An American Daughter | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama |
Based on | An American Daughter by Wendy Wasserstein |
Written by | Wendy Wasserstein |
Directed by | Sheldon Larry |
Starring | Christine Lahti Tom Skerritt Jay Thomas Mark Feuerstein Stanley Anderson Blake Lindsley Scott Michael Campbell Matt Weinberg Will Rothhaar Caroline Aaron Teri Austin Karen Kim Cynthia Harris Lynne Thigpen |
Theme music composer | Phil Marshall |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Abby Adams Chad S. Hoffman Robert Schwartz Wendy Wasserstein |
Producers | Robert J. Wilson (line producer) Elizabeth Missan Yost (associate producer) |
Production location | Los Angeles |
Cinematography | Albert J. Dunk |
Editor | Charles Bornstein |
Running time | 91 min. |
Production companies | Gleneagle Productions Hearst Entertainment Productions |
Release | |
Original network | Lifetime |
Original release | June 5, 2000 |
An American Daughter (also known as Trial by Media) is a 2000 Lifetime Television film directed by Sheldon Larry. The teleplay was written by Wendy Wasserstein, based on her 1997 play of the same name.
Dr. Lyssa Dent Hughes (Lahti) is the daughter of U.S. Senator Alan Hughes (Stanley Anderson). She appears to be headed for nomination as the U.S. Surgeon General until a background check reveals she once neglected to return a jury duty notice. Then, she makes a faux pas in comments about her homemaker mother that leaves her open to a media blitz and her certain nomination suddenly appears to be in doubt. She is supported by her best friend, Judith Kaufman (Lynne Thigpen), an African American Jewish feminist [1] and physician, who has her own set of troubles.
The made-for-TV film was broadcast on the Lifetime network in June 2000. [2] [3] The TV film is based on Wasserstein's play of the same title, An American Daughter , which ran on Broadway in 1997.
The Variety reviewer noted that the "screenplay is much more than an exploration into the mutual adulation of and animosity toward powerful women. It’s also a provocative look at the complex issues that converge when the definition of roles, be they gender or political, are called into question." [3]
Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman was an American entertainer and performance artist. While often called a "comedian", Kaufman preferred to describe himself instead as a "song and dance man". He has sometimes been called an "anti-comedian". He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood, once saying in an interview, "I am not a comic, I have never told a joke. The comedian's promise is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him. My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can."
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film The Farmer's Daughter (1947), and received her second Academy Award nomination for her role in Come to the Stable (1949). Young moved to the relatively new medium of television, where she had a dramatic anthology series, The Loretta Young Show, from 1953 to 1961. It earned three Emmy Awards, and was re-run successfully on daytime TV and later in syndication. In the 1980s, Young returned to the small screen and won a Golden Globe for her role in Christmas Eve in 1986.
Cherlynne Theresa Thigpen was an American actress of stage and screen. She was known for her role as "The Chief" of ACME Crimenet in the game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? and various spinoffs, and for her role as "Luna" in the Playhouse Disney children's series Bear in the Big Blue House. For her varied television work, Thigpen was nominated for six Daytime Emmy Awards. She won a Tony Award in 1997 for portraying Dr. Judith Kaufman in An American Daughter, and also played Ella Farmer on The District (2000–2003).
Edith Falco is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos (1999–2007), and Nurse Jackie Peyton on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie (2009–2015). She also portrayed Diane Whittlesey in HBO's prison drama Oz (1997–2000).
Judith Ellen Light is an American actress. She made her professional stage debut in 1970, before making her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of A Doll's House. Her breakthrough role was in the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live from 1977 to 1983, where she played the role of Karen Wolek; for this role, she won two consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Light starred as Angela Bower in the long-running ABC sitcom Who's the Boss? from 1984 to 1992.
Dame Frances Margaret Anderson,, known professionally as Judith Anderson, was an Australian actress who had a successful career in stage, film and television. A pre-eminent stage actress in her era, she won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award. She is considered one of the 20th century's greatest classical stage actors.
