Quiz Show

UPC: 717951003492

Studio: Walt Disney Video

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Adult Situations, Adult Language, Watch With Your Teen]

Summary: It's 1958, and the producers of the quiz show 21 have a problem. Their current champ, Herbert Stempel (John Turturro), has a phenomenal memory and a broad range of knowledge. He's also a pudgy loudmouth with a grating personality, so Herbert is encouraged to "take a dive" and allow Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), a handsome and charming college professor, to become the show's new champion. Audiences like Van Doren, and he's certainly not averse to the money he's winning, but the ethics of the situation begin to trouble him, especially when the show's producers begin to give him the questions in advance. Director Robert Redford and writer Paul Attanasio paint a telling portrait of how the network heads and advertising men who manipulated the quiz shows were also able to manipulate the responsibility for the scandal away from themselves. While on the surface a story about the scandal itself, Quiz Show is just as importantly about a turning point in the 1950s when TV and advertising began to change American character and culture. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – null Best Director – null Best Screenplay – null Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Screenplay (Runner-up) – National Society of Film Critics Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Screen Actors Guild Best Picture – New York Film Critics Circle Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actor – Screen Actors Guild Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: Theatrical trailer
French-language track
Dolby Surround
Widescreen [1.85:1]

Quiz Show

Format: DVD

Release Date: 09/07/1999

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DDS Dolby Digital Surround

Runtime: 133 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
0. Chapter Selection
1. Program Start [:12]
2. Opening Credits [:12]
3. "Twenty-One" On Air [5:19]
4. A Problem With Stempel [5:19]
5. At Home With The Stempels [:10]
6. Just An Idea [:10]
7. Asked To Take A Dive [2:54]
8. A New Champion [4:40]
9. Celebrity/Angry Loser [3:48]
10. Stempel Sees Enright [7:13]
11. "TV Quiz Inquiry Sealed By Judge" [5:53]
12. Lunch At The Athenaeum [6:40]
13. Goodwin Sees Stempel [2:48]
14. Connecticut Visit [2:50]
15. Goodwin Sees Enright & Freedman [8:33]
16. Stempel Fesses Up [4:45]
17. Poker Game [2:58]
18. Father-Son Talk [7:33]
19. At Mr. Kintner's Office [:41]
20. Changing Of The Guard [2:24]
21. Man To Man [4:01]
22. Subcommittee Calls Herb Stempel [3:10]
23. Kintner Sees Van Doren [6:03]
24. Goodwin And The Sponsor [1:23]
25. A Subpoena For Van Doren [9:29]
26. Dad Finds Out The Truth [5:23]
27. Van Doren Testifies [4:17]
28. A Raucous Scene [3:47]
29. Enright Testifies [4:44]
30. End Credits [1:45]

Rebecca Flint Marx

A neatly executed look at the nature of scandal in the early days of television, and a rich portrait of America in the 1950s, Quiz Show is as sleek and deceptively complicated as the era it portrays. The quiz show scandal becomes a microcosm of attitudes and values in 1950s America, from deep-seated ethnic prejudices to the preoccupation with class and appearance. Dense, ferociously intelligent, and never condescending, the film is also terrifically entertaining, as director Robert Redford and writer Paul Attanasio weave together multiple stories of ambition, cowardice, and disappointment. The film is also notable for its performances, especially John Turturro's self-deprecating yet self-righteous Stempel, and Ralph Fiennes' charming but tragically flawed WASP prince Charles Van Doren. Both actors perfectly convey the kind of ambition that was simultaneously encouraged and manipulated by game show politics, as well as the resulting desperation. Through their performances we see the tensions of an era, the struggle between appearance and reality, success and artifice. Quiz Show was nominated for 4 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Paul Scofield's unforgettable scenes as Van Doren's pained patrician father. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Chuck Adamson  Actor 
Joe Lisi  Actor 
Vince O'Brien  Actor 
Bernie Sheredy  Actor 
Anthony Fusco  Actor 
Stephen Pearlman  Actor 
David Stepkin  Actor 
Kelly Coffield  Actor 
Pat Russell  Actor 
Merwin Goldsmith  Actor 
Debra Monk  Actor 
Reno  Actor 
Neil Leifer  Actor 
Illeana Douglas  Actor 
Nicholas Kepros  Actor 
Byron Jennings  Actor 
Richard Council  Actor 
Ethan Hawke  Actor 
Bill Moor  Actor 
Ernie Sabella  Actor 
Shawn Batten  Actor 
William Fichtner  Actor 
Eddie Korbich  Actor 
Jeffrey Nordling  Actor 
Carole Shelley  Actor 
Douglas McGrath  Actor 
Bruce Altman  Actor 
Hamilton Fish IV  Actor 
Michael Mantell  Actor 
Barry Snider  Actor 
Gretchen Egolf  Actor 
Timothy Busfield  Actor 
Jack Gilpin  Actor 
Grace Phillips  Actor 
Bill Cwikowski  Actor 
Steve Ryan  Actor 
Richard Dreyfuss  Executive Producer 
Mark Isham  Composer (Music Score) 
Michael Jacobs  Producer 
Michael Nozik  Producer 
Robert Redford  Director 
Robert Redford  Producer 
Joseph P. Reidy  Producer 
Frederick Zollo  Executive Producer 
Paul Attanasio  Screenwriter 
Judith James  Executive Producer 
Julian Krainin  Producer 
John Turturro  Actor 
Rob Morrow  Actor 
Ralph Fiennes  Actor 
Paul Scofield  Actor 
David Paymer  Actor 
Hank Azaria  Actor 
Christopher McDonald  Actor 
Johann Carlo  Actor 
Elizabeth Wilson  Actor 
Allan Rich  Actor 
Mira Sorvino  Actor 
George Martin  Actor 
Paul Guilfoyle  Actor 
Griffin Dunne  Actor 
Martin Scorsese  Actor 
Barry Levinson  Actor 

Country: USA