Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a
1994 film which tells the true story of the
Twenty One quiz show scandal of the
1950s. It stars
John Turturro,
Rob Morrow,
Ralph Fiennes,
Paul Scofield,
David Paymer,
Hank Azaria, and
Christopher McDonald. The film chronicles the rise and fall of the popular contestant
Charles Van Doren (played by Fiennes) after the rigged loss of
Herb Stempel (played by Turturro) to Van Doren and Congressional investigator
Richard N. (Dick) Goodwin's probe of
Twenty-One's rigging. Morrow portrays Goodwin, who is also one of the co-producers of the film.
Mira Sorvino also appears in the film, as Goodwin's wife Sandra.
The movie was adapted by
Paul Attanasio from Goodwin's book
Remembering America. It was produced and directed by
Robert Redford (who now works for
The Weinstein Company).
Quiz Show was nominated for
Academy Awards for
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Paul Scofield),
Best Director,
Best Picture and
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
The film is the first major picture based on the 1950s controversy that rocked American television and nearly led to the ruination of quiz-show producers
Jack Barry (who was also
Twenty-One host and here played by McDonald) and
Dan Enright (Paymer). Its attention to period detail include using New York exteriors to re-create 1950s scenes, and using many New York and New Jersey indoor spaces to replicate the NBC studios and Washington governmental facilities of the 1950s.
Fordham University was used to replicate the 1950s
Columbia University, where Van Doren taught English.
While the movie purports to portray real events, it has been widely critized for taking liberties to create its own heroes and villains. The movie has investigator Goodwin starting his pursuit of Van Doren during the contestant's 1957 run on
Twenty-One, when in fact the Congressional investigation led by Goodwin came in the summer of 1959.
Others have complained that it inflates Goodwin's role in the probe and underplays the initial investigation, led by prosecutor Joseph Stone from the office of New York County District Attorney Frank Hogan. It was after a judge sealed from public release the New York Grand Jury presentment of findings in the probe (in June 1959) that Congress launched its investigation.
The movie implies that NBC filtered to Enright
Twenty-One sponsor Geritol's desire that Stempel be replaced, with network president Bob Kintner (played by Allan Rich) telling Enright "You're a producer, Dan. Produce." Neither Kintner nor NBC have yet been implicated in the scandal, but Enright has said that Geritol's complaints about the unattractiveness of the
Twenty-One premiere prompted his company to rig the show.
Journalist
Ken Auletta, in a 1994 article in
The New Yorker, noted that at a screening of the film that summer, Redford admitted "dramatic license" was taken in making
Quiz Show. But Auletta also reported that Redford made no apologies for the liberties, saying he had tried "to elevate something so that people can see it...otherwise, you might as well have a documentary." Redford noted there had already been a documentary on the scandal, referring to the Julian Krainin-produced work for a 1991 installment of the
PBS series
The American Experience. (Krainin, like Goodwin, is a co-producer of
Quiz Show.)
*"If you look around the table and you can't tell who the sucker is ... it's you."
*"Anyone who thinks money is 'just' money can't have much of it."
*"Cheating on a quiz show? That's like plagiarizing a comic strip!"
*"It's not like we're hardened criminals; we're in show business."
*"I'm just trying to think of what Kant would make of this."
*"I think he'd be fine with it?"
*"This is a quiz show."
