Before the Game, Choices Are Remote

The Super Bowl is still nine days away, but maybe it’s not too early to start planning your viewing.

NBC’s Super Sunday coverage gets off to a less-than-super start on Jan. 31. There’s “NBA Showtime� at 9 a.m., followed at 9:30 by a Laker-Boston Celtic game.

This series has lost more than a little luster. Maybe the NBC programmer forgot that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are no longer playing.

Johnson, now an NBC commentator, isn’t even assigned to this game. Instead, he will take part in NBC’s 2 1/2-hour Super Bowl pregame show.

As for Bird, he will be featured in a half-hour special that will fill the gap between the basketball game and NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show, which is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m.

ESPN gets the jump on NBC, starting its 90-minute Super Bowl edition of “GameDay� at 9 a.m. It will be followed at 10:30 by the “Edge Super Bowl Matchup.� Then ESPN will go back to showing Super Bowl highlights.

ABC’s Super Sunday lineup includes Senior Skins Game golf at 10:30 a.m. and Notre Dame-UCLA basketball at 1 p.m.--another series that has lost appeal.

CBS has a college basketball doubleheader beginning at 9 a.m.--Seton Hall at Syracuse followed by Michigan at Iowa.

NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show will be about half entertainment, half football.

Host Bob Costas will open the program outside the Rose Bowl, overseeing a massive tailgate party that features, among others, Fleetwood Mac.

One segment will take a behind-the-scenes look at Michael Jackson getting ready for his stint on the halftime show.

Let’s hope there are no amateurish, cornball skits like the one last year in which Will McDonough, after picking the most upset winners during the season, was served breakfast in bed by Costas, O.J. Simpson and Bill Parcells.

For the second half of the Super Bowl pregame show, Costas and sidekicks McDonough and Simpson, plus Mike Ditka, will be inside the Rose Bowl.

It’s no surprise that Ditka is a late addition. NBC has become sort of a halfway house for out-of-work coaches, Bill Parcells being the most recent example.

By the way, this probably will be Costas’ last football pregame show for NBC. The 40-year-old announcer, in his ninth year as the host of “NFL Live,� is giving up that role.

Odds-on favorite to replace him next season is Jim Lampley.

The big news about the halftime, besides the presence of Michael Jackson, is that it has been scaled down.

Terry O’Neil, executive producer of NBC Sports, said it is being reduced by about 12 minutes to 22.

“The league looked at declining second-half ratings over the last couple of years and saw that the culprit was the 32- and 34-minute halftime shows,� O’Neil said. “They became such easy targets that another network (Fox) chose to take them on with original programming.

“We and the league got together and decided to shrink the halftime to 20 minutes. After about a dozen meetings, we settled on 22.�

Added O’Neil: “The first six minutes of halftime will be used for setting up Michael Jackson’s stage on the floor of the Rose Bowl. The next 10 minutes will be Michael performing.�

Jackson has sworn NBC to secrecy on the content of his performance, so all O’Neil said was: “I’ve seen it in storyboard form, I’ve heard the music, I’ve seen the video effects that will be used, and I’ll think you’ll enjoy it.�

O’Neil said the remaining six minutes will be used to dismantle the stage.

The two six-minute stretches before and after Jackson’s performance conveniently give NBC plenty of time for commercials.

Speaking of commercials, 30-second spots during the game cost $900,000, or $1.8 million for one minute.

Garth Brooks will sing the national anthem, then comes the kickoff, scheduled for 3:18 p.m.

Of all the Super Bowl programming, one show not to miss is NFL Films’ “Road to the Super Bowl,� on Channel 4 Jan. 30 at noon.

It’s always an outstanding show, and has won seven Emmys since the first was produced in 1978.

Another good show should be TNT’s live “Super Bowl Saturday Night,� which will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Super Bowl Eve.

Channel 2 will have a two-hour special edition of “L.A. Football Company� at 10 p.m.

This Sunday, at the ungodly hour of 1:15 a.m., Channel 4 will show GGP Sports’ “Super Bowl XXVII Special.� But the special will be repeated the following Saturday at 3 p.m. Dick Enberg is the host, and guests include Sam Wyche, Matt Millen and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

If you’re going to attend the game and want to listen to CBS Radio’s coverage, don’t bother taking a radio. The NFL will put a small radio, provided by Playfone Systems, in all 102,083 seats.

