THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 31, 1995 TAG: 9510310043
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
WHILE BRYANT GUMBEL isn't likely to be employee of the month at NBC - the ``Today'' show co-host walked off the job when his bosses said Gumbel couldn't be part of the team interviewing O.J. Simpson in primetime - he's the darling of Home Box Office.
The HBO brass are begging Gumbel to host its pull-no-punches magazine, ``Real Sports,'' on a monthly basis. At the moment, Gumbel breaks away from the 4:30 a.m. reveille on ``Today'' to do ``Real Sports'' every two months or so, including tonight at 10.
``The show is so hard-hitting,'' says HBO, ``that you may have to wear a catcher's mask when you watch.'' In this third program of the series, HBO does a profile on the Dallas Cowboys' maverick owner, Jerry Jones, and the company, Nike, which has joined Jones in a marketing deal that has Jones' fellow owners in the National Football League in a snit.
You are not likely to see such an edgy profile about professional football on NBC, ABC or Fox because these networks are in bed with professional football. Same deal with Nike.
Do you think that a network that pulls in millions of dollars in advertising revenues from Nike will do anything to offend that sponsor?
Fat chance.
HBO, on the other hand, bows to no sponsor and to no league board of directors because it is a cable service supported by people who plunk down $11 or so a month for it. ``This program is unencumbered by what I call the big three,'' Gumbel said recently when he hitched up with TV writers in Los Angeles by satellite from Manhattan.
``We are not burdened by contracts with various teams and leagues. We are not burdened by having to achieve a certain level of ratings. And we do not have to yield to sponsors.''
With HBO's producers, including Ross Greenburg, free of such baggage, the cable channel does not hesitate to put out an irreverent, controversial hour in ``Real Sports.'' In this limited genre, it's better than ESPN's excellent sports documentary series ``Outside the Lines'' with Bob Ley. (That series, a winner of five Emmys, beams out a fifth anniversary special tonight at 7:30).
In the past, ``Real Sports'' has zoomed in on the price in pain that athletes pay for playing hurt. Gumbel repeated for the TV press what former New York Giants' linebacker, and Williamsburg native, Lawrence Taylor said when he hauls his battle-bruised body out of bed each morning.
The noise in his joints sounds like corn popping in the microwave, said Gumbel. ``Real Sports'' in the past did eye-opening pieces on the snobbery the players meet when they play in the Masters golf tournament, the enormous impact of players' agents on all phases of professional sports, and the private lives of public figures in sports.
Once upon a time, said Gumbel, it was enough for the fans to know a player's batting average and maybe what tobacco he chewed.
``Growing up in Chicago as a Cubs fan, all I knew about Ernie Banks was where he played and that he was the league's most valuable player a couple of times,'' Gumbel said. ``Today, the Cub fans know everything about shortstop Shawon Dunston, including the terms of his contract and his marital history.''
Gumbel said he's been asked plenty of times by his bosses at NBC to host a primetime news magazine. He's refused every time. After leaving the network's sports department to join ``Today,'' Gumbel said he would never return to the sports beat.
Now he's back in sports with HBO. It took something special to bring Gumbel back and add to his workload. ``Real Sports'' is that kind of a show. With ``Real Sports,'' ``Real Sex,'' documentaries such as ``Autopsy 1 & 2'' and ``Taxicab Confessions,'' HBO reaches out to the couch potato who wants to be surprised and will pay for the experience.
``Real Sports'' gives them their money's worth. by CNB