TV coverage of Fischer-Spassky match
(1) I remember Pandolfini--nothing like the persona in Searching for Bobby Fischer. (2)A prominent feature of those broadcasts was that Lyman had a phone line to the Marshall Chess Club where Edmar Mednis would be analyzing with a bunch of players. "Let's check with Edmar. We have Edmar!" (3) Matt Katrein (sp? I think he was an NYC master) appeared. He predicted Fischer's e4 in Game 6 middlegame. (4) I think that for a segment of one game there was a TV feed from Rochester N.Y. showing Ken Rogoff and Mark Lanze. (5) I almost got on myself, representing the Westchester Chess Club (Mamaroneck, NY), but the president of the club, Harry Klein, went on with a nine-year-old kid whose name I forget. Vaughn somebody? (6) A long-haired player was on for part of one game, and referred during analysis to "The fanatic Kissinger" and "The murderer of the Vietnamese, Nixon." After a commercial break he was no longer there, and a person from the station (WNET-NY, I think) apologized for "gratuitous political comments" that were not to be taken to represent the views of the station. (7) In Game 1 the panel took a while to figure out that Fischer's Bishop would be trapped after his blunder ...Bxh2, but I saw it and was trying to call the station when somebody saw that Spassky would play Bd2 preventing the Bishop from getting out via e1. (8) I remember the sound of the Telex transmissions from Iceland announcing that someone had made a move. DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING. (9) Do any segments of those broadcasts survive? The station didn't record them. Didn't anybody take 16mm movies of any of it? What fun it all was.
Also--I seem to remember that Lyman talked on the show with his father, Harry (whom he called "Harry"), who was also some kind of master. Hmm, maybe USCF president Ed Edmondson appeared? I remember someone, probably Edmondson but maybe someone else who could have been on the show not because of special chess expertise but for other reasons, lauding Fischer's ...Nh5 in Game 3 but without really giving analysis. Anyway, Edmondson did a lot to make that match happen and should have been on the show if he wasn't.
Does anyone remember which players did the TV analysis of the Fischer-Spassky match in 1972? All I remember is that Shelby Lyman was the host.