Dennis Miller Tones Down 'MNF' Schtick

Sept. 5, 2000 -- Dennis Miller changed his game plan.

Through three preseason Monday Night Football broadcasts,the irreverent comedian-turned-commentator seemed to be saying eachand every thing that popped into his rapid-fire mind.

When the game counted for the first time, though, he appeared tohave hit upon a new and winning formula: moderation.

During the Super Bowl-champion St. Louis Rams’ 41-36 victoryover the Denver Broncos in the regular-season opener for both theteams and ABC’s program, Miller refrained from too muchover-the-top esoterica, picking his spots to go for laughs.

The network could not have asked for a better contest and theratings brought good news for ABC, considering the game was playedon Labor Day (the NFL has said it will start its season after theholiday in the future).

The overnight Nielsen rating for the broadcast was a 15.9 with a26 share, down just slightly from last year’s 16.1/27 for theopener. More impressively, Monday’s preliminary rating was 9percent higher than the last time the NFL opened on Labor Dayweekend, in 1998.

The overnight ratings measure the country’s largest 48 markets.National ratings were due late today.

Hired to Spice Up Broadcasts

Miller was hired in June as part of a complete overhaul ofMonday Night Football, which has seen its Nielsen ratingsdecline each of the past five seasons. Producer Don Ohlmeyer, withthe show during its heyday in the 1970s, returned and handpicked anew cast, keeping only play-by-play announcer Al Michaels.

The thinking was Miller would create a “buzz” that could boost interest in the program, possibly with the samelove-him-or-hate-him appeal Howard Cosell once had.

In a winking nod to the show’s past, Miller donned thebanana-yellow ABC’s Wide World of Sports jacket the announcers wore decades ago.

But that was about as anachronistic as Miller would get Monday.

Sure, there was a reference to ancient Rome’s founding twins,and the occasional bizarre comment — “Schlereth has been scopedmore than a redneck abducted by aliens,” about oft-operated-on Broncos lineman Mark Schlereth — but Miller held himself in checkfor the most part.

And it worked much better than his scattershot approach frompreseason, when no line was too weird, obscure or scatological forMiller.

Only once did he really let loose, and it was an appropriatejuncture.

Was He Too Stiff?

On a long Rams scoring play in the third quarter, Miller watchedTorry Holt escort fellow receiver Az-Zahir Hakim down the sidelineto the end zone, and pronounced: “They don’t need a football, theyneed a baton. Just put that Christmas tree lighting system up onthe goal post, this is the NHRA Winter Nationals. … [Rams coachMike] Martz has assembled a Murderers’ Row of haste. … Romulusand Remus going down that sideline. … Last time I saw speed likethis was John Carlos and Tommie Smith in Mexico City.”

It was the type of funny stream-of-unconsciousness that Millerhas mastered — and is a nice diversion if done in doses.

Another highlight was when Miller spoke about Broncos runningback Terrell Davis having his ankle wrapped on the sideline: “Theartist Christo didn’t use that much fabric when he wrapped the PontNeuf.”

And in the first quarter, he keenly observed: “I got a feelingthe guy working the scoreboard might wind up with Carpal TunnelSyndrome today.”

That was the best of his football “analysis,” which wassometimes banal. Of course, Miller isn’t in the booth to dissectXs-and-Os, and he shouldn’t try to.

Also unlike the three preseason games, Michaels and new analystDan Fouts refrained from giggling at each of Miller’s jokes —another improvement.

During the exhibitions, Miller mined history, religion,literature and pop culture, referencing anyone and anything fromthe Apostles to Sylvia Plath to The Partridge Family. Sometimesit was funny, sometimes flat, and often in the way.

Planned to Cut Back

Last week, perhaps as a concession to critics or uninspiringratings, Miller said he would cut down on his number of comments.

“I think less is more,” he said. “I watched these first threegames [on tape], and noticed I might be more prone … to go forthe score [laugh] more frequently than I need to.”

He was right, and Monday’s performance showed he had learned alesson.

Fortunately, however, Miller didn’t take himself too seriously.

After Rams running back Marshall Faulk scored a touchdown, theman who has an everything-goes weekly show on cable channel HBOsaid: “Everybody’s worried about me using profanity and the onlyF-word I might use this year is Faulk.”