Tanith Belbin, 2006 Olympic Silver Medalist and four-time World medalist, interviews Doug Wilson about his book and his 50 years with ABC Sports.
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In The World Was Our Stage, producer/director Doug Wilson recounts his incredible fifty-year journey with ABC Sports and it’s beloved sports anthology program ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Doug's natural storytelling style and entertaining anecdotes capture not only “the human drama of athletic competition”—the hallmark of ABC’s coverage—but also the unforgettable golden era of sports television. Doug’s career spanned nearly all of the show’s groundbreaking run from 1961 through 1998, and his personal perspectives on the celebrated athletes and historical events of the last half of the twentieth century are both humorous and poignant. The World Was Our Stage reflects the spirit of the sporting world and the wonders of modern technology as they merged on television and set the standard for sports programming in the twenty-first century. |
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Winner – Sports Category National Indie Excellence Book Awards 2014 |
Finalist – Sports Category 2014 USA Best Book Awards |
Finalist Sports and History Categories Foreword Reviews’ Book of the Year Awards 2013 |
A behind-the-scenes look at ABC’s Wide World of Sports, the famous sports show.
ABC’s Wide World of Sports ran for 37 years and was, for most of that time, a huge success and ratings hit. Iconic host Jim McKay and an array of reporters and interviewers—Bud Palmer, Frank Gifford and of course Howard Cosell—took advantage of advances in air travel and satellite technology to take sports reporting to places and events broadcast TV had never been. In his friendly, chatty debut memoir, the show’s producer and director Wilson says, “Every kid in America who tuned into Wide World could now picture himself or herself racing through the streets of Monte Carlo, diving off a coastal cliff in Acapulco, or hurtling headfirst down a treacherous ice track in St. Moritz.”
Wilson proves himself an excellent, entertaining guide to the show’s growth and acclaim, providing readers with the perfect balance of insider politics, shrewd estimations of his celebrated colleagues—in particular, his characterizations of McKay, “a good friend, the guy next door,” brim with affection—and a store of enthralling anecdotes, many revolving around the amusing personality clash between sportscaster Cosell and boxing legend Muhammad Ali. “You’re being very truculent,” Cosell sarcastically told Ali, to which the champ replied, “Whatever truculent means, if it’s good, I’m that!” Wilson is openly and winningly sentimental about the sports greats who came through the show, including daredevil motorcyclist Evel Knievel and Soviet gymnast Nadia Comenici, “the elfin girl who charmed the entire world with a simple flick of her wrist at the end of her floor exercise in ’76.” Some of his stories are unexpectedly touching, like the black-and-white photo of Helen “Penny” Chenery (aka Mrs. Tweedy), the analytical owner of the racehorse Secretariat; watching the horse thunder past the half-mile pole, she was able only to say, “C’mon, big boy.” With warmth and intelligence, the book captures a vanished era of sports coverage before the advent of cable’s overwhelming specialty networks.
A monumental show brought to life again in a perfectly pitched read for sports fans.
www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/douglas-wilson3/the-world-was-our-stage/
ABC’s Wide World of Sports ran for 37 years and was, for most of that time, a huge success and ratings hit. Iconic host Jim McKay and an array of reporters and interviewers—Bud Palmer, Frank Gifford and of course Howard Cosell—took advantage of advances in air travel and satellite technology to take sports reporting to places and events broadcast TV had never been. In his friendly, chatty debut memoir, the show’s producer and director Wilson says, “Every kid in America who tuned into Wide World could now picture himself or herself racing through the streets of Monte Carlo, diving off a coastal cliff in Acapulco, or hurtling headfirst down a treacherous ice track in St. Moritz.”
Wilson proves himself an excellent, entertaining guide to the show’s growth and acclaim, providing readers with the perfect balance of insider politics, shrewd estimations of his celebrated colleagues—in particular, his characterizations of McKay, “a good friend, the guy next door,” brim with affection—and a store of enthralling anecdotes, many revolving around the amusing personality clash between sportscaster Cosell and boxing legend Muhammad Ali. “You’re being very truculent,” Cosell sarcastically told Ali, to which the champ replied, “Whatever truculent means, if it’s good, I’m that!” Wilson is openly and winningly sentimental about the sports greats who came through the show, including daredevil motorcyclist Evel Knievel and Soviet gymnast Nadia Comenici, “the elfin girl who charmed the entire world with a simple flick of her wrist at the end of her floor exercise in ’76.” Some of his stories are unexpectedly touching, like the black-and-white photo of Helen “Penny” Chenery (aka Mrs. Tweedy), the analytical owner of the racehorse Secretariat; watching the horse thunder past the half-mile pole, she was able only to say, “C’mon, big boy.” With warmth and intelligence, the book captures a vanished era of sports coverage before the advent of cable’s overwhelming specialty networks.
A monumental show brought to life again in a perfectly pitched read for sports fans.
www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/douglas-wilson3/the-world-was-our-stage/
Doug Wilson with long-time ABC Sports figure skating analyst and two-time Olympic Champion Dick Button
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2002 Olympic Champion Sarah Hughes
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Doug Wilson with ABC's Lara Spencer
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Times Square - Publication Day 2013