Instead I watched a rerun of IN & OUT.
I’m usually transfixed by the Olympics, no matter the event. Skateboarding, the way the Greeks did it way back when. There are always great human interest stories, records are broken, and stars are born (for fifteen minutes). As a sports fan it's porn. In 1984 they were held in Los Angeles and I was really immersed. (More on that in tomorrow’s post.)
But this year I have zero interest. None. This year it’s just a big money grab. And many lives will be needlessly put into COVID jeopardy because organizers don’t want to cancel and give up all that broadcast rights money.
Cities spend fortunes to construct spiffy new Olympic venues, generally bankrupting their budgets for a three-week event. But the influx of tourism and the income that generates makes it worth the process. Not to mention the pride of showing off your gleaming city to the world.
But this year, because of COVID, spectators aren’t allowed. The 40,000 seat venues will have 50 people watching.
80% of Japan’s population is against holding the games there this year. How do you ignore 80% of the population? Oh, right. Money is involved.
Not all athletes are vaccinated. Not all nations can provide it. Suspense should be whether these strapping your people win gold medals, not whether they avoid ventilators.
Already, some of the top athletes have tested positive and can’t compete. So in some cases you’re not even watching the best of the best.
I find the whole event irresponsible. People are getting sick so we can have a TV event to watch.
And then I see people in America getting sick and dying simply because they won’t get vaccinated, even though the vaccine is free, safe, and available. Yet certain athletes from certain countries who would do anything for the vaccine can’t get it and might have to pay a horrible price just to compete in these hollow games. I don’t need to be reminded of it. I don’t need to get angry all over again because of the sheer stupidity of some people.
Ratings for the Opening Ceremony were way down from 2016 in Rio. Hey, maybe I’m not alone in my feelings.
I’ll watch again next time when hopefully it’ll be the Olympic Games and not the Hunger Games.
IN & OUT was really funny, by the way. (More on that this week too.)
While I don't disagree with a word you said, I nonetheless appreciate that during the opening ceremony there was a moment of silence for the eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team who were murdered in Munich in the Olympic village in 1972. That was long overdue.
ReplyDeleteDon't they build all this infrastructure and then it all just sits there gathering dust? I read that the stadiums and facilities they build in London are crumbling messes right now. They can't find any other uses for this stuff?
ReplyDelete@Glenn -- at least according to a Yahoo article from 2019, all the permanent buildings for the London Olympics are in good repair and in Fairly regular use. The temporary buildings have all been pulled down. I know in lots of other cities there's a mess after an Olympics but London seems to have got it right.
ReplyDeleteHi, Ken. Recently watched the "Rhoda" marathon on Decades (network) and really enjoyed the shows. I thought Harold Gould (the Lou Marie of the "That Girl" pilot, but not the series) and Nancy Walker were very credible as Rhoda's and Brenda's parents, which leads to my Friday Question: just how are parents, especially of series leads, cast? What does the casting director "work with" in determining the look (and attitudes) of the parents so that they are believable (as parents) to the viewing audience? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned, the Olympics stopped being the Olympics when they started letting professional athletes compete.
ReplyDeleteIn 1984, as a teen, I was very excited to watch Mary Lou Retton do her stuff in gymnastics to win her gold medals. I'm not sure I have the same enthusiasm for Simon Biles today...
ReplyDeleteMaybe the ratings are down because the people who normally would have watched were un-vaccinated idiots who are now dead.
ReplyDeleteLos Angeles 2028 will be fine for facilities, as the buildings are already built and they don't have to build new ones. Since the 1984 games there, greater LA has or will have had added two NHL/NBA arenas, an NFL stadium, two MLS stadiums (one of which will host the rugby sevens), and some additional buildings at the local universities. Add onto this current suitable arenas like Pauley Pavilion (gymnastics), Dodger Stadium, the Coliseum and Rose Bowl, plus ready-made athlete villages on the USC/UCLA campuses, and you've got a very low profitability threshold. Even better, you won't have to tear anything down afterward.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the virus is also ruining a rugby institution. Every four years England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland for the "Lions" and tour a major international power. South Africa is hosting this cycle, but because of the virus all of the matches will be in empty stadiums. With attendance evenly split between locals and traveling fans from the British Isles, that spectacle will be sorely missing this year.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Ken. It's very sad and dispiriting. Countries, including ours, have boycotted previous Olympics due to foreign policy reasons. Why can't the world come together and say, "For the sake of protecting and prolonging human life, and to ensure that no athletes become sick, or bring the virus back to their home countries, we will cancel these games." Everyone would understand, especially as new variants are manifesting around the world.
ReplyDeleteBut even apart from the pandemic, the Olympics have lost their luster. Letting professionals compete just changes their nature entirely.
