Monday Night Mayhem

Product Description There was more action behind the scenes of ABC's Monday Night Football telecast than there was on the gridiron. This film offers a dramatic look into the lives of the on-air team of Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith. Amazon.com Based on the book by Bill Carter and Marc Gunther, this immensely entertaining made-for-cable film tells it like it was in chronicling the golden age of Monday Night Football, a bold experiment in prime-time programming that transformed the pop-culture landscape. Carrying the ball for the lesser-known ensemble is John Turturro's Emmy-worthy performance as Howard Cosell, who played the role of "provocateur" in the then-revolutionary three-man booth that included in its heyday "Dandy" Don Meredith (Brad Beyer) and Frank Gifford (Kevin Anderson). John Heard gives a career-best performance as ABC producer Roone Arledge, who nurtured his brainchild and brilliantly massaged the egos of his stars. His prickly, more complex relationship with Cosell is the heart of this film. Rich with incident, Monday Night Mayhem spans from Muhammad Ali's controversial anti-Vietnam War stance and the blood-soaked 1972 Munich Olympics to John Lennon's death, which Cosell announced to a shocked nation. Also comic and compelling is the behind-the-scenes in-fighting and the colorful backstage characters. This film will score even with viewers who preferred watching Mayberry RFD on those Monday nights long ago. --Donald Liebenson From the Back Cover The game could match up league leaders or doghouse teams. Either way, America tuned in. No one wanted to miss what Monday Night Football's broadcast trio of Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, and Howard Cosell would say next. Football on the field. Mayhem in the booth and the control room. Huge ratings in the morning papers. "We're bigger than the game," Cosell famously proclaimed. Yet the game itself, thanks to innovations brought by Monday Night Football, would loom larger and larger on the viewing landscape. John Turturro plays the reviled, revered, and remarkable Cosell, heading a spot-on cast in this lively account of the launch and cultural impact of the revolutionary sportscast. The fun. The games. The controversy. It all happened on Monday Night.