HOT CORNER
A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.
What: “Monday Night Mayhem”
Where: TNT, tonight, 9
*
There’s no “Monday Night Football” tonight, but there is “Monday Night Mayhem.” This made-for-cable TV movie, based on a 1988 book written by Bill Carter and Marc Gunther, examines “Monday Night Football” during the Howard Cosell years, 1970-84.
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.
It doesn’t come close to matching a documentary HBO did a couple of years ago titled “Cosell.” The HBO show was real, this TNT show isn’t. It’s the same reason an “Ali” documentary would undoubtedly be better than the current movie.
“Monday Night Mayhem” is not as boring as the previous Monday game on ABC between the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens, but it lacks depth. It jumps from topic to topic, trying to cover all that was in the book, without delving into anything substantial, without really developing the characters.
The Cosell portrayed in the movie has an ego and can be difficult at times. But he comes across as a somewhat sympathetic character.
The book reveals a Cosell consumed by a warped view of his own self-importance and someone who always had to belittle others. The movie touches on what the real Cosell was like but doesn’t go far enough.
John Heard plays Roone Arledge, no easy task. The real Arledge was an enigma, and the Arledge in this movie is one too.
One might wonder why this movie isn’t on ABC, the home of “Monday Night Football.” Executive producer Leslie Greif said it was never pitched to ABC. “By going to a network like Turner, we didn’t have to deal with any of the politics that we might have dealt with had we gone to ABC, where it would involve its own history, personalties and egos,” Greif told Entertainment Weekly.
It could also be argued that this movie is not network quality.
Larry Stewart