The Television Laboratory at WNET113 news Winter, 1977 SPECIAL EDITION WINTER '77 LILY TOMLIN TWYLA THARP FEATURED IN Over the past several months, CREATES DANCE WGBH the Television Laboratory has NEW had a particularly active and ex- NEW TV WORKSHOP/ citing period. In order to share WORK WITH LAB this with our readers, we have LAB PROTECT I expanded our regular Vision News format into this special edition. Vision News this month becomes almost a scrapbook of clippings, reprints and reviews of one of our most productive periods to date . And looking ahead to what we hope will be an even brighter future, we've in- cluded, as usual, a look at some of our upcoming projects.- ed. An original script by Peabody Award- winner Jane Wagner incorporates the The innovative American choreographer works of noted video artists into a new explores the television medium and new dramatic format. Page 7 approaches to dance on television. Page 7 3 LAB DOCUMENTARIES GAIN WIDE PUBLIC AND CRITICAL ACCLAIM `Chinatown,' `Giving Birth,' and `The Police Tapes' were produced at the Lab by several of the country's most outstand- ing independent video documentarians . Page 2 New Lab Documentaries Get Huge Response Three innovative and diverse docu- mentary programs produced at the Television Laboratory have gener- ated tremendous viewer response . is battered down to rescue a mother being held captive by Chinatown, Giving Birth: Four her mentally disturbed son . A young suspect sits quietly in Portraits, and The Police Tapes, all a cell as a policeman reads the pathetic details of the rape aired Within the space of one JOHN J. O'CONNOR he is charged with committing . A car thief, caught in the month, were produced at the Lab act, becomes so hysterical that six cops are needed to hold by three him down at the station house: A 70-year-old woman is ac- of the country's most cused of hitting her daughter in the face with an ax because outstanding independent docu- "she's always bothering me." A young woman, protecting mentary producers. her husband, heaps obscene insults. on an equally young Chinatown, the latest product of Documentary on male neighbor. And another young man is picked up dead New York's Downtown Commun- from a garbage-strewn street, the victim of a family feud ity Television Center aired that got out of hand. Decem- If the mere compilation is staggering, details are ber 3rd over the PBS the network, Police Strips in :r.,ensely complex and defy easy solutions . The police- gaining high ratings and national men are humorously gentle with the belligerent neighbor. critical acclaim . (See Reviews). Tl~ey only want her to stop making threats . Promise, asks Chinatown was the second one cop. No, says she . "Make it a maybe," says the other DCTV/Lab co-production to be AwayAnyGlamour cop. No. "An almost maybe?" No. The 70-year-old mother, aired by PBS. treated with tender care by the booking officer, is discovered The first, Cuba : The to have a long record of assaults and is no stranger to the People, was named by the New itting in the front seat of his patrol car, the city's jails. The husband of the protective wife rushes into York Times as one of 1974's best policeman muses about reporters and television her arms for a reunion drenched in romantic ardor, and is television programs. crews who regularly rush through his precinct then arrested himself . When the police discover a pack of The hour-long Chinatown, shot in search of a feature story that can be labeled marijuana joints in his pocket, he quickly and automatically "a day in the life of a cop ." He sums up the protests that "that's With 3/4-inch color videotape not mines." The Raymonds do not usual end result with an obscenity . This themselves dabble in specious analyses, but they do include equipment, was essentially a pro- particular policeman is part of a documentary that can he the comments of one of the Police Department's most gram about the American immi- seen tomorrow on Channel 1 :3 at 10 P.M. "The Police Tapes" articulate spokesmen. At the time of recording, Anthony grant experience, touching on all was made over three months-in April, May and June 1976 Bouza was the Bronx Borough Commander, and he is typi- aspects of life in that small -in a 1 .2-square-mile area of the South Bronx that has the cally candid with his interviewers . China- 'highest crime rate in New York City . The 90-minute pro- town community located in the gram, edited from about to hours of videotape, provides e e e heart of New York's melting pot. a valuable perspective on the state of 1;oth video technology He describes the average policeman as an idealist who Chinatown was