Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical
drama filmA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
produced and directed by
Robert RedfordCharles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
. Adapted by
Paul AttanasioPaul Albert Attanasio is an American screenwriter and producer of film and television, who is currently an executive producer on the television series House.-Life and career:...
from
Richard GoodwinRichard N. Goodwin is an American writer who may be best known as an advisor and speechwriter to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and to Senator Robert F. Kennedy.-Life and career:...
's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the
Twenty OneTwenty One is an American game show which aired in the late 1950s. While it included the most popular contestant of the quiz show era, it became notorious for being a rigged quiz show which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations...
quiz show scandalThe American quiz show scandals of the 1950s were a series of revelations that contestants of several popular television quiz shows were secretly given assistance by the show's producers to arrange the outcome of a supposedly fair competition....
of the 1950s. It stars
John TurturroJohn Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
,
Rob MorrowRobert Alan "Rob" Morrow is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Don Eppes on Numb3rs and as Dr. Joel Fleischman on Northern Exposure, a role which garnered him three Golden Globes and two Emmy Award nominations for "Best Actor in a Dramatic Series."-Personal life:Morrow was born in...
,
Ralph FiennesRalph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
,
Paul ScofieldDavid Paul Scofield, CH, CBE , better known as Paul Scofield, was an English actor of stage and screen...
,
David PaymerDavid Paymer is an American actor and television director, seen in such films as Quiz Show, Searching for Bobby Fischer, City Slickers, Crazy People, State and Main, Payback, Get Shorty, Carpool, The American President, Ocean's Thirteen, and Drag Me to Hell...
,
Hank AzariaHenry Albert "Hank" Azaria is an American film, television and stage actor, director, voice actor, and comedian. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons , on which he performs the voices of Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief...
, and
Christopher McDonaldChristopher McDonald is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, Tappy Tibbons in Requiem for a Dream, and Mel Allen in the HBO film 61*.-Personal life:...
.
The film chronicles the rise and fall of the popular contestant
Charles Van DorenCharles Lincoln Van Doren is an American intellectual, writer, and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s...
after the rigged loss of
Herb StempelHerbert Milton "Herb" Stempel is a television game show contestant and subsequent whistle blower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the quiz show scandals...
and Congressional investigator Richard Goodwin's probe of Twenty Ones game-fixing. Goodwin co-produced the film.
Plot
From a secure bank vault, the answers to Twenty One, a popular primetime quiz television show, are sent into a television studio as studio producers
Dan EnrightDaniel "Dan" Enright was one of the most successful game show producers in American television. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television...
and Albert Freedman watch from the control booth. The evening's main attraction is Queens resident Herbert Stempel, the reigning champion, who answers question after question. However, both the network and the corporate sponsor of the program, a supplementary tonic called
GeritolGeritol is a US trademarked name for various dietary supplements, past and present. Geritol is currently a brand name for several vitamin complexes plus iron or multimineral products in both liquid form and tablets, containing from 9.5 to 18 mg of iron per daily dose...
, find that Stempel's approval ratings are beginning to level out, meaning the show would benefit from new talent.
Enright and Freedman find a new contestant in Columbia University instructor
Charles Van DorenCharles Lincoln Van Doren is an American intellectual, writer, and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s...
, son of the renowned poet and intellectual
Mark Van DorenMark Van Doren was an American poet, writer and a critic, apart from being a scholar and a professor of English at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thinkers including Thomas Merton, Robert Lax, John Berryman, and Beat Generation...
and the novelist Dorothy Van Doren. The producers subtly offer to rig the show for him but Van Doren uprightly refuses. Enright soon treats Stempel to dinner at an upscale restaurant, where he breaks the news that Stempel must lose in order to boost flagging ratings. Stempel begrudgingly agrees, only on the condition that he remains on television, threatening to reveal the true reason of his success: the answers had been provided to him.
Stempel and Van Doren face each other in Twenty One, where the match comes down to a predetermined question regarding
MartyMarty is a 1955 American film directed by Delbert Mann. The screenplay was written by Paddy Chayefsky, expanding upon his 1953 teleplay of the same name. The film stars Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The film enjoyed international success, winning the 1955 Academy Award for Best Picture and...
, the 1955 winner of the
Academy Award for Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
. Despite knowing the correct film, Stempel gives the wrong answer, allowing Van Doren to get a question he previously answered while in Enright's offices; he provides the winning response.
In the weeks that follow, Van Doren's winning streak makes him a national celebrity. Buckling under the new pressure, he begins to let the producers directly give him the answers instead of researching for them himself. Meanwhile, Stempel, having lost his financial prize winnings to a fleeting bookie, begins threatening legal action against the NBC network after weeks go by without his return to television.
Dick Goodwin, a young Congressional lawyer from Harvard Law, travels to New York to investigate rumors of rigged quiz shows. Visiting a number of contestants, including Stempel and Van Doren, he begins to suspect Twenty One is indeed a fixed operation. However, Stempel is a volatile personality and nobody else seems to corroborate that the show is rigged. Goodwin enjoys the company of Van Doren, who invites him to social gatherings, and doubts a man of Van Doren's background and intellect would be involved in the hoax.
