Olympics Opening Ceremony 2012 Schedule: Breakdown of Events for Friday's Show

Well, the big day has finally arrived, and the Opening Ceremonies of the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London are underway.

Fans in the United States will have to bide their time before bearing witness to the pageantry of Academy-Award winning director Danny Boyle's $42 million "Isles of Wonder" production, as NBC has decided to air the ceremonies on tape delay at 7 P.M. EDT, with coverage of the three-hour ceremony set to kick off 90 minutes prior.

Friday already got off to a regal start in the UK. As ABC Action News reports as the day began with bells around the UK, including the one atop Big Ben, ringing for three minutes.

Those bells will pale in comparison to the one that will ring in the opening ceremony. According to London2012.com, the Whitechapel Foundry has crafted the "largest harmonically tuned bell in Europe", and that bellhemoth will ring in the beginning of the Games.

The Olympic torch has also made its way to its final destination, as rowers aboard the royal barge Gloriana propelled the torch and it's bearer, former Olympic rower Matthew Pinsent, down the River Thames from Hampton Court to Tower Bridge.

The torch will make its final appearance later in Friday night's production, as it will be brought into Olympic Stadium and used to light the Olympic cauldron during the show's grand finale which will reportedly conclude with a performance of "Hey Jude" by Sir Paul McCartney.

As to the actual details of the ceremony itself, Boyle and the rest of the organizers have done an excellent job of keeping things under wraps, although a few details have leaked out.

According to the ABC report the opening scene of the ceremony is entitled "Green and Pleasant" and will feature a set reminiscent of the British countryside complete with picnickers, rolling hills, rivers and livestock.

In fact, Boyle has also created fake clouds to produce actual rain, as the director wanted a portion of the ceremony to feature a traditional British downpour according to The London Daily Mail. It will likely take those fake clouds to get Boyle his rain, as weather forecasters are calling for only a 10 percent chance of showers Friday night.

So far as the rest of the show, your guess is as good as any others. Queen Elizabeth II and soccer star David Beckham are expected to be featured during the ceremony, as is a film featuring current James Bond Daniel Craig.

Outside that its' been rumor after rumor ranging from the somewhat plausible to the borderline laughable, so we'll just have to all wait and see what the Slumdog Millionaire director has in store.

After the pomp and circumstance have died down a bit, the procession of athletes from over 200 countries will make their way around Olympic Stadium, with the United States contingent being led by fencer Mariel Zagunis, who called the honor "the cherry on top of the pile of cherries that were already there," according to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

It will be interesting to see if Zagunis will continue the American tradition of refusing to tip the Stars and Stripes as the U.S. contingent passes Queen Elizabeth II and the viewing stand, which The Star-Telegram points out has lasted for more than a century.

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As legend has it, the U.S. flag bearer at the 1908 Olympics in London did not dip the flag as it passed King Edward VII, and team captain Martin Sheridan famously explained later, "This flag bows to no earthly king."

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That minor controversy and a not-so-minor controversy regarding a lack of a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Games aside, Friday night promises to be a night filled with the sort of spectacle and beauty befitting the opening of the world's biggest sporting event.

The estimated one billion people who will watch the ceremonies on television are undoubtedly in for a fantastic show, and its' one that certainly should not be missed.

Even if it is on tape delay.

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