| USA
/ NBC-Inter Planetary Productions-Jenner-Wallach Productions / 1x120 minutes / 4 October 1981
Director: Georg Stanford Brown / Executive Producer: Max A Keller / George Wallach / Producer: Bert Gold / Micheline Keller / Teleplay: Zev Cohen / Louis A Potter / William A Attaway / Photography: Joseph M Wilcots / Editor: David Rosenbloom / Music: Michael Lloyd / John D’Andrea / Art Director: Fred Price / Associate Producer: Scoey Mitchlll
Drama. The true story of James Gregory, an outstanding high school quarterback from California who, hoping to get into pro football, becomes the lone white student at Grambling College in Louisiana. Harry Belafonte made his tv dramatic debut as the famed Grambling Coach Eddie Robinson, and part of Gregory was the first starring role for sports star – turned – actor Bruce Jenner, whose production company co-produced the film. Jenner’s manager since becoming an Olympic decathalon gold medallist in 1978, George
Wallach, is the other half of Jenner / Wallach Productions. A dispute over screen credit for writing involved veteran Abby Mann, who was a script consultant on the project and supervised several rewrites, and the three writers finally credited, had to be arbitrated by the Writers Guild.
With:- BRUCE JENNER as Jim Gregory / DENNIS HAYSBERT as James Shack Harris / BILL OVERTON as ‘Fat Rabbit’ Manning / DEBORAH PRATT as Jennifer Johnson / BYRON STEWART as Anthony ‘Sandman’ Collins / RAY VITTE as Ronald ‘Rags’ Downey / LEVAR BURTON as Charles ‘Tank’ Smith / HARRY BELAFONTE as Eddie Robinson / HERBERT NELSON as ‘Slob’ / VANCE DAVIS as Coach Don Porter / FRED PINKARD as Dr. Johnson / DORSEY RICHARDS as ‘Rhino’ / KATIE ROBINSON as Waitress
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