TELEVISION, PART 6: DRAMA (TV)
Summary
The sixth in this eight-part documentary hosted and narrated by Edwin Newman, which examines the history and development of the television medium and its role in society. In this part, clips from television drama are interspersed with brief interviews with television writers, producers, directors, and programmers to examine the evolution of primetime drama, the values it imparts, and its prevalent themes. Topics covered include the differences between live television drama during the "Golden Age" of television in the 1950s and filmed TV drama in the 1960s; the social impact and popularity of American TV drama abroad; drama produced in foreign countries; and TV drama's quality or lack of it. Clips shown include "The Days of Wine and Roses" (1958); "Kraft Television Theatre: The Royal Family"; "Golden Boy"; "Our Town" (1955); "Kraft Television Theatre: Patterns" (1955); "Studio One: Twelve Angry Men" (1954); "A Man Is Ten Feet Tall" (1955); Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty" with Rod Steiger (1953); "Cheyenne"; "Rawhide" (1958); "The Defenders" with Ozzie Davis and E.G. Marshall (1963); "The Twilight Zone: To Serve Man" (1962); "The Untouchables"; "Columbo" (1971); "Miami Vice"; "Cagney and Lacey"; "Hill Street Blues"; "L.A. Law"; "The Missiles of October," a 1975 dramatization of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, with William Devane as John F. Kennedy; "That Certain Summer," the groundbreaking made-for-TV movie with Hal Holbrook, 1972; "An Early Frost," the 1985 made-for-TV movie about AIDS, with Aidan Quinn; "Holocaust" (1978); "Star Trek"; "Dallas"; "Dynasty"; the French TV drama "Chateauvallon"; examples of Brazilian "telenovelas"; Nigerian comic drama; the Japanese TV drama "The Samurai Executioner"; "I, Claudius"; "Brideshead Revisited"; "The Jewel in the Crown"; "The Singing Detective"; "American Playhouse: True West," by Sam Shepard; "American Playhouse: Eccentricities of a Nightingale" with Blythe Danner and Frank Langella; "Death of a Salesman" with Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich. Those interviewed include producer Herbert Brodkin; producer/writer Steven Bochco; producer/writer Larry Gelbart; author Gore Vidal; writer J.P. Miller; actor John Forsythe; director John Frankenheimer; William T. Orr of Warner Brothers TV, 1955-56; former NBC executive David Tebet; Michael Mann, executive producer, "Miami Vice"; Barbara Corday, co-creator, "Cagney and Lacey"; German TV producer Peter Marthesheimer; TV critic Christopher Dunkley; actor William Shatner; actor Larry Hagman; Margaret Schumacher, Deputy Head of Drama, East German TV; Michael Grade, Director of Programs, BBC; and Dennis Potter, author of "The Singing Detective." Includes an advertisement for the companion book "Television" by Michael Winship, and a promo for "Frontline: Let My Daughter Die."
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: February 29, 1988 Monday 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:57:40
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T88:0247
- GENRE: Arts documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: AIDS (Disease) - Drama; Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962 - Drama; Gays - Drama; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) - Drama; TV - Drama
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV, 1988
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Promos - "Frontline: Let My Daughter Die"
CREDITS
- Jack Sameth … Executive Producer, Director
- Susan Kim … Producer
- Michael Winship … Producer, Writer
- Granada Television of England … Based on the Granada series "Television" by
- Edwin Newman … Narrator
- Steven Bochco
- Herb Brodkin
- Barbara Corday
- Blythe Danner
- Ozzie Davis
- William Devane
- Christopher Dunkley
- John Forsythe
- John Frankenheimer
- Larry Gelbart
- Michael Grade
- Larry Hagman
- Dustin Hoffman
- Hal Holbrook
- Frank Langella
- John Malkovich
- Michael Mann
- E.G. Marshall
- Peter Marthesheimer
- J.P. Miller
- William T. Orr
- Dennis Potter
- Aidan Quinn
- Margaret Schumacher
- William Shatner
- Sam Shepard
- Rod Steiger
- David Tebet
- Gore Vidal