The Black Sox Scandal of Early Television: Outstanding Snap-Shot of the 1950's

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2012)

Millions of television viewers thought they were watching legitimate knowledge competitions, such as "the $64,000 Question" and "21", in which the contestants were being asked difficult questions supposedly sealed in a vault. What the public didn't know was the producers did not perceive they were broadcasting competitions but rather entertainments. And since the television ratings were the real score, not the scores of the contestants, it made sense to everyone involved to rig the show with preordained outcomes. Not even the eight men of the Chicago White Sox who threw a few games of the World Series in 1919 could literally pre-ordain the precise outcomes of the competitions.
"Quiz Show", directed by Robert Redford and starring John Tuturro, Ralph Fiennes, and Rob Morrow, begins with a salesmen showing a prospective buyer a new Cadillac. The salesmen expounds upon the design, interior, even the radio. He allows the potential buyer to start the engine. The salesman comes off as both confident and yet trustworthy. Even though once the opening title sequence begins, we never revisit the salesman or the Cadillac, we understand that this is a film having to do with selling something. Then strands of the Threepenny Opera song Mack the Knife intones: Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear, And he shows them pearly white Just a jack-knife has Macheath dear And he keeps it out of sight.
Television and entertainment is a bit like Mack the Knife, pearly white teeth but very sharp and biting.
The television quiz shows in the 1950's were at the mercy of one of their biggest sponsors, Geritol. When the ratings for the quiz show "21" begin to stagnate during reigning champion Herbert Stempel's tenure, the sponsors decide they want a new contestant. But Stempel appears to be unbeatable. Then the producers meet little known literary professor Charles Van Doren. Doren appears to exude an uncommon combination of intelligence, knowledge, and amiability. And he's of "gentile" extraction, probably Dutch-New England, unlike the Jewish Stempel who probably grew up in Brooklyn. However, it's not enough they want to match Van Doren against Stempel. They want to make sure Stempel loses, so they compel him to flub an easy question, the Best Picture of 1955, "Marty". Only problem is, "Marty" is one of Stempel's favorite movies, and he knows very well it won Best Picture. The producer, Daniel Enright, replies that that's the beauty of it. It was such an easy question that his faltering will be just that much more dramatic.
In the mean time, Richard Goodwin, fresh out of law school, is working for a US congressman on the Legislative Oversight Subcommittee. He is wondering if the television quiz shows are legitimate, or fudging their own supposed "rules". He begins asking questions. He is led to Herbert Stempel and eventually to Charles Van Doren, the recent "21" champion. Then he discovers an unexpected piece of the puzzle which verifies, once and for all, whether these shows are rigged.
An incredible film with a first-rate cast. "Quiz Show" presents not just the scandal itself, but a slice of American culture in the late 1950's. Although World War II was now over 10 years behind, new challenges were facing America. And the legitimacy of television as the new entertainment medium was becoming the choice for many Americans. The public believed everything they saw, but not everything they saw was real.