a recent recipient of and television journalism . The makers of "The Police Tapes" is inevitably shocked and hardened by constant exposure to the prestigous Christopher Award are Alan and Susan Raymond, filmrnak .rs who, as they put urban crime. People are being conditioned to fail, to become for outstanding it, "recently have gravitated toward vi.leo for a further alcoholics . "I'm conditioriable and they're conditionable," television docu- extension of our special approach cindrrra verite ." The Bouza says . He argues that mentary . to society has failed the poor, not- Raymonds are perhaps best known for their filming of pub- ing that there hasn't been a real redistribution of income in Giving Birth, which aired nation- lic television's "An American Family." Their newest project o;-er 30 years. As for alcohol, he observes bitterly, "thank ally over PBS on December 17th, turned out to be "the most difficult documentary we have God it's available" because it makes the job of policing drew nearly double the average made ." Among the reasons they cite : mastering a special e:rs;er. "May-be I'd be bcuer off failing," he says . "We are audience light-sensitive camera ; gaining the trust of the policc "rnen, anufaeturing criminals out here, we are manufacturing for a prime-time public a "highly television program guarded group cf distrustful men" . and the "emo- ,rutality out there." Bouza finally compares, himself to the . Produced at the tional effect it had on us after being exposed to the raw rmmander of an occupation force. Lab by Global Village's Julie or darker side of human nature ." The form of the "The Police Tapes" is obviously in- Gustafson and John Reilly, the The technical aspects were important . A special Nu%1- debted to the narrationless "institutional essays" of Fred- 60-minute half-inch and 3/4-inch con tube in the video camera and deck, recording on half- erick Wiseman . The Raymonds, however, are not quite as color and black-and-white video- inch "portapak" tape equiprnent, allowed the Raymonds to npersonai as Wisernan in their techniques . They allow shoot practically in total darkness, frequently with street- themselves to be defined tape program followed the experi- as off-camera presences in several lights as the only light source . They explain the significance : scene;; . But they make the mistake of opening their docu- ences of four separate couples "People in the ghetto have two reactions to the sight of a mentary with a collage of "teasers" plucked from later choosing four different methods of camera--either to hide their identity or run towards you material . That cheap device should be left to mindless giving birth. (See Reviews). Viewer hoping to be on TV. Without the, need for sun or lights, entertainments . response to the program in the we were able to further minimize our presence ." The Raymonds, nonetheless, have gone far beyond the form of The project represents an attempt to examine a police standard superficial routine of "a day in the .life of a pop." letters and requests has precinct and its officers, to "see what it's like to be a With time, care and appropriate equipment, they have dis been enormous. The program will policeman ." The viewer is given a tour of the South Bronx tilled one key aspect of criminals and victims and the people be repeated by WNET/13 on Febru- through the policeman's eyes and attitudes . Prefaced with in between : the police, who "have a difficult and dangerous ary 2 3 at 10 PM. a warning about "language and subject matter of an adult job and we were there long enough to realize the emotional nature," the result is a startlingly graphic and convincing toll it takes." "The Police Tapes" is the kind of program The Police Tapes, which aired in survey of urban crime, violence, brutality and cynical des- that Joseph Wambaugh, executive story consultant for New York on January 3rd, was pair . It is by turns shocking, infuriating, disgusting and, "Police Story," has frequently argued for as opposed to the produced surprisingly enough, absurdly funny. Near the beginning, one entertainment manipulations of most action-adventures on at the Lab by Alan veteran cop observes that "there certain can Raymond are men that television. In addition the cost of the project is significant . and Susan Raymond, the just take a certain amount of this . they should bring ycu With monev from the New York State Council on the Arts husband-and-wife team perhaps to a shrink every five years for a drying cut ." His thesis is and WNET/13, the total budget was $20,000, A similar best known for their work on the fully supported by the ensuing evidence : project in.