Monday Night Mayhem | |
---|---|
Written by | Bill Carter |
Directed by | Ernest Dickerson |
Starring | John Turturro John Heard Kevin Anderson Nicholas Turturro Brad Beyer Patti Lupone Eli Wallach |
Composers | Grant Geissman Van Dyke Parks |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Leslie Greif Lewis Kleinberg |
Producer | Tiffany McLinn Lore |
Running time | 98 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | TNT |
Release | January 14, 2002 |
Monday Night Mayhem is a 2002 television film about the origin of ABC's television series Monday Night Football . It debuted on the U.S. cable TV network TNT on January 14, 2002. It was based on the 1988 nonfiction book of the same title by Marc Gunther and Bill Carter.
Filming took place in New York, New Jersey, and other locations by Turner Network Television. [1]
Phil Gallo of Variety complained that "nobody looks quite right" and "there is invariably a thin line between caricature and character." [1]
Larry Stewart of the Los Angeles Times 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.”" [2]
Allen Barra of The New York Times 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." [3]
In the same year, Jon Voight portrayed Howard Cosell in the Michael Mann biopic Ali (2001). Voight's performance earned him an Academy Award nomination.
The movie was released on VHS on September 10, 2002. [4]
Jonathan Vincent Voight is an American actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and four Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2019, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. Films in which Voight has appeared have grossed more than $5.2 billion worldwide.
Ali is a 2001 American biographical sports drama film co-written, produced and directed by Michael Mann. The film focuses on ten years in the life of the boxer Muhammad Ali, played by Will Smith, from 1964 to 1974, featuring his capture of the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston, his conversion to Islam, criticism of the Vietnam War, and banishment from boxing, his return to fight Joe Frazier in 1971, and, finally, his reclaiming the title from George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle fight of 1974. It also touches on the great social and political upheaval in the United States following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
John Michael Turturro is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his varied complex roles in independent films. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler, and Spike Lee. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for four Screen Actors Guild Awards and three Golden Globe Awards.
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The following article details the history of Monday Night Football, the weekly broadcast of National Football League games on U.S. television.
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During the early 1960s, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle envisioned the possibility of playing at least one game weekly during prime time that could be viewed by a greater television audience. An early bid by the league in 1964 to play on Friday nights was soundly defeated, with critics charging that such telecasts would damage the attendance at high school football games. Undaunted, Rozelle decided to experiment with the concept of playing on Monday night, scheduling the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for a game on September 28, 1964. While the game was not televised, it drew a sellout crowd of 59,203 spectators to Tiger Stadium, the largest crowd ever to watch a professional football game in Detroit up to that point.
NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.
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