Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole: The Sports Guys

Inside Television 545

Publication Date: 3-18-11

By: Hubert O'Hearn

A team so nice they supply their own captions

I looked up the date. It was April 5, 1992 right at the start of baseball season. We still had the big dish in the yard back then and I was able to pick up the grey market feed of ESPN and 'SportsCenter'. Yes, I admit to a criminal past. But it made me a TV writer.

Anyway, 'SportsCenter' had a new teaming that night at 11PM Eastern; Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. Patrick was known - Olbermann wasn't. And I remember Olbermann firing off quips and riffing on the sports highlights, doing impersonations of Boston Celtics' broadcaster the late Johnny Most ("Way downtown! Bang!"). After 20 minutes or so, Patrick turned to Olbermann, on camera, and said in shock and admiration, "Who are you, anyway?" And thus the great teaming began and ran with a couple of interruptions for five years.

The other great team was - Canadian! (Do note the foreshadowing. I worked long and hard on it.) Global TV ran a half-hour highlight show after their national news, which was equally brilliant in that era, called 'Sportsline' hosted by Jim Tatti and Mark Hebscher. They too were serious when they had to be - people do unfortunately get mauled and broken quite regularly in what is often termed the Toy Department of news. But in general they treated the games as they should be treated. we watch them for fun, so let's have fun in looking back at what we watched. So 'Sportsline' ran from 1985 to 1995. I have often wondered if some traveling ESPN exceutive was flopped out on a Toronto hotel bed, flipped on Global and went, "Hmmm...you know, dry-witted mustache guy paired with funny guy next door guy. Hmmm."

And now there is a third pair I would put in a Hall of Fame: Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole who host the 2AM EDT 'SportsCentre' on TSN. Now, 2AM is bar closing time in the East and in B.C. it's happy happy joy joy time, so liberties can definitely be taken with the highlights in keeping with the audience's mood.

For those who haven't caught the show - it replays at 3AM and in the early morning in shortened form. I find it interesting in our interview that O'Toole mentions Jay Onrait in connection to Conan O'Brien. His face and motions share a similar series of expanding cubist angles. And as with O'Brien, Onrait is a natural comedian.

O'Toole is more the wit, I find. And he got off one of the best lines I've heard all year, weeks before the life of Charlie Sheen became the Great National Obsession. Some golfer yanked one into the pond and O'Toole said with a perfect delivery, "And like Charlie Sheen on a Monday morning, he reaches the drink." P.G. Wodehouse would have loved it.

Moving on, this week and next you'll be reading some memories and opinions of Onrait and O'Toole. Enjoy.

1) My all-time favourite sports highlight teams were the legendary Olbermann-Patrick and Tatti-Hebscher. You guys remind me of both. Who were your favourites as kids, or broadcast students?

Onrait: Wow… that is such a great compliment to start with. You are already our favourite interviewer ever.

Since I grew up in Alberta I only caught the tail-end of the Tatti-Hebscher era but I really enjoyed it. Dan and I got to know Jim a little bit last year when he was working for the NHL Network. He was just such an outstanding and gracious guy and so supportive of us.

 

For me to be compared to Olbermann-Patrick is the highest possible compliment you could ever give us. They were, in my opinion, the greatest EVER at doing what we do. Such a perfect combination. I don’t know if anyone will ever get close to them. I also should say that growing up near Edmonton I watched Darren Dutchyshen and Perry Solkowski on “Sports Night” which was sort of the Edmonton version of Sportsline. That show made me want to do what I’m doing now.

O'Toole: Hands down Tatti-Hebscher for me. They owned late night sports for the longest time. 'Sportsline' was THE highlight show to watch, plus I lived on a farm and didn't have access to TSN. I ended up meeting Tatti a few years into my time at TSN and actually asked him if I could use his 'Yes guy' line. He said it would be an honour if I did. I thought that was the greatest thing.

More next week. Be seeing you.

(this is the beginning research for the coming eBook: 'The Future Was Television'. Look for more details soon! Cheers- H)