The Bronx is Burning

[Songbird]

Interesting so far.

John Turturro as Billy Martin, and that's the only name actor I know. But this isn't so bad so far.

Anyone else watching?

 

[Chi City 81]

You don't know Oliver Platt?

 

[Songbird]

Oliver Platt? Never heard of him.

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

Oliver Platt? Never heard of him.

What? Really? Huh.

In every movie in the 1990s -- and every TV show in the 2000s. Pretty ubiquitous.

 

[Songbird]

Didn't see many movies in the '90s. Or TV in the 2000s. Must've missed him.

 

[MileHigh]

White House counsel on the West Wing.

 

[doubledown68]

Platt also had one of my favorite lines, playing Harry Rex Vonner in A Time to Kill.

When asked if he'd help in the defense of the antagonist: "No way never, you preee-sumptious little ****." Always struck me as funny.

 

[RedSmithClone]

Good movie!

 

[wedgewood]

Thought Platt was great as Sen. Bulworth's coked-up handler. Played the dad in Pieces of April. Have just seen clips from the ESPN movie, but that's Franco from Rescue Me playing Reggie.

 

[21]

How'd they make Turturro look so short? Isn't he a tall guy?

 

[RedSmithClone]

How'd they make Turturro look so short? Isn't he a tall guy?

If they can make that freaky scientologist actor look like a 6-10 stud, they can do the reverse I'm sure.

 

[suburbanite]

That was not bad. Turturro and Platt are pros, probably the best two actors ESPN's ever had in the same production.

 

[RedSmithClone]

I have to agree with that.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Not to nitpick, but the Ramones would've never been on the radio during that era (maybe "Blitzkrieg Bop" got a few spins somewhere, but "I wanna be your girlfriend"...hell no!)

 

[suburbanite]

Oliver Platt? Never heard of him.

What? Really? Huh.

In every movie in the 1990s -- and every TV show in the 2000s. Pretty ubiquitous.

But does he have more credits than Murphy?

 

[Webster]

Platt also assisted in the scam run by Gabriel Caine and Honey Roy Palmer in Diggstown.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Oliver Platt? Never heard of him.

What? Really? Huh.

In every movie in the 1990s -- and every TV show in the 2000s. Pretty ubiquitous.

Incredible in Bulworth.

 

[The Big Ragu]

The first episode was not very good, but I wasn't expecting much. The love for Oliver Platt notwithstanding, he was pretty brutal as Steinbrenner. He didn't channel the boss at all, and the delivery of some of his lines was pretty stilted, as if he was reading from cue cards. They might as well have slapped a bad wig on Larry David and let him do it. Turturro actually did an excellent job of capturing Billy Martin, but it's hard to get too excited about it because he is working with a really bad adaptation and script. He seems twice as good as he really is, too, because most of the actors are weak caricatures of the players they are supposed to be playing. I laughed out loud--in a bad way--at the yokels playing Mickey Rivers and Thurman Munson, and couldn't they have found someone a bit more dynamic to play Reggie Jackson?

The book by Jonathan Mahler was excellent, but it wasn't just about the Yankees. It captured a time and place in its totality. So far this miniseries is shaping up to be a trite rehashing of a story that was fairly well-known to begin with--but maybe it is not aimed at me.

 

[Moderator1]

I have the book and am going to read it next - so I'm holding off on watching this. From Ragu's post, it sounds as if I have made a sound decision for once.

 

[Duane Postum]

That was such an excellent book I'm not going to give this a go, at least from what I've read here and elsewhere.