Quiz Show

Quiz Show (1994)

Timing: 2:13 (133 min)

7.272/10
860

7.178/10
5528

7.5/10
78000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 14

Actors and characters

Release date

1994-08-25

Country

United States

Production

Hollywood Pictures, Wildwood Enterprises, Baltimore Pictures

Genre

History, Drama, Mystery

Budget

$31 000 000

Revenue

$24 822 619

Website

Director

Robert Redford

Actors

Ralph Fiennes, Rob Morrow, John Turturro, David Paymer, Hank Azaria, Paul Scofield, Christopher McDonald, Allan Rich, Martin Scorsese, Elizabeth Wilson
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Michael Nozik, Robert Redford, Michael Jacobs, Julian Krainin, Richard Dreyfuss, Frederick Zollo, Judith James

Operator

Michael Ballhaus

Composer

Mark Isham

Artist

Tony Fanning, Ed Check, Bob Shaw

Audition

Bonnie Timmermann

Editing

Stu Linder
All team (56)

• Before filming began, the lead actor, Ralph Fiennes, expressed a desire to speak with the real Charles Van Doren in order to accurately convey his accent. However, there was no certainty that Van Doren would agree to such a conversation. Then, Fiennes and a member of the crew drove to the province where Van Doren lived and found him sitting in a chair outside his house. Fiennes pretended to be lost and asked Van Doren to show him the way.
• The correct answer to the question, which film won the “Oscar” for Best Picture in 1955, is known to Herbert Stempel (played by John Turturro). Nevertheless, he gives an incorrect answer, naming Elia Kazan's (1909-2003) 1954 crime drama “On the Waterfront,” where the main character deliberately loses a boxing match he could have won.
• Charles Van Doren (1926-2019), 17 participants of the TV quiz show, and the producer confessed to lying to the grand jury in New York. They were all sentenced to probation. The district attorney estimated that out of 150 people who testified before the grand jury, 100 were lying under oath.
• The film does not state that anyone went to jail or suffered any punishment for “cheating” on the TV quiz shows. However, it is known that individuals were tried for obstructing justice and perjury. The scandal led to significant changes in the rules of TV quiz shows. Many quiz shows were canceled, and the genre itself almost became a thing of the past.