The parents of newly-minted gold medalist Missy Franklin had such bad seats last night, they nearly had to watch her record-breaking swim through binoculars -- but TMZ has learned, NBC upgraded them BIG TIME ... at the very last minute.

A rep for the US Swimming Team tells TMZ, Missy's parents had purchased tickets to watch their daughter dominate the 100m backstroke -- but they were all the way in the nosebleed section.

We're told NBC producers noticed -- and not wanting to miss their emotional reactions on TV, they hooked Missy's parentals up with some sweet seats right near the front.


NBC wasn't disappointed either -- 17-year-old Missy eked out a victory over Australian favorite Emily Seebohm for the gold medal ... and her parents went NUTS!

Go USA.