us to do it. But then they got into the creative area of telling us they wanted a Barcelona film instead of an Olympic film. That meant an intrusion we’ve never, ever had before. When we told the IOC we were pulling out, they weren’t sure what the Spanish would do. So they asked us if we would make a `Barcelona special’ using our Olympics techniques. By using the word `special,’ it didn’t conflict with the official film.
“We had our autonomy again, so we jumped at the opportunity. But when Spain heard about this, they wouldn’t let us have any cameras. The IOC gave us permission to use every piece of the (TV) world feed. We subsequently contacted the isolated camera people, such as the BBC for the Derek Redmond situation. And since a lot of our work is done in postproduction, we had permission to use our own cameras for the interviews.”
But Greenspan is a film guy, not a tape junkie. “Video is not my cup of tea,” he says. “I’ll never do it again. We miss some of the nuances from other shows. Our cameras usually start when the race is over. But as (the program) turned out, in gymnastics terms, we had a 9.50 instead of at 10.”
– Goodbye, Hank Williams Jr. and all his rowdy friends. Hello, . . . Boyz II Men? ABC, through a deal with Frito-Lay, is changing its “Monday Night Football” opening to feature a roster of Polygram recording artists, starting with the regular-season opener Sept. 6. “Hank won us four Emmy Awards,” said an ABC spokesman. “We’re just taking the next step. We’re hoping the variation of these acts (which range from Vanessa Williams to Bon Jovi to Billy Ray Cyrus) bring a variety of different viewers who might otherwise not watch Monday night.”
Polygram got into the mix through its association with the NFL as the league’s home-video distributor, while Frito-Lay becomes another “Monday Night Football” advertiser by sponsoring the opening in which each artist or group will perform a different song.
– Bumped by CBS from its baseball telecasts, Dick Stockton has found a home in Oakland. Signing a three-year contract with the Athletics’ new TV outlet, Stockton, who will be doing Tuesday night’s game at Comiskey Park, says he feels he has the best of both worlds.
“I wanted to do more baseball,” says Stockton, who joined CBS full time in 1978 after four seasons with the Boston Red Sox. “They (CBS officials) made a decision to go with Greg (Gumbel), so I was able to do more baseball. I had that right last year. I almost made a deal with the Florida Marlins. But it was for too many games.”
Stockton, whose wife Lesley Visser is at home in Boca Raton, Fla., recuperating from a broken hip, found the 52-game slate offered by the A’s more to his liking. More, as he found out, than working the 12 to 16 games a year with CBS.
“I loved working with Jim Kaat,” Stockton says. “We had a great time for three years. But the number of games they do is fewer than the NFL, in some respects.”
By signing with KRON-TV last January, Stockton gets to keep his ties with CBS. “I’m still doing the NFL and NCAA basketball tournament through the regional finals,” he says, “and I’m going to do the (Winter) Olympics. That’s the way the business is going. The world of exclusivity is not the same as it used to be.
“And I like doing games. That’s my craft, that of a sportscaster.”
– ESPN has daily coverage of this week’s ATP Championships, starting at noon Monday, with Cliff Drysdale, Fred Stolle and Vitas Gerulaitis. The cable network also covers the Volvo International Aug. 16-22, with Joel Meyers, Mary Carillo and Gerulaitis. . . . TBS airs all four rounds of the PGA Championships this week, starting at 11 a.m. Thursday, with Bob Neal, Bobby Clampett, Donna Caponi and Craig Sager augmenting the CBS crew. . . . Pete Pistone, host of WGN-AM’s Saturday morning motorsports roundup, has added a one-hour auto racing talk show at 6 p.m. Sundays on WCBR-AM.
– “Sports Snapshot,” a trivia game show hosted by Jimmy Cefalo that features viewer participation through an 800 phone number, is running Sunday mornings on WGN-Ch. 9. . . . NFL Films has been hired to create a 17-minute Cinemascope film that will be the centerpiece for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s expansion. . . . The Nashville Network will carry three NASCAR races live in September. . . . The Bears are featured on ESPN’s “NFL Yearbooks,” a series of 30-minute highlights shows produced by NFL Films, at 5 p.m. Aug. 30.
– Random thoughts: Who was the advertising copywriter who told actor Dennis Farina to mispronounce the name of onetime Cubs pitcher Ed Ruelbach in that beer commercial? . . . In the world of CBS Sports promos, is the U.S. Open’s “Fat Lady” any relation to the NFL’s “Big Fan?” . . . Should we pity poor Showtime because its two title bouts Friday night took less time than the fighters’ introductions? Nah, not after giving promoter Don King all that free air time to shill for Mike Tyson.
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