![]() Offering a mix of track and swimming with less-than-strenuous events such as Simon Says, tug-of-war and a dunk tank, the show was not aimed at the sports fanatics. Needless to say, there is a big difference between watching serious sporting events and watching the likes of Penny Marshall and Mackenzie Phillips navigate an obstacle course. ![]() The idea of mixing entertainers and sports somehow evolved into a two-hour special that aired on ABC in prime time in November 1976. The series had a jokey “celebrity” episode where a number of B-listers turned up, mostly for self-deprecatory laughs. “Superstars” had champion athletes competing against each other in a number of different sports. “Battle of the Network Stars” was a spinoff from another ABC series called “Superstars,” which was broadcast on Sunday afternoons. ABC broadcast this production and brought in its resident loudmouth sports commentator Howard Cosell to serve as master of ceremonies. ![]() The “battle” was on the sports field – actually, Pepperdine University’s athletic facilities – and each team consisted of eight actors who competed in various feats of strength, speed and silliness. Only three national networks dominated American television, and the TV-viewing publicly happily allowed their lives to be disrupted twice a year by something called “Battle of the Network Stars.”Ī bizarre hybrid of proto-reality television mixed with quasi-athletics and iced with good-natured stupidity, “Battle of the Network Stars” brought together prominent actors from the popular TV series on each of the networks. Once upon a time – actually, back in the late 1970s and early 1980s – life was much simpler. ![]()
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