The Concrete Cowboys (1979 TV Movie) User Reviews

Concrete Cowboys

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 16 November 2023]

This movie is very much something I would have watched as a kid on TV.

It was a pilot for a TV series that was actually on the air from February 7 to March 21, 1981 for seven episodes, with Jerry Reed playing J. D. Reed and Geoffrey Scott taking over Tom Selleck's role as Will Eubanks. The movie itself was released as a film in other countries with titles such as Highway Action, Nashville Detective and Ramblin' Man.

Reed and Eubanks are two friends who constantly get on each one another's nerves in the best of ways. Reed is devoted to gambling while Eubanks always has a book in hand. They leave a rigged card game by destroying the gas station that it was in and hop a train for Hollywood but end up in Nashville. There, they stay in the home of their friend Lonnie (Randy Powell) and get caught up in a scheme that involves Kate (Morgan Fairchild) looking for her lost singer sister Carla (also Fairchild), which brings them into the orbit of Ray Stevens, Roy Acuff and Barbara Mandrell, all playing themselves. There's also famous country star Woody Stone (Claude Akins), a sheriff played by Elvis' bodyguard Red West, a madame played by Lucille Benson (Mrs. Elrod, who is a major star here) and it's all written by Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. Huh? How is this possible? What if I told you that Grace Zabriskie (Sarah Palmer, of course) is also in this?

It's directed by Burt Kennedy (Support Your Local Sheriff!, All the Kind Strangers, Suburban Commando) who was also a noted writer of Westerns and a fencing stunt double. He was in vaudeville at the age of four and received the Silver Star, Bronze Star,and Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster for his bravery in World War II.

I love that each chapter has paintings by Jaroslav Gebr. It gives the show a Western feel while showcasing his great art. Gebr also worked on The Sting, Buck Rogers In the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica, Xanadu, The Blues Brothers and so many more TV shows. You can learn more about his art at the official website.

Yep, the first thing I think about country and western singers is Morgan Fairchild.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 18 November 2021]

Moderately enjoyable but easy to forget, this country and western action comedy focuses on a missing country and western singer played by Morgan Fairchild look alike darker sister it's searching for her. It's obvious where this is going, and it's rather silly at times. But the opportunity to see such country and western legends as Roy Acuff and Barbara Mandrell is fun, and leads Tom Selleck and Jerry Reed do seem to be enjoying themselves.

There's also Claude Akins and Lucille Benson (very funny as an obvious madam) and various legal eagles on both sides of the law trying to prevent Selleck and Reed from finding out the truth or getting any information. Fairchild, for some reason not given any credit here, was the draw for me, and is as charming as always. I can't believe there was actually a short-lived TV series based on this. It's good for a one-time TV movie viewing, but a lot of it is preposterous and extremely cliched.

A Fun but Forgettable TV Hicksploitation Romp

[rdfranciscritic · 14 October 2023]

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.