Films and television are no strange bedfellows. Both have created a relationship in which they feed off each other in a number of ways, yet Hollywood`s attempts at telling television stories on the big screen have been few and far between.
Despite its power and influence, television has not been popular fodder for fictional Hollywood treatments. Out of the thousands of movies made since the medium was born 50 years ago, only a handful have been set in a television background.
Most of the films made, however, have been exceptional, from the early comedy ”Champagne For Caesar” to the recently released parody on the music video business, ”Tapeheads.”
What follows is a list of videos that tell the story of television through the eyes of Hollywood. So, if you`re already tired of the networks`
offerings for the 1989-90 season, turn on your television and watch movies about television.
– ”Champagne for Caesar” (1950): Ronald Colman and Celeste Holm star in one of the first comedies about television. Colman plays a unemployed genius who becomes a TV game-show champion. Vincent Price costars as the neurotic sponsor.
– ”Medium Cool” (1969): Cinematographer Haskell Wexler made his directing debut in this almost experimental film about a television news cameraman (when most TV news footage was on celluloid) in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention. This also was one of the few movies made in Chicago before the 1970s. Stars Robert Forster and Peter Bonerz.
– ”The Front” (1976): A witty yet biting look at the McCarthy era blacklisting of television performers. Woody Allen plays a deli clerk who fronts for a group of blacklisted television writers. The film`s director is Martin Ritt and stars Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernardi, who actually were blacklisted in the early 1950s. This is one of the few films starring Allen that he did not write or direct.
– ”Network” (1976): Paddy Chayefsky`s ultimate satirical statement on television news. The film follows a network anchorman (Peter Finch) who loses his mind on the air but gains plenty of ratings. Also starring William Holden, Robert Duvall and Faye Dunaway.
– ”The China Syndrome” (1979): A tight and tense drama about television coverage of the attempted cover-up of an accident at a California nuclear power plant. Jane Fonda plays a television feature reporter who yearns to cover hard news stories and Michael Douglas portrays a radical cameraman. Jack Lemmon also stars.
– ”My Favorite Year” (1982): A warm and often frantic comedy about a live show (a la ”Your Show of Shows”) from the Golden Age of Television. Mark Linn-Baker stars as a young writer who is put in charge of chaperoning the show`s guest star, a movie idol (Peter O`Toole) who shows up dead drunk. Directed by Richard Benjamin.
– ”Tootsie” (1982): Dustin Hoffman plays a unemployed New York actor who dresses up like a woman to win a role on a soap opera. A winning film that parodies both sexist attitudes and soap operas. Jessica Lange, Teri Garr and Bill Murray are featured.
– ”Videodrome” (1983): David Cronenberg`s (”Dead Ringers,” ”The Fly”) gory story of a small cable television operator (James Woods) who becomes hooked on some mysterious satellite programming. Television as a truly evil force. Also starring rocker Deborah Harry.
– ”Broadcast News” (1987): James L. Brooks` part-comedy, part-love story on the television news business stars William Hurt as a handsome anchorman who gets by on his looks, Albert Brooks as an intellectual but unlucky reporter, and Holly Hunter as a neurotic but tough producer. Jack Nicholson makes a cameo as a network anchor.
– ”Switching Channels” (1988): A modern retelling of the classic newspaper story ”The Front Page” (or the later ”His Gal Friday”) takes place in a CNN-like all-news cable station. Despite a cast that includes Kathleen Turner, Christopher Reeve and Burt Reynolds, the film doesn`t contain the bite of its earlier incarnations.
– ”Hairspray” (1988): Former underground filmmaker John Waters directed this satire on television dance shows of the early 1960s. All-star cast includes Sonny Bono, Deborah Harry, Pia Zadora (as a beatnik), rocker Ric Ocasek and Ricki Lake. This was the swan song for female impersonator Divine. – ”Tapeheads” (1988): This cultish film by Michael Nesmith`s Pacific Arts Video stars John Cusack and Tim Robbins as buddies who aspire to be music video producers and boost the career of their boyhoods idols, the Swanky Modes (Junior Walker and Sam Moore). ”Soul Train`s” Don Cornelius also stars in this funny takeoff of MTV-inspired television.
