Opening Ceremonies

As the London Olympics got underway Friday, fans weren't giving NBC any medals for blacking out live coverage of the opening ceremonies for many viewers. NBC was set to air the festivities at the Olympic stadium in a taped and edited format during prime time. That meant millions of Americans were left with no place to turn, either on TV sets or laptops. And they weren't happy about it. "In this day and age, no livestream for the Olympics opening ceremony?," asked @jjwright on Twitter.

The opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics will take place Friday evening in London, but viewers in the U.S. will have to wait to watch them on NBC. The opening ceremony, directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle and featuring an expected 15,000 performers, will air at 7:30 p.m. Pacific and Eastern time in the U.S. And expect the fun to go until midnight. Queen Elizabeth II will officially open the Games at London's Olympic Stadium, followed by the top secret opening ceremony, which will feature a live performance by Paul McCartney.

LONDON - The U.S. women's soccer team was in Glasgow, Scotland, on Friday, more than 400 miles from Olympic Park and the opening ceremonies of the London Games. But they were there in spirit. The team planned to dress in the blue blazers, white skirts and blue berets the rest of Team USA wore during the parade of nations in London, then take over a ballroom at the Glasgow Hilton to watch the event on TV. “We're going to feel the spirit,” goalkeeper Hope Solo said. “As long as I'm with my teammates, we're going to be fine.” Shortly after Friday's ceremony ends team members will turn their focus back to soccer, Solo said, packing up their Ralph Lauren uniforms and shipping them home before taking on Colombia in their second match of group play Saturday.

  Danny Boyle  has eclectic tastes, from Shakespeare to Bollywood to zombies. While not every one of the director's favorites made its way into his inventive Opening Ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympics , his broad interests were on obvious display in Friday's global broadcast. Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire,""Trainspotting,""127 Hours") brought humor to the ceremonies with multiple movie clips, including a parody of "Chariots of Fire" with Rowan Atkinson 's Mr. Bean and footage of Daniel Craig 's James Bond dropping into the proceedings via helicopter with the Queen of England.

LONDON -- Tradition will trump tradition at the Olympics. There apparently was some consideration, albeit brief, that the United States would break with its long-held tradition and dip the flag at the opening ceremony, which was due to start at 9 p.m. London time (1 p.m. Pacific). Not this time. The tradition has been in place since the Games were held in Berlin in 1936. Most of the other countries taking part do follow the tradition of dipping their flag momentarily during the parade of nations in deference to the host country.

NBC wants viewers to know: The kickoff of the London Olympics was just too complicated to watch live. The network is fighting back against intense criticism of its decision to black out the opening ceremony on Friday, instead offering a taped version hours later in prime time. Viewers reacted with disgust when they tried to watch live coverage of the event on TV or online but could only find a few bootlegging sites carrying the feed in the U.S. "We are live streaming every sporting event, all 32 sports and 302 medals," an NBC spokesman wrote in an email to Show Tracker.

LONDON - In a city that knows how to do ceremony, from hoary rituals formalized in the Middle Ages to celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee last month partly through the Twitter feed @BritishMonarchy, an atmosphere of whimsy and party won out over pomp and circumstance during an Olympic opening ceremony that allowed an economically beleaguered Britain to pat itself on the back. Starting from his conviction that Britain "rebooted human existence" with the Industrial Revolution, director Danny Boyle called the entertainment piece of the nearly four-hour ceremony Friday night a "celebration of the creativity, exuberance and, above all, the generosity of the British people.

Two-time Olympic fencing champion Mariel Zagunis will be the flag bearer for the U.S. at Friday's opening ceremony in London. Zagunis was chosen by a vote of fellow Team USA members. "I'm extremely humbled by this incredible privilege," Zagunis said. "As an athlete, I can't imagine a higher honor than to lead Team USA into the Olympic Games, which are the pinnacle of sport and a platform for world peace. I am tremendously proud to represent my sport, our team and, most importantly, the United States of America.

LONDON — They're not asking for much, these two elderly women who lost their husbands to the worst crime in Olympic history. They're not asking for a speech or a video or even a prayer to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Games. They're asking for a single minute. One minute. One breath of silence at these London Games' opening ceremony. One brief remembrance of the lives that were lost on a day when terror triumphed over sport. One short but jarring condemnation of that terror.