Multi-award winning country music stalwart Jerry Reed parlayed his friendship with fellow good ol' boy Burt Reynolds into an affable acting career with pivotable roles in "WW and the Dixie Dancekings," "Gator," and of course, the big kahuna of "rednecksploitation" cinema: "Smokey and the Bandit" and its sequels; oh, and let's not forget Reed's trucker romp "High-Ballin'" with Peter Fonda.
So, with US films and television enamored with anything on 18-wheels packing a CB radio: it made sense to bring the "hicksploitation" cycle from the drive-ins to the small screen. Reed took his first shot with the very short-lived (only four episodes before cancellation), CBS-TV's "Nashville 99" alongside Claude Akins -- as Reed portrayed an old school cop with a desire to make it in country music. And that backstory sets up Reed's second and last attempt at a TV series with this television pilot-film that features a pre-Tom Magnum (and waaay pre-"Blue Bloods" for younger audiences) Tom Selleck.
It's hard to believe, but yes: James Sangster, the British screenwriter and director behind the Hammer Films' hits "The Curse of Dracula" (1957), "Dracula" (1958), and "Lust for a Vampire" (1971), pens here. By the mid-'70s, Sangster settled into US television and gave us the similar "redneck" TV series romps "Movin' On" (on NBC-TV with Claude Akins, natch) and the more successful "BJ and the Bear," both chips off the ol' Reynolds-block.
Sadly, and as with his filming of five previous series pilots, the CBS-TV produced telefilm for "Concrete Cowboys" proved to be another failed pilot for Tom Selleck. By the time Reed was able to convince ABC-TV to bring it to series in 1981, Selleck was already on top of the ratings with "Magnum PI" for CBS-TV. So Selleck was replaced by Geoffrey Scott, he of the nighttime drama "Dynasty" -- but the subsequent series proved to be another "Nashville 99" for Jerry Reed as it limped to the bottom of the ratings for seven episodes.
THE PLOT
Yeah, to call this a beat-for-beat clone of "Smokey and the Bandit" is an understatement.
The premise of this action-comedy is rather simple -- and very TV-movie dry: Will Eubanks (Tom Selleck in the "Bandit" role) and JD Reed (yeah, back in the "Snowman" role) are two good 'ol gamblin' and drinkin' Montana cowboys who need to get out of dodge after foiling a scam poker game -- with another (yep!) corrupt sheriff (Elvis's buddy Red West) on their trail ("I'm gonna git those Duke Boys!").
Hoping a train, Will and JD end up in Nashville and, in a case of mistaken identity, become detectives; for their first case they have to find a missing (kidnapped?) country singer (the blonde-and-porclain-skinned Morgan Fairchild; speaking of "Dynasty"; she of fellow nighttime dramas "Dallas" and "Falcon Crest"). Of course, in a page out of the "I Dream of Jeannie" playbook: Fairchild plays her own, dark-haired sister, searching for her (you'll see the plot twist a-comin', Big Hoss). Along the way (yep), Claude Akins is back, as well as the expected cameo-appearance of country stars Roy Acuff and Barbara Mandrell (as is the case with most of these redneck-trucker flicks).
If "Concrete Cowboys" played as a standalone-movie on drive-in screens alongside other red-to-hicksploitation films of the late '70s and early '80s, this would have been a box office hit; certainly not a runaway hit on level of one of Burt's films, but it would have made bank (like Reed's "High-Ballin'"). As a less-goofy TV-inversion of "The Dukes of Hazzard," not so much. Tom's okay, but wow, Reed is, well, let's just say Tom's the more-effective actor, here; I can't imagine putting up with Reed's strained thespin' on a weekly basis.
While copies of "Concrete Cowboys" (the TV movie) come and go from You Tube, you can git yerselfs a copy as part of Mill Creek's "The Swinging Seventies" 50-film pack to enjoy.
So, with US films and television enamored with anything on 18-wheels packing a CB radio: it made sense to bring the "hicksploitation" cycle from the drive-ins to the small screen. Reed took his first shot with the very short-lived (only four episodes before cancellation), CBS-TV's "Nashville 99" alongside Claude Akins -- as Reed portrayed an old school cop with a desire to make it in country music. And that backstory sets up Reed's second and last attempt at a TV series with this television pilot-film that features a pre-Tom Magnum (and waaay pre-"Blue Bloods" for younger audiences) Tom Selleck.
It's hard to believe, but yes: James Sangster, the British screenwriter and director behind the Hammer Films' hits "The Curse of Dracula" (1957), "Dracula" (1958), and "Lust for a Vampire" (1971), pens here. By the mid-'70s, Sangster settled into US television and gave us the similar "redneck" TV series romps "Movin' On" (on NBC-TV with Claude Akins, natch) and the more successful "BJ and the Bear," both chips off the ol' Reynolds-block.
Sadly, and as with his filming of five previous series pilots, the CBS-TV produced telefilm for "Concrete Cowboys" proved to be another failed pilot for Tom Selleck. By the time Reed was able to convince ABC-TV to bring it to series in 1981, Selleck was already on top of the ratings with "Magnum PI" for CBS-TV. So Selleck was replaced by Geoffrey Scott, he of the nighttime drama "Dynasty" -- but the subsequent series proved to be another "Nashville 99" for Jerry Reed as it limped to the bottom of the ratings for seven episodes.
THE PLOT
Yeah, to call this a beat-for-beat clone of "Smokey and the Bandit" is an understatement.
The premise of this action-comedy is rather simple -- and very TV-movie dry: Will Eubanks (Tom Selleck in the "Bandit" role) and JD Reed (yeah, back in the "Snowman" role) are two good 'ol gamblin' and drinkin' Montana cowboys who need to get out of dodge after foiling a scam poker game -- with another (yep!) corrupt sheriff (Elvis's buddy Red West) on their trail ("I'm gonna git those Duke Boys!").
Hoping a train, Will and JD end up in Nashville and, in a case of mistaken identity, become detectives; for their first case they have to find a missing (kidnapped?) country singer (the blonde-and-porclain-skinned Morgan Fairchild; speaking of "Dynasty"; she of fellow nighttime dramas "Dallas" and "Falcon Crest"). Of course, in a page out of the "I Dream of Jeannie" playbook: Fairchild plays her own, dark-haired sister, searching for her (you'll see the plot twist a-comin', Big Hoss). Along the way (yep), Claude Akins is back, as well as the expected cameo-appearance of country stars Roy Acuff and Barbara Mandrell (as is the case with most of these redneck-trucker flicks).
If "Concrete Cowboys" played as a standalone-movie on drive-in screens alongside other red-to-hicksploitation films of the late '70s and early '80s, this would have been a box office hit; certainly not a runaway hit on level of one of Burt's films, but it would have made bank (like Reed's "High-Ballin'"). As a less-goofy TV-inversion of "The Dukes of Hazzard," not so much. Tom's okay, but wow, Reed is, well, let's just say Tom's the more-effective actor, here; I can't imagine putting up with Reed's strained thespin' on a weekly basis.
While copies of "Concrete Cowboys" (the TV movie) come and go from You Tube, you can git yerselfs a copy as part of Mill Creek's "The Swinging Seventies" 50-film pack to enjoy.