Big caveat, however, about the opening ceremonies. I would recommend watching one thing, if you haven't seen it yet. The "living pictogram" enactments were something special. My understanding is that they were done by a Japanese comedy troupe. So in spite of your legitimate complaints, don't miss this one:
https://youtu.be/CQ9OyYA-bAM
I watched the Opening Ceremony and it was strange to see- not only were the stands empty but very few athletes were there. I don't know if that was due to covid-19 mandates or most athletes simply chose not to attend.
ReplyDeleteSurfing and Skateboarding are now Olympic Sports. In "Women Skateboarding" a 13 year-old girl won the Gold, and another 13 year-old took Silver, and the Bronze medalist is 16. The photo of the medal ceremony is a bit jarring.
Looking forward to your post on the 84 Summer Olympics.
I don’t disagree with you. It all does seem weird. But at the same time I’d point out that here in the USA we are filling stadiums for sporting events and we have a much higher rate of infection than Japan. Playing to empty stadiums seems like a better idea to me. I can’t imagine why vaccines were not provided to all the athletes prior to the games and required as a condition of competing.
ReplyDeleteHi @kenlevine. As a baseball guy, any thoughts or observations about women's Olympic softball thus far?
ReplyDelete1800 drones flying in synchronization so perfect that it appears not to float but to be fixed in place. How is that even possible?
ReplyDeleteSadly, the rest of the Olympics Opening Ceremony was a crushing bore.
And, of course, the "Parade of Athletes," which always takes FOREVER (It took me almost 15 minutes to fast-forward through it), was utterly stultifying (as it always is), except of course, when for the third consecutive time, Tonga marched in. Pita Taufatofua, is certainly decorative and gives me naughty thoughts. But I would insist he shower off all that grease before reclining on my sheets. That is WAY too much lube! That guy is oilier than a Trump business deal.
Man does not live by Pita Bread alone.
It is weird watching an Olympic Men's Gymnastics meet played before empty bleachers, with no cheering nor applause, nor even a gasp when a gymnast takes a nasty fall.
BTW, Olympics broadcasters, I can read, so putting up that the points don't carry over to the finals on the screen told me that. So it was not necessary for YOU to tell me, and it CERTAINLY was not needed for you to tell me 20 times in one hour that the points don't carry over to the finals. Every time one of them was at a loss for something to say, rather than just shutting the fuck up, they told us AGAIN that the points don't carry over to the finals. The woman, particularly, said it SO MANY TIMES, that I wanted to get in a plane, fly to Tokyo, slap her face, and then fly home again. Sportscasters, when you have nothing new to say, SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!
BTW, did you know that in the gymnastics elimination rounds, the scores don't carry over to the finals?
During the opening ceremonies in LA, the great Etta James sang, and the announcers told us all about her career, her struggles with heroin, her fight to come back and to make this glorious performance. They told us all that WHILE SHE WAS SINGING!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI kept SCREAMING at my television, "SHUT UP! I CAN'T HEAR HER SINGING OVER YOU TALKING ABOUT HER SINGING! SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! SHUT UP!!! SHUUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUUP!!!!!!!!!"
Well, they did finally shut up about Etta's singing, the moment Etta finished singing. Then they had to talk over the next act! This time I kept the sound on "Mute" throughout the ceremonies, and of course, fast-forwarded through the parade of athletes.
With the opening and closing ceremonies, apparently sportscasters literally do not realize that, unlike sports, the sounds made by actors and singers are intended to be listened to. Yes, SPORTS and parades are all dead air unless they chatter, but for entertainment performances, they need to SHUT THE FUCK UP and let us listen to the performers
At least this year, during the men's gymnastics we don't have that MORON John Tesh repeatedly calling the parallel bars, "The P-Bars," which, EVERY TIME, sounded like he was saying they were performing in a gay bar for piss freaks. Drove me up a wall. And don't get me started on the "P-Horse." It's bad enough when they announce that shortly "We will be returning to Olympic Water Sports." I kept screaming at my TV that Tesh needed to shut up and go back to making crap music!
The presence of Tom Selleck in the movie In And Out pretty much ruins it for me now, though I loved it when it came out. They should re-name it "INto a Reverse Mortgage and OUT of your house!"
ReplyDeleteRelating to ScottyB’s question:
ReplyDeleteThe next Summer Olympics will not include baseball or softball, but will include breakdancing. Maybe I’m just an old guy shaking his fist at a cloud, but WTF!
All I know is that German sprinter Alica Schmidt is a notable change from the 70s era East German track teams. Wow.
ReplyDeleteMary Lou Retton herself called Simone Biles the "greatest gymnast ever."
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of neutral on the Olympics as they are today, but I think ancient Greek skateboarding is an event I would definitely watch.
