Wild Palms

Wild Palms
Wild Palms main cast (listed below)
Format	Sci-Fi Drama
Created by	Bruce Wagner
Written by	Bruce Wagner
Starring	Bebe Neuwirth Angie Dickinson Dana Delany James Belushi Kim Cattrall Robert Loggia Nick Mancuso
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	5
Production
Executive producer(s)	Oliver Stone Bruce Wagner
Producer(s)	Michael Rauch
Running time	285 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	May 16, 1993 – May 19, 1993

Wild Palms is a five-hour mini-series which first aired in May 1993 on the ABC network in the United States. The sci-fi drama, announced as an "event series", deals with the dangers of politically motivated abuse of mass media technology, virtual realities in particular. It was based on a comic strip written by Bruce Wagner and illustrated by Julian Allen first published in 1990 in Details magazine. Wagner, who also wrote the screenplay, served as executive producer together with Oliver Stone. The series stars James Belushi, Dana Delany, Robert Loggia, Kim Cattrall and Angie Dickinson. The episodes were directed by four people known more for their feature films: Kathryn Bigelow, Keith Gordon, Peter Hewitt and Phil Joanou.

Plot synopsis

Harry Wyckoff is a successful patent attorney in 2007 in Los Angeles, living with his wife Grace, a formidable suburban housewife and boutique owner, and their two children: Coty, television addict and upcoming sitcom actor, and Deirdre, a slow developer who has yet to speak a word. Wyckoff's mother-in-law, Josie, is a socialite radiant with charisma.

At night, Wyckoff is plagued by strange dreams in which he is pursued by a rhinoceros and has visions of palm trees.

One day, he is visited by a former lover, Paige Katz, who asks for his help in tracking down her son Peter, who disappeared five years earlier. As Paige works for the Wild Palms Group, which Wyckoff's firm is going up against in court, their meetings raise suspicions and cost Wyckoff a promotion. After this, he gladly accepts the job offered to him by Paige's employer, Senator Tony Kreutzer, as head of the business department of his television station Channel 3, though he is puzzled by the Senator's role as the founder of the Synthiotics religion and philosophy of New Realism.

Kreutzer plans to use a new virtual reality technology developed by company Mimecom in Channel 3 broadcasts, so that the action will take place in the living room of the viewers, who will be able to interact with the actors. The first program of this format will be Church Windows, a sitcom including Wyckoff's son.

However, all is not well in the world. In a restaurant with his old college friend Tommy, Wyckoff sees another patron forcibly dragged away by a group of men. Strangely, no one else pays any heed to it. Wyckoff witnesses similar events happening with police around town. Though disturbed by this, Harry has no feelings of empathy for the victim, but finds himself "rooting for" the attackers, without knowing why. When Coty goes to stay with Josie, she asks if he has had "the rhinoceros dream." When he responds that he has, she tells him to keep it secret, since it means he is special.

Then, in Grace's presence, Deirdre utters her first words: "Everything must go." The peculiarity of this is furthered when Senator Kreutzer tells Wyckoff of a group called the Friends who killed his father shortly after the man had a fire sale, with a banner saying "everything must go." At a dinner party, Grace and Wyckoff run into Tabba (a co-star of their son) and her "consort", Tully Woiwode. Tully is there with his sister Maisy, whom Harry recognizes as the woman who had been dining with the man who was abducted in the restaurant. When Wyckoff confronts her, she denies this.

Wyckoff continues to be stunned by the bizarre occurrences going on around him. Grace sinks into depression over what she fears is a relationship between her husband and Paige; she and Wyckoff separately learn about the two political groups: the "Friends", and their enemies, the fascistoid "Fathers", who had been known to steal the children of their enemies. Grace comes to fear that Coty is not her son, but one who was put in his place when her real son was abducted.

Wyckoff slowly discovers that the Fathers, led by Josie, the Senator and Paige, are developing a grand plan involving the Mimecom technology and a hallucinogenic drug called Mimezine, and that the Friends — one of whom is Grace's incarcerated father, Eli Levitt - are trying to fight back.

