Not exactly. Bob Barnhart, who has helped craft the looks for the past 19 Super Bowl Halftime Show extravaganzas, told PLSN contributing writer Mike Wharton that the show itself, for him, is like a 12.5 minute sprint at the tail end of a months-long marathon. Knowing full well how critical a flawless execution will be for one of TV’s biggest annual events, with more than 100 million people watching, “I am never comfortable until they hand me the ball by saying, ‘The whole system’s working; it’s yours.’ The next words I hear are, ‘We are live in 5, 4, 3, 2’ …and twelve and a half minutes, later it’s over,” Barnhart says. “I’m so busy wrangling 16 followspots, making sure she stays lit right, that when people ask me, ‘How was the show?’ I honestly have to say I have no idea. It’s just the oddest show to work on.”
—Bob Barnhart, as quoted by Mike Wharton, PLSN, March 2017, page 44.