ReplyDeleteHang iota, dude!
For me, the pandemic has shaken things up in a lot of unexpected ways. Shows or events I would normally watch or attend just don't seem to hold the same attraction for me now. Instead of watching the Olympics this time around, I've been binge-watching This Old House. Maybe this is the year I finally get up the courage to tackle that kitchen remodel I've been threatening to do for about a decade. Then again, the second season of Ted Lasso has just started...
ReplyDeleteHow do you ignore 80% of a country's population? In 2008, Barrack Obama received approximately 65.5 million votes. Mitch McConnell received about 953,000 (as Senator in Kentucky.) Yet the piece of human waste from Kentucky all but destroyed everything that Obama tried to accomplish. No, not an 80% difference. Horrifying, regardless. (I suppose that was a rather rude, comparing Mitch McConnell to human waste. Apologies to actual human waste.)
ReplyDeleteI also have to give a quick "agree" to the post above which said that the Olympics haven't been "true" since professional athletes were allowed to compete. I'm in Chicago Bulls territory, but when professional "hero" Michael Jordan showed up playing for the American team in 1992, I was astonished that it was allowed. What fun is it to let professionals play? Bring back the real Olympics.
I watched (LIVE) a little bit to try to catch Team Israel with its baseball team in the parade of nations. I DVRd it just in case I didn't catch it live. I did, within minutes of turning it on. So I only had to watch for a few minutes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the reader who complained about the announcers talking over Etta James' singing. I had never heard John Williams' Olympic theme until one Fourth of July when the Boston Pops Orchestra played it on "A Capitol 4th." I was mesmerized and immediately went to YouTube to try to find the original version. Sure enough, there was John Williams in 1984, conducting the original version, and there were a bunch of announcers talking over it because they were sore afraid that they'd lose viewers if there wasn't someone there on their TV screens to guide them. Couldn't they just let us listen to the dadgum music in peace?
ReplyDeleteWhoever is comepting from Team Haiti is counting their blessings, because they can probably get vaccinated in Tokyo.
ReplyDeleteWe've been drowned in women's gymnastics. Tired of this overly feminine "sport."
ReplyDelete@kenlevine: I was a bit disappointed in your dismissal of the Games by letting the money thing get in the way. Look,money guides everything, from sports to sitcoms. Fact of life. Sad fact, but a fact nonetheless. The other fact is the best althletes on the planet are competing, the vast majority if them amateurs who have spent years sweating and pissing nothing for years but this one dream of theirs, COVID be damned. Do they necessarily care that it's an empty stadium? No -- that's shit we at home care about.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I think your dissertation today was a bit of a disservice to all the athletes there in Tokyo. I think they deserved better.
Would you be saying the same thing if it was one of your offspring in Tokyo?
The opening and closing ceremonies aren't even athletic events, so why all the hulaballo and angst? Jeez, it was just basically a fashion show best ignored even in the best of decades.
ReplyDeleteEase up, yeah? The only thing that mattered was the fireworks show.
Dunno about anybody else,but the narrator for the "lives lost" segment was funeral-home creepy. Other that, the opening ceremony was pretty much the same as the opening of an Oscars show. Lots of yawn time because that's how they build 'em.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the Olympics can be discredited on the whole just because pro basketball and hockey players are allowed to compete.Those are only single events. The rest of the Olympics are much more than that.
ReplyDeleteIt's sorta like the difference between going to a minor league baseball game and a major league one. You notice a difference, IMO.
Following up to @Anthony Adams' comment: One of the major venues from the '64 Tokyo Games is still in use and is considered an architectural beauty.
ReplyDelete@Chuck: Our pros are getting their ass handed to them on the basketball court. So much for that one.
ReplyDeleteThat's the neat thing about the Olympics. Everything's even when even France is laughing at your professionals.
@B Alton had a great question about casting actors for the role of parents. I think parents who were a regular presence are generally overlooked in the overall discussion. Yes, Nancy Walker was a presence, but she wasn't a constant presence. She showed up every now and then, to great effect.
ReplyDeleteWhat would "Raymond" be without anyone else but Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle? Or "Frasier"s John Mahoney? Now that was incredible casting.
Another aside to the question about casting the parent roles, we naturally think of sitcom parents. On the other side of the coin, we've had dramas whose parents -- and the actors who played them -- were a bedrock. Michael Landon and Karen Grassle in "Little House On The Prairie," Ralph Waite and Michael Learned as head of "The Waltons", and maybe even James Broderick and Sada Thompson on "Family."
ReplyDeleteIt would be hard to imagine anyone else in their footprints.
When was the Olympics not a money grab.
