This Week in Baseball was an American television series which focused on Major League Baseball highlights. Broadcast weekly during baseball season the program featured highlights of recent games, interviews with players, and other regular features. The popularity of the program, best known for its original host, New York Yankeesplay-by-play commentatorMel Allen, also helped influence the creation of other sports highlight programs, including ESPN's SportsCenter. After its original syndicated run from 1977 to 1998, and gaining a revival in 2000, TWiB was discontinued at the end of the 2011 Major League Baseball season, replaced by the new program MLB Player Poll.
History
When CommissionerBowie Kuhn first took office in 1969, the only weekly showcase of Major League Baseball was its Saturday afternoon Game of the Week on NBC. On the other hand, the National Football League had produced its own syndicated highlight programs like This Week in Pro Football through its in-house unit NFL Films. In response to its competition, This Week in Baseball premiered in first-run syndication in 1977. The show was originally hosted by long-time New York Yankees announcer Mel Allen. The program was typically picked up by stations that also had television rights to major league franchises like WTBS in Atlanta, KTTV in Los Angeles, and WGN in Chicago. TWIB would also air on owned-and-operatedNBC stations as a prelude of sorts to NBC's Game of the Week telecasts. According to Curt Smith's biography on Mel Allen entitled The Voice: Mel Allen's Untold Story, when NBC lost the rights to the Game of the Week to CBS after the 1989 season, TWIB, sans a strong anchor, proceeded to either lose markets or move to weaker, stations. Even more so, TWIB was now averaging a 1-2 rating and, in several places, airing at midnight.
End of the Mel Allen era
In 1996, Mel Allen died. Warner Fusselle, who had previously contributed the "TWIB Notes" and "TWIB Ticker" segments as well as substituting for Allen frequently in later years, and filled in for Allen when needed ultimately took over for the remainder of the season. In 1997, the recently retired Ozzie Smith became the new permanent host with Fusselle serving as the show's announcer and main contributor. TWIB had pretty much moved into being more of cable-syndicated show as in Detroit for instance, it was shown on PASS. By this point, however, TWIB appeared to have run its course and the 1998 season proved to be the last for the original series.
In 2000, Fox Sports decided to cancel its young-viewer-centered baseball series In the Zone in favor of reviving This Week in Baseball. While the show was much more feature-driven than it had been before and was still targeted at the younger audience, the show retained some of the older features, such as plays of the week and the same open and closing themes. Cam Brainard hosted and narrated the new series. For much of the show's run, a claymation version of Mel Allen introduced and closed the show. Although all other children's programs were cancelled by Fox on December 28, 2008, TWIB was retained at least for the 2009 season, airing for the first time in high definition. It also aired on the MLB Network. By the 2011 season, TWIBs ratings declined as the result of such shows as ESPN's Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter, which showed baseball highlights daily. The rise of the internet and the MLB Network also sealed TWIBs fate. In 2012, Fox cancelled TWIB and replaced it with a new baseball-oriented show, MLB Player Poll.
Format
The show also aired on regional sports networks around the country, on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada, and was also often played as part of the pre-game entertainment on the TV screens of major league stadiums. From 2004-2005, segments of the show were hosted by U.S. fast-pitch softball sensation Jennie Finch. In 2007, TWIB was slated for 26 episodes running from April to the end of September, focusing on stories of various clubs and different baseball themes each week. The segment "Front Row Fan" features celebrities reminiscing about their favorite baseball memories. Guests have included Tom Hanks, Bernie Mac, Alyssa Milano and Kevin James. There is also a play of the week section and TWIBIA, in which a trivia question is asked before the commercial break. Highlights of the past week's action are used less frequently, except for a closing highlight reel set to popular songs. The highlight reel is named How 'Bout That?, in reference to Mel Allen's well-known catchphrase. Video is gathered from each of the 30 Clubs' Stadium Loggers, who compile highlights of each game and send them to MLB Productions in Secaucus, NJ. The program also uses educational segments to help it qualify for E/I status in the United States.
Music
The opening theme music to TWIB is "Jet Set," composed by Mike Vickers, a former member of the original Manfred Mann band. "Jet Set" was first used as the theme for the original 1974-75 version of the game show Jackpot. When Fox brought TWIB back, a slightly revamped version of "Jet Set" was written. The closing theme to the show is "Gathering Crowds," composed by John Scott. It is typically played over a montage of baseball's greatest moments, building to a crescendo with a punctuated 3-note chord as the MLB logo slides into view. The piece has also been utilized to similar effect for montages and credits at the end of, for example, local TV newscasts.
