Tanner '88
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| Tanner '88 | |
 Tanner '88 Criterion collection DVD cover |
|
| Format | Comedy-drama |
|---|---|
| Created by | Garry Trudeau |
| Starring | Michael Murphy Pamela Reed Cynthia Nixon Kevin J. O'Connor Daniel Jenkins Jim Fyfe Matt Malloy Ilana Levine Veronica Cartwright |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 11 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Robert Altman Garry Trudeau |
| Camera setup | Multiple camera |
| Running time | 1-hour premiere, all others approx. 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | HBO |
| Original run | February 15, 1988 – August 22, 1988 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Tanner on Tanner |
Tanner '88 is a political mockumentary miniseries written by Garry Trudeau and directed by Robert Altman. First broadcast by HBO during the months leading up to the 1988 U.S. presidential election, it purports to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the campaign of a (fictional) former Michigan U.S. representative Jack Tanner during his bid to secure the Democratic party's nomination for the national race for President of the United States.
The story is told from a number of different points of view, including Tanner, his campaign staff, the small army of news reporters that constantly follow the candidate, and volunteers. It's notable for its appearances (some cameos, some extended) by real-life political figures of the time, including Bruce Babbitt, Bob Dole, Kitty Dukakis, Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, and Pat Robertson.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Representative Jack Tanner (D-MI) (played by Michael Murphy) is an obscure liberal Democratic politician who is struggling to find a voice in the early Democratic primaries until his campaign manager, T.J. Cavenaugh (Pamela Reed), taking advantage of an unscripted, impassioned hotel room speech caught on camera, masterminds an advertising push focusing on Tanner's authenticity and integrity. Using the slogan "For Real," Congressman Tanner emerges from a wide field of contenders to battle for the nomination against two high profile and better funded candidates, Rev. Jesse Jackson and (eventual nominee) Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.
Along for the ride are Tanner's college student daughter Alexandra (Alex) (played by Cynthia Nixon), whose illness was the reason he left politics and who has left college for the duration of the campaign; and his girlfriend Joanna Buckley (Wendy Crewson, Murphy's real-life fiancee), who turns out to be Dukakis' deputy campaign manager. Tanner's Media Manager is the first to realize this, when he goes to Dukakis' office because he is considering changing sides. Other notable characters included Emile Berkoff (Jim Fyfe), a compulsive statistician with a crush on Alexandra; Deke Conners (Matt Malloy), an East Village filmmaker hired to produce Tanner campaign ads; and Andrea Spinelli (Ilana Levine), T.J.'s innocent and ditzy, but well-meaning, assistant. There are also occasional appearances by Tanner's father, General John Tanner (E.G. Marshall), who has a contentious (at best) relationship with his son.
Though Tanner doesn't win the election, he does wind up becoming a real possibility at one point. The series ends on a cliffhanger after Michael Dukakis is officially selected as the Democratic candidate and the Tanner campaign are considering a run as a third party candidate. Trudeau and Altman intended to make more episodes, but HBO did not extend the run of the series.[1]
[edit] Cabinet
In the episode "Something Borrowed, Something New" several members of Jack Tanner's prospective cabinet are mentioned, with a number of them making statements to the press accepting the appointment should he become president. Cabinet members mentioned include:
- Lee Hamilton, Secretary of State
- Lee Iacocca, Secretary of Defense
- Ralph Nader, Attorney General
- Robert Redford, Secretary of the Interior
- Jim Hightower, Secretary of Agriculture
- Studs Terkel, Secretary of Labor
- Gloria Steinem, Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Joan Claybrook, Secretary of Transportation
- Nicholas von Hoffman, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
- Barbara Jordan, Ambassador to the United Nations
- Art Buchwald, Ambassador to France
[edit] Episodes
| DVD name | Release date | Region | Discs | Episodes | Bonus Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Complete Series Criterion Collection |
October 5, 2004 | 1 | 2 | 11 |
|
The miniseries was produced and first broadcast on Home Box Office, scheduled irregularly over the real-life seven-month campaigning period from February through August 1988.
In 2004, the Sundance Channel rebroadcast the series, adding new one- to two-minute preludes created by Trudeau and Altman to each episode "in which the actors reflect, in character, on the '88 campaign from the perspective of the present day"[3] That October Sundance produced a four episode sequel, Tanner on Tanner.
