The Lighter Side of Sports
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lighter Side of Sports is a long-running syndicated American sports blooper program produced by Steve Rotfeld Productions. It is currently hosted by ESPN personality Mike Golic. Lighter Side is the first and longest-running of Rotfeld's productions, utilizing Rotfeld's extensive collection of stock footage.
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[edit] Cable
The first incarnation of The Lighter Side of Sports first aired on ESPN from 1986-1990. In addition to sports bloopers, interviews with sports figures and comedians in front of a live audience were included, along with music from the house band, The Flamin' Caucasians. Jay Johnstone was the original host, later replaced in 1989 by Jim Valvano. [1]
[edit] Syndication: Bob Uecker shows
In 1985, Bob Uecker's Wacky World of Sports (also known as Bob Uecker's Sports Show) began airing in syndication. As the name implied, "Mr. Baseball" Bob Uecker was the host of a sort of mock talk show. Uecker's incarnation involved numerous sports bloopers and oddities, as well as numerous jokes and sketches involving Uecker himself, often in front of a live audience.
[edit] Mike Golic era
In the 1990s, Uecker left the show, and the concept was revamped. Both ESPN's "Lighter Side" and the Uecker series were merged into a new show that retained the Lighter Side name. A synthesizer-based theme song and digitally-generated opening sequence was produced, and Golic was tapped to host. Uecker's sketches were replaced with more bloopers and spectacular sports accidents, and Golic's role was reduced to one comparable to a disc jockey, introducing clips coming in and out of commercial breaks (often at some sporting venue as part of a running gag to tie the show together).
In its twenty-three year run, only 141 episodes have been produced of the series (65 of the ESPN series, 30 with Uecker, 46 with Golic). Only a few new episodes have been produced each year (most of the Golic run was produced in the early to middle 1990s), so to fill the gap, all 46 Golic-hosted shows air in rotation, with new shows added in as they are produced.
