Quiz Show (1994)

Dick Goodwin discovers game shows are fixed: Charles Van Doren is fed answers so he beats Herbie Stempel.

Director:

Robert Redford

Writers:

Paul Attanasio (screenplay), Richard N. Goodwin (book)

Stars:

John Turturro, Rob Morrow, Ralph Fiennes

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Turturro	...	Herbie Stempel
Rob Morrow	...	Dick Goodwin
Ralph Fiennes	...	Charles Van Doren
Paul Scofield	...	Mark Van Doren
David Paymer	...	Dan Enright
Hank Azaria	...	Albert Freedman
Christopher McDonald	...	Jack Barry
Johann Carlo	...	Toby Stempel
Elizabeth Wilson	...	Dorothy Van Doren
Allan Rich	...	Robert Kintner
Mira Sorvino	...	Sandra Goodwin
George Martin	...	Chairman
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Lishman
Griffin Dunne	...	Account Guy
Michael Mantell	...	Pennebaker

Storyline

An idealistic young lawyer working for a Congressional subcommittee in the late 1950s discovers that TV quiz shows are being fixed. His investigation focuses on two contestants on the show "Twenty-One": Herbert Stempel, a brash working-class Jew from Queens, and Charles Van Doren, the patrician scion of one of America's leading literary families. Based on a true story.

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Plot Keywords:

television | columbia university | 1950s | fraud | investigation | 

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Taglines:

Fifty million people watched, but no one saw a thing.

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some strong language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 September 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

Kviz

Filming Locations:

Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$24,822,619 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Baltimore Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Wildwood Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

133 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Charles Van Doren's resignation was accepted at Columbia, and he went on to become editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica for two decades (and wrote "How to Read a Book" and others, though didn't publish under his real name for many years after the scandal).

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Goofs

References to a "new 1958 model car" place the film in 1957 or 1958. The radio plays Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife," which was released in 1959.

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Quotes

Mark Van Doren: Your name is mine!

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Crazy Credits

Richard Goodwin became a speechwriter for the 1960 Kennedy campaign and then a member of the White House staff. After the assassination of Robert Kennedy, he retired from politics to become a writer.

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Connections

Featured in The 52nd Annual Golden Globe Awards (1995)

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Soundtracks

"MACK THE KNIFE"
Written by Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht and Marc Blitzstein
Performed by Bobby Darin
Courtesy of Atco Records
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

A study in ethics

Although `Quiz Show' is entirely concerned with morality and the nature of moral choices, I can't think of a single moment when it isn't obvious whether or not a character is doing the right thing. There are no moral dilemmas whatever. And a good thing too - thorny ethical issues would only turn it into an episode of `Star Trek'. If you think a film needs to be confused about right and wrong in order to be interesting, watch `Quiz Show' and realise your error.

Here's most of the ethics in a nutshell: the star contestants of a popular quiz show are cheating, with the connivance of the producers, the sponsor, and the network. That they shouldn't be cheating is never in dispute. The interesting questions are: Why are they cheating? and, What is it like for them, and how do they maintain dignity, when they're found out? Of course, in an intelligent character study like this there are plenty of other questions. I won't ruin your pleasure by giving away any of the answers. The best scenes, probably, are the ones in which a character must admit to someone or some group of people that he has cheated. All these scenes are very good and each is handled in a different way. But they're just cherries in a rich fruitcake. `Quiz Show' is one of my personal favourites. It was nominated for Best Picture of 1994 - an unusually fertile year - although the award went instead to some big dumb propaganda piece.