Must See TV, at least for me

Right there with you, Moddy.
It happened two years before I was born but I remember my dad telling me about it and I've read everything I can about the game. The teleconference recently with Summerall, Gifford, Moore and Berry was a treat.
As an old fart, though, I see no need for ESPN to colorize it.
Black and white didn't take anything away from Raging Bull or Manhattan, and they were movies.

 

As a history buff, there's a part of me that agrees with you. There's something to be said for originality.

But, oh man, that game happened in color ... and I can't WAIT to see it in color for the first time! It brings the past alive in a way that nothing else can. What a thrill, especially for those of us who weren't alive to live through that game when it happened.

 

I'll be interested to see if it's like some of Ted Turner's cheesy colorization or what.

I read somewhere that NBC "destroyed" the original game broadcast of this game.

Why ???

 

Really happy that ESPN is trending toward the HBO sports documentary area and moving away from the made-for-TV movies.

 

Thanks for the head's-up, Moddy. I'm setting my TiVO so I can show the game to my sons. It was interesting to read that ESPN might be able to lay to rest the biggest controversy of that game. I won't spoil it if anyone hasn't read Leonard Shapiro's story.

 

On my fifth birthday!
I don't think I watched.

 

There are two very bad things happening here -- colorization and Berman doing the "reverential" open and close.

I was 9 years old at the time and vaguely remember watching this game...and like many of the players wondering what was happening when it was tied after regulation.

 

I remember watching this game with my dad. I was the same age as my friend spnited.

Johnny Unitas was my hero.

 

The WWL is running this alongside the Heisman announcement? Or after?

 

More likely never kept it in the first place. Networks didn't videotape sport events then (the VTR was two years old) because there wasn't a thought a game would be rebroadcast. Any kines sent to Alaska and Hawaii stations probably disappeared. AFRTS routinely destroyed returned kines for the silver content in the film to save money. Maybe there's something in the CBC archive (the 1961 NFL title game telecast, produced by NBC, turned up that way).