Television, Radio, and Entertainment
The game was broadcast in the United States by CBS and featured the broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Pat Summerall and color commentator John Madden. Brent Musburger of The NFL Today anchored the pregame, halftime and postgame coverage. Helping Musburger were reporters Irv Cross and Will McDonough and analysts Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Theismann and Dan Dierdorf (in his final CBS assignment before moving on to ABC's Monday Night Football for the following season). The game was also the first NFL game to be broadcast in Dolby Surround sound and in stereo. It was also the first Super Bowl to be closed captioned for the hearing impaired. The game was also broadcast in Canada on CTV and in the United Kingdom on Channel 4.
Nationally, the game was carried over the NBC Radio Network. Don Criqui served as play-by-play with Bob Trumpy his color commentator. This was the last Super Bowl called by Criqui, as NBC Radio lost NFL rights following the season and he returned to his secondary play-by-play role on NBC television. Trumpy would call two more Super Bowls for NBC television (Super Bowl XXVII and Super Bowl XXVIII) as part of the network's #1 broadcast team. In the teams' local markets, the game was carried on WNEW-AM and KOA-AM.
The pregame show was a salute to California and featured the pop music group The Beach Boys. Singer Neil Diamond performed the national anthem. The coin toss ceremony featured Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman Willie Davis.
The halftime show was a "Salute to Hollywood's 100th Anniversary" featuring an introduction by George Burns (who was only nine years younger than Hollywood at the time) and a performance by the Southern California high school drill teams and dancers.
Super Bowl XXI MVP Phil Simms was the first athlete to appear in a "I'm going to Disney World!" television ad.
As had been their tradition all season, upon securing their victory, Giants players celebrated by dumping a Gatorade cooler on head coach Bill Parcells. The 1986 Giants were the first team to initiate what has now become a standard post-game celebration, and the Super Bowl telecast enabled a large, national audience to first witness what has become commonplace.
The postgame show was supposed to feature the song "One Shining Moment" but due to postgame interviews taking so long, CBS never aired it. They ultimately changed the lyrics from "The ball is kicked" to "The ball is tipped", and the song is now played at the end of the network's NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship coverage. CBS also debuted the theme music that would later be used for their college football coverage during this game, as well as its open that was used through 1990.
This Super Bowl is featured in NFL's Greatest Games under the title Land of the Giants.
Read more about this topic: Super Bowl XXI