From this start, a deadly web of intrigue, betrayal and murder surrounds Wyckoff.

Episodes

ABC aired the mini-series over five consecutive nights:

1. Everything Must Go (approx. 90 minutes) - directed by Peter Hewitt
2. The Floating World (approx. 45 minutes) - directed by Keith Gordon
3. Rising Sons (approx. 45 minutes) - directed by Kathryn Bigelow
4. Hungry Ghosts (approx. 45 minutes) - directed by Keith Gordon
5. Hello, I Must Be Going (approx. 45 minutes) - directed by Phil Joanou

Cast

• James Belushi as Harry Wyckoff
• Dana Delany as Grace Wyckoff
• Ben Savage as Coty Wyckoff
• Robert Loggia as Senator Tony Kreutzer
• Angie Dickinson as Josie Ito
• David Warner as Eli Levitt
• Kim Cattrall as Paige Katz
• Ernie Hudson as Tommy
• Nick Mancuso as Tully Woiwode
• Bebe Neuwirth as Tabba Schwartzkopf
• Aaron Michael Metchik as Peter Katz
• Brad Dourif as Chickie Levitt
• Charles Hallahan as Gavin
• Robert Morse as Chap Starfall
• Beata Pozniak as Tambor
• Bob Gunton as Dr. Tobias Schenkl
• Charles Rocket as Stitch Walken

Cameos

• Cyberpunk author William Gibson has a cameo appearance as himself. When the author is introduced as the man who invented the term Cyberspace, he remarks, "and they won't let me forget it".
• Oliver Stone also has a cameo. In a fictitious interview he appears as himself and comments on the release of files pertinent to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, revealing that the theories in his film JFK were right.

Production

Oliver Stone had originally planned to film Bruce Wagner's novel Force Majeure, but then decided to film Wagner's comic strip Wild Palms, published in Details magazine, instead: "It was so syncretic. It was such a fractured view of the world. Everything and anything could happen. Maybe your wife isn't your wife, maybe your kids aren't your kids. It really appealed to me." Wagner referred to his creation as "a sort of surreal diary […] a tone poem". ABC agreed to finance the project on a budget of $11 Million, but, remembering the eventual decline of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, insisted that the series had "a complete story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end".

Actor John Belushi compared the series (among others) to the British TV serial The Prisoner, and stated: "It's very tough, very challenging–a lot of viewers probably won't dig it." Dana Delaney suggested to viewers to "let it wash over you, enjoy each scene, and by the end it'll make sense". Robert Loggia compared it to Elizabethan play The Duchess of Malfi and the ancient Greek tragedy Medea. ABC, bound to make sure that viewers won't lose attention, had a supplemental book, The Wild Palms Reader, published and offered a telephone hotline with the show's initial run. These measures notwithstanding, Stone considered the atmosphere to be more important than the storyline.

William Gibson later stated that "while the mini-series fell drastically short of the serial, it did produce one admirably peculiar literary artifact, The Wild Palms Reader" (to which he contributed). Both Stone and Gibson called Wagner the creative force behind the series.

Production design

The United States of the year 2007 as depicted in the series show a strong influence of Japanese culture, e. g. in dresses and interior and exterior design. Holograms of Miss Alabama and girl group The Supremes even bear Japanese facial features.

Other interior details show the influence of scottish designer and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928). Deliberately anachronistic elements include 1960's cars (like Studebaker police vehicles) and Edwardian fashion.

References in Wild Palms

Non-fictitious references

While the comic strip makes clear references from Senator Kreutzer to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, the series gives only allusions. Hubbard publicised a psychological technique, "Dianetics", which is practised in his "Church of Scientology". Kreutzer's technique is called "Synthiotics", his religious organization "Church of Synthiotics". Kreutzer's organization has a naval subsidiary called "The Floating World", so has the "Church of Scientology", called "Sea Org". In their reviews of the series, both The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly believed seeing resemblances.

