For these of us born after Nov. 22, 1963, it was at all times one thing of a thriller to us when our mother and father and our uncles and our grandmothers would converse of the phenomenon everybody alive on that day understood for the remainder of their lives: they remembered precisely the place they had been, precisely what they had been doing the second they heard the terrible information from Dallas.
For many who had been both not but born or had been too younger to have any reminiscence of the night time of Nov. 17, 1968, and whose fathers or older brothers or aunts had been large sports activities followers, NBC supplied a equally unforgettable cultural second. With the Jets having taken a late 32-29 lead on the Raiders because the clock ticked towards 7 o’clock, TVs in all places within the Japanese and Central time zones abruptly and jarringly switched from a soccer stadium in Oakland, Calif., to a meadow in Maienfeld, Switzerland.
And whereas a whole bunch of hundreds of infuriated soccer followers threw bottles of Piels and Rheingold at their tv screens, then flooded NBC headquarters in New York with 10,000 calls, jamming the switchboard, the Raiders scored two touchdowns within the sport’s remaining 42 seconds – one on a protracted bomb from Daryl Lamonica to Charlie Smith, one on a Preston Ridlehuber fumble restoration on the following kickoff.
They gained the sport 43-32. Jets followers didn’t comprehend it then however what was born that day was a Jets-specific approach of dropping impossible-to-lose video games that may pockmark their colourful historical past.
Solely not one Jets fan really noticed it.
They noticed 11-year-old actress Jennifer Edwards bedecked as “Heidi” frolicking in that Swiss subject.
It wasn’t presupposed to occur. NBC swore to it instantly.
“I wished to see the top of the sport as a lot as anybody,” NBC president Julian Goodman advised The Submit about an hour after it occurred. “We deeply remorse the error. It gained’t occur once more.”
Fifty-six years later, it occurred once more.
It wasn’t soccer this time, and it wasn’t NBC. This time it was CBS, and this time it was the tail finish of a Billy Joel live performance commemorating the a centesimal efficiency of his residency at Madison Sq. Backyard. The live performance itself occurred on March 28. CBS had been selling it nonstop for weeks. You noticed Billy greater than Danny Hurley for those who watched sufficient of the NCAA Match.
It was clearly a giant deal.
Besides the Masters ran just a little lengthy on Sunday. And that meant “60 Minutes” began a couple of half-hour late. And that meant “Tracker: Camden” began a half-hour late. Which meant that we didn’t see Cartoon Billy board the LIRR on the Cartoon Hicksville station, sure for Cartoon Penn Station, till simply previous 9:30.
The present was what you’ll anticipate it to be. Billy Joel may not be your cup of tea. However he does promote a lot of tea. Each ticket since his month-to-month MSG residency started in January 2014 has been bought. Each single one, for 10 years. When he takes his present on the street, he and his band fill soccer and baseball stadiums.
His followers are devoted. They could not fairly attain the — let’s consider — fervent ranges of Springsteen followers …
(My buddy and colleague Peter Botte has described these acolytes thusly: “It’s like a badge of honor to play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ or some random B-side from the 12-inch import model of the ‘Nebraska’ album relatively than, say, ‘Rosalita’ or ‘Jungleland.’)
… however put it this fashion: Billy himself by no means has to truly sing the phrases to “Piano Man.” He at all times has 20,000 individuals to do it for him. It’s an all-time singalong. In one of many nice meta moments of all time, Billy Joel himself was caught on digital camera singing alongside to “Piano Man” within the eighth inning of Recreation 3 of the 2015 World Sequence.
And so proper round 11:27 or so Sunday, Billy affixed his harmonica, thrummed out the acquainted first few piano notes, and was off. Now, the Billy Joel demographic isn’t fairly the identical as Taylor Swift. I’ll admit my eyes had been just a little droopy by then. My spouse barely might sustain by the point we find out about Davy (who’s nonetheless within the Navy). However the remaining refrain was coming. We had been prepared for that.
And as Billy crooned about his microphone smelling like a beer, and the digital camera turned to rapturous followers screaming themselves hoarse about sitting on the bar and placing bread in his jar …
Effectively. It stopped. Chilly. And shortly we had been with the information. And, look, information is necessary. I make my dwelling because of the information. However as soon as once more, 56 years after “Heidi,” some poor employee didn’t get the memo from some go well with at CBS to make use of an oz. of frequent sense and understand that if we had been all nonetheless tuned in at 11:30 p.m., we had been most undoubtedly all within the temper for a melody.
Julian Goodman and his cronies at NBC didn’t have to fret about social media. His CBS descendants weren’t so fortunate. The venom started early, and sometimes. Billy himself as soon as sang in “Offended Younger Man”: “I consider I’ve handed the age/of consciousness and righteous rage.”
For at some point, a minimum of that line has been confirmed improper.