| # | Title | Original air date | Production code |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Dark Horse" | February 12, 1988 | 1A/1B |
| On the weekend before the first primary, Representative Jack Tanner and his daughter visit with potential voters, while a videotape of his first campaign commercial is evaluated by a focus group. | |||
| 2 | "For Real" | March 14, 1988 | 2A |
| Tanner's passionate "For Real" commercial generates new interest in his campaign as he heads for Nashville. There, an apparent attempt on his life produces publicity and qualifies him for Secret Service protection. | |||
| 3 | "The Night of the Twinkies" | April 12, 1988 | 2B |
| Jack seeks the advice of an old friend, a civil rights activist, about how to reach African American voters. Meanwhile, a Tanner staff member is attacked at a campaign event. | |||
| 4 | "Moonwalker and Bookbag" | May 2, 1988 | 3A |
| After offending his friend, a Baptist minister, with an attempt at an impromptu press conference on the steps of the church, the campaign begins to freeze out media manager Stringer. At the same time Tanner and his daughter must learn to cope with the constant protective presence of Secret Service agents and Berkoff interviews Tanner's father, exposing an unusual family dynamic. | |||
| 5 | "Bagels with Bruce" | May 16, 1988 | 3B |
| Tanner meets with fellow candidate Bruce Babbitt, who just ended his campaign. Tired of being on the outs with the campaign, Stringer considers joining the Dukakis campaign where he discovers Tanner's girlfriend Joanna is a staff member. | |||
| 6 | "Child's Play" | June 6, 1988 | 4A |
| Tanner attends campaign events ranging from appearances at day care centers—where he talks to young children about tax abatements—and a Hollywood pool party. Afterward, a recently let go member of the Dukakis campaign approaches Tanner for a job, exposing Tanner's television and speech weaknesses. | |||
| 7 | "The Great Escape" | June 20, 1988 | 4B |
| Tanner attends a debate with Dukakis and Jesse Jackson where his comments about drugs become news. Mechanical troubles on the campaign plane lead to a stressful flight for everyone. Later, a reporter breaks the story on Tanner and Joanna's relationship, angering T.J.—who did not know about it. | |||
| 8 | "The Girlfriend Factor" | July 11, 1988 | 5A |
| The campaign runs into problem after problem when they head to Detroit, including Tanner looking bad when "confronted" by a robot and looking bad kissing babies on camera. Meanwhile David Seidelman, the reporter who broke the Tanner/Joanna story, finds himself in the campaign's doghouse. Later, Tanner spends an afternoon at a Detroit community meeting speaking to people about drugs and the America's future. | |||
| 9 | "Something Borrowed, Something New" | July 17, 1988 | 5B |
| Alex plans Jack and Joanna's wedding, stressing over the minutest of details, only to have them call it off after General Tanner makes an inappropriate speech and Deke Conners swoops over the proceedings in a helicopter. Afterward, despite his being nearly out of the race, the campaign read an article speculating on Tanner's would-be cabinet appointments and decides to offer positions to people. | |||
| 10 | "The Boiler Room" | August 11, 1988 | 6A |
| Having both lost at the time of the Democratic National Convention, the Jesse Jackson and Jack Tanner campaigns try some last minute trickery, with T.J. calling in coordinator Billy Ridenour (Harry Anderson) to work some "backroom magic". Unfortunately, the Jackson campaign's need for deniability prevents Ridenour from speaking directly to Jackson and winds up costing Tanner. | |||
| 11 | "The Reality Check" | August 22, 1988 | 6B |
| Despite not winning the Democratic nomination and his former campaign's finances now being audited, rumblings of Tanner running as third party circulate what's left of the campaign. T.J. she dispatches what's left of to investigate the possibilities, and the series ends with Jack not answering Joanna's query that it would be obvious for him to endorse Michael Dukakis and instead ruminating on his possibilities. | |||
[edit] Production
The hybrid of fiction and reality that came to be the miniseries' trademark was initially accidental.[4] Trudeau described the concept behind the miniseries as wanting to "let the audience feel they're eavesdropping, to create a sense of authenticity by observing the process, to follow campaign culture in all its tribal rites—not to make a topical movie about 1988."[4] Tanner evolved during production, becoming, as Altman put it, "two-thirds scripted and one-third found art."[4]
[edit] Reception
Reviews for the miniseries seem to improve over time. In one of the earliest reviews of the pilot episode, The New York Times called the show an "interesting misfire" that "insists too much on its own sophistication about politics".[5] The same paper held the second episode in higher esteem, calling it "humorous cinéma vérité" that's "slick and occasionally witty."[6] In its "Best of 1988" look at television, Time magazine called it: "the year's definitive satire of media politics."[7]
In a 2003 review of K Street, the New York Daily News said "Tanner skewer[ed] brilliantly the insanity and inanity of presidential politics."[8] By 2004, Slate was saying:[3]
| “ | More than a decade before the ascendancy of reality television, the series slyly blended fiction and documentary, with real-life political and media figures—Bob Dole, Bruce Babbitt, and Linda Ellerbee among them—crossing paths with, and commenting upon, Tanner's grass-roots campaign. But Tanner's formal complexity—a loose, layered blend of group improvisation, scripted set pieces, and the intervention of pure chance—manages to point up not only the laziness of reality shows like Survivor and The Bachelor but their moral and political vacuity. | ” |
In 2004, Altman said "I think it's the most creative work I've ever done."[9]
[edit] Awards
Altman won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for the episode "The Boiler Room." Reed won an ACE Award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series.
[edit] References
- ^ Altman, Robert; Trudeau, Gary. (2004). Tanner '88 Complete Series. [DVD]. The Criterion Collection. http://www.criterion.com/ASP/release.asp?id=258. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ^ "Tanner '88". The Criterion Collection. http://www.criterion.com/ASP/release.asp?id=258. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ^ a b Stevens, Dana (2004-02-04). "Primary Colors". Television. Slate. http://www.slate.com/id/2094888/. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ^ a b c Harmetz, Aljean (1988-05-18). "Like a Real Candidate, Tanner Falls Flat in Hollywood". Arts. The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE3D91130F93BA25756C0A96E948260. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ^ Corry, John (1988-02-15). "TV Review; 'TANNER 88,' A SATIRE ON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS". Arts. The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEEDF1431F936A25751C0A96E948260. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ^ Corry, John (1988-03-15). "Review/Television; 'Tanner '88: For Real,' a Campaign". Arts. The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7D7153EF936A25750C0A96E948260. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ^ "Best of'88". Time. 1989-01-02. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956624,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ^ Bianculli, David (2003-09-16). "Been Down this 'Street'". Entertainment. New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/2003/09/16/2003-09-16_been_down_this__street___ser.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
- ^ "A candidate to believe –– more than ever". Entertainment. CNN. 2004-02-02. http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/02/apontv.altman.tanner88.ap/. Retrieved on 2008-11-01.
[edit] External links
- Tanner '88 at the Internet Movie Database
- Tanner '88 at TV.com
