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Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson. Written by Emmy-nominated Bill Carter, head writer and reporter on the television industry for the New York Times. Produced by Leslie Greif, Lewis Kleinberg and Tiffany McLinn.

Based on the popular and candid 1988 book "Monday Night Mayhem : The Inside Story of ABC's Monday Night Football", by Marc Gunther and Bill Carter.

Available on VHS and DVD, American format only. See Media page

MONDAY NIGHT MAYHEM is the "unforgettable story behind the early years of Monday Night Football, when primetime pop culture was taken over by football's most renowned and colorful sports-casting team - Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and "Dandy" Don Meredith." It will give a behind-the-scenes look at this team, and tell the true story of the launch and impact of ABC's Monday Night Football and the larger-than-life personalities that made it a cultural institution, including the drama that unfolded between Cosell,  Meredith, Frank Gifford and O.J. Simpson. Shot in a documentary-like format, it takes viewers back in time to 1970 and gives them the unique opportunity to be a fly on the wall during the wheeling and dealing of ABC "big wigs" taking the NFL to primetime Monday night. 

Shuler plays the role of celebrated sports commentator Keith Jackson. "During the first season, "Dandy" and Cosell had a different third wheel - Keith Jackson (Shuler Hensley). However, in Arledge's quest to find the perfect trio of announcers, Gifford, after his contract was up at CBS, joined the crew in season two, replacing Jackson. Jackson went on to be known as the Voice of College Football for a lengthy period of time before retirement. His transition took place in a sketchy manner, Jackson being the last to know of the change." 
(On the Box - see link below)

"It was sort of like the MTV of football," says Shuler Hensley, 34, the Marietta native and current Broadway star who portrays Keith Jackson, part of the "MNF" announcing team for only the first season........In the booth, the supremely confident, opinionated Cosell and the cornpone ex-jock Meredith good-naturedly ganged up on each other while Jackson literally kept his eye on the ball. In one scene from "Mayhem" neither Meredith nor Cosell notices the latter's errant cigarette ash set Jackson's pants on fire. Miserable, Jackson keeps calling the action while dousing himself with a glass of water.......For all its focus on comical characters like Meredith or its poignant scenes where Jackson is shunted aside for Frank Gifford, "Mayhem" is really about the complex dynamic between the larger-than-life Cosell and increasingly powerful Arledge. (Jill Vejnoska, Cox News Service)

REVIEWS :

  "Monday Night Mayhem is a vivid, hang-loose hoot - one of the year's most purely enjoyable television movies."  (Detroit Free Press)

  "The script is first rate, the acting is terrific all around." (NYPost.com)

LINKS :

Pictures in Gallery
Monday Night Mayhem on TNT Website
Internet Movie Database
On the Box for the story behind ABC Monday Night Football

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