TV NATION {GUNS; NEIGHBORS; NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY; TALK SHOW GUESTS} (TV)
Summary
One in this comedic news magazine series devised and hosted by muckraking filmmaker/journalist/satirist Michael Moore. On this show, Moore and his colleagues explore the world of guns throughout the program, find out what your next door neighbors do, ponder the possibilities of moving the show to New Jersey, and visit with talk show guests. Moore spends a day with some congressmen's wives who take him skeet shooting. Louis Theroux discovers an exotic weapons shooting gallery in Arkansas. Ben Hamper joins Tom Washington, the president of the National Rifle Association, for a demonstration of the correct way to shoot a rifle. Karen Duffy goes to a private shooting range in the basement of a Chinese restaurant in New York City. The first segment brings "TV Nation" to a quiet suburban Long Island town to find out how neighbors react to strange happenings in town. The show hired an actor to play an eccentric loner who immitates a serial killer. He digs holes in his lawn, throws out garbage with red stains, paints his garage door half red, and splatters the picture window with a red dye. All of these acts are done both day and night but the neighbors don't seem to think anything of it. The next segment finds Moore upset that New York City gives corporations tax breaks in order to keep them in the city. He threatens to move "TV Nation" across the river to New Jersey if Mayor Rudy Giuliani won't give him his way. Moore visits New Jersey and finds the opportunities he has been looking for and now can use them against Giuliani. The Mayor decides to give Moore the key to the city and the show stays put in New York City. The last segment finds Merrill Markoe investigating the talk show guest. At the National Talk Show Guest Registry, the middle men between the show and the bookers, calls are taken from people claiming to be aliens and even the Messiah. Markoe learns that some guests actually get the answers they have been looking for after exposing their problem in front of the world. She finds out that the most commonly booked guest is a women known as Gabby, who claims to have been turned into a prostitute because of Hollywood's politics with actresses. Markoe also visits members of the Tucker family, who are known for the tremendous family quarrel that erupted on a talk show. Commercials deleted.
(Network affiliation varies; series also aired on Fox in 1995.)
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: August 23, 1994 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:46:11
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:37422
- GENRE: Magazine
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Political satire; Satire
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1994
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Moore … Executive Producer, Director, Created by, Writer, Host
- Randy Cohen … Co-Executive Producer
- David Wald … Senior Producer
- Jerry Kupfer … Supervising Producer
- Kathleen Glynn … Producer
- Pamela Yates … Producer, For "Guns"
- Jim Czarnecki … Producer, For "Neighbors"
- Josh Daniel … Producer, For "New York/New Jersey"
- Holley Knaus … Associate Producer, For "Guns"
- Pearl Lieberman … Associate Producer, For "Guns"
- Helen Demeranville … Producer, For "New York/New Jersey", Associate Producer, For "Neighbors"
- Melanie Neilson … Associate Producer, For "New York/New Jersey"
- Haydee Sabogal … Associate Producer
- Adrienne Salisbury … Associate Producer
- Immy Humes … Production (Misc.)
- Frances Alswang … Production (Misc.), For "Guns"
- Chris Kelly … Writer
- Randy Cohen … Writer
- Stephen Sherrill … Writer
- Eric Zicklin … Writer
- Tomandandy … Music by
- Bruce Brown … Announcer
- Merrill Markoe … Reporter
- Ben Hamper … Reporter
- Louis Theroux … Reporter
- Jonathan Katz … Reporter
- Karen Duffy … Reporter
- Clarence Clemons … Guest
- Dan Desmond … Guest
- William F. Buckley, Jr.
- Michelle Van Buren
- Bill Cosby
- Jeffrey Dahmer
- Chris Darryn
- Robert DeNiro
- John Esposito
- Richard Franklin
- Gabby
- John Wayne Gacey
- Giuliani, Rudolph (See also: Giuliani, Rudy)
- Susanna Harrington
- Susan Johnston
- Mickey McCabe
- Irwin Reese
- Joel Rifkin
- Joan Rivers
- Rick Rosner
- Howard Stern
- Frank F. Stranges
- Donald Trump
- Linda Tucker
- Dot Tucker
- Charles Tucker
- Barbara Tucker
- Tom Washington