''Monday Night Mayhem'' is a 2002
television film
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
about the origin of
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's television series ''
Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, A ...
''. It debuted on the U.S. cable TV network
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
on January 14, 2002. It was based on the 1988 nonfiction book of the same title by Marc Gunther and Bill Carter.
Cast
*
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro (; born February 28, 1957) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his contributions to the independent film movement. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, ...
as
Howard Cosell
Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...
*
John Heard as
Roone Arledge
Roone Pinckney Arledge Jr. (July 8, 1931 – December 5, 2002) was an American sports and news broadcasting executive who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise t ...
*
Kevin Anderson as
Frank Gifford
Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Foo ...
*
Nicholas Turturro
Nicholas Turturro Jr. (born January 29, 1962) is an American actor, known for his roles in New York City based films and on the television series '' Blue Bloods'' and ''NYPD Blue''. He has collaborated with director Spike Lee since the late 1980s ...
as
Chet Forte
Fulvio Chester "Chet" Forte Jr. (August 7, 1935 – May 18, 1996) was an American television director and sports radio talk show host. He was also a standout college basketball player for Columbia and was the UPI Player of the Year in 1956–57. ...
*
Brad Beyer
Brad Beyer (born September 20, 1973) is an American actor. He may be best-known for his role in the CBS series '' Jericho'', playing Stanley Richmond.
Early and personal life
Beyer was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where he graduated from Catho ...
as
Don Meredith
Joseph "Dandy" Don Meredith (April 10, 1938 – December 5, 2010) was an American football quarterback, sports commentator, and actor. He spent all nine seasons of his professional playing career (1960–1968) with the Dallas Cowboys of the Nat ...
*
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is an American actress and singer best known for her work in musical theater. She has won three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, two Grammy Awards, and was a 2006 inductee to the American Theater Hall of F ...
as Emmy Cosell
*
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach (; December 7, 1915 – June 24, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actor from New York City. From his 1945 Broadway debut to his last film appearance, Wallach's entertainment career spanned 65 years. Origina ...
as
Leonard Goldenson
Leonard H. Goldenson (December 7, 1905 – December 27, 1999) was the founder and president of the United States-based television network American Broadcasting Company (ABC), from 1953 to 1986. Goldenson, as CEO of United Paramount Theatres, ...
*
Shuler Hensley
Shuler Paul Hensley (born March 6, 1967) is an American singer and actor.
Early life
Hensley was born in Atlanta, Georgia. The youngest of three children, Hensley grew up in Marietta, Georgia. His father, Sam P. Hensley Jr., is a former Georgia T ...
as
Keith Jackson
*
Jay Thomas
Jay Thomas (born Jon Thomas Terrell; July 12, 1948 – August 24, 2017) was an American actor, comedian, and radio personality. He was heard in New York from 1976–1979 on top-40 station 99X, and later on rhythmic CHR station 92KTU, and in ...
as
Pete Rozelle
Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle (; March 1, 1926 – December 6, 1996) was an American businessman and executive. Rozelle served as the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) for nearly thirty years, from January 1960 until his retirement i ...
*
Brennan Brown
Brennan Brown (born November 23, 1968) is an American film, television, and stage actor. He currently plays Dr. Samuel Abrams on NBC's ''Chicago Med''. He played Robert Childan on Amazon's ''Man in the High Castle''.
Career
He received his MF ...
as
Bob Goodrich
*
Chad L. Coleman as
O. J. Simpson
Production
Filming took place in New York, New Jersey, and other locations by Turner Network Television.
Reception
Phil Gallo of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' complained that "nobody looks quite right" and "there is invariably a thin line between caricature and character."
Larry Stewart of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' gave the film a negative review, writing, "The book was good, the movie isn’t. It appears to be cheaply made and the characters, particularly Frank Gifford and Don Meredith, are not believable. John Turturro does a decent job portraying Cosell, but his performance isn’t enough to save the movie." Stewart concludes, "It doesn’t come close to matching a documentary HBO did a couple of years ago titled “Cosell.”"
Allen Barra of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' gave the film a more positive review, writing that the film "works because of Mr. Turturro's unabashed joy in playing a part as juicy as Howard Cosell."
Related films
In the same year,
Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, h ...
portrayed
Howard Cosell
Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...
in the
Michael Mann
Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ...
biopic ''
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
'' (2001). Voight's performance earned him an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nomination.
Home media
The movie was released on VHS on September 10, 2002.
References
External links
*
American football films
Films about television
Films based on non-fiction books
TNT Network original films
2002 television films
2002 films
Monday Night Football
ABC Sports
Films set in the 1970s
Films set in the 1980s
Films directed by Ernest Dickerson
Films scored by Van Dyke Parks
Films shot in New York (state)
Films shot in New Jersey
2000s American films
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