Stempel desperately confesses to being in on the fix himself, and further insists that if he got the answers in advance, Van Doren did as well. With the evidence mounting, Van Doren deliberately loses, but is rewarded with a sizable contract from NBC to appear as a special correspondent on the Today show.
Meanwhile, Goodwin proceeds with the hearings before the House Committee for Legislative Oversight, with extended proof of the show's corruption. Goodwin strongly advises Van Doren to avoid making any public statements supporting the show. If he agrees to this, Goodwin promises not to call Van Doren to appear before the Congressional committee. However, at the prompting of the NBC network head, Van Doren issues a statement reaffirming his trust in the honesty of the quiz show.
Stempel testifies before Congress and, while doing so, implicates Van Doren, forcing Goodwin to call him in as a witness. Van Doren goes before Congress and publicly admits his role in the conspiracy. Afterward, he is informed by reporters of his firing from Today as well as the university's decision to ask for his resignation.
Goodwin believes he is on the verge of a victory against Geritol and the network, but instead realizes that Enright and Freedman will not turn in their bosses and jeopardize their own futures in television; he silently watches the producers' testimony, vindicating the sponsors and the network from any wrongdoing.
Historical comparison
While the movie purports to portray real events, it has been widely criticized 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 1956-1957 run on Twenty-One, when in fact the Congressional investigation led by Goodwin came in Summer 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 HoganFrank Smithwick Hogan was an American lawyer and politician from New York. Dubbed "Mr. Integrity" due to his perceived honesty and incorruptibility, he was D.A. of New York County for more than 30 years.-Life and career:...
.
Only after Judge Mitchell Schweitzer sealed the New York grand jury findings in the June 1959 probe did Congress launch its investigation. The movie implies that NBC conveyed to Enright the desires of Twenty-One sponsor
GeritolGeritol is a US trademarked name for various dietary supplements, past and present. Geritol is currently a brand name for several vitamin complexes plus iron or multimineral products in both liquid form and tablets, containing from 9.5 to 18 mg of iron per daily dose...
that Stempel be replaced, with network president
Bob KintnerRobert Kintner was a journalist and television executive who oversaw the development of the NBC and ABC television networks. From 1950-56 he served as the president of ABC. In 1956 he was forced to resign from ABC by chairman Leonard Goldenson, switched networks, and became the president of NBC...
(
Allan RichAllan Rich, is an American character actor, author, and activist.-Personal life:Allan Rich was one of the many alleged communist sympathizers blacklisted in the 1950s Hollywood blacklist.-Activism:...
) telling Enright "You're a producer, Dan. Produce." Neither Kintner nor NBC was ever implicated in the scandal and NBC cancelled the show when it heard about the scandal, but Enright claimed before his death that Geritol's complaints about the lack of drama and suspense in the unrigged premiere episode prompted the company to rig the show.
The movie shows Van Doren's win was directly because of Stempel's dive; although the question shown in the movie was the one that Stempel was supposed to take a dive on (even though he knew the correct answer), it did not end the game immediately, instead going on for another tie game and ending later in the show. The episode in which Stempel was defeated (which sent the ratings to a great high after Van Doren's win) aired December 5, 1956, as the thirteenth episode of the series.
The movie shows emcee Jack Barry slightly recoiling when a contestant, James Snodgrass, answers correctly instead of incorrectly on a question on which he was supposed to take a dive. Barry, Enright's business partner and co-producer, was never implicated in rigging the show but covered up for Enright once he found out. In addition,
Monty HallMonte Halperin, OC, OM , better known by the stage name Monty Hall, is a Canadian-born MC, producer, actor, singer and sportscaster, best known as host of the television game show Let's Make a Deal.-Early life:...
had replaced Barry as host in early 1958 and was still hosting when the scandal broke.
The movie does not acknowledge the rigging practices of other 1950s quiz shows, the most prominent among them being The $64,000 Question,
DottoDotto is an American television quiz show which aired on CBS from January 6 to August 15, 1958 and was hosted by Jack Narz. Although it quickly became the highest-rated daytime game show on television, its end came when it became the unexpected first casualty – and ignition – of the...
, and Barry-Enright's own
Tic-Tac-DoughTic-Tac-Dough is an American television game show based on the pen-and-paper game of tic-tac-toe. Contestants answer questions in various categories to put up their respective symbol, X or O, on the board. Three versions were produced: the initial 1956–59 run on NBC, a 1978–1986 run initially on...
. The lack of Dotto undermines the entire film, as it was that show which sparked the investigations.
Journalist
Ken AulettaKen Auletta is an American writer, journalist and media critic for The New Yorker.-Early life and education:Auletta grew up in Brooklyn, the son of an Italian-American father and a Jewish-American mother...
, in a 1994 article in
The New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, noted that Redford admitted at a screening of the film that summer that "dramatic license" was taken in making Quiz Show, like most fact-based dramatizations. However, 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 ExperienceAmerican Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service Public television stations in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American history...
. (Krainin, like Goodwin, was a co-producer of Quiz Show.)
