THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 28, 1995 TAG: 9501270538
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
MTV's MAJOR misfits, Beavis and Butt-Head, will attempt to upstage the Disney studio and a cast of thousands Sunday during the Super Bowl XXIX halftime ceremonies on ABC. While Disney's 12-minute spectacular, ``The Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye,'' is unfolding on the green carpet of Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Beavis and Butt-Head will be doing something truly spectacular and unexpected on MTV.
They'll be forced to take a shower during gym class in one of two original episodes MTV has scheduled for ``Butt-Bowl II.''
``Zap away from traditional halftime programming and zap into Butt-Bowl II,'' MTV is saying to the zillions of viewers expected to tune into the San Francisco-San Diego game.
Ever considerate of the football fan, MTV will display on the screen a Super Bowl countdown clock to alert viewers when it's time for the second half to begin. The Beavis and Butt-Head premiere episodes include ``The Party,'' in which the mega-losers get tossed out of their own party, and ``Wet Behind the Rears,'' when the dudes are forced into the showers.
Sounds cool.
Also on cable, the TBS Superstation is scheduling an alternative to the blitzes and bombs in Miami. It's ``Eight Great Hours of Andy'' starting at 1 p.m.
For the sixth January in a row, TBS will show eight hours of reruns of ``The Andy Griffith Show,'' with CNN sports guys Fred Hickman and Nick Charles hosting the screening of 16 episodes. TBS is featuring four cast members - Barney Fife, Sheriff Andy, Aunt Bee and Otis Campbell - in four episodes each.
Over at Fox, things will be relatively quiet this Super Bowl Sunday with nothing spectacular scheduled to draw viewers away from ABC. Before Fox became part of the National Football League family in 1994, the upstart network counter-programmed against the Super Bowl telecast, forcing the NFL to bring in Michael Jackson, the Judds and now Disney to keep viewers tied to the game telecast.
``This year, Fox is behaving itself,'' said an ABC spokesman. CBS and NBC are counter-programming, sort of, against the Super Bowl telecast, which will be beamed to 160 foreign countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe. At 7 p.m. on CBS, Charles Kuralt hosts a two-hour edition of ``60 Minutes'' that includes outtakes and conversations with the program's correspondents.
NBC repeats the four-hour miniseries ``Diana: Her True Story'' starting at 7. When the Super Bowl ends, ABC hopes to hold on to much of the enormous audience for a sneak preview of a new action-adventure series, ``Extreme,'' set on the snowy slopes of Utah.
Think of it as ``Baywatch'' in white powder instead of white sand.
Before the Super Bowl telecast, Frank Gifford in the ABC booth expects to experience butterflies. It won't be because he's working the big game with Al Michaels and Dan Dierdorf.
This bunch has done Super Bowls before, and Gifford has been part of the NFL telecasts for a quarter century. He'll be a might uneasy before the game begins this time because his wife, Kathie Lee Gifford of ``Live With Regis and Kathie Lee,'' will sing the national anthem.
She says she'll sing it from the heart.
``I get nervous before every game and expect to get nervous before this one, too,'' Gifford told TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago when the ABC broadcast team met with them. He's heard Kathie Lee criticized even before she sings a note. She was invited to sing not by Frank's bosses at ABC but by the National Football League, Gifford said.
``People who haven't heard her sing have been taking shots at her,'' Gifford said. ``She's a very talented singer who has appeared with symphonies in Boston, Dallas and Detroit. She did the national anthem on `Monday Night Football.' She's proud and honored to do the national anthem before the Super Bowl, and so am I.''
The ABC crew, led by ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson, isn't promising anything new or innovative for the game coverage. ``We'll use a few more cameras than you see on a Monday night telecast, but other than that, you won't see anything that you're not accustomed to seeing on ABC,'' Swanson said.
There is one difference. There will be a pre-game show that begins at 4 p.m. and runs for two hours, right up until the kickoff.
In their meeting with TV writers, Gifford, Michaels and Dierdorf made a prediction, and it wasn't about the winner of today's game. They predicted that if Super Bowl XXIX is decided on a controversial call by the officials, the NFL in 1995 will bring back instant replay as an aid to officiating.
``There will be a rush to bring it back. I can assure you of that,'' said Gifford, who will share the Super Bowl spotlight with his wife, Beavis and Butt-Head, Aunt Bee and Princess Di. by CNB