Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days. Because the Olympics and the Super Bowl both came this week, this edition is exclusively about TV:

TV: Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony – With the six hour time difference between Europe and here, and my fortunate status as a retiree, I was able to watch the entire opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics live on television Friday afternoon. I think I’ve only ever watched the full opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, and that was on tape because I was still working then, so that’s my sole basis for comparison. This show was hosted by Terry Gannon of NBC sports and Mary Carillo, a former professional tennis player and a longtime NBC Olympic broadcaster. She was a late replacement for Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie whose mother went missing in Arizona last week. Gannon and Carillo were joined by former Olympic snowboarder Shaun White. Much of the show was visually stunning and highlighted Italian history and culture, although I’m guessing at that since the hosts didn’t do more than read brief snippets from a script on those topics. I don’t know if the producers felt the average viewer would be bored by too many cultural references but I felt like I missed a lot. The same was true with the outfits the athletes wore as they paraded. I assume there is both cultural significance to the national athlete uniforms and also an attempt to promote national brands, but I recall little commentary on any of that by the announcers which likely reflected their collective background in sports. (The American athletes looked stunning in long white woolen coats, white pants, and knit red, white and blue turtleneck sweaters, hats and mittens, all made by Ralph Lauren.) The TV hosts were certainly knowledgeable about sports, but there is plenty of time over the next few weeks for sports talk. To be fair, Guthrie’s eleventh hour crisis had to disrupt the plan, so she might have added some non-sports dialogue to the broadcast. The two singers I recall were Mariah Carey who came near the beginning and Andrea Bocelli near the end. Both were good. They are global superstars so the expectations were high. Perhaps the most notable feature of this opening ceremony is that it was the first in Olympic history to be held simultaneously at multiple venues. Athletes paraded at four geographically dispersed sites which was good for the athletes since they could all participate in the opening parade but not great for the viewer because it created a strobe-like jumping from one shot to another without providing time to soak it all in. 

TV: Winter Olympics, week 1 – When it comes to watching sports on TV, my philosophy is shaped by ABC Wide World of Sports which ran on Saturday afternoons for 37 seasons, from 1961 until 1998, and especially its opening narration, “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport . . . the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.” You can’t get more globe-spanning than the Olympics (except, perhaps the World Cup), so I try to watch as much of the games as I can. On Saturday, I watched the figure skating team event; women’s ice hockey, US v Finland; and men’s “big air” snowboarding. On Sunday, with competition from the Celtics v Knicks and the Super Bowl, I only caught the teams figure skating competition which was very good with the US winning the gold medal. On Tuesday, I saw more figure skating. My heavy menu of figure skating had more to do with the randomness of my viewing schedule than an intentional selection, although figure skating is always very dramatic. 

TV: Super Bowl LX – I’m a casual football fan who likes to watch an exciting game regardless of which team is involved. If pushed, I would choose the Patriots as my favorite team, but not because of any deep affection to the organization, although most of the players on this year’s roster seem likeable, down to earth, and allied with each other. As for the game itself, I turned it off after the halftime show with the score 9 to 0 in Seattle’s favor. From watching past Super Bowls in their entirety, I knew that each half can be like a separate game so I didn’t feel a Seahawks victory was certain, but when I awoke on Monday and checked my phone, I was not surprised that Seattle had won. That’s because in the first half, the Seattle defense was stifling. I think every Patriots possession ended with a punt. The offense was unable to generate any momentum and was unable to keep the Seattle pass rush away from the quarterback. However, the Patriots defense matched that effort which kept the score so close. I suspect the key to the game was that Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold did not make any costly mistakes. So anytime the home team loses, it’s a disappointment, but thinking back to last summer, the best most fans could have hoped for from this team would be a winning record. To make it to the Super Bowl was an unimaginable-in-summertime bonus. 

TV: Super Bowl Commercials – As mentioned above, I went to bed after watching the Bad Bunny performance so not only did I miss the second half of football, I also missed some of the best Super Bowl commercials. In the time I did watch, I was underwhelmed by the commercials which are such a big part of the Super Bowl experience. Then on Monday morning upon reading a few “Best Super Bowl Commercials” articles with links to the videos, I realized the best commercials were shown during the second half of the game and the “worst” included many of those I saw live. Two of the best involved topics that are often shunned in the national conversation. The first, titled “relax your tight end” featured many of the top NFL tight ends, both past and present, in relaxed settings. Then former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Ariens emerged as the spokesperson for the product being advertised, a simple PSA blood test from Novartis that helps detect prostate cancer (of which Ariens is a survivor). Historically, testing for that illness involved an uncomfortable and invasive examination by a physician that led many men to avoid the test. In recent decades, a simple blood test has been used for prostate cancer screening but the historic hesitation to delve into that area persists with catastrophic results since if prostate cancer is caught earlier, the treatment is highly effective, but if it is missed it can spread elsewhere with predictable consequences. So this not only advertised a product but also was an effective public service. The other “top commercial” that touched on an untouchable area was for Raisin Bran. It featured William Shatner who shortened his name to William Shat. “Shat” is the ancient past tense of “Sh*t” which is what the commercial was about. Well, it was about how consuming more fiber of the type found in Raisin Bran better regulates your bodily functions in a healthy way. Like the PSA commercial, this one used humor to address an important topic that is often avoided. As for the others, go to YouTube and search “best 2026 Super Bowl commercials” to see more.

TV: Super Bowl Halftime Show – As I’ve grown older and my entertainment tastes have changed, I’m less likely to say, “I don’t like” something and instead assume that if I don’t like something that is popular with many others, I must be missing something. That was the case with Bad Bunny, who before this week I’d heard of but never knowingly seen or heard. That changed last week when he won Album of the Year at the Grammys and, while he did not perform at that show, he was frequently on camera. That introduction plus the knowledge that he would be the star performer of the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show set me on a crash course to watch some Bad Bunny videos on YouTube. That he sings exclusively in Spanish was not a concern; it just made me once again regret not putting more effort into my three years of high school Spanish. As for this year’s Super Bowl show, I enjoyed it while watching live, but was left with a strong desire to learn more about the many cultural and historic markers embedded within. Overall, it reminded me of the musical (on stage and in the movies) “In the Heights” by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a celebration of Latino life and culture in Brooklyn, New York. Finally, as is the case so often, there is a strong Lowell connection to the halftime show but I’ll wait until this Sunday’s newsletter to point that out.