Michael Tollin

Directing

Michael Tollin

Born

1955-10-06 (71)

Place of birth

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

36 titles

Michael "Mike" Tollin (born June 10, 1955) is an American film director and film/television producer. His career highlights included Radio, Coach Carter, and Varsity Blues. He frequently collaborates with Brian Robbins in which they own a production company together called Tollin/Robbins Productions. They created and produced such shows like All That, The Amanda Show, Kenan & Kel, One Tree Hill, Smallville, What I Like About You, The Bronx is Burning and a few others. Tollin was the producer of the weekly highlights show for the United States Football League, the springtime football league which played from 1983 through 1985. In 2009, he served as executive producer for the hour-long documen…

Known for

Film credits

Behind the camera

Coach Carter poster
7.6

Based on a true story, in which Richmond High School head basketball coach Ken Carter made headlines in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to poor academic results.

Coach Carter

2005

Radio poster
7.4

In the racially divided town of Anderson, South Carolina in 1976, football coach Harold Jones spots a mentally disabled African-American young man nicknamed Radio near his practice field and is inspired to befriend him. Soon, Radio is Jones' loyal assistant, and he becomes a student at T.L. Hanna High School. But things start to sour when Coach Jones begins taking guff from parents and fans who feel that his devotion to Radio is getting in the way of the team's quest for a championship.

Radio

2003

Radio poster
7.4

In the racially divided town of Anderson, South Carolina in 1976, football coach Harold Jones spots a mentally disabled African-American young man nicknamed Radio near his practice field and is inspired to befriend him. Soon, Radio is Jones' loyal assistant, and he becomes a student at T.L. Hanna High School. But things start to sour when Coach Jones begins taking guff from parents and fans who feel that his devotion to Radio is getting in the way of the team's quest for a championship.

Radio

2003

Good Burger poster
6.2

Two L.A. teens with summer jobs at Good Burger try to save their small restaurant when a corporate giant burger franchise moves in across the street.

Good Burger

1997

Wild Hogs poster
6.0

Restless and ready for an adventure, four suburban bikers leave the safety of their subdivision and head out on the open road. But complications ensue when they cross paths with an intimidating band of New Mexico bikers known as the Del Fuegos.

Wild Hogs

2007

Big Fat Liar poster
5.9

After one of his class papers is stolen and turned into a movie, a young student and his best friend exact a hilarious, slapstick revenge on the Hollywood hot shot who has taken credit!

Big Fat Liar

2002

Hardwood Dreams poster
7.0

A 1990 California high school basketball team aspires to repeat their state championship while dealing with their many issues on and off the court.

Hardwood Dreams

1993

The Perfect Score poster
5.8

Six high school seniors decide to break into the Princeton Testing Center so they can steal the answers to their upcoming SAT tests and all get perfect scores.

The Perfect Score

2004

Hardball poster
6.5

An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.

Hardball

2001

Varsity Blues poster
6.2

In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion, 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night. When star quarterback Lance Harbor suffers an injury, the Coyotes are forced to regroup under the questionable leadership of John Moxon, a second-string quarterback with a slightly irreverent approach to the game.

Varsity Blues

1999

Summer Catch poster
5.4

Local boy Ryan Dunne, now a pitcher for Boston College, meets Tenley Parrish, the daughter of a wealthy couple who summer on the Cape. Ryan and Tenley fall in love, much to the chagrin of their families, while Ryan clings to one last hope of being discovered and signed to a pro baseball contract.

Summer Catch

2001

Chuck poster
6.3

A drama inspired by the life of heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner.

Chuck

2017

Dreamer: Inspired By a True Story poster
7.1

Ben Crane believes that a severely injured racehorse deserves another chance. He and his daughter Cale adopt the mare and save it from being sacrificed by the owner.

Dreamer: Inspired By a True Story

2005

No artwork available
7.0

Unstrung exposes the dramas of the juniors tennis world, hitting the road with a handful of teenage competitors as they head for the national championship.

Unstrung

2007

The Final Season poster
NR

The true story of one season in the life of a pro football team. As one man fights for his life, a group of fifty young men struggles to hold onto a dream.

The Final Season

1989

The Final Season poster
NR

The true story of one season in the life of a pro football team. As one man fights for his life, a group of fifty young men struggles to hold onto a dream.

The Final Season

1989

The Final Season poster
NR

The true story of one season in the life of a pro football team. As one man fights for his life, a group of fifty young men struggles to hold onto a dream.

The Final Season

1989

Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? poster
7.0

In 1983 the upstart United States Football League (USFL) had the audacity to challenge the almighty NFL. The new league did the unthinkable by playing in the spring and plucked three straight Heisman Trophy winners away from the NFL. The 12-team USFL played before crowds that averaged 25,000, and started off with respectable TV ratings. But with success came expansion and new owners, including a certain high profile and impatient real estate baron whose vision was at odds with the league’s founders. Soon, the USFL was reduced to waging a desperate anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL, which yielded an ironic verdict that effectively forced the league out of business. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, Academy Award-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director Mike Tollin, himself once a chronicler of the league, will showcase the remarkable influence of those three years on football history and attempt to answer the question, “Who Killed the USFL?”

Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?

2009

Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? poster
7.0

In 1983 the upstart United States Football League (USFL) had the audacity to challenge the almighty NFL. The new league did the unthinkable by playing in the spring and plucked three straight Heisman Trophy winners away from the NFL. The 12-team USFL played before crowds that averaged 25,000, and started off with respectable TV ratings. But with success came expansion and new owners, including a certain high profile and impatient real estate baron whose vision was at odds with the league’s founders. Soon, the USFL was reduced to waging a desperate anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL, which yielded an ironic verdict that effectively forced the league out of business. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, Academy Award-nominated and Peabody Award-winning director Mike Tollin, himself once a chronicler of the league, will showcase the remarkable influence of those three years on football history and attempt to answer the question, “Who Killed the USFL?”

Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?

2009

Iceman: A George Gervin Story poster
1.0

Spotlighting NBA and San Antonio Spurs legend George Gervin, the documentary focuses on Iceman's influence on the game, inspiring his peers and future generations of players.

Iceman: A George Gervin Story

2023

1981 Official World Series Film poster
NR

Los Angeles Dodgers clash with the mighy New York Yankees in the 1981 Fall Classic

1981 Official World Series Film

1981

Improbably Gibson poster
10.0

An entertaining and fresh retrospective of Gibson's historic walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

Improbably Gibson

2018

Great Sports Moments of the 80's poster
NR

Experience the thrill as your favorite teams and heroes triumph again! Great comebacks, rivalries and record-breaking performances are here to watch over and over again.

Great Sports Moments of the 80's

1989

Great Sports Moments of the 80's poster
NR

Experience the thrill as your favorite teams and heroes triumph again! Great comebacks, rivalries and record-breaking performances are here to watch over and over again.

Great Sports Moments of the 80's

1989

The Show poster
7.2

A documentary about the culture of hip-hop. Through interviews with some of hip-hops biggest names, the film makers attempt to find out why it has become so popular.

The Show

1995

Morningside 5 poster
NR

In 1992, a young filmmaker named Mike Tollin chronicled one season in the lives of the Morningside High basketball team in Inglewood, California. They were the defending state champions, and all five starters were returning for their senior year. They seemed a shoo-in to win a second straight state title, and the five guys all thought they were on a path to become “the next Jordan.” However, the season didn’t go quite as planned. But the film, produced with Brian Robbins, was an award-winner and a hit on the film festival circuit. Tollin would go on to direct and produce feature films (Varsity Blues, Radio, Coach Carter) and popular TV series such as Smallville, One Tree Hill and Arli$$. He never forgot, though, the magic of the Morningside 5 In fact, he returned a decade later to see how they were doing and made a follow-up film on their various exploits.

Morningside 5

2017

Fastball poster
7.2

Since 1912, baseball has been a game obsessed with statistics and speed. Thrown at upwards of 100 miles per hour, a fastball moves too quickly for human cognition and accelerates into the realm of intuition. Fastball is a look at how the game at its highest levels of achievement transcends logic and even skill, becoming the primal struggle for man to control the uncontrollable.

Fastball

2016

Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream poster
6.8

1995 American documentary film follows baseball slugger Hank Aaron's pursuit of Babe Ruth's all time record for homeruns.

Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream

1995

No artwork available
NR

The improbable tale of how Rorian Gracie, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist, and Art Davie, once a used car salesman, teamed with Bob Meyrowitz’s pay-per-view company SEG to mount UFC 1 – the first fight in UFC history – in Denver and launch a sports phenomenon.

UFC 1: Origins of the Octagon

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Rolling Along poster
NR

Bill Bradley has experienced many lives and has worn many hats throughout his lifetime. After becoming an accomplished college and professional basketball player, he made a major move into Democratic politics and advocacy. This might sound like an unexpected career change, but to Bradley it was the next logical step. The same can be said for how he worked on an oral history of his life and career for three years, excruciatingly committing it to memory, before premiering it in New York City in December 2021. Rolling Along is the live theatrical recording of this monumental performance. Interspersing archival footage with Bradley’s performance, the film honors a uniquely American life, paying tribute to the act of storytelling in a way that hasn’t been done in a very long time. In our times of division and uncertainty, perhaps we can all learn something from Bradley’s stories about perseverance, acceptance, and unity.

Rolling Along

2023

Unraveling George poster
NR

An intimate documentary about Civil Rights leader, entrepreneur and Hall of Fame Coach George Raveling.

Unraveling George

2025

Unraveling George poster
NR

An intimate documentary about Civil Rights leader, entrepreneur and Hall of Fame Coach George Raveling.

Unraveling George

2025

Meltdown poster
NR

For 30 years, Lynn Davis has photographed the magnificent icebergs of Greenland. Davis returned recently with climate change expert Tony Leiserowitz, where they take in the meltdown, and explore the implications for the planet.

Meltdown

2021

Tose: The Movie poster
NR

The late Leonard Tose was a genius and a fool, a saint and a sinner, but most of all the former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles was the man who took his team from the depths of the NFL all the way to the Super Bowl.

Tose: The Movie

2015