| 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.
- In a 1999 commercial, 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 tie as a headband, holding a lantern, and screaming, '"Follow me to freedom!!"
- Immediately after signing off a typical SportsCenter broadcast, Dan
Patrick and Kenny Mayne are
given sombreros and begin broadcasting the Spanish version of SportsCenter. Later they are shown giving the Russian version a try.
Many commercials in the series have derived their humor from comparing working for SportsCenter with playing in professional sports. 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.
Many famous athletes have been featured in the series, including Andre
Agassi, Bill Bradley, Kobe Bryant, Brandi Chastain, Jennifer Capriati, Roger Clemens, Mia Hamm, Jim Harbaugh, Evander Holyfield, Keyshawn Johnson, Roy
Jones Jr., Mark McGwire, Gheorghe Muresan, Gaylord Perry, Mary Lou Retton, Pete
Sampras, Jerry Stackhouse, and Tiger Woods.
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