Shortly after Harry joins the "Wild Palms Group", competing TV stations file a law suit against the senator's company, arguing that his new exclusive broadcasting technique "Mimecon" would create a technical monopoly. The law suit refers to the 1948 Paramount Consent Decree which forced major Hollywood studios to sell their movie theater chains to liquidate the existing oligopoly.

During a conversation, Kreutzer explains that his mother died as victim of Executive Order 9066 because she had Japanese ancestors. In 1942, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed EO 9066 which led to the internment of Japanese Americans and Japanese living along the Pacific coast of the United States in so called "War Relocation Camps". Of the 10,000 prisoners held at camp Manzanar, California, 146 died.

A manipulated video showing Harry killing his wife Grace (who was in fact murdered by her mother Josie) is announced to be broadcast on several TV channels. CNN alone is mentioned by name. After the broadcast, Harry contacts Josie one last time, sarcastically suggesting that she should start a weekly TV show featuring the murder of a surprise guest. As the first two attendants, he proposes ancient Roman dictator Caesar and controversial union leader Jimmy Hoffa who disappeared in 1975.

Thematically related works

In David Cronenberg's film Videodrome (1983), lenses manufacturer "Spectacular Optical" plans to change the viewers' perception of reality with their "Videodrome" program and forces TV station owner Max Renn to hand over his "Channel 3" for broadcast. In Wild Palms, the "Wild Palms Group" uses the "Mimecom" technique on its own "Channel 83" to manipulate their audience. In Videodrome, the organisation behind "Spectacular Optical" wants to release the viewers' potential aggressive energies and reinstate a strong North America which is currently "rotting from the inside". In Wild Palms, televised virtual realities are used to draw the audience's attention away from the state's increasing totalitarianism. In Videodrome, "Channel 3" owner Renn finally turns against the conspirators, killing their chief executive and shouting, "Death to Videodrome! Long live the New Flesh!" In Wild Palms, a manipulated video shows Harry murdering his wife Grace, proclaiming "Long live the Friends! Death to New Realism!"

In Philip K. Dick's novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965), consumers immerse into an artificial soap opera world, which appears virtually real by taking a drug called Can-D. In Wild Palms, the pseudo-realistic effect is enhanced by a drug called "Mimezine". In The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, a new drug appears on the market which enables its supplier, Palmer Eldritch, to affect the consumer's perception and personally appear in his altered reality. In Wild Palms, senator Kreutzer wants the "Go chip" implantated into in his body which, as his sister Josie explains, will turn him into a hologram and enable him to enter everyone's dreams.

Artistic and other references

Literature

• The poem Of Mere Being by Wallace Stevens is repeatedly used as a mantra by "Synthiotics" members.
• Running to Paradise by W. B. Yeats is, among others, quoted by Senator Kreutzer in conversation with Harry Wyckoff: "The wind is old and still at play / While I must hurry upon my way, / For I am running to Paradise."
• Comedian Stitch Walken quotes a chapter title ("The Pool of Tears") from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland: "Down, down, down through the pool of tears."
• The hologram of Dex Wykoff recites Shakespeare's Hamlet: "It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you."
• When given a precious dagger by Eli Levitt, Harry quotes The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
• The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot features Kreutzer's last words: "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper."
• O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman is repeatedly alluded to and recited by the "Friends".

Other books are referred to in various dialogue, these include Neuromancer, The Illustrated Man, The Day of the Locust, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Emperor's New Mind and Grimms' Fairy Tales.

Music

• Kreutzer repeatedly sings Hello, I Must Be Going from the Marx Brothers film Animal Crackers. Animal Crackers can even be seen playing on a TV screen.
• "Synthiotics" entertainer Chap Starfall performs the Irving Berlin composition Let's Face the Music and Dance, In My Room by The Beach Boys, Cole Porter's All Of You and Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower.
• While Josie visits Chickie Levitt, Kreutzer sings along to an interpretation of Victor Young's Street Of Dreams.
• During a test screening of "Mimecom", Harry's colleague Gavin Whitehope sings passages from the Jimi Hendrix song Purple Haze, asking, "Are you experienced, Harry?" (Purple Haze appeared on Hendrix' album Are You Experienced.)

