![]() when suddenly over my head appears Loretta Swit.” “The next thing I know, everything’s kind of swimming and I’m laying on my back. “Then the adrenalin hit my knees and I kind of collapsed,” he recalls. In shock, he got up and tried to continue. Hindle caught his foot on one of the tires and went down hard, breaking his arm. “Howard would have to interview me again,” he figured. A one-time Toronto Argo hopeful, he had the upper body strength for the monkey bars and the wall climb. Hindle was confident he’d ace the obstacle course, scoring the best time in practice. The result earned him some face time with legendary sports commentator Howard Cosell, who singled the Canuck out as NBC’s star athlete. Growing up paddling on Ashbridge’s Bay helped Hindle ace the kayak relay. His NBC teammates included Robert Conrad, Lynda Day George, Kurt Russell, Jane Seymour and Dan Haggerty. “I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty good athlete, so it was right up my alley,” says Hindle, then co-starring on the short-lived series Kingston: Confidential. In 1977, he was the lone Canadian on Battle of the Network Stars. In the ’70s and ’80s, he appeared on everything from Cannon and Baretta to Dallas. and Paradise Falls - was for many years a familiar face on American television. What made the original so unforgettable? Here are four stories:Īrt Hindle - best known in Canada for homegrown shows such as E.N.G. It all takes place at the same venue as the original: the Pepperdine University campus in Malibu, Calif. Classic events such as tug of war, kayak relay and, of course, the dunk tank are all part of the mix. The 10-episode series features 100 TV stars from 14 different networks and cable companies.Īctors from current hits such as Modern Family and Scandal will compete with former stars from past shows such as The West Wing, The Incredible Hulk and CHiPs. Inspired by the original, today’s Battle of the Network Stars launches Thursday at 9 p.m. Egos were checked at the door in what amounted to a celebrity high school track meet. There were only three major American networks back then and all fielded their top stars. The original series aired from 1976 through 1988. Simpson had only slashed his way through airports in a series of rent-a-car ads. It was a carefree time when Caitlyn Jenner still went by Bruce and fellow Battle of the Network Stars commentator O.J. For the ladies, there was the sight of Mary Tyler Moore star Ed Asner jogging around in his Adidas short-shorts. Mention “Wonder Woman,” “Lynda Carter” and “dunk tank” to males 50-plus today and watch eyes light up. It was the ’70s, when the only thing politically correct was Nixon’s ouster from office. Think Catherine “Daisy Duke” Bach dripping in a dunking booth and WKRP’s Jan Smithers in a one-piece, her buoyant Les Nessmans abounce.Into the glorious era of spandex, disco and “jiggle” TV sprinted Battle of the Network Stars. But as much fun as it is to find out the dude who plays a rough and tumble cowboy isn't half the athlete the guy playing a dopey teacher getting dunked on by his students everyday is, the best part of Battle of the Network Stars was the fact that most of the female TV temptresses were clad in little more than flimsy spandex swimming suits. Mainstays of the competitions were the pride of ABC, Welcome Back, Kotter's Gabe Kaplan, CBS' Kojak, Telly Savalas, and NBC's star of The Wild Wild West, Robert Conrad. Why would that possibly matter? Who knows, but it was a big hit that lasted for over a decade. Thus, ABC decided they'd take male and female stars from their network and put them against the best CBS and NBC had to offer to see who had the most athletic onscreen talent. After ABC's Superstars, which pitted athletes from different sports against each other in unrelated to their sport competitions, became a huge hit, some network executive figured that they could do the same thing but with TV stars instead of athletes. Truly one of the stranger television concepts to ever blow up on the small screen, beginning in 1976 audiences could flip on the boob tube and be greeted with the strange sight of their favorite television stars going head-to-head in relay races, tug-of-war, obstacle courses, and the like.
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