Thanks to Motorola for shooting over to me the following TV-related Super Bowl trivia.
I used to have a Motorola TV set, by the way, which was on wheels so we could role it into the dining room if Get Smart or Wild, Wild West was on.
Snapshot of TV in 1967: a black and white TV sets still outnumbered color; Super Bowl 1 was broadcast by two networks, CBS and NBC; a thirty-second commercial for Super Bowl I cost $42,000; a Winston cigarette commercial still running on one of the two networks after half-time forced the Green Bay Packers to re-kick the second-half kick-off.
I remember those early games, which I saw on black and white TVs. There was snow, even when there was no snow, and the graphics were like cave paintings compared to the swoops and twirls and explosions of today, though sometimes there is just a little too much dissolving and rotating for my old eyes.
I don't miss the cigarette ads. OK, in a way I do. They had some of the catchiest jingles and loveliest scenery for something that was going to choke the life out of millions. "Winston Tastes Good, Like a Cigarette Should" (grammar and lungs be damned). "You Get a Lot to Like in a Marlboro, filter, flavor, pack or box.".
What were we thinking?
Anyway. I will be enjoying this year's game on a large-screen HDTV because at least somebody in my family has the good sense to have upgraded to today's technology–my brother, though he hasn't asked me over yet (hint).
By John Eggerton
