Don Meredith Movies

Writer/director Michael Meredith's ambitious first feature, Three Days of Rain, weaves together a large number of tales, loosely based on short stories by Anton Chekhov, and set in present-day Cleveland. Thunder (Michael Santoro) is a struggling tile-maker, an artisan whose leaky roof threatens to destroy his business and his life. Denis (Joey Bilow) is a mentally impaired railroad worker who finds his job in jeopardy when a co-worker, Jim (Chuck Cooper), questions his competence. Tess (Merle Kennedy) is a drug-addled young woman who performs sexual favors for a sleazy judge in order to visit the young daughter of whom she's lost custody. Waldo (Peter Falk) is an old rummy who repeatedly manipulates his caring son, Michael (Bill Stockton, who also produced the film), and then apologizes for doing so. Alex (Erick Avari of The Mummy) begins to question everything about his life after an encounter with a homeless veteran. A cab driver, John (Don Meredith), tells everyone who will listen about the recent death of his son. Through it all runs the commentary of a disc jockey (Lyle Lovett), who plays the smooth jazz that comprises the film's soundtrack. Three Days of Rain came to the attention of Wim Wenders through an editor on the project, Peter Przygodda, and Wenders, impressed with Meredith's work, became involved with the film. Three Days of Rain was shown in competition at the 2002 Tribeca Film Festival. The film features cameos by Blythe Danner, Jason Patric, Max Perlich, Wayne Rogers (of M*A*S*H fame), and avant-garde filmmaker George Kuchar. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Since its first broadcast in 1970, ABC's Monday Night Football has become one of television's longest running and most popular shows. With a combination of game highlights, announcer gaffs and hilarious banter, this video highlights many memorable moments of the show's first 25 years. Announcers Howard Cossell, Frank Gifford, Al Michaels and others give their impressions of working the games and their contributions to what has become an American institution. Several players and media critics also give their take on how Monday Night Football has helped shape the public's view of professional football. ~ Ed Atkinson, Rovi

Much of the original cast from the popular television series Police Story reunited for this edgy drama, in which the detectives search for a killer loose on the roads. This entry was one of several TV-movies in the late 1980s to feature the familiar cast in the Police Story format. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi

A big-city blackout galvanizes the plot of the made-for-TV The Night the City Screamed. Recreating recent events in New York City, the film details a crime spree that runs unchecked throughout the darkened metropolis. Mayor Raymond Burr tries to stem the tide of robberies and rapes, even as he labors to becalm the panicky citizens. An all-TV-star cast, including Robert Culp, David Cassidy, Georg Stanford Brown and Don Meredith show up in brief, interlocking vignettes of "fear, panic, greed, hostility, rage and...love" (or so says the film's press kit). The Night the City Screamed was originally telecast December 14, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Right after wrapping up her role as Emily on The Bob Newhart Show, Suzanne Pleshette began her reign as "queen of the TV pilot films" with Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid. Kate Bliss (Pleshette) is a private investigator in the 19th-century West, setting up her shingle in a tough frontier town. The Ticker Tape Kid (Don Meredith) is a onetime stockbroker who has become a Robin Hood-type outlaw. Kate is hired to protect a prissy British land baron (Tony Randall) from the Kid, but soon her loyalties begin to waver. Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid didn't make it as a series, but allowed Suzanne Pleshette a refreshing change of pace from her usual urban roles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This film is a failed TV pilot. The action drama chronicles the lives and exploits of Air Force test pilots. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Also known as Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free, this TV pilot film stars Don Meredith in the title role. Banjo Hackett is a western horsetrader, circa 1885, who travels in the company of his orphaned nephew (Ike Eisenmann). While searching for a rare Arabian mare stolen from the nephew's late mother, Hackett occasionally pays a visit to Mollie (Jennifer Warren), a ranch owner whom Banjo would marry if he'd only admit he loved the woman. Millionaire Dan O'Herlihy and untrustworthy bounty hunter Chuck Connors are also after the stolen horse. The film's storyline is as rambling as Banjo Hackett himself, which was both its charm and curse. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this made-for-television disaster film, seven officer workers find themselves trapped in a towering inferno after a drunken janitor accidently torches the high-rise in which they work. Believing that they will surely die, the seven begin sharing their deepest secrets. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi