(Quiz Show, 1994, Robert Redford)
I'd heard from a number of people that I needed to see Quiz Show. I think the recommendations began when people started realizing that I watch Jeopardy with my parents almost every night, and that we don't only watch it, we keep track of how many of the questions me manage to get right (which usually isn't many). Trivia is something that I've always been kind of good at because I have the ability to store random, seemingly irrelevant bits of knowledge for shockingly long periods of time. I don't really know why, I just can. Because of that, watching a movie about people who are good at trivia (or at least are pretending to be) was really enjoyable.
Quiz Show was one of the films that I was really excited to see on The List. It was one of those happy instances in which something that I wanted to do and something that I had to do were actually the same thing. I mean, I don't really have to do this, but I've committed myself to this project and it's nice when watching the films doesn't feel like a chore. So when I sat down with my parents (my Jeopardy partners in crime) to watch Quiz Show I found myself actively looking forward to it, which was kind of a nice change of pace. And I certainly wasn't let down.
I don't want to spend a lot of time on the plot because I actually have other things to say about this film, but here's the gist: Quiz Show is based on the true story of the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, which led to the cancellation of many quiz shows and serious format changes in others. The film focuses on Charles van Doren, a charming and intelligent college professor who won a staggering amount of money on Twenty One and was later revealed to have been coached by the shows producers, as were many contestants that came before him. Contestants and producers were brought in front of the House Committee for Legislative Oversight to testify, with contestants generally admitting that they were guilty of accepting assistance from the producers and the producers generally claiming that it was all in the name of good television. But in the end, the shows were proven to be rigged and that was that.
But wasn't it good television? I'm going to bring up a more contemporary example of someone on a quiz show making good television: Ken Jennings. In 2004, Jennings appeared on Jeopardy and won a staggering 74 times before finally losing during his 75th appearance. Unfortunately, I didn't watch the Ken Jennings episodes, but when I watched Quiz Show I couldn't help but bring him to mind. Ken Jennings was unstoppable, much like Charles van Doren. In 75 appearances on the show there were only 14 instances in which his total after the Double Jeopardy round wasn't insurmountable. That means that in 61 of his 75 games he had over double the money that the next closest contestant had going into Final Jeopardy. He was unstoppable. Then, suddenly, on his 75th appearance he just seemed to give up, giving an incorrect answer to a Final Jeopardy question that many believe he should have known. And the age of Ken Jennings was over.
While Jennings appeared on the show, viewership for Jeopardy increased by over 20%. Suddenly, Americans cared about the quiz show again. Sure, a lot of people were probably tuning in just hoping to see him lose, but they were tuning in nonetheless. Much like when Charles van Doren was on Twenty One. Now, I'm certainly not saying that Ken Jennings was coached, or that the game was rigged in his favor, or that he was asked to throw the game during his 75th appearance because audiences were getting tired of see his face. I am saying that watching Quiz Show after Ken Jennings is a very different experience than watching Quiz Show before Ken Jennings.
No one suspected anything of Charles van Doren until he confessed his indiscretions in front of the Congressional committee, all while the producers were saying that they didn't do anything wrong. They were just creating good TV. If Herbert Stempel (the man van Doren defeated in his first victory on Twenty One) had never come forward and revealed that he had been coached on the show, there may never have been any quiz show scandals. Charles van Doren and all the people who came before and after him would have only been remembered as being good TV. Or maybe they wouldn't have been remembered at all. But we definitely wouldn't have Quiz Show, and that would be a real shame.
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