Other songs referred to are Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and 19th Nervous Breakdown (as "18th Nervous Breakdown") by The Rolling Stones.

Film

• Reminescences of Seconds and Marathon Man can be found in Harry's interrogation scene.
• Eli Levitt's death scene resembles the execution scene in Alphaville.
• Peter, Harry's and Grace's kidnapped son, visits his mother in the rehabilitation centre, asking if she has been given the same treatment as Olivia de Havilland in The Snake Pit.
• Rebel Without a Cause is playing while Harry and Peter meet in a cinema.
• Early on in the first episode, Tully Woiwode and his sister discuss One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Brad Dourif (Chickie Levitt) debuted in this film.

References in dialogue or images can also be found to From Here to Eternity, Bride of Frankenstein, Kwaidan, The Shining, Goldfinger and the TV shows Star Trek and The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

Religion

• While being visited by Josie, Chickie Levitt prays the Jewish Kaddish.
• Eli Levitt mocks the Christian hymn Amazing Grace by changing the first line into "A Mimezine grace".
• When asked about the effect the "Go chip" implantation will have on Kreutzer, his sister Josie explains, "he'll be like Christ".

Supplements

Soundtrack album

In addition to Ryuichi Sakamoto's music score, a number of 1960's rock and pop songs and classical compositions could be heard in the series. On the 1993 released soundtrack album, the following songs were included besides Sakamoto's music:

• The Zombies: She's Not There
• Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford: I Need Your Lovin'
• Frankie Valli: Can't Take My Eyes Off You
• Lou Christie: Lightnin' Strikes
• Mason Williams: Classical Gas

The following songs and compositions can be heard in the series but are not featured on the album:

• The Animals: The House of the Rising Sun
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, Second Movement
• The 5th Dimension: Wedding Bell Blues
• The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter
• The Rolling Stones: No Expectations
• The Supremes: Love Child
• Richard Wagner: Parsifal, Prelude

Books

A book, The Wild Palms Reader, was published by St. Martin's Press before the series aired. It included time lines, secret letters, and character biographies. ABC, concerned that viewers might get "hopelessly lost in the tangled story line", arranged for the primer to be published. It also included writing supposedly from the "world of the series". Contributors included:

• Norman Spinrad – sci-fi writer (Bug Jack Barron, The Iron Dream)
• Genesis P. Orridge (anonymous) – musician (Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle)
• E. Howard Hunt – CIA officer involved in the Watergate Scandal, writer of spy/sci-fi novels
• William Gibson – sci-fi writer
• Brenda Laurel – virtual reality consultant on the mini-series
• Spain Rodriguez – 1960's underground comic artist (Trashman)
• Hans Moravec – scientist and writer in the artificial intelligence field

While the comic series was published in book form in Germany, the Wild Palms Reader was not. Instead, a novelization, written by German dime novel author Horst Friedrichs, was published under the title Wild Palms.

Reception

The New York Times called Wild Palms "terrific" and a "truly wild six-hour mini-series" resembling "nothing so much as an acid freak's fantasy, drenched in paranoia and more pop-culture allusions than a Dennis Miller monologue." It was described as "rich and insinuating as a good theatrical film, albeit harder to follow" and said to "vibrate with an inventiveness that rarely flags."

Readers of the British trade weekly Broadcast were much more negative, calling it one of the worst television shows ever exported by the U.S. to the U.K.. It placed fourth on their list, exceeded only by Baywatch, The Anna Nicole Show and The Dukes of Hazzard. TV Guide also blasted it, offering the interpretation that Oliver Stone was condemning television while covertly lauding cinematic films.

Wild Palms DVD cover.

Home media releases

Wild Palms was released on VHS cassette in the UK in 1993. It was released on CLV laserdisc in the U.S. in March 1995 and on VHS in various countries. It was released as a Region 4 DVD in Australia in 2004, a Region 1 DVD in the U.S. in 2005 and a Region 2 DVD in the UK in 2008.

External links

• Wild Palms at the Internet Movie Database
• Complete index of The Wild Palms Reader on Locus magazine's website