That's according to NBC's Sunday Night Football executive producer Fred Gaudelli, who was the last producer to work with the iconic sports broadcaster, during his stints on ABC's Monday Night Football and NBC's SNF. Gaudelli said Madden, who died last week at age 85, used to have a saying that has always stayed with Gaudelli as a producer: You can’t format a live event. “John understood how television worked, why it worked, why it didn’t work, and when it didn’t work,” Gaudelli said. “He got TV on a level like a Dick Ebersol level. Al (Michaels) has the same quality. They just know what the audience needs and they know when they need it. Not that they’re perfect. I mean, no one’s perfect. But in those big moments, they’re not somewhere else when there’s something in front of the audience. If I made a decision differently in the game that took us away from something, which invariably I did, he would hit that talk-back button and say, ‘Hey, can we get back to the game?’ I mean, even to this day, if I feel like I’ve been on a topic too long that’s away from the game, I feel his voice coming through that talk-back.” Gaudelli added: "John was one of the most curious people I’ve ever known, and curious about everything and curious about you. He wanted to know your background. He wanted to know why you were wearing a pink shirt. He wanted to know why you don’t wear socks with your shoes. He just wanted to know. He was authentic in the same way Barkley is. They are who they are. He didn’t try to be somebody on the air that he wasn’t off the air. He was John Madden 24-7. Like Dick Vitale too. There are a few of those guys out there, but his curiosity did not have a ceiling."
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TOPICS: John Madden, Sunday Night Football, Fred Gaudelli, NFL