Playfone first tried this concept at the U.S. Open tennis championships. There, the radios were fixed to pick up the television audio. At the Super Bowl, patrons will be instructed to tune into KNX, or, if Spanish-speaking, to KTNQ.

Playfone hopes to find sponsors for this venture at future Super Bowls.

Information channel: Beginning next Thursday, Los Angeles cable subscribers can get Super Bowl information and programming on L.A. Cityview Cable Channel 35.

There will be reports on the events of the week and behind-the-scenes looks at Super Bowl preparations. In all, there will be 57 1/2 hours of programming.

Cable systems in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Pasadena and Santa Monica will offer some of the same programming on various channels.

TV-Radio Notes

KMPC pulled off something of a coup Wednesday, getting Buffalo Bill owner Ralph C. Wilson as a guest on the “McDonnell Douglas Show� and he took. Among the callers was Bob Chandler, former Buffalo wide receiver. Chandler, explaining that he was calling from a pay phone, told Wilson: “You never paid me enough to afford a cellular phone.� . . . All of KMPC’s programming during Super Bowl Week will originate from media headquarters at the Century Plaza and various other Super Bowl locations. . . . XTRA will have the “Loose Cannons,� Steve Hartman and Chet Forte, at a restaurant in the Century Plaza all week, and also will have reporters at the various news conferences. . . . Of course, cable networks ESPN and CNN will also have crews in Los Angeles all week.

The NFC championship game on CBS last Sunday got a national Nielsen rating of 33.3, the highest for a non-Super Bowl NFL game in 11 years. The telecast also got a 57% share of the audience. The AFC title game on NBC got a 22.5 rating and a 53% share. . . . The NFL is in between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, but there is still football on television this weekend. ESPN has the East-West Shrine game at 1 p.m. Sunday. . . . And don’t forget the All-Madden Team on CBS at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Move over Siskel and Ebert, here come Byron Scott and Tony Smith. Because NBA players attend a lot of movies on the road, producers Stacy Brown and Jeff Proctor of Channel 9’s “Lakertime� pregame show invited the two Lakers to critique four current movies. In a light-hearted two-part feature, they review “The Bodyguard� and “Aladdin� on tonight’s show at 4:30 p.m., and on Sunday’s show at 2:30 p.m. they dissect “A Few Good Men� and “The Distinguished Gentleman.� . . . Sunday’s 3 p.m. Laker-Washington Bullet telecast on Channel 9 is tape-delayed because NBC has a doubleheader that day. The Lakers asked the Bullets to move the game time to avoid the delay, but the request was turned down.

Channel 13 is televising tonight’s Clipper-Cleveland Cavalier game from the Sports Arena, and in a halftime feature produced by Heidi Palarz, the Clipper players, including Danny Manning, talk about some of the team’s problems. . . . Miami Heat rookie Harold Miner discusses life in the NBA on “NBA Inside Stuff� on Channel 4 Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

NBC sportscasters O.J. Simpson, Jim Lampley, Bob Trumpy and Fred Roggin, plus Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films, will be the featured guests Wednesday at an Advertising Club of Los Angeles luncheon at the Beverly Hilton. . . . Budding broadcaster: Cal State Fullerton, to save money, asked longtime sports information director Mel Franks to do double duty as radio play-by-play announcer for football and basketball on KMNY. Turns out, Franks is doing yeoman work.

Video beat: During Super Bowl week, NFL Films and PolyGram Video will conduct interviews for a 45-minute home video featuring women’s observations of football and profiles of women involved in the game, such as agents, broadcasters, and coaches’ wives. Good idea, but the working title, “Leather and Lace: Women on Football,� doesn’t work. Let’s hope they drop the “Leather and Lace� part before the tape is released. . . . NFL Films and PolyGram plan to have a tape on the Super Bowl winner’s season less than a month after the game. It will sell for $19.95. . . . Recommended viewing: NBA Entertainment and CBS/Fox Video will release “The Secret NBA� next week. It features behind-the-scenes footage.