Clearly, the bar where I had dinner Wednesday night has never heard of “Heidi” or the infamous Heidi Game or the Oakland Raiders or the New York Jets. Because if it had, I suspect it would have made a different decision in playoff programming.
The bar had two televisions, one with the Celtics-Magic game, a playoff game in which Boston dominated most of the way and went on to win by 18 points, tying the series at a game apiece. The second television had the Capitals-Penguins game. This game was an overtime thriller, won by the Penguins on a ricochet off a Capitals player.
At some point, inexplicably, both TVs were switched to Celtics-Magic basketball. When I asked the waitress about the channel change, she checked and found that two folks, one at either end of the bar, had requested the basketball game. Understandably, these were both playoff games and both worthy of television action. But here’s the problem. Both TVs clearly could be seen from all areas of the bar. The Celtics and Magic were playing a blowout game. The Caps and Penguins were in overtime. And, most importantly, this bar was located in Maryland—25 minutes from where the Caps play, or otherwise known as Caps Country!
So while the Caps were slugging it out with the Penguins in an overtime playoff game—and there are folks out there who would say that there is nothing more exciting than playoff overtime hockey, except for maybe Game 7 playoff overtime hockey—this Maryland bar was pledging its allegiance to Boston Celtics-Orlando Magic basketball. Just as four decades ago, as the Jets led with a little more than a minute to go, NBC’s brilliant programmers decided to turn away from the game to accommodate it’s evening schedule, which included an airing of the children’s classic, “Heidi.” The rest, as they say, is history—the Raiders scored 14 points within the closing minute, but some viewers were left watching pigtails instead of pigskin.
Makes you wonder if someone at NBC was behind the controls on Wednesday night?
