Mike and the Mad Dog (2017) User Reviews (2)

Forget The Buggles! The internet KILLED the RADIO STAR!

[Twins65 · 6/10 · 25 July 2017]

25 years ago, when people still read newspapers religiously and web based content, or "instant info.", was still in its infancy, a whole bunch of people actually listened to terrestrial radio. Satellite radio was still a ways away, and people were clamoring for something fresh going on in real time.

So WFAN decided to start the first 24/7 sports talk station. It took some time to catch on, as they had to wade through a year of losses until they figured out nobody wanted to listen to outsider national voices like Jim Lampley & Greg Gumbel opine on the NYC sports scene. But once they put Don Imus in the morning and gave the afternoon slot to Long Islanders Mike and the Mad Dog, New York City was absolutely giddy! How giddy, you ask? How about taking WFAN straight to the top of the ratings, where they stayed at or near for almost 19 years. It sure helped that New York is a sports crazy town and the Yanks, Giants, & Rangers all won titles in the 1990's. But I'm guessing they would have succeeded anyway if all those teams had sucked. Because people just love to argue about local sports.

To say imitation is the finest form of flattery would be an understatement. Literally hundreds of sports stations popped up all across the country in large & medium markets. Many with 2-man teams just arguing about anything and everything. But these two were the first and most-famous, so I even heard about them living in suburban Chi. back then. I can't say what they did was anything groundbreaking, but to New Yorkers, they were gods. Francesa has his own fan convention these days, which is kind of unbelievable.

Sports radio still goes strong all these years later, but with nowhere near the numbers this duo got. Just like anything else that used to be consumed by mass audiences (network nightly news, newspapers, prime time TV shows, etc.), the slice of the entertainment pie has withered significantly with the advent of the YouTube, satellite radio, smartphones, Netflix, you name it. So we'll probably never have a radio phenomenon like Mike and the Mad Dog again.

As far as this 30 for 30 film goes, ESPN did a nice job keeping it moving, and getting out in under an hour. It's worth a watch if you want to see what all the hype was about a generation ago when sports radio was just getting started.

Entertaining But a Bit Too Light

[Michael_Elliott · 18 July 2017]

30 for 30: Mike and the Mad Dog (2017)

Mike Francesa and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo changed sports radio history. When the two of them started up there really wasn't much sports on the radio but they broke all sorts of new ground in New York and before long their show was reaching across the country and others were coming up trying to capture their style.

This 30 FOR 30 episode takes a look at the show's popularity and the eventual break-up of the team. I must admit that I was a little shocked that ESPN was giving this subject their own episode. For the most part the story itself is a very interesting one but I'm really not sure that the director fully captured everything.

I mean, sports radio is so huge now so seeing where it started is a great subject. The problem here is that it seems the story was rushed to keep the running time down. We basically get a "they're big, they've broke up, there's a happy ending" and there's just not too much meat to the story being told. To say more details were needed would be an understatement because this almost feels like one of the 30 FOR 30 SHORTS subjects.

Episode: B+