Matt Buckler: 'All Madden' gets encore showing tonight

Dec. 30—When Fox Sports documentary on former NFL coach and broadcaster John Madden aired last week, it had to compete with Christmas Day dinners to attract viewers.

It will be much easier to get viewers this time around.

Fox will repeat "All Madden" tonight at 9 (WTIC-TV61).

It will also air on Fox's cable channel, FS1, at 10:30 p.m.

The NFL Network will air the special today at 3 p.m., Tuesday at 8 p.m., and Wednesday at 12:30 a.m.

The special focuses on Madden's 30-year broadcasting career after he retired from coaching the Oakland Raiders after the 1978 season claiming at the time that he was burned out.

His broadcasting career started in 1979 as a part-timer for CBS. One of his first assignments was a Denver Broncos game at the Old Mile High Stadium in Denver. He told viewers it was difficult to coach in that stadium because the locker room was underneath the end zone bleachers and the Denver fans stomped on those bleachers, making it almost impossible for the players to hear what their coaches were saying.

It was that type of story telling that instantly elevated Madden to the top.

During the many tributes to Madden, many of his commercials were replayed, including for Ace Hardware and "Tough Actin' Tinactin."

His best commercial, and one of the best of all-time, was for Lite Beer from Miller when a raging bull version of Madden almost crashed through the TV screen. It was totally unexpected.

The first time I saw it, I laughed for about 30 minutes. He repeated the same stunt in a couple of other commercials, and it was just as funny.

Madden not only coached a Super Bowl team and won 16 Emmy Awards as a broadcaster, he also sold a lot of Lite Beer.

List addition

Reader John Hannon of Manchester notes there was one well-known local broadcaster who was omitted from the list of Top 10 Hartford market broadcasters of all-time— the late Jim Raynor.

Raynor certainly qualifies. He was a Korean War veteran who was one of WDRC's five original broadcasters, known as WDRC's "Friendly Five," along with Ron Landry, who made the list, Jerry Bishop, Art Johnson, and Gene Anthony, when the station switched to a music format.

During most of his five-year career that started in December 1959, he occupied the 8 p.m.-1 a.m. shift, back in the days when an evening show on a Top 40 radio station was loaded with personality.

Raynor, who left radio and went into the insurance business, died Nov. 23 at the age of 90. He was the last living member of the "Friendly Five."

Raynor was an Enfield resident for 54 years.

Others who came close to making the list were Dick Robinson, who was a veteran at WDRC before founding the Connecticut School of Broadcasting; Long John Wade, Don Wade, Jerry Kristafer, Walt Dibble, and Judy Jarvis.

Perhaps you have some additions of your own to add to the list.

Oscar attrition

This year's 100th Miss America pageant wasn't seen on network TV, being shifted to streaming.

Could the same thing be happening to the Academy Awards?

According to Daily Variety, the 2020 Oscars was the No. 2 entertainment telecast that year.

In 2021, however, it fell out of the Top 100 entirely, dropping 58 percent.

The Oscars went without a host last year — perhaps that's something that needs to be fixed.

Or maybe the Oscar committee needs to nominate movies that the public actually sees.

It will take much more than one bad telecast for network TV to drop the Oscars. Something definitely isn't working.

Follow Matt Buckler for more television, radio, and sports coverage on the JI's Twitter @journalinquirer, and see his articles on the Journal Inquirer Facebook page.