Recipe for Paranoia

1/Pil/Y- TELEVISION "they"? In the manner of Perry Mason, Greene sets out to find out—and therein lies the show's cheapest shot. Conspir- acy buffs have relentlessly tried to pin JFK's murder on both pro- and anti- Castro Cubans, the FBI, the CIA and even the Mafia. As Greene pursues leads to each of these links, the film keeps switching to dramatized flztshhack scenes in which Oswald is shown secret- ly meeting with a variety of sinister- looking figures. Obviously, someone is trying to recruit him for something. Back in the present, Oswald's defense team reads conspiracy into the most neb- ulous of clues. One of their potential witnesses is found dead after being stabbed with an ice pick. "That sounds like the Mob," concludes Greene's assistant. A second witness expires in an automobile crash. `Another accident?" bellows Greene. The assistant then re- ABC's 'Trial of Lee Harvey .Oswald': Revisionism and showbiz turns with an elaborate theory involving a CIA-Mafia connection motivated by the haziest of mutual interests. By the time Oswald himself takes the stand to Recipe for Paranoia deny his guilt, the audience has been conditioned to select a conspiracy to fit By, many other names, what is today From inconsistencies in the Warren called a "docu-drama" -has been Commission Report, plus all manner of almost any prejudice. around ever since William Shakespeare subsequent speculations, ABC has fash- A Fatal Covenant: Indeed, virtually ev- did his semi-fictional number on Julius ioned what amounts to a brief for the- ery ingredient in this production seems Caesar. But the sudden burst of these conspiracy theory. The two-part movie subtly designed to inject yet another slickly confected hybrids of fact and fan- begins with a chilling re-enactment of dose of paranoia into the national psy- cy on television—with its highly suscep- the Dallas assassination, filmed at its che. Ersatz TV newsreels of the trial tible mass audience—is shaping up as actual Dealey Plaza locale. It goes on to keep cutting in and out, apparently to the most controversial video develop- trace the life of Oswald—portrayed as lend an aura ofjoumalistic credibility to ment since Archie Bunker brought bigot- alternately arrogant and vulnerable by what is anything but journalism. Gaz- ry to the sitcom. Viewers of ABC were look-alike John Pleshette—in both zara's prosecutor registers as one of those still trying to sort out truth from supposi- America and Russia, and culminates in a hyperambitious legal hustlers who gets tion in "Washington: Behind Closed lengthy trial pitting prosecutor Ben Gaz- ahead by knowing when to look the other Doors" earlier this month when the net- zara against defense counsel Lorne way. The choice of Lorne Greene to play work hit them with "Young Joe: The Greene. the wise old defense owl is almost guar- Forgotten Kennedy." That docu-drama Gazzara voices his doubts right from anteed to make his myriad "Bonanza" blithely fleshed out what little is known the start. "A poor shlub who couldn't fans accept whatever he avuncularly sug- about John F. Kennedy's older brother even hold a job is capable of planning a gests. And Pleshette's Oswald ultimately with enough Freudian assumptions to Presidential assassination?" he incredu- emerges as the classic patsy. The film make even psychohistorians uneasy. lously asks an aide. But a phone call from presents him as a man so determined to And last weekend, NBC presented a none other than "President dramatized portrait of Caryl Chessman, Johnson" advises him not to Pies hette as Oswald, Malone as Marina the California sex criminal who-was ex- try to look for a conspiracy ecuted in 1960, strongly suggesting that because "there's no water in 1' Chessman was denied a fair trial. that well . .. and it wouldn't Now ABC has applied the docu-drama be good for the country." technique to an even more explosive Sighs Gazzara- "I've just subject. On this Friday and Sunday, ABC been told what to think." So will broadcast "The Trial of Lee Harvey have the viewers. There is Oswald," a four-hour film dealing with not a shred of evidence that what might have happened had JFK's Johnson ever intruded in the accused assassin lived to face prosecu- assassination investigation. tion. Its an engrossing notion, but what So much for establishing a emerges is a case study of the dangers of factually objective tone. TV's pervasive new form. The docu-dra- Who Are 'They'? Now it is ma's creators maintain that they are offer- left to Greene to perforate ing America a salutary catharsis, an op- the prosecution's one-man, portunity to discover whether Oswald one-gun case. As Gazzara would have been