When NBC Forgot to Show the End of an NFL Game | Patriots @ Broncos (1979)

During a 1979 NFL game in week 11 between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, NBC decided to cut away from the game early so they could show family programming, and show the Disney movie "The Strongest Man in the World." And if that sounds like the Heidi Game and sounds like NBC did the same thing and didn't learn its lesson... that's because it basically is
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[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

I know some people are going to point this out, so I just had to say that I know the NBC logo used in the thumbnail is their current logo and not the logo they had in the 1970s with the N. One of those where I wish I could be historically accurate, but I had to play the KZbin thumbnail game; the current NBC logo gives me higher views on average due to increased brand recognition than the N logo. Just thought I'd get that out of the way!

[@tubesocksbrigade3031]

With that being said and I agree with your reasoning on the NBC logo...the NBC logo in the fall of 1979 was a combination of the "N" and a new version of the 11 feathered Peacock (the "Proud as a Peacock" logo)

[@marcus813]

NBC hasn't used the Proud N mark since the 2nd quarter of 1986 anyway, so most people younger than me likely wouldn't recognize that mark unless they took a somewhat deep dive on the internet. I get it.

[@dionr1168]

Ironically, the NFL now holds the time slot that caused these broadcasting controversies on NBC.

[@TheLastoftheFourMKs]

Fun fact, The Strongest Man in the World is the same film universe as Flubber

[@RetroJR3379]

God I hated the 9pm bedtime especially Monday Night

[@Bigchet1223]

I still have that bedtime. I have to get up at 4:15 am to start work at 6am.

[@michaellicko2746]

OMG that Disney movie looks like a carbon copy of another one they did with Kurt Russell, “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.” Same premise, basically: regular college student accidentally gets endowed with some kind of superpower (this time super intelligence). It looks like they even used some of the same sets. Cesar Romero was the villain in that one, too.

[@marks875]

They are, respectively, the first and third films in the Dexter Riley trilogy.

[@aarondersnah863]

I remember this because I was an out of market Broncos fan (I lived in the Detroit market), 3 days short of my 10th birthday, and I was really annoyed that I was missing the last few minutes of my team's blow out win. I do remember the following day, we had a spelling test in my 4th grade class, and instead of a specific "extra credit" word, the teacher said we would get an extra point if we wrote the score of a football game or the name of a movie that we had watched on Sunday. I wrote the score of the Broncos game (and don't ask me how, but I think I spelled New England incorrectly).

[@tommyparkerparker]

Could it have been because of the snow, the NBC crew decided to wrap up early, to get their technical equipment packed up to avoid defection of equipment. To prevent a weather delay at the then Stapleton airport for outgoing flights.

[@roderickhand9386]

Looking at this history, I think NBC’s motivation was less on the Disney movie and more on the movie being shown afterwards, 1975’s “Dog Day Afternoon “ starring Al Pacino. At the time when NBC was struggling in the ratings, they may have been motivated to beat the ABC Sunday Night Movie and Alice and The Jeffersons on CBS. Just a week before ABC blew away the ratings with the television premiere of “Jaws” (still a ratings record to this day) so NBC may have been looking to see if they could dominate the ratings that Sunday as much as possible.

[@CTubeMan]

Did NFL fans storm 30 Rock screaming “ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA!”?

[@gluserty]

@@CTubeMan Either that and/or they held up the 30 Rock offices demanding a channel change operation.

[@randytracy1742]

Kurt Russell!! 😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@CTubeMan]

Cesar Romero also starred in that movie. Like you at the end of your videos he was a Joker.

[@americanidol30]

What did ESPN do during the hockey game between the Rangers and Hurricanes?

[@RalphReagan]

Craig Morton!

[@Musicradio77Network]

WNBC-TV (channel 4) in NYC did aired a Jets game against the Buffalo Bills, but it ended on time before a Disney film “The Strongest Man In The World” was shown. I remember when this movie was aired on Disney Channel back in the late 1990’s when it was part of an overnight block called “Vault Disney”. I did checked that it’s on Disney+.

[@titojohnson7141]

WNBC would've only shown the early Jets game, as the Giants played at home against the Falcons on WCBS at 4 ( they played in separate stadiums then, so they would both play at home on the same day from time to time, even playing at the same time occasionally).Since the Jets played at home as well, they would've only shown the early Jets game anyway. New York only got the double-header a few times a year up until the 2000's due to the NFL TV rules back then.

[@danielanderson4726]

@@titojohnson7141 Surprised they just didn't put the Jets game at 4, that way instead of cutting to Disney, they'd cut to Bills-Jets which was more completive than Patriots-Broncos.

[@americanidol30]

That game was played on Veteran's Day. When Veteran's Day falls on a Sunday, it is observed the following Monday. So kids would not have had school the next day.

[@ricknibert6417]

I was in sixth grade and yes we had school on Veterans Day.

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Veterans Day was one of those holidays where some kids had school and some didn’t. Depends on the district

[@charlieguenette3313]

For what it’s worth, schools don’t get Veteran’s Day off in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan but they do get November 15th off (for the opening of Deer Season).

[@RetroJR3379]

Happened so many times in Baseball case and point in 1993 CBS cut away Marlins/Rockies to show golf. In LA KTTV cut away from White Sox/Mariners to cover the passing of Ronald Reagan

[@AdamJ617]

Since the game had to be shown in its entirety in New England, it meant that WBZ and WJAR either joined the movie in progress, or started their late news later than usual.

[@danielanderson4726]

I'd say JIP, but it would cost NBC a lot of money for a separate feed. On the same case, CBS switched to a Vikings-Bucs game so that WCCO in Minneapolis wouldn't have to join "60 Minutes" in progress.

[@deadend1041]

I just realized why I loved this era but no longer watched the game. It was smaller slower and simpler and in a lot of ways a better game because of it.

[@mrmoose6619]

I can understand why based on 1979 standards why the game was cut short outside the markets... these days, there would be more outrage since family programming is much more accessible.

[@Bigchet1223]

This was back when they only had 13 channels tops. And only if u had a cable. And the big 3 of the networks dominated. And most people if they wanted to see a movie had to go to the theatre or watch the movie of the week. I think around this time is when my parents got HBO. We had a separate box attached to the tv in order to watch it. VCRS were fairly new and extremely expensive. Most people didnt have one. My parents didnt get one until around 1987 or so.

[@wpjohnston0213]

Just a point that in the late 1970's, even though the NFL was gaining popularity, more people cared about shows and movies more than sports. Networks certainly cared more about airing a family movie than a football game.

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

For sure. There’s a reason ABC was the only one that wanted MNF and CBS and NBC passed it up; ABC had nothing to lose

[@pronkb000]

Yep--with VCRs still in their infancy, a movie on TV was an EVENT. It was like that into the '90s, really.

[@lesliebell4189]

6:40 Which is worse than if you did nothing but spike the ball into the ground on every single play.

[@chrisguardiano6143]

This is very similar to what happened in 1998 with TNT & the NBA Playoffs specifically Game 3 of the San Antonio-Phoenix series. With about 4 minutes left in the game & the Spurs leading the Suns by 15 & playing at a slow pace, TNT decided to cut away from the game to start their marquee Monday night program WCW Monday Nitro. This was done by TNT so that Nitro could start on time on the West Coast & make sure that Nitro had a decent chance of beating WWE's Monday Night Raw on the USA Network in the ratings that week. At the time both WCW & WWE were absolutely at each other's throats when it came to the ratings on Monday night so starting on time was absolutely critical from WCW's perspective especially since Nitro ran for 3 hours (from 8:00-11:00) at the time. However unlike this game, TNT also cut the game for fans living in Phoenix & San Antonio meaning they missed out on seeing the last 4 minutes of the game since TNT had exclusive rights to this game & the local RSN's were not showing it. Because TNT did this, Nitro was able to beat out Monday Night Raw in the ratings in one of the last times that happened before WCW completely fell off a cliff the following year & by 2001 it got bought by WWE mainly because the Time Warner executives wanted wrestling completely off of TBS & TNT. As for the Spurs-Suns series, the Spurs would win Game 3 & eliminate the Suns in Game 4 before being knocked out by Utah in the following round.

