BRIAN'S SONG

'''Brian's Song''' is a 1971 made-for-TV movie, recalling the details of the life of Brian Piccolo (played by James Caan), a football player stricken with terminal cancer, and his friendship with Chicago Bears running back teammate and Pro Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams), who helps him through the difficult struggle. The true story was such a success on television that it was later shown in theaters.
A remake^[1] was filmed in 2001 for ABC's ''The Wonderful World of Disney'' starring Mekhi Phifer and Sean Maher. The movie is based on Sayers' account of his friendship with Piccolo and Piccolo's illness in his autobiography, ''I Am Third''. The film was written by veteran screenwriter William Blinn, but there is also a book version.
The musical theme to ''Brian's Song'', "The Hands of Time," was a popular tune during the early 1970s. The music for the film was by Michel Legrand, with lyrics to the song by Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Nashville pianist Floyd Cramer performed a popular version of "The Hands of Time".

Contents

Historical accuracy

Other references

References

External links

Historical accuracy

Although an inspirational movie, several scenes never happened, including the final scene, where Sayers comes to the hospital as Piccolo is taking his last breath. According to Sayers' book, he was not even in the same state when Piccolo died.

Other references

The ''Pinky and the Brain'' episode "Brain's Song" was an obvious reference to ''Brian's Song'' especially the reference from Brain that they need to find an extremely sad movie to weaken human resistance and so take over the world. (Of course in line with all Brain's plans it ultimately fails, although it is initially successful)
''Brian's Song'' has been parodied in U.S. sit-com ''The King of Queens'', where Doug has a series of hallucinations about appearing in various TV shows, one of which being ''Brian's Song''. In the hallucination, he is Brian and Deacon is Gale Sayers.
The movie was a big part of an episode of ''Just Shoot Me'' in which they call it an emotional movie for real manly men. All the men say its one of their favorite movies and they're all shown crying while watching it.
On the HBO series ''Entourage'' Turtle and Drama are seen watching it and it is referred to as the "ultimate guy cry movie".

References

1. Brian's Song (2001)



★ Brian's Song (1971) (TV)

External links

★ SeanMaher.info: Brian's Song