40 years ago - Raiders vs. Jets vs Heidi

[the 4th hanson bro]

November 17, 1968 was the infamous Heidi game between the NY Jets and Oakland Raiders.

The Raiders trailed with 1:05 remaining and NBC cut to the broadcast premiere of Heidi at 7:00. The Raiders scored two touchdowns in that final 1:05 and fans east of Denver didn't get to see it.

The following uproar redefined how popular football had become on TV and changed how the game was broadcast.

Video

 

[Neroon]

Re: 40 years ago

Man, what a moment to remember.

It's a completely different world today, so I suspect alot of people wouldn't quite appreciate the quandry.

 

[Pegaritaville]

I can't say I remember that, but I've heard about it many times over the years.

Not sure what would shock people more today- the fact that they would cut away from a football game to show some lame movie, or the fact that the Raiders could actually score two touchdowns (in a little more than a minute, no less).

 

[Super Grover]

Wasn't there some show on HBO that recreated that night. What I remember was the kid that NBC had working Master Control was fresh out of Vietnam, and when the angry crowd started gathering outside of NBC, he started having flashbacks. Of course that was all a dramatization too so what do I know.

 

[gblews]

I can't say I remember that, but I've heard about it many times over the years.

Not sure what would shock people more today- the fact that they would cut away from a football game to show some lame movie, or the fact that the Raiders could actually score two touchdowns (in a little more than a minute, no less).

Your memory seems to be pretty faulty in general.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I like how a week later, Joe Namath gave a review of Heidi, where he said, "I didn't get a chance to see it, but I hear it was great!"

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The Heidi director was a total prick. Not only did he have his head so far up his ass as to think that the opinions of a gaggle of 6-year-old girls meant more than a nation full of millions of football fans, but the guy even bitched that the final score of the game was scrolled across the screen during his little wimp-fest of a film?

 

[The Lady Eve]

Thanks for the video. God, what a disastrous decision compounded by the great sensitivity of running the final score over the kid falling out of her wheelchair and clawing her way on the ground.

 

[ToddPence]

Of course, when the Raiders and Jets have played in recent years, angry viewers have deluged the network with calls demanding that they put on "Heidi" instead.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

The Heidi director was a total prick. Not only did he have his head so far up his ass as to think that the opinions of a gaggle of 6-year-old girls meant more than a nation full of millions of football fans, but the guy even bitched that the final score of the game was scrolled across the screen during his little wimp-fest of a film?

In today's world, yes, it would be unthinkable.

In context 40 years ago - it made perfect sense. Football wasn't the money-making machine it is now. It was mainly regional interest.

There also weren't 15 different options for replaying the movie on 23 different channels after the original airing. And yes, at the time, the gaggle of 6 year old girls and their parents did matter.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The Heidi director was a total prick. Not only did he have his head so far up his ass as to think that the opinions of a gaggle of 6-year-old girls meant more than a nation full of millions of football fans, but the guy even bitched that the final score of the game was scrolled across the screen during his little wimp-fest of a film?

In today's world, yes, it would be unthinkable.

In context 40 years ago - it made perfect sense. Football wasn't the money-making machine it is now. It was mainly regional interest.

There also weren't 15 different options for replaying the movie on 23 different channels after the original airing. And yes, at the time, the gaggle of 6 year old girls and their parents did matter.

But would it have killed them to make those kids *wait* a few minutes? The network could have run a caption saying that Heidi would start as soon as the game is over. Which obviously wouldn't have been very long anyway.

For that matter, what the hell was Heidi doing coming on right after a freaking football game anyway? Not the best lead-in in the world, eh?

Actually, I believe the network changed its mind at the last minute and officials were instructed to actually leave the game on, but the instructions couldn't get through because the phonelines were jammed - *so many* football officials were trying to get through at once. So the whole thing can be blamed on a technical fuck-up after all.

Interestingly, Jennifer Edwards (Heidi) actually met Joe Namath on a plane a few years ago - 35 years after the game itself. I wonder how that went.