Shark Bytes

I used to like this show a lot. It had some interesting confrontations. The one that comes to mind first was when the Oakland Raiders quit against the Philadelphia Phillies because of a controversy with the tug of war. Like previous posters said, it was nice to see football players exposed in events that didn't involve pure strength. (Yet the Raiders lost to the Phillies in a tug of war!)

To the poster above: I don't recall Brian Budd but I remember it seemed as though every year the winner would be a relative unknown. You'd have all these football or baseball stars and they would lose to a water skier (Wayne Grimdich) or a racecar driver (Jody Schecter). Also the Superteams was a big joke!! I seem to remember the Royals going every year because our old buddy Mr Steinbrenner didn't want any of his Yankees competing. I guess he isn't so dumb after all!!!

Joe Frazier was a marble statue of a man, with one exception: a statue would have been a better swimmer. Since I couldn't stand Muhammad Ali as a kid, it was horrifying to see my hero sink like a stone and apparently try to run across the bottom of the pool. As for my favorite football players, it was disappointing to see they could do very little outside of the strength competitions.

In 1983 the preliminary rounds were dropped as Superstars went from a 10 week schedule to a 3 week schedule. This produced some very poor finals. The competition did enjoy a resurgence in the late 80's on NBC as preliminaries (only 2) were reinstated.

I remember watching this show in the late 70's and early 80's. They had all kinds of famous athletes from mainly baseball and football, but what I vividly remember is the year that a Canadian soccer player won the competition and they wouldn't invite him back again because nobody knew who he was. Let me explain. At the same time that the American version ran there was also a Canadian and a British version which featured famous athletes from those countries who were, of course, largely unknown to American sports fans. Every year they would have a Canadian "championship" Superstars and the winner of that competition would automatically go to an annual international Superstars championship that was supposed to determine who was the best of all the "superstars". Well, Brian Budd, a Canadian soccer player in the now defunct North American Soccer League, won the Canadian competition. I can even remember in the Canadian competition the broadcasters were comparing Budd's results to the best previous performances of the American Superstars and he was doing better than any of them. So, he was invited to compete in the American Superstars competition (in 1980?) and to ABC's surprise, but not to anyone who had seen him in Canada, Brian Budd won. Great for Canadians, but ABC was left with the problem of crowning a complete unknown as the Superstar champion. So, sometime later it was announced by ABC that Brian Budd would not be asked to compete in the American Superstars competition again. This even caused a bit of a controversy that I can remember being discussed in the sports media in Canada.

I remember as a child watching the Superstars every Sunday hoping that my football heroes would prevail. I thought it was a great competition to find out who was the greatest athlete. But my reality of how serious the competition was, was obliterated when Oakland Raider TE Dave Casper answered why he did so poorly in the competition. Dave answered, "I'd rather drink beer in the offseason." I learned two things that day...1)The Superstars is a joke. 2)Beer must be cool.

Show jumped when they imposed a time limit on the tug of war. This was a direct result of a marathon tug between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings, post Super Bowl 9 (or IX, if that makes anyone feel better). The tug-of-war was the last event and would decided which team was the overall winner. This thing went on for what must have been at least a half hour real time (it was edited for TV), as both teams really got at it. I distinctly remember Steeler Ernie Holmes's face tensed up the entire time. Finally, The Vikings pulled through at the end and won, but believe me, there was little celebration. The closing shot of this show was of Franco Harris cooling off and almost passing out in the Pacific Ocean. Wouldn't happen today as someone would be afraid of getting hurt, but up to that point in the 70's, it was real all-out competition.

I recently came across the Superstars a few weekends ago and boy, was it crap! True athletic events were replaced by things like Ski-Doo races. As for the football players being so far above others in the old versions, that wasn't true. They only had the advantage in the strength events. And true athletes are more than just muscles. Put them in any other competition and they always got killed. I always wanted to compete. (Being extremely skinny and not an celebrity, I would have looked a little funny though.) I know I would have won at least one event. NOBODY on the old version could shoot a basketball to save his life.

Boy, you football fans have selective memories. Because as someone who used to look forward to this show every year, I remember the football players being horrible in any invent that didn't involve pure strength. Most football players didn't even try to jump over the "high" jump bar in the obstacle course. Those so called "weak" events were not weak at all. But perhaps it is time for all you football apologists to realize that there is MUCH more to sports than just being the strongest. In fact, in most sports, being that muscle bound is a detriment. Hopefully you'll forgive the rest of us athletes who have a desire to be a bit more well-rounded, rather than steroid-enhanced freaks of nature.

Wasn't there bicycle races? Cracked me up! Hey, this was serious stuff. The winner for each event got TEN points--as I remember. AND JOE FRAZIER gets ONE point in the swimming event---for coming in last.

I laughed my ass off when I saw Joe Frazier trying to swim. One of the world's greatest athletes nearly drowns in this goofy event.