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October 2, 2005
Who Needs Andy Gray And Martin Tyler?
When are we getting Fanzone for American sports?
It wasn't until he hit the crossbar midway through the first half of the Spurs - Fulham match from Monday that I figured out who the hell this "Santa Claus" character actually was. I suppose I should have been a little more clever; it wasn't like I was unfamiliar with the fellow in question. He might have even been on my imaginary soccer team at some point. But it took a closeup shot of his bald pate and post-crossbar grimace for me to realize that the Santa Claus in question was actually Danish international Claus Jensen.
Of course, once I saw him, it all made sense. I mean, if I was into Fulham, Santa Claus is the sort of thing I might come up with for Claus Jensen. So I shouldn't have been so shocked that Fulham supporter manning the mike for this week's installment of Fanzone (Thursdays, 8:30 pm Pacific Time) on Fox Soccer Channel had settled on that moniker. Santa Claus is exactly the sort of nickname that only a fan (or "supporter" in the local parlance) comes up with, and it's exactly the sort of nugget of localized insider minutiae that makes Fanzone such a fun idea for a TV show. And, of course, the accents don't hurt.
If you've never caught a Fanzone broadcast on FSC, allow me to offer a quick summary of the premise: they broadcast an EPL match/ English soccer game with two fans in the booth doing the commentary (one from each team). So you get the regular game video, but with two raving lunatic British soccer fans screaming color commentary in incomprehensible English regional accents. Viewers can text in their comments (typically insults directed at the commentators or other texters) and have them displayed in the crawl at the bottom of the screen, to which the fan-cum-commentators will frequently respond (typically insults directed at the texters or the other commentator). This is apparently offered as an alternate viewing option as part of the Sky Digital TV Package in the UK, or so I've been led to believe.
Anyhoo, it's a real smash-bang TV show. Getting to hear the British version of the sports lunatic (not quite a full-fledged hooligan, mind you, just the guy who takes the team maybe a little too personally/ seriously, especially considering his age and number of children) is pretty compelling. The paranoias, the ridiculous nicknames, the imagined slights from years past, the need to demonstrate their encyclopaedic knowledge of both the assistant coaches and reserve team roster -- it's just a very rich, very deep sample of a very specific achetype. And again, the accents. The accents are spectacular.
(Brief aside: the time I spent working for a British company was priceless if only for the exposure to the rich diversity of non-American English accents. Not that I can identify and categorize them all, mind you, but I can at least tell them apart and appreicate their sundry flavors.)
The show tends to be most entertaining when smaller clubs are involved; the supporters from the big clubs just aren't as interesting. I think it must have something to do with the fans from the big clubs just having it too easy. If you support Man U, or Arsenal, or Liverpool, or Chelsea, you know that your team is one of the few capable of actually winning anything each year. But if you're a Southampton or West Brom supporter, you know your team isn't actually capable of producing real results. The most you can hope for is the occasional emotional upset of a big-name club. And it definitely makes for funnier/ more pitiful fans. It's almost as if the the supporters from the smaller clubs know their place. They don't expect to win, and they're typically quick to admit as much. I'm sure there's something interesting to say here about how all this connects to British culture in general and their conceptions of class, but this is neither the time nor the place. Mostly, it's funny to hear the resigned lunacy of the fan who screams his head off in (explicitly acknowledged) vain. It's makes for good TV.
Fox Soccer Channel has apparently decided that they're going to do something similar for MLS broadcasts. Which is certainly a step in the right direction, but isn't really the most exciting application of the concept in the U.S. market. Imagine this sort of thing for Red Sox - Yankees games? Broncos - Raiders games? For Duke - Carolina in college hoops? Michigan - Ohio State in football?
And those are just the big-name ideas. You would have to guess that, like in the Brit version, the more obscure (yet fanatically supported) the team, the more entertaining the broadcast. Throw in some compelling regional stereotypes, and you've got yourself a hit! What I mean to say is that I think this would absolutely RAWK for SEC football. Some dude from Ole Miss screaming/ twanging at a Kentucky fan? Some Alabama yahoo getting hopping mad at some cajun LSU dude? This is a high-potential product. The good people at the SEC need to get behind this, stat.
(And, of course, the accents wouldn't hurt.)
Posted by thatkid at October 2, 2005 9:55 AM under
Stuff To Buy
Comments
Just saying I had this idea several years ago, and you all laughed. Laughed or didn't respond. Now we see it in action, and we're sold. Great. Now let's get on the folks at the major media outlets to let us start rebroadcasting the games. They'll love it.
Posted by: Chris at October 3, 2005 12:57 PM
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