TV Garth: Olympic Wrap Up!

Greetings TV Garth readers! The 2010 Vancouver Olympics are over, but I still wanted to do a wrap up of some of the highlights! The following report is culled from both CTV and NBC coverage! So without further ado, here is What TV Garth Observed About The Olympics:

• Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue did an incredible job in the Ice Dancing competition. Their routine was flawless and jaw droppingly smooth! (Plus I love that if you drop the “a” from Tessa, she’d sound like a Dick Tracy character!)

• CTV personality Lisa LaFlamme needs to start a recording career so that she can have albums with names like Flammeboyant or Highly Flammeable. (Or those could be the names of her edgy electronic rock bands!)

• It was wonderful to see Joannie Rochette triumph over personal tragedy to win a Bronze medal in the Women’s skating.

• It would be even more wonderful if Joannie Rochette joined forces with South Korea's Kim Yuna and Japan’s Mao Asada to create The Triple Axels! It would be an animated kids series where they each get special powers by wearing the flags of their respective countries as capes! They’d get to shout sassy phrases at criminals like “You’re on thin ice, buddy!” or “You can’t skate by us!” Each episode would have a short appearance by the real life women to teach kids a valuable lesson about eating vegetables or something.

• Canadian institution Lloyd Robertson did the CTV news from Vancouver’s Olympic set!

• Canadian fast food chain Harvey’s advertised heavily during the American coverage of the games! Their commercials popped up frequently on Buffalo’s WGRZ during their local ad breaks. I know some Canadian chains have made their way to Western New York (like Swiss Chalet and Tim Horton’s.) But these were definitely the Canadian ads, as they started off with “You asked for it Canada!”

• This was NBC’s main Olympic set with Bob Costas interviewing Linsday Vonn!

• Canadian Men’s Hockey WIN featuring Sidney Crosby during NBC’s coverage of the game!

• All together for a group shot! The Canadian Men’s Hockey Team get together and pose on CTV!

• I bet these players have really big sticks….to play a rousing game of hockey, of course!

• I was switching between CTV and NBC’s coverage of the big hockey game, and was surprised that NBC seemed quicker to pounce on our guys for interviews.

• Crowds were going crazy for the Canadian Men’s Hockey Team. Check out Robson Square in Vancouver below! (This also doubles a shout out to my friend Felix, who lives in Vancouver!)

• There’s a Brian Williams on CTV (pictured below) and a Brian Williams on NBC. Both networks got together and produced a really cute segment about the meeting of the two personalities.

• CTV’s Brian Williams owns the main Olympic set used by the network during the Games!

• I Believe there were times that Nikki Yanofsky looked like she wanted to stab Annie Villeneuve with a rusty hanger during their joint performance before the closing ceremonies. J’Imagine all the drama that would cause!

• I was surprised to see the cast of Glee come out to perform “O Canada” at the closing ceremonies! (Then I found out it was actually a group called Inward Eye with the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra.)

• Canadian Idol winner Eva Avila popped up at the closing ceremonies, reminding me how great she is. That made me think about how it’s a shame that most of the Canadian Idol winners have never been as “big” as they should be. (Maybe it was PETA that sabotaged her career because her skirt looked like it was made from the feathers of a dead bird.)

• Michael Bublé can have his Mountie outfit ripped off in front of me anytime he wishes!

• Alanis Morissette = awesome!

• WGRZ chose the week of the Olympics to debut their news in 16x9 widescreen SD. It now looks much more dynamic than their competitors. Also of note is Matt Granite, a solid reporter (pictured below) who does the “Ways 2 Save” segments in addition to co-producing WGRZ’s Daybreak! During one recent newscast, the news team revealed he was a “proud Canadian” after the Olympic hockey win and joked that he gave up a career in the NHL to deliver savings tips to Western New Yorkers. In one of his blog entries he wrote: “I am so unbelievably psyched to [be] in Buffalo and working at the same channel I grew up watching (even though I'm from Toronto), I'd do my job at any hour.” He also has an Honors B.A. from University of Toronto! Go Matt Granite! Whoo!

• The Olympics may be over, but the flame lives on in our hearts! (Or in TV Garth’s case, the flames never really stopped!)

Stay tuned to TV Garth for more TV treats, including an update on the March tropo situation! (It will herald the return of Rochester! Utica! Erie! And more wacky commercials!)