Christine Ann Lahti is an American actress and filmmaker. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1984 film Swing Shift. Her other film roles include ...And Justice for All (1979), Housekeeping (1987), Running on Empty (1988), Leaving Normal (1992), and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019). For her directorial debut with the 1995 short film Lieberman in Love, she won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Finola Hughes is an English dancer and actress, best known for her role as Anna Devane on the ABC soap operas General Hospital and All My Children, and her portrayal of Laura in the 1983 film Staying Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever.
Jean Elizabeth Smart is an American actress. After beginning her career in regional theater in the Pacific Northwest, she appeared on Broadway in 1981 as Marlene Dietrich in the biographical play Piaf. Smart was later cast in a leading role as Charlene Frazier Stillfield on the CBS sitcom Designing Women, in which she starred from 1986 to 1991.
Tracee Joy Silberstein, known professionally as Tracee Ellis Ross, is an American actress. She is known for her lead roles in the television series Girlfriends (2000–2008) and Black-ish (2014–2022).
Penelope Ann Fuller is an American actress. She received two Tony Award nominations for her performances on Broadway stage: for Applause (1970), and The Dinner Party (2001). For her television performances, Fuller received six Emmy Award nominations, winning once, in 1982 for playing Madge Kendal in The Elephant Man.
Jenifer Jeanette Lewis is an American actress. She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals and worked as a back-up singer for Bette Midler before appearing in films Beaches (1988) and Sister Act (1992). Lewis is known for playing roles of mothers in the films What's Love Got to Do With It (1993), Poetic Justice (1993), The Preacher's Wife (1996), The Brothers (2001), The Cookout (2004), Think Like a Man (2012) and in the sequel Think Like a Man Too (2014), Baggage Claim (2013) and The Wedding Ringer (2015), as well as in The Temptations miniseries (1998).
Molly Parker is a Canadian actress, writer, and director. She garnered critical attention for her portrayal of a necrophiliac medical student in the controversial drama Kissed (1996). She subsequently starred in the television thriller Intensity (1997) before landing her first major American film role in the drama Waking the Dead (2000). She gained further notice for her role as a Las Vegas escort in the drama The Center of the World (2001), for which she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.
The Man Who Came to Dinner is a comedy play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It debuted on October 16, 1939, at the Music Box Theatre in New York City, where it ran until 1941, closing after 739 performances. It then enjoyed a number of New York and London revivals. The first London production was staged at The Savoy Theatre starring Robert Morley and Coral Browne. In 1990, Browne stated in a televised biographical interview, broadcast on UK Channel 4, that she bought the rights to the play, borrowing money from her dentist to do so. When she died, her will revealed that she had received royalties for all future productions and adaptations.
Brooke Adams is an American actress, best known for her film roles in Days of Heaven (1978), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and The Dead Zone (1983).
Matthew Charles Czuchry is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Logan Huntzberger on The WB television series Gilmore Girls (2005–2007), Cary Agos on the CBS television drama The Good Wife (2009–2016), and Conrad Hawkins on the Fox medical drama series The Resident (2018–2023).
The 10th Screen Actors Guild Awards, honoring the best achievements in film and television performances for the year 2003, took place on February 22, 2004. The ceremony was held at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles, California, and was televised live by TNT. The nominees were announced by Andie MacDowell and Mark Harmon at Los Angeles' Pacific Design Center's Silver Screen Theater on January 15, 2004.
Jane Anderson is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and director. She wrote and directed the feature film The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005), and wrote the film It Could Happen to You (1994), starring Nicolas Cage. She won an Emmy Award for writing the screenplay for the miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014).
An American Daughter is a play written by Wendy Wasserstein. The play takes place in a living room in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Lyssa Rae Chapman is an American businesswoman, television personality, former bail bondswoman and bounty hunter, most noted for her role on A&E TV's Dog the Bounty Hunter, in which she, along with her father Duane "Dog" Chapman and various friends and family, track down and capture wanted fugitives.