[@danielanderson4726]

I do not remember (and i was big into the NBA then) ever remember TNT cutting away from a playoff game to start their marquee Monday night program WCW Monday Nitro. I just don't remember it ever happening.

[@chuckgan]

i watched Galactica 1980 back then.

[@gluserty]

I'm okay with this, but NBC should've been a bit more cautious. Kurt Russell still has a working relationship with Disney, but in 1980 he starred in his first "grown up" film, the raunchy comedy (love it) "Used Cars" ("These prices are too #$&@ high!".

[@stephenholloway6893]

Plus throwing NASCAR into the mix there was the time that CBS didn't air the ending of the 2000 Texas Busch Series race because of rain delay. Yes different sport but it's not like NBC was the only network to fail to finish airing a sporting event.

[@marks875]

This game was the first of a long winning streak of the Broncos against the Patriots. They wouldn't lose to New England until '99, the year after Elway retired.

[@Colin_1977]

Before Brady, the Pats couldn’t buy a win against Denver.

[@danielanderson4726]

Interestingly, a week later, NBC delayed "The Little House Years" to show the Chiefs-Raiders game to its conclusion (Merle Harmon, George Kunz) so maybe in that case it was a much closer game.

[@danielanderson4726]

You have to wonder if NBC would have rather cut away to the Chargers-Bengals game (if that had been a 4pm game) instead of showing the Disney movie "The Strongest Man in the World." instead?

[@CTubeMan]

When you mention the Heidi Game I know that means a day off for this unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian.

[@barbaracaroll]

This 1979 game wasn't as important as the Heidi game

[@anthonyrivera4735]

Were the 1979 broncos any good?

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Made the playoffs

[@TrggrWarning]

Late 70s Broncos were good, a few years earlier they made their first Super Bowl. You may have heard of the “Orange Crush” defense, this was that era.

[@jackmessick2869]

10-6, losing to the Houston "Earlers" in the Wild Card round.

[@connorrivers995]

It's one of the more forgotten eras of Broncos football, right alongside the '03-'06 Jake Plummer years. But for a few years at the end of the John Madden era in Oakland and just before Air Coryell took off in San Diego, there was no more dominant team in the west than the Denver Broncos. The made the Superbowl in '77, won two division titles and had three straight playoff births and four straight winning seasons. It just gets forgotten because they didn't win anything, because they weren't one of the BIG teams of the era, and the John Elway era happened shortly afterward.

[@Thunder103093]

i would be mad if that happend when i was watching

[@tomservo56954]

Wasn't that the game where Robin Williams dressed up as a Broncos cheerleader for an episode of MORK & MINDY?

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Yes it was

[@tomservo56954]

@@OfficialJaguarGator9 Maybe that's why NBC cut if off...why help the competition?

[@RetroJR3379]

What happened with the Rangers/Canes game on ESPN

[@OfficialJaguarGator9]

Tie game. 3rd period. A minute left. They cut away on a power play for a solid 30 seconds to show the Stars game

[@extrabfbmm]

Does anyone have the footage of this incident?

[@RetroJR3379]

@OfficialJaguarGator9 Gotcha. Least ESPN didn't do what NBC did to Sabres/Senators in 2007

[@Tdogmedia]

By this time, "Disney's Wonderful World"...wasn't so wonderful as reruns and more bad movies showed up. NBC dumped it two years later after a two-decade run.

[@Musicradio77Network]

And then moved to CBS in the fall of 1981 with the name was simply titled “Walt Disney” which lasted until 1983 when the Disney Channel was finally launched. It has much of the same that NBC had at the time. When the Disney Channel launched in April 1983, “Walt Disney” ended its run on CBS after two seasons. As for “Disney’s Wonderful World”, it ran mostly reruns from the two previous Disney anthology TV shows, but add some original movies and theatrical films where it split into 2 parts. This was at the time ABC did very well with the “Sunday Night Movie” where it ran TV movies and theatrical films.

[@krl97a]

No. I'd take the Kurt Russell Strongest Man movie over the garbage churned out by the modern Disney Evil Empire any day.