This is SportsCenter
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This is SportsCenter is the name of a series of comical television commercials run by ESPN to promote their SportsCenter sports news show.
The commercials debuted in 1994. Some of their memorable plots include:
- The Florida Marlins mascot, which always has an open mouth, finds his "girlfriend," Andrea Kremer, kissing another SportsCenter anchor.
- The power goes out late at night at the ESPN studios; Dan Patrick goes backstage to find the cause of the power outage: Lance Armstrong has taken a break from riding his bicycle (connected to a generator).
- In a 1999 commercial aired in the midst of the Y2K fears, when the studio's electricity goes out (due to Y2K tests), amidst the ensuing mayhem—which includes Mark McGwire smashing a computer with his bat—Charley Steiner walks away, wearing face paint and a necktie as a headband, holding a lantern and screaming, '"Follow me! Follow me to freedom!!"
- The carpet in the ESPN headquarters is replaced with grass to prevent injuries, a parody of the controversy over injuries sustained by football players competing on AstroTurf (in the ad, ESPN workers are shown tripping on the carpet). The anchors have to yell over the sound of the lawn mower cutting the grass in the studio.
- In a 1997 ad, Dan Patrick and Kenny Mayne are shown signing off a typical SportsCenter broadcast, and are then given sombreros, and they begin broadcasting the Spanish version of SportsCenter (with a mariachi version of the show's theme). While Bob Ley explains that they re-do the show for overseas markets ("Same highlights, same anchors, different dialects"), they are also shown giving Russian and German versions a try, replete with national costumes, and the SportsCenter theme redone for those cultures.
- In a recent ad, Scott Van Pelt asks spelling bee champion David Tidmarsh to help him by spelling "Albert Pujols". In true spelling bee tradition, Tidmarsh asks for country of origin (Dominican Republic) and for the word to be used in a sentence ("Pujols homered to win the game."), then slowly spells the word while Van Pelt cuts him off, saying "I found it online, got it."
- In 2006, a commercial aired which showed Danica Patrick's race car being towed from a parking spot, presumably outsite SportsCenter studios, which was reserved for "D. Patrick." Shortly after, Danica runs outside after her car, only to run into Dan Patrick, one's of SportsCenter's premiere anchors. Some humorous debate over whose parking spot it really was follows.
Many commercials in the series have derived their humor from parodying conventional professional sports practices, by applying them to working for SportsCenter. For example, one ad has Rich Eisen being "sent down to the minors" (in his case, working for a high-school TV service, where two students asked him to buy them some beer, a favor he rejected going through with); another shows San Diego Padres relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman filling in for Kenny Mayne for the show's "Did You Know?" segment, as if he was replacing the starting pitcher in a baseball game; and others have Charley Steiner being "traded" to Melrose Place in exchange for Andrew Shue, and SportsCenter putting a mouthy young kid on as an anchor (parodying the trend at the time of high-schoolers such as Kobe Bryant going straight to the pro leagues).
Many famous athletes have been featured in the series, including Andre Agassi, Drew Bledsoe, Bill Bradley, Kobe Bryant, Brandi Chastain, Jennifer Capriati, Roger Clemens, Mia Hamm, Jim Harbaugh, Evander Holyfield, Keyshawn Johnson, Roy Jones Jr., Lennox Lewis, Mark McGwire, Gheorghe Muresan, Gaylord Perry, Mary Lou Retton, Pete Sampras, Jerry Stackhouse, Kerri Strug, and Tiger Woods (with their tics sometimes being parodied, for example Strug being carried around ESPN HQ because of her famous ankle injury). Also, sports mascots and cheerleaders are usually present, often seen casually milling around in the background. The hot dog eating champion Takeru Kobayashi is featured in a recent ad where he finishes his lunch in the ESPN cafeteria in the 30-second span of the commercial. Another recent ad has the show going into a rain delay (it was a small pipe leaking above the desk), forcing anchors John Anderson and Steve Levy to wait it out in a dugout as a grounds crew covers the desk with a tarp.