''The Sports Writers on TV'' was a sports talk show produced by
John E. Roach for the
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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-based SportsChannel and
syndicated to most of the other regional outlets across the
SportsChannel America
SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC.
Operating from March 1, 1 ...
network. Bill Jauss, Bill Gleason, Ben Bentley and
Rick Telander
Rick Telander is the senior sports columnist for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. Hired in 1995 from ''Sports Illustrated'', where he was a Senior Writer, Telander's presence at the newspaper was expected to counter the stable of sports columnists the r ...
were the usual panelists discussing the topical sports issues of the day, usually Chicago-oriented, but also frequently national in scope. Joe Mooshill and Lester Munson also appeared semi-regularly, sometimes as fill-in panelists.
The show was a forerunner of sportswriter TV shows that are more common now (''
The Sports Reporters
''The Sports Reporters'' was a sports talk show that aired on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. ET every Sunday morning (and replayed at 10:30 a.m. ET the same day on ESPN2 and 11:30 AM on ESPNews). It featured a roundtable discussion among four sports ...
'', ''
Pardon the Interruption
''Pardon the Interruption'' (abbreviated ''PTI'') is an American sports talk television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top storie ...
'', ''
Around the Horn
''Around the Horn'' (''ATH'') is an American sports Round table (discussion), roundtable discussion show, conducted in the style of a panel game, produced by ESPN. The show premiered on November 4, 2002, as a replacement for ''Unscripted with C ...
'', etc.), and also presaged the rapid expansion of the sports-talk radio genre in the 1980s and 1990s. The weekly program also featured occasional guest appearances by longtime baseball owner
Bill Veeck
William Louis Veeck Jr. ( ; February 9, 1914 – January 2, 1986), also known as "Sport Shirt Bill", was an American Major League Baseball franchise owner and promoter. Veeck was at various times the owner of the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Br ...
and rock musician
Billy Corgan
William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band the ...
of Chicago-based
Smashing Pumpkins
Smash may refer to:
People
* Smash (wrestler) (born 1959), professional wrestler
* Moondog Rex, another professional wrestler who briefly wrestled as the original Smash, before being replaced by the above.
* DJ Smash, DJ and music producer
Art, ...
.
The show was a video adaptation of ''The Sportswriters'', a long-running radio program on Chicago's
WGN. The first airing of ''Sportswriters on TV'' was on
WFLD
WFLD (channel 32) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed MyNetworkTV ...
in 1985. The set remained the same over the next 15 years of existence. The panel of three sportswriters (usually Jauss, Gleason and Telander) and moderator Bentley (a former public relations executive with the Bulls and before that a longtime boxing promoter) would sit around a poker table, littered with newspapers, and talk sports (frequently veering onto other topics as well).
Unlike most other shows of this nature, the background was usually dark while the table, and the sportswriters sitting around it, was lit. Gleason and Bentley would constantly smoke cigars, and the sportswriters would wear casual clothes (although Bentley normally wore a tie). It was not uncommon to see Jauss wearing a faded pair of blue jeans and a T-shirt with the name of an area bar.
Adding to the informal nature of the show, they would often call each other by their surnames (e.g., "Jauss," "Gleason") as guys sitting around a bar might do. Although the show was meant to evoke the banter of a sports bar, the panelists did not drink beer on camera. While Bentley was introduced as the 'moderator' of the program, and usually did introduce the first topic, individual panelists would introduce topics as part of the flow of conversation, and Bentley usually participated in the discussions, offering opinions along with the others.
The show offered generational variety: Bentley was born in 1920, Gleason 1922, Jauss 1931 and Telander in 1950. Telander often assumed the role of young iconoclast on the show.
After a year on WFLD, it moved to
SportsVision
Sportsvision (SV) was a subscription sports television service founded by Chicago White Sox owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn and media mogul Fred Eychaner. The service broadcast live sporting events, and for much of its time of operatio ...
, the precursor to
SportsChannel Chicago
Fox Sports Net Chicago (often branded as FSN Chicago) was an American regional sports network that was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and was owned by Cablevision for most of its history (from 1987 to 2005). News Corporation acquired a minori ...
. During its original production run, the show was also syndicated to other regional sports networks in the Midwest, including outlets in Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. When the
Fox Sports Network
Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...
purchased
SportsChannel
SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC.
Operating from March 1, 1 ...
in 1997, the show continued until 2000, when Fox decided not to renew the show.
External links
Telander, Rick. "Farewell to Bill Gleason, a legend," ''Chicago Sun-Times'', Monday, January 4, 2010.O'Donnell, Jim. "Columnist Gleason was true to S. Side roots," ''Chicago Sun-Times'', Monday, January 4, 2010.Daniels, Serena Maria. "Bill Gleason, 1922–2010: Sox fan, sports talk pioneer," ''Chicago Tribune'', Monday, January 4, 2010.* http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telander/15683544-452/late-chicago-sportswriter-bill-jauss-a-one-of-a-kind-regular-guy.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sportswriters On Tv
Sports in Chicago
American sports television series
SportsChannel
1985 American television series debuts
2000 American television series endings
1980s American television talk shows
1990s American television talk shows
2000s American television talk shows
Chicago television shows