Triumph of the Warm and Fuzzy

Bud Greenspan, whose inability to wear glasses properly was rivaled only by his capacity to take athletics out of his Olympics videos, has died of Parkinson’s disease at the age of 84. Half Leni Riefenstahl, half Nicholas Sparks, Greenspan, dark-rimmed glasses perched on his shaved head above his ridiculous safari jacket, combined soaring orchestrals, stentorian narration, overly produced opening and closing ceremonies, and profiles of Belgian wrestlers who overcame tone deafness and Cameroonian lugers whose great-uncle’s half-sister’s cousin’s handyman died just 2 and a half months before the Opening Ceremonies to produce Olympic documentaries with all the athleticism of an Ikea commercial.