30 for 30 is the umbrella title for a series of documentaries airing on ESPN and its sister networks. The series, which premiered in October 2009 and concluded in December 2010, chronicles 30 stories from the "ESPN era," each of which detail the issues, trends, people, teams, or events that transformed the sports landscape since the sports network was founded in 1979.

The idea for the series began with ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons, who wanted feature filmmakers to recount the sports stories, people, and events from the past 3 decades which they (1) took a personal interest or involvement in, however great or small, and (2) felt hadn't been fully explored. Simmons and his team took special interest to "stories that resonated at the time but were eventually forgotten for whatever reason."^[1] Simmons serves as 30 for 30's executive producer; Mike Tollin, who directed the series' 3rd entry, "Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?," also serves as consulting producer to the series.

Directors had creative control over their 30 for 30 episodes. The directors appear in interstitial comments during the broadcast to discuss their film and its subject matter, usually appearing before the beginning of the film and before the last commercial break. A number of directors appeared as participants in their films, serving as narrators, analysts, or interviewing participants of the original story.

List of films in the 30 for 30 series

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, each episode length is 60 minutes (including commercials).

Additional episodes

Other films were previously announced for the 30 for 30 series but were not included in the series. These films, which began airing in 2011, are a continuation of 30 for 30, dealing with more sports stories that 30 for 30 did not cover. According to 30 for 30 producer Bill Simmons: "We're spinning off the "30 for 30" series next year into something that will probably be called "30 for 30 Presents" or something like that... we're going to be putting out 4 5 sports docs per year on the level of the best "30 for 30" docs and getting the best filmmakers to do them. Same creative team is involved. We have some terrific ideas in the hopper. So even though the SMU doc will be the 30th one (right after the Heisman ceremony) don't think the spirit of the series is going away."^[2] These additional movies, presented under the title ESPN Films Presents, include:

Critical & ratings response

The series had a slow beginning. The first film, Peter Berg's Kings Ransom, a chronicle of Wayne Gretzky's trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, premiered on October 6, 2009 to poor ratings.^[3][4] Kings Ransom drew a 0.5 national rating and a total viewership of 645,000.^[3][4] The premiere of Kings Ransom aired at the same time as the 2009 American League Central tie-breaker game between the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers on TBS, which went into extra innings and drew a 4.5 rating..

As awareness and critical acclaim grew, the viewing audience also grew. By the seventh episode, The U, the audience had grown to a 1.8 rating and well over 2 million viewers.^[5] The A.V. Club review for the eighth entry, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, called it "the most hotly anticipated [of the first eight]" and stated that "it more than lived up to the hype."^[6]

The A.V. Club has given positive and negative reviews for different episodes in the series, with notable critical reviews of the three episodes that had involvement by the media production arms of Major League Baseball (Four Days in October), the NBA (Once Brothers) and NASCAR (Tim Richmond: To the Limit).^[7][8][9]

Awards

• 2010 Peabody Award Winner^[10]
• 2010 International Documentary Association's "Distinguished Continuing Series"^[11]

Sponsors

Cadillac and Levi s are the presenting sponsors of the series. The Cadillac name appears on the 30 for 30 logo, while the Levi s "go forth" slogan appears on the bottom corner of the screen during the directors interstitial comments, which appear for 45 seconds at the beginning of each film and 30 seconds at the end. Commercials for both companies were shown during every intermission during the original air dates, with Levi s guaranteed a 60 second commercial slot at the beginning of the third act. Cadillac replaced Honda as a primary sponsor; during its time as a contributor, Honda aired parts of its "Dream the Impossible" documentary series in the first commercial break.

References

External links

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