MUSEUM OF BROADCASTING SEMINAR SERIES, THE: WNET / THIRTEEN: TVTV {LONG VERSION}
Summary
One in this series of seminars presented by The Paley Center for Media, known at that time as The Museum of Broadcasting. This event celebrates Top Value Television, or "TVTV," the pioneering 1970s video collective.
Ron Simon (curator, The Museum of Broadcasting) offers opening remarks and introduces David Loxton (director of drama and senior executive producer of specials, WNET-13). Loxton suggests a "Rashomon type thing" in which the panelists will offer their differing perspectives and memories of the clips shown, and then introduces the panelists: TVTV founding members Tom Weinberg, Skip Blumberg, Wendy Apple, Maureen Orth, and Hudson Marquez.
A series of clips of TVTV productions are then shown, including scenes from the 1972 Democratic and Republican National Conventions; behind-the-scenes chats with football fans, including Bill Murray, at the 1976 Super Bowl; and "Gerald Ford's America" (1975), in which special low-light cameras are used to interview politically minded attendees at a posh Washington D.C. party.
After the clips, the panelists touch on such topics as: the "fledgling" invention of cable television around the time of TVTV's existence; how the group formed and struggled to find funding; their award-winning documentary "Lord of the Universe" (1974), which profiled the Millennium '73 event in Houston, Texas, and self-proclaimed god Guru Maharaj Ji's plans to levitate the Astrodome; their freedom to film anywhere and everywhere because cameras were not yet ubiquitous or seen as "intrusive"; how their non-threatening "weirdo" demeanors helped them gain access to interesting locations and people, including a memorable interview with Walter Cronkite; CBS' attempts to buy their footage after they "scooped" the major networks on a big story; President Richard Nixon's infamous attacks on public television funding; their documentary "The Good Times are Killing Me" (1975), which examined Cajun culture and earned Loxton a lifetime ban from Louisiana; their plans for an in-depth four-part miniseries about Nixon's administration and Watergate, stymied when he suddenly resigned the presidency, after which they created "Gerald Ford's America"; their hopes that infamous activist Abbie Hoffman would help them land an interview with kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, which instead led to a little-seen profile of Hoffman himself; "Supervision," their 1976 PBS series about the history of television; their Academy Awards special, "TVTV Looks at the Oscars" (1976); and their final creation, the Saturday night program "The TVTV Show" (1976).
Questions and comments from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics, among others: how they learned various filming, producing and editing skills in order to share roles; the "revolutionary" invention of the Sony Portapak, a handheld video tape recording system; TVTV's unusual decision to show "the process" and depict cameramen onscreen; Apple's memories of her on-the-ground reporting in a Cajun women's salon for "Good Times"; the influence of other similar video collectives like the Videofreex and the Ant Farm; why they attempted to "smash or disregard" conventional documentary styles, including the pretense of total objectivity; their technique of "smother coverage," in which multiple TVTV members shot many hours of footage apiece and then created their own edits, leading to some degree of chaos; Orth's journalist background, including her recollections of up-close encounters with Vietnam War veterans and angry Secret Service agents; her "instinctive" interview with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; why people were generally less "self-aware" when faced with a camera than people are today; their frequent concerns and discussions about exploiting their subjects; why the collective was not a "hierarchy," like most television stations; details about their budget and per-hour prices; whether they were "taken seriously," including CBS' request to rent some of their avant-garde equipment; their positive relationships with the press, and achieving greater visibility via critics' articles about their productions; why the collective likely would not survive on today's public television; the "natural" decline of TVTV as its members gradually pursued their own interests; Apple's current work in "actuality programming"; how TVTV's productions are now used as teaching tools for aspiring filmmakers; their groundbreaking techniques that are still used today, including their focus on "the press looking at the press itself" and the importance of television in the political process; the "lame" backstage reporting at the recent Winter Olympic Games; and why they did not necessarily appreciate being compared to filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, the "personification" of the verité documentary, while still greatly respecting his work.
Details
- NETWORK: Paley
- DATE: April 22, 1986
- RUNNING TIME: 1:15:58
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T86:0346
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - AT&T phone service
- TV - Commercials - Cadillac automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Ford automobiles
- TV - Commercials - General Electric electric appliances
- TV - Commercials - Honda Civic Hatchback automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Kraft Velveeta shells & cheese dinners
- TV - Commercials - Sealy Posturpedic mattresses
- TV - PSA - Leukemia Society of America, Inc.
- TV - PSA - National Organization on Disability
- TV - Promos - "ABC News: World News This Morning"
- TV - Promos - "ABC News: World News Tonight"
- TV - Promos - "ABC Wide World of Sports: 25 Years: Anniversary Celebration"
- TV - Promos - "Alex: The Life of a Child"
- TV - Promos - "Good Morning America"
- TV - Promos - "Joe Bash"
- TV - Promos - "Mr. Sunshine"
CREDITS
- Ron Simon … Host
- David Loxton … Moderator
- Tom Weinberg … Panelist
- Skip Blumberg … Panelist
- Maureen Orth … Panelist
- Wendy Apple … Panelist
- Hudson Marquez … Panelist
- Walter Cronkite
- Gerald Ford
- Patty Hearst (see also: Patricia Hearst)
- Abbie Hoffman
- Henry Kissinger
- Guru Maharaj Ji (see also: Prem Rawat)
- Richard Nixon
- Frederick Wiseman