[quote name=\'Eric Paddon\' post=\'134673\' date=\'Oct 16 2006, 01:54 PM\']The full transcript of that broadcast can be found in Kent Anderson's 1978 book on the scandal and indeed, Barry did not have that kind of dramatic reaction to Snodgrass answering "Emily Dickinson". That was just one of many frauds concocted by Robert Redford for the movie that ultimately was as guilty of the same thing that the original quiz rigging was guilty of, i.e. giving undeserved fame and credit to someone to elevate his stature (in this case, with Richard Goodwin, a man who was a trivial bit player in the original investigation getting credit for the work that was done by Joseph Stone and the New York D.A.'s office, and I suspect the reason for this had much to do with partisan politics since Goodwin has long had a reputation as an icon to 60s radicals).[/quote]I think that calling Quiz Show "guilty of perpetrating frauds" is completely over the line. If you were to draft a movie that stuck to the actual events by the letter, it would be boring as hell. Waiting two years to go from Stempel vs. Van Doren to when the dominoes started to fall would not make for a good dramatic presentation. It would make for a great documentary, but that's already been done once.
Redford took some creative liberties to make a drama based on actual events, but nowhere in the film does it say "this is exactly as things happened". And it does what it intends; to tell the story to a generation of people who wouldn't have heard or seen anything about it otherwise. I'll happily cut him some slack.
