Battle of the Network Stars

If you were born after 1980 and haven't spent quality time watching TV Land this next post will make absolutely no sense. For those of us who were a part of the Pepperdine phenomena I ask you what ever happened to the glory that was Battle of the Network Stars. The Olympics and my never ending sense of nostalgia made me wonder about this today. I vividly remember every August when it would come on ABC, with Howard Cosell providing commentary and high levels of un-PC rhetoric about the women participating. Think of it, actors from all your favorite shows competing in various athletic competitions that mirror (and yes I use that term lightly) Olympic sport. Seriously though, for us Gen-Xers, the anticipation of the obstacle course or who would anchor the tug-o-war at the end was must see TV. My brother, sister and I would pop the Jiffy Pop and pick a network to route for and off we went to the basement for an evening of psuedosport. It was a ritual no different than watching the Wizard of Oz annually or Charlie Brown's Christmas special.

In this age of cynicism, reality TV and cable shows the networks are struggling to merely hold on, let alone bask in nostalgia. But for a moment in the bright light that is Michael Phelps Olympic record I remember a time when shows were on long enough to become attached to the actors who played the characters we loved. A time when a show like Battle of the Network Stars would draw families in around a television, not mocking as it did when they briefly tried to revive the concept. Oh well, there's always the Amazing Race.