Cow pastures. Cornfields. Snow White horse-drawn carriages in the Old Market.
Those are a few of the sights shown to the country during national television broadcasts of this year’s College World Series. The deliberateness of such monotony now has many locals up in arms.
“Why aren’t they showing our chuckholes and Dodge Street during rush hour?” asked one dismayed native outside Rosenblatt stadium. “There’s more to this city than cow pastures and dirt roads. We also have Keno and River City Roundup!”
Omaha’s appearance on the national stage has been a hot-button issue with many city boosters since the 2008 American Idol auditions that were broadcast to a national audience by an auctioneer in a cowboy hat standing on hay bales in a crop circle.
Television executives disagree. “Our B-role is representative of the cities we’re shooting in,” said one producer who wished not to be identified. “When we’re in Las Vegas, we show casinos; when we’re in Dallas, we show monstrous cowboy hats and belt buckles; and when we’re in Omaha, we show large round people wearing red with corncobs on their heads.”
“When Omaha has a skyline featuring something besides banks and insurance companies, we’ll show it.”
For now, it seems the city will have to accept its hillbilly image. At least until 2011, when television cameras can show the parking lot and
seal exhibit that used to be Rosenblatt Stadium.
