Review of Quiz Show (1994) by Edith N — 01 Dec 2008

I have often thought on the subject of going on [i]Jeopardy![/i] My grandmother thought I should. I think I'd do pretty well, actually. And I don't have to worry, now, about how my popularity effects the ratings. All that matters now, at least after you get on the air, is what you actually know. There is no more giving of the answers in advance. Game shows shouldn't be scripted, with the obvious exception that the questions must be written in advance. Even Alex Trebek's banter with the contestants is a little stiff for my tastes. All of that is because of what happened in the '50s, the subject of today's film. It hasn't been made "so pure it floats," but they are pretty damn careful to keep it so pure it can't be forced into govermental regulation.

Herbie Stempel (Jon Turturro) is riding high on the game show [i]Twenty One[/i]. He's been the champion for weeks, and he hopes to be champion for long enough to get out from under his debts and his in-laws' thumbs. But one day, he is told that he must get a frankly very simple question wrong, and he will be replaced as champion by Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes). Meanwhile, Dick Goodwin (Rob Morrow) is looking for an issue that will help him get out of a nothing Washington job and stave off his inevitable creep towards Wall Street. He finds Herbie Stempel, who is at best an unreliable witness, but he's a start. It's clear that Stempel wants revenge on the people he blames for his fall. He thought they would give him a life in TV after his fall from the peak of [i]Twenty One[/i], but he is back in Queens with his mother-in-law lording over him--in no small part because he got involved in a shady real estate scam and lost all the money.

What's interesting but barely touched on in the movie is the antisemitism of the executives. Stemple points out that every time there is a Jewish champion, he is unseated by a Gentile who makes even more money. It turns out to be true, not just more of Stemple's ridiculous rantings. Is it intentional? One cannot say at this late date, but I think it's possible. Then again, one would assume that true antisemitism would have kept Jews off the air entirely. Then again, that would probably have been more obvious. I mean, obviously there would be no black people on the show; that would have been unthinkable. However, Jews have long been considered just part of white people, so not having any at all probably would have struck somebody as odd. Not that I'm sure what anyone would have done about it.

Apparently, the history of this movie is pretty iffy. The chronology, for example, is all screwed up. Hell, even "Mac the Knife," which is kind of a theme song in places, wasn't released by Bobby Darin until after the whole thing was over, ditto the launch of Sputnik. Further, the sequence of who talked to whom when is a little shaky. And while the movie admits at the end that there was never evidence presented that the network or the sponsor knew of the scam, it is made very clear in the film that they did. Indeed, in the film, the network and the sponsor pretty well force the continuation of the scam, forcing Stemple off the air even when the producer thinks he can still bring in viewers. Apparently, also, Charles Van Doren had a girlfriend at the time, but I doubt that changed how many marriage proposals he received!

Charles Van Doren tells his father (Paul Scofield) that he doesn't know why he did it, but I think I do. After all, Mark Van Doren was, at the time, quite a name. Much of Van Doren's family was very, very famous in intellectual circles of the time. Indeed, even non-intellectuals appear to have heard the name of Mark Van Doren; when Charles is being interviewed for a chance on one of the TV shows, everyone seems confused as to what a son of his father is even doing there, trying to get on [i]Tic Tac Dough[/i]. Making a million dollars on a game show--not likely, but it must have seemed possible at one point, and I shudder to think what the amount he got is adjusted for inflation--would make him someone in his own name. And, of course, he still is. It may only be TV history, but history will not forget the name of Charles Van Doren, much though he may yet wish that it might.