Goal of spectacle colors NFL's thinking about Super Bowl halftime show

Goal of spectacle colors NFL's thinking about Super Bowl halftime show

Loss of viewers to alternative programming 19 years ago gave rise to performances of big-name entertainers

For the Super Bowl, which casts an unmatched net for TV viewers because its appeal spans from die-hard football fans and gamblers to those who watch out of fascination for the $100,000-per-second commercials and party-goers who merely like chips and dip, the soft spot is the halftime show.

Everything and everyone, no matter how big, strong and imposing, has a vulnerability. Maybe its Achilles' heel. Maybe it's the disintegration of social, economic, political and military institutions. Maybe it's a two-meter thermal exhaust port, not much smaller than a womp rat.

At least it was until someone attacked head-on with a burst of "Color."

"Most of the time, people just get up and go to the bathroom or check to see if the food is done or make another beer run," Keenen Ivory Wayans said as he and the rest of the Fox "In Living Color" gang plotted their assault on the National Football League, CBS and, specifically, the Super Bowl XXVI halftime salute to "Winter Magic" 19 years ago.

The roof figuratively came down on the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Three thousand balloons, a 550-member drill team, 375 dancers, the University of Minnesota marching band, a 60-piece orchestra, 30 gymnasts, large inflatable snowmen, countless sequins, Gloria Estefan, Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano were staggered.

CBS' audience dipped 22 percent for the half hour. Thanks to those siphoned viewers and other curiosity seekers, the live, sometimes offensive "Doritos Zaptime/'In Living Color' Super Halftime Party," with an on-screen countdown clock to cue viewers to resumption of the game, wound up bringing 22 million viewers to Fox, which the NFL hadn't yet welcomed as an ally.

This year it's the Black Eyed Peas headlining Fox's intermission in Dallas. It's not exactly Cee-Lo Green or Lady Gaga, but it's a tentative return to something close to contemporary for the first time since the 2004 game in Houston, where Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake cutting-edged their way into a debate over TV standards and the role of the Federal Communications Commission that's still racking up billable hours.

Intervening years have featured greatest hits from old reliables Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and The Who. No bared breasts.

"It is a challenge, because you want to give a little sex appeal, but you don't want to get into any trouble," the Peas' Stacy Ann "Fergie" Ferguson, who holds a small stake in the Miami Dolphins, told reporters Thursday in Dallas. "We're very particular about the wardrobe. There will be no more malfunctions."

Before "In Living Color" attacked halftime with such staples as Fire Marshall Bill burning down a sports bar and the effeminate film critics of "Men on Film" making a forward pass for Dick Butkus, Bob Griese, tight ends, wide receivers and every other imaginable double entendre, the intermission was either overblown pap or an afterthought.

Michael Jackson was recruited to play halftime the year after the "In Living Color" insurgency. And despite an apparent battle with jock itch, he actually boosted ratings for the game between halves of the game, which was a first.

Subsequent halftimes would feature U2 in 2002 and Diana Ross in 1996. Not every combo packed that wallop. Besides ZZ Top and James Brown, the '97 game featured Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman and Jim Belushi as the reconstituted Blues Brothers.