The Big Time

The Big Time tells the story of the Empire Television Network, which was founded by a early television set maker and inventor, "Doc", played by Christopher Lloyd. Empire was trying to establish a toehold in a new industry which was already being dominated by radio giants NBC and CBS. I believe there is some basis for this story in history, as a Empire Coil Company did own a few TV stations, but was shut out of more markets by the FCC deciding to freeze new license applications, and eventually bought out by DuMont.

Anyways, the story told here was mostly from the viewpoint of a young lady hired as a script typer, and her experiences dealing with the turmoils of a struggling company in a groundbreaking industry. It takes place in NYC in the late 1940s. It turns out Doc has cancer, and is dying, but noone except his wife (whom everyone else thinks is a golddigger) knows this.

This show has the potential of being an interesting cable TV series, I hope its given a chance. For the most part the acting was quite good, even if the exterior scenic filler shots reeked of 'cheap'.

This film shares many elements with "Tucker: The Man and His Dream". Both stories concern fledgling wannabe-big time companies fighting a David and Goliath battle. Their jury-rigged product is always on the edge of disaster. A running gag is the contrast between what the story audience sees and the behind the scenes view we get. Both stories have an unreliable genius, interference from Washington based special interests, and very similar upbeat jazz scores. Both stories occur in the boom period of the post war era. Another running gag is the contrast of social values acceptable then but not today, mostly about smoking and women's roles. Both stories discuss crackpot revolutionary engineering developments that seen with our hindsight give us a chance to snicker at their naivete. Both films were fun to watch.

TNT needs their collective heads examined for not picking up this story as a continuing series. Here's a cast of characters I would have loved to get to know more about.

In a similar vein to AMC's late lamented REMEMBER WENN, THE BIG TIME is the story of Empire Television, a new, small network just trying to stay afloat. It's 1948, television is new--and live. Into the mix of sales reps, aspiring directors, scientists, musicians and managers comes Audrey Drummond, fresh from Wisconsin; as she learns the ropes, we see the perils of live drama as well as the behind-the-scenes lives of the characters.

The movie was meant to be a pilot, so we don't learn all about these characters in the course of the film, but they are intriguing enough to keep us interested. Although Molly Ringwald, as Marion Powers, and Christopher Lloyd, as Doc, have star billing, the supporting characters are equally, if not more, interesting: Christina Hendriks as Audrey, Michael Silver as Walt Kaplan, Dylan Baker as the Colonel, Sharif Atkins as Joe Royal, and Shane Mikael Johnson as Tim Wilkison, with John DeLancie in an amusing guest star role as an egotistical radio actor a bit felled by the new medium. And, hallelujah, stereotypes were kept to a minimum!

This was apparently the pilot for a tv series that never got made. With all the nonsense and repetition on American tv, it's hard to see why, except that most people who are interested in early tv are not in the target demographic (under 30). The 40s fashions and makeup are great (it looks like the Mask) and the characters are attractive and interesting. The best vignettes refer to the early days of live tv, when you couldn't show cleavage and black musicians were forbidden to talk to the audience. Not great, but entertaining.

This was a wonderful movie. It shows how television started. Michael B.Silver and Sharif Atkins were intelligent and terrific. This movie should be a weekly television series. The rest of the cast was excellent, too, including Molly Ringwald and Christopher Lloyd. The story was interesting and easy to watch. The movie was great.