In a July 2008 edition of The New Yorker, Charles Van Doren writes about the events depicted in the film, agreeing with many of the details but also saying that he had a regular girlfriend at the time he was on Twenty One, who is not present in the film depiction. Van Doren also notes that he continued teaching, contrary to the film's epilogue which states he never returned to doing so.
Cast
- John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
as Herb StempelHerbert Milton "Herb" Stempel is a television game show contestant and subsequent whistle blower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the quiz show scandals...
- Rob Morrow
Robert Alan "Rob" Morrow is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Don Eppes on Numb3rs and as Dr. Joel Fleischman on Northern Exposure, a role which garnered him three Golden Globes and two Emmy Award nominations for "Best Actor in a Dramatic Series."-Personal life:Morrow was born in...
as Dick Goodwin
- Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
as Charles Van DorenCharles Lincoln Van Doren is an American intellectual, writer, and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s...
- David Paymer
David Paymer is an American actor and television director, seen in such films as Quiz Show, Searching for Bobby Fischer, City Slickers, Crazy People, State and Main, Payback, Get Shorty, Carpool, The American President, Ocean's Thirteen, and Drag Me to Hell...
as Dan EnrightDaniel "Dan" Enright was one of the most successful game show producers in American television. Enright worked with Jack Barry from the 1940s until Barry's death in 1984. They were partners in creating programs for radio and television...
- Paul Scofield
David Paul Scofield, CH, CBE , better known as Paul Scofield, was an English actor of stage and screen...
as Mark Van Doren
- Hank Azaria
Henry Albert "Hank" Azaria is an American film, television and stage actor, director, voice actor, and comedian. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons , on which he performs the voices of Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief...
as Albert Freedman
- Christopher McDonald as Jack Barry
Jack Barry may refer to:* Jack Barry * Jack Barry , television host and producer* Jack Barry , 1930s radio singer* Jack Berry , an Irish sportsperson-See also:...
- Johann Carlo
-Life and career:Carlo was born in Buffalo, New York. She made her Broadway debut in 1983, appearing alongside Kate Nelligan as Louise in David Hare's Plenty. In 1991, she returned to Broadway for Richard Jones' La Bête. She was commissioned by the Whitney Museum to write, direct and perform in the...
as Toby Stempel
- Elizabeth Wilson
Elizabeth Welter Wilson is an American actress. She was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007.-Life and career:Wilson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the daughter of Marie Ethel and Henry Dunning Wilson, who was an insurance agent...
as Dorothy Van Doren
- Allan Rich
Allan Rich, is an American character actor, author, and activist.-Personal life:Allan Rich was one of the many alleged communist sympathizers blacklisted in the 1950s Hollywood blacklist.-Activism:...
as Robert KintnerRobert Kintner was a journalist and television executive who oversaw the development of the NBC and ABC television networks. From 1950-56 he served as the president of ABC. In 1956 he was forced to resign from ABC by chairman Leonard Goldenson, switched networks, and became the president of NBC...
- Mira Sorvino
Mira Katherine Sorvino is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite and is also known for her role as Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.- Early life :Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey...
as Sandra Goodwin
- George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
as Chairman
- Paul Guilfoyle
Paul Guilfoyle is an American television and film actor. He is currently a regular cast member of the forensic television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation where he plays Captain Jim Brass.-Early life:...
as Lishman
- Griffin Dunne
-Personal life:Dunne was born Thomas Griffin Dunne in New York City, New York, the son of Ellen Beatriz Dunne and Dominick Dunne. His mother founded the victims' rights organization Justice for Homicide Victims and his father was a producer, writer, and actor...
as Account Guy
- Michael Mantell
Michael Mantell is an American actor. He has had many small parts in American movies and television shows, including Eight Men Out , Bart Got a Room, Ocean's Thirteen, Thank You for Smoking, Angel, How I Met Your Mother, Love and Marriage, and The West Wing...
as Pennebaker
- Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
as Martin Rittenhome
- Neil Ross
Theodoric Neilson "Neil" Ross is an English voice actor and announcer, born in London, England and now resident and working in Los Angeles, in the United States. He has provided voices for in many American cartoons, particularly those based on Hasbro products and Marvel Comics, and numerous...
as Twenty-One Announcer
Reception
The film was very well received. It has a 96% rating from
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, and a 100% top critics. Film critic
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film 3-and-a-half stars out of four, calling the screenplay "smart, subtle and ruthless." Web critic
James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
praised the "superb performances by Fiennes," and said "John Turturro is exceptional as the uncharismatic Herbie Stempel."
Awards
Quiz Show was nominated for
Academy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for
Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
,
Best DirectorThe Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...
(
Robert RedfordCharles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
),
Best Actor in a Supporting RolePerformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(
Paul ScofieldDavid Paul Scofield, CH, CBE , better known as Paul Scofield, was an English actor of stage and screen...
) and
Best Adapted ScreenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
(
Paul AttanasioPaul Albert Attanasio is an American screenwriter and producer of film and television, who is currently an executive producer on the television series House.-Life and career:...
).