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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
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CAST
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| John Turturro |
Howard Cosell |
| John Heard |
Roone Arledge |
| Patti LuPone |
Emmy Cosell |
| Shuler
Hensley |
Keith
Jackson |
| Kevin Anderson |
Frank Gifford |
| Brad Beyer |
"Dandy" Don
Meredith |
| Chad Coleman |
O J Simpson |
| Eli Wallach |
Leonard Goldenson |
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. 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
 Back
to Films
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