Battle of the Network Stars V - Robin Williams, William Shatner and Others

Battle of the Network Stars V - November 18th, 1978

The majority of the Battle of the Network Stars competitions took place at Pepperdine University. With the exception of Battle of the Network Stars XVIII, which took place in Ixtapa, Mexico.

Working with me this time around, a freshman at Pepperdine but the venerable statesman from the University of Southern California, my colleague on Monday Night Football, The Giffer.

I thought this was supposed to be fun? Captain Conrad's going nuts over there. He's firing up his team, it's incredible. You know, I've hosted the men's superstars on ABC and I almost have the same feeling here Howard and that is, well there's a lot of fun and there's a whole lot of happiness involved in it. They really are serious. These are really competitors. Now the captains along with Conrad, McLean Stevenson, Gabe Kaplan, they've had their teams out, secretly working out. So, we're in for a lot of fun, a lot of kicks. They all want to win.

Right you are Gif and as you can see from the past four battles, the ABC stars have won twice. CBS and NBC each have won one.

Now we're ready for the swimming competition. That's the scene set, that Olympic sized swimming pool. Quickly the rules, 5 to each team. 2 on each team must be females. Each participant swims one lap. That's one width of the pool. 25 yards, but the anchorperson swims two widths of 50 yard. Winning team gets 100 points. Second place 75. Third place team 50.

In lane introductions, the team of stars of NBC shows right there. Caskey Swaim. And in the number two spot, Pam Hensley, gives a little bit of luster. Then Bill Devane. Brianne Leary, who has the look of a competitor. And the anchorman is Joe Bottoms.

Then the team of stars on ABC. Leading off, Richard Hatch. The veteran of this competition, being on previously when he was in Streets of San Francisco. The number two spot for this team, Maren Jensen. Debby Boone is in the number three spot and then Robin Williams swimming in the 4th spot. The anchorman for this team is big Bob Urich.

Now the team of stars from CBS shows. Leading off, that was Timmy Reid. Miss Charlene Tilton, number two. LeVar Burton, number three. Valerie Bertinelli is number four. The number five man is David Lettermen.