This episode took place during Madden's rookie season, 1999-2000 when New Jersey was en route to its second Stanley Cup.
On this night the Devils were visiting Broad Street for a game at the then still new Wells Fargo Center which had replaced The Spectrum.
As was the case whenever we had a game in Philly, I arranged for my pal, Father Casey, to visit me in our TV studio for a schmooze before we went on the air.
My pal, the priest, could not have known what was going on with the TV pre-production of our one-hour pre-game show. Frankly, nobody could have foreseen the problems that afflicted producer Dratch.
I must add that, having worked with Dratch for more than two decades, he was and is as superior a producer that ever came down the pike. And definitely, the funniest.(But you'll find that out a bit later.)
On this day/night, Lady Luck definitely was on a sabbatical. (We almost went on one called "firing.")
The TV truck, hidden in the bowels of the arena had developed more technical difficulties than a baby trying to decipher algebra. As a result, the determined Dratch labored overtime in an attempt to straighten out the gremlins. But that took time; precious time.
"We won't be able to pre-tape Madden," Dratch finally warned the entire TV crew. "Tell Matty (Loughlin) he'll have to do the Madden interview live."
Those of us in the business knew that doing it "live" meant there was no chance to correct mistakes that ordinarily could be repaired in a taping.
"Which meant," said Loughlin, "Madden and I would do it one and only one time and, hopefully, everything should be fine."
Except nobody bothered to tell that to Father Casey. Even worse, the good priest's geography was a bit off that day. He took the wrong door and the wrong route to where I was sitting in the studio.
Instead of entering our studio from the entrance that led next to my comfortable seat far from the set, Father Casey zagged when he should have zigged.
Egad, what a cad! Ed had trespassed directly on to the TV set. Worse still, he crossed from left to right directly in front of the camera, momentarily blocking Matty and Madden from view.
This, of course, immediately was viewed in the TV truck by a very-startled crew. Producer Dratch could have been forgiven had he obtained a momentary case of lockjaw followed by, a string of expletives something like, "Hak-Kaff, Sput-t-t-t, Um-Hak!
Swiftly regaining his composure, Dretch barked, "Who is that guy?"
Too late. Still innocent of his impromptu insertion on to the Loughlin-Madden interview, The Good Father took his seat next to me while Matty continued the interview with Johnny as if nothing untoward had happened. A pro's pro was Sir Loughlin.
But that was only half of that burlesque. In the pre-game show's final minute, Matty and The Maven were given a minute to wrap up our thoughts about the upcoming game. Simple enough, eh?
Well, not quite.
With 20 seconds remaining before our one-minute interlude, the SportsChannel backdrop behind us suddenly began slipping from its usually reliable moorings.
Worse still, there were no helpers in our studio except for Mike Finn, our cameraman whose nimble brain flashed an S.O.S.
Within seconds, Finn tore off his headphones, sped around Me and Matty, re-fixed the drooping backdrop and then dashed back to his camera with five seconds left before Dratch tossed the cue to us via our earpieces.
Now with just three seconds left Rollie Dratch uttered the punch line of the night:
"NEXT TIME HAVE THE FATHER DO IT!"