found guilty or inno- looks on with sheepish admi- cent—and whether he acted alone or as ration, Oswald's attorney re- part of a conspiracy. Yet by indiscrimi- duces the state's witnesses to nately blending hard evidence with pure stammering cretins while conjecture, ABC must stand accused of Mother Oswald mutters from irresponsibility in the first degree. The the audience, "They put my verdict here is guilty as charged. son up to it." Just who are 64 Newsweek, October 3, 1977 NEWS MEDIA prove his manhood to his sexually dis- satisfied wife Marina (Mo Malone) that he enters into a fatal covenant without truly understanding either his partners or the stakes. Rolling Stone's New Trip Tn hype suspense over the trial's out- come, ABC held back the film's verdict Rolling Stone magazine will be ten month, he launched a glossy new month- scene from its screenings For critics. The W2 years old in November, and the quin- ly, Outside, devoted to the outdoors. In network, however, may have tipped its tessential counter-culture child has put November, CBS will broadcast his first hand. In a future issue oITV Guide, ABC on a suit, straightened up its act and foray into television, a two-hour, prime- will poll viewers on their personal ver- begun hanging out with a different time variety show, "Rolling Stone: The dicts after they have seen ''The Trial of crowd. The biweekly tabloid just moved 10th Anniversary." Lee Harvey Oswald." Respondents will from a refurbished warehouse in San Star-studded: As Wenner prospers, lie not only be asked whether they believe Francisco to plush offices in New York tends to gravitate toward money and Oswald was guilty, but whether, as the City—a move that ratified its shift in em- power. He made his splashy debut in mail-in ballot puts it, "he acted on his phasis from rock stars and political dissi- New York society in July 1976 by throw- own." Expect the show's denouement to dents to show-business and political ce- ing a star-studded party for Jimmy Car- answer the first of those questions in the lebrities. Some people think affirmative and to leave the conspiracy that the new moves are blur- question ambiguously unresolved—at ring Rolling Stone's identity least for the record. and that the magazine risks Shotgun Wedding: Producer Richard losing the young, music-ori- Freed has been trying to peddle his own ented readers who propelled Oswald show for more than a decade. it to success. But founder and Four major movie studios turned down editor Jann Wenner, 31, disa- the project in 1966, and all three televi- grees. "Music is more broad- sion networks rejected it in 1972. ABC ly defined now—the Presi- apparently decided that the time was dent can quote Bob Dylan finally right because, in Freed's view, —and Rolling Stone is about "there's been an increased public aware- modern American culture,- ness as a result of the things we learned he says. "As we've grown, the about Watergate and the Vietnam war." magazine has just gotten bet- In short, the legacy of public distrust that ter and more professional." was spawned by actual abuses of govern- mental power can now be safely exploit- ed by a shotgun wedding between history and hypothesis. CBS also has a docu-drama in the works on the Kennedy tragedy, but its approach promises to be significantly different. "Ruby and Oswald" will con- fine itself almost entirely to sworn testi- mony before the Warren Commission and the script will be checked for accura- cy by the network's news division. In fact, CBS has even considered hiring a full-time history specialist to review all of its upcoming docu-dramas. NBC also seems to be having some second Wenner and Caroline, Bella thoughts about the genre, albeit not en- cover: Hello New York tirely of its own volition. Last week, NBC announced that it was shelving a docu- ter's campaign staff, and this drama about the real-life 1972 mining summer he entertained fash- disaster at Buffalo Creek, W. Va., after ionable friends at a Long Is- some of the survivors started new litiga- land home he rented for a tion against the coal company. reported $27,500. Wenner Unanswered Questions: Television has now frequents the city's long been accused of timidity in tackling leading celebrity canteen, provocative issues, and it may well be to Elaine's, and he showed up its credit that it now dares to deal with so last week at a film screening sensitive an event as the Kennedy assas- with no less a trio than Jack- sination. The Warren Report is not Holy Ron Galella ie Onassis and Caroline and Writ; the 26 volumes contain unan- Rolling Stone has always been a mirror John Kennedy.

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