The studio audience, dressed to the nines for such a momentous occasion, looks on as the contestants take their places in secure isolation booths. They are eagerly awaiting the live taping of "Twenty-One", a game show that has dominated the ratings and captured the imagination of a nation. Little do they know that the contestants in the booths, with supposedly baffling intellects, have been supplied the answers ahead of time by the producer. In today's society, it's a given that television is an artificial construct, but back in the late 1950's, the scandal was a wake-up call for Americans to stop vesting so much nobility into the medium of TV, particularly in game shows. And yet, at the time, the playing field was considered sacrosanct and unquestionable.
Quiz Show, a movie directed and produced by Robert Redford, depicts this era with exact precision and a cloud of unseen finger-pointing. The year is 1958, when a slithering contestant on "Twenty-One" -- sponsored by Geritol -- becomes all the rage thanks to his return visits every week. Herbie Stempel (John Turturro) has no plans of being uprooted until the show's producer Dan Enright (David Paymer) tells him his ratings have "plateau"ed. Along comes Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), a shiny, upper class teacher who better suits the demographics the show's sponsors are desperate to capitalize on. When Herbie intentionally throws an answer and paves the way for Van Doren to step in, his jealousy leads to a congressional investigation led by Dick Goodwin (Rob Morrow). Van Doren is thrust into a moral labyrinth he could never have predicted.
The film is clever in the way it portrays events as a lot more convoluted than they needed to be, since it is likely those involved in the scandal were constantly changing stories in midstream and making things up as they went along. The producers are answerable to the network executives, but how much do the executives know? How much does the president of NBC know? By the time the matter is brought to an investigational committee, the answers are skewed and the alibis are foolproof. Yet, the lengths to which everyone goes to protect the secret are dizzying. In one scene, Charles's father, played magnificently by Paul Scofield, is confused when his son tries to explain to him that everything is complicated. Their dialogue is refreshingly candid in a movie filled with cover-ups, guilt and greed.
The game show sequences are tense and gripping. Even when the contestants are supplied their answers ahead of time, the suspense they generate is palpable and easy to fall for. As the real-life host Jack Barry, Christopher McDonald is slick and the archetypal salesman when he lays out the stakes for the studio audience step by step. In cameo roles, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson and Mira Sorvino all add suspense to their respective scenes as well.
In a weird way, Quiz Show is almost difficult to watch. By this I mean an artificial innocence was lost and never recaptured. Before the scandal broke, people believed it was possible to make lots of money on a game show if you'd worked during your life at gaining and accumulating knowledge. They believed television was a reflection of -- and an accurate depiction of -- reality. Revealing the truth, then, although messy, becomes obligatory. The movie sets itself up so that in the end, it is expected that good will indeed triumph and TV will be exposed for what it really is. Of course, this doesn't happen, which gives cause to consider that the deception could explain current phenomena such as "Who Wants to Be A Millionare?" and "Survivor", one of the most blatantly phony series ever to air. Truth is, we are all still waiting for that elusive accountability to materialize.
