Don Ohlmeyer (born Donald Winfred Ohlemeyer Jr 3 February 1945 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is a US television producer and former president of the NBC network's west coast division. Currently Don Ohlmeyer is a professor of television communications at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Most recently he served as the ombudsman for ESPN.com for 18 months with his term ending in January 2011.
Ohlmeyer grew up in the Chicago area and attended Glenbrook North High School.[citation needed]
Ohlmeyer began his career with ABC Sports. A disciple of Roone Arledge, he worked on Wide World of Sports, was the first hired producer of Monday Night Football, created "The Superstars", and also produced and directed three Olympics broadcasts (including the Munich Olympics).
He later moved to NBC as executive producer of the network's sports division, a position he held from 1977 to 1982. Over those five years, he created the popular sports anthology series SportsWorld and served as Executive Producer of NBC coverage of the Super Bowl, World Series. He also earned notoriety for the prime-time series 'Games People Play' and the made-for-television movie 'The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story.' Ohlmeyer became well known for expanding the network's sports coverage as well as introducing innovative production techniques. He launched 'NFL Updates,' NCAA Basketball 'Whip-arounds,' and instituted NBC's live coverage of 'Breakfast at Wimbledon.' Ohlmeyer is credited with conceiving the one-time experiment of airing a 1980 NFL telecast without announcers.
Norman Gene "Norm" Macdonald (born October 17, 1963) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, writer, producer and actor. He is best known for his five seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, which included anchoring Weekend Update for three years. Early in his career, he wrote for the sitcom Roseanne and made appearances on shows including The Drew Carey Show and NewsRadio. He also starred in The Norm Show from 1999 to 2001. Comedy Central named him #83 on the five-part miniseries 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. He is noted as one of Conan O'Brien's favorite and most frequent guests on his various talk shows. His brother is Canadian journalist Neil Macdonald, of CBC News' Washington, D.C. bureau.
Starting February 26, 2011, Macdonald became the new host of High Stakes Poker on Game Show Network. He also hosted Sports Show with Norm Macdonald on Comedy Central, which began airing on April 12, 2011. It was announced on June 7, 2011, that the Sports Show would not be renewed for a second season, reportedly due to low ratings, even though Sports Show steadily averaged one-million viewers per episode.
David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. Letterman recently surpassed friend and mentor Johnny Carson for having the longest late-night hosting career in the United States of America.
Letterman is also a television and film producer. His company Worldwide Pants produces his show as well as its network follow-up The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Worldwide Pants has also produced several prime-time comedies, the most successful of which was Everybody Loves Raymond, currently in syndication.
In 1996, David Letterman was ranked #45 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.
Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Harry Joseph Letterman (April 1915 – February 1973), was a florist of British descent; his mother Dorothy Letterman (née Hofert, now Dorothy Mengering), a Presbyterian church secretary of German descent, is an occasional figure on the show, usually at holidays and birthdays.
Donald Jay Ohl (born April 18, 1936 in Murphysboro, Illinois) is an American former professional basketball player who spent 10 seasons (1960–1970) in the National Basketball Association. His nickname was Waxie because of his crew cut.
Ohl played for the Detroit Pistons, Baltimore Bullets, and St.Louis/Atlanta Hawks. Among the best distance shooters of his time, the 6'3", 190-pound guard scored 11,549 points and appeared in five NBA All-Star Games in his career.
Shortly after the 1963-64 campaign, Ohl was involved one of the first so-called megatrades, this one an eight-player deal between the Pistons and Bullets. On June 9, 1964, the Pistons sent Ohl, center Bob Ferry, forward Bailey Howell, forward Les Hunter and the draft rights to guard Wally (later Wali) Jones to the Bullets in exchange for forwards Terry Dischinger and Don Kojis and guard Rod Thorn. The deal turned out to a fortuitous one for the Bullets, as Howell and Ohl became mainstays with the team.
Ohl experienced his finest hour in the 1965 playoffs, which saw the Bullets eliminate the St. Louis Hawks in four games in round one. In the Western Division finals, Ohl and future Hall of Fame guard Jerry West were locked in a tense shootout that saw West and the Los Angeles Lakers finally prevail in six games, each of which was decided by eights points or fewer. Ohl averaged 26.1 points in 10 games that post-season.
Howard William Cosell (/koʊˈsɛl/; born Howard William Cohen; March 25, 1918 – April 23, 1995) was an American sports journalist who was widely known for his blustery, cocksure personality. Cosell said of himself, "Arrogant, pompous, obnoxious, vain, cruel, verbose, a showoff. I have been called all of these. Of course, I am." In its obituary for Cosell, The New York Times described Cosell's impact on American sports coverage: "He entered sports broadcasting in the mid-1950s, when the predominant style was unabashed adulation, [and] offered a brassy counterpoint that was first ridiculed, then copied until it became the dominant note of sports broadcasting."
In 1996, Howard Cosell was ranked #47 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time and in 2011 his first full biography, Mark Ribowsky's Howard Cosell: The Man, The Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports, was published.
Cosell was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to accountant Isidore Cohen and his wife Nellie Cohen. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York. His parents had wanted him to become a lawyer. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from New York University, where he was a member of Pi Lambda Phi. He then earned a degree at New York University School of Law, where he was a member of the law review.
Gifford. Cosell. Meredith. There was more action in the booth than there was on the field.