ReplyDeleteI love "In and Out." I watched it again recently and was just as entertained. Joan Cusack earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination for actress in a supporting role. Her indelible performance as the unsuspecting bride-to-be should not be missed.
ReplyDeleteOn MAD ABOUT YOU Jamie's parents were played by Nancy Dussault and Paul Dooley. Then without warning they were replaced by Carol Burnett and Carroll O'Connor. Why? Did someone decide that bigger names would lift falling ratings?
ReplyDeleteD. McEwan, talking over music is why I stopped trying to watch figure skating. Surely they can point out that triple axel and why it was a little bit off in a recap. I don't need to watch a young woman clutch a water bottle while waiting for her scores to be posted.
Roughly 100 of Team USA's athletes are unvaccinated too, adding insult to injury. Leave it to self-centered 20 something narcissists to listen to the concerns of 80% of the the host nation about COVID spread and say, screw y'all.
ReplyDeleteI used to be obsessed with a right-leaning sports site called Outkick, created by Clay Travis. They labeled anyone opposed to letting sports carry on despite COVID setbacks as "coronabros." The singular form of that word crossed my mind as I read this post. I also had Keith Olbermann's voice in my head while reading some of it. I worry about an outbreak myself, but I don't want to allow myself to be paralyzed by worry and do nothing. (By the way, I quit reading Outkick because of the snarky, belligerent tone of all posts not written by Clay. Plus, I didn't want to be triggered by current events.)
ReplyDeleteSo far this year, I have only watched the Olympics sparingly, DVRing the primetime coverage and skipping to events where the U.S. wins gold (after checking results on the NBC Sports app).
I don't know if I made any sense, but I wanted to go on record with my tepid dissent. I still like reading your posts and listening to the podcast.
I commend to you Andrew Jennings' book THE LORDS OF THE RINGS, which details the corruption inside the Olympics - originally written in the 1990s but I think updated since. That was quite enough to put me off most of it. But the final kicker was 2010, when that luge athlete got killed on a practice run and it emerged that they'd been warned the design was unsafe and they went ahead anyway. When it was here in 2012, the IOC made some utterly outrageous demands, too - eg, closing roads for their exclusive use. In London!
ReplyDeletewg
Buttermilk Sky: you missed the interim around season 2-3 where Jamie's parents were played by a different couple who came with an aged aunt. I think Burnett and O'Connor were stunt casting. Not sure about the first switch.
ReplyDelete@ScottyB,
ReplyDelete"Would you be saying the same thing if it was one of your offspring in Tokyo?"
I can't speak for Ken, of course, but for me, the obvious answer is yes. If one of my daughters was an Olympic contender, I would do my best to talk her out of participating. A gold medal isn't worth the increased likelihood of catching and/or spreading a deadly virus during a global pandemic.
If a new Covid variant forms in Japan, was the Olympics worth it?
If one person dies from Covid who would not otherwise have become infected, was the Olympics worth it?
If one athlete brings the virus back to their hometown - perhaps one without access to vaccines or a high-standard medical facility - was the Olympics worth it?
If the numbers of Covid deaths and hospitalizations start to skyrocket in Japan, was the Olympics worth it?
Friday question on the business end. Did you and David ever create an LLC, S corporation, or production company, and at what point in your career did you decide you needed to do any of them -- and why?
ReplyDeleteYes, the COVID thing has split up families. I was horrified to find out that my older sister has refused the vaccine. It started an argument that escalated - the worst in my life. We no longer speak, but I honesty don't care. I can't be around stupidity, and refusing the vaccine (unless for medical reasons) is insane. And these people are rabid about it. They just babble what they hear from far right media outlets. (Her husband watches that crap.)
ReplyDeleteFor God's sake, when I was a kid in the 60s/70s, our CHURCH administered vaccines.
WTF is this fear of science among certain churches? (That is not my sister's reason.)
A little late to the party, but a couple of thoughts. The Japanese Olympic Committee has no say as to whether the games get cancelled. It's up to the IOC, So I'm not surprised that corrupt bunch could care less about what 88% of Japanese want. They'll all be on the first plane out as soon as the games end.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for all those handwringing over the admission of professionals to the Olympics, remember that when the modern Olympics started in 1896, it was decided that only amateurs could compete because the organizers wanted the games open only to moneyed aristocrats who could afford to compete without working for a living. Getting paid to compete wouldn't attract the right kind of people. The IOC managed to build up the idea of amateurism as some kind of holy grail when the original intent was far from admirable.
Chris Oakes said The Japanese Olympic Committee has no say as to whether the games get cancelled. It's up to the IOC.
ReplyDeleteThis is true, however the Japanese didn't have to let anyone in the country which would have affectively canceled the Olympics. Of course there might have been a money issue if they did this.