Wild Palms

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Wild Palms
WildPalms cast.JPG
Wild Palms main cast (listed below, L to R)
Created by Bruce Wagner
Written by Bruce Wagner
Starring Nick Mancuso
Bebe Neuwirth
Angie Dickinson
Dana Delany
James Belushi
Kim Cattrall
Robert Loggia
Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes5
Production
Executive producers Oliver Stone
Bruce Wagner
ProducerMichael Rauch
Running time285 minutes
Production companiesIxtlan
Greengrass Productions
Release
Original network ABC
Original releaseMay 16 (1993-05-16) 
May 20, 1993 (1993-05-20) [1]

Wild Palms is a five-hour miniseries which was produced by Greengrass Productions and first aired in May 1993 on the ABC network in the United States. The sci-fi drama, announced as an "event series", [2] deals with the dangers of politically motivated abuse of mass media technology and virtual realities in particular. It was based on a comic strip written by Bruce Wagner and illustrated by Julian Allen first published in 1990 in Details magazine. Wagner, who also wrote the screenplay, served as executive producer together with Oliver Stone. The series stars James Belushi, Dana Delany, Robert Loggia, Kim Cattrall, Bebe Neuwirth, David Warner, and Angie Dickinson. The episodes were directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Keith Gordon, Peter Hewitt and Phil Joanou.

Contents

Plot synopsis

In the United States in the year 2007, the right-wing Fathers dominate large sections of politics and the media. A libertarian movement called the Friends opposes the government, often making use of underground guerrilla tactics. The Fathers' leader is California Senator Tony Kreutzer, who is also the leader of the Scientology-like Church of Synthiotics and the owner of the Wild Palms media group. Kreutzer's Channel 3 TV station is about to launch Church Windows, a VR sitcom that projects characters into viewers' homes using a system called Mimecom.

Harry Wyckoff is a successful patent attorney on the brink of becoming a partner in the law firm where he works. He has two children with his wife Grace, a perfect housewife who also owns a boutique. His 11-year-old son Coty has just been cast for Church Windows, while his 4-year-old daughter Deirdre has been mute from birth. His mother-in-law is the chic socialite and artist Josie Ito, a woman of strong will and numerous connections. At night Wyckoff is plagued by strange dreams of a rhinoceros and a faceless woman who has palm trees tattooed on her body.

One day, he is visited by Paige Kurtz, a former lover during his college days. Paige asks for his help in tracking down her son Peter, who disappeared five years earlier. Paige is closely associated with the Wild Palms group, which Wyckoff's firm is going up against in court. Wyckoff is passed over for promotion due to the seeming conflict of interest. After this, he gladly accepts when Kreutzer offers him a high-paying job at Channel 3.

In the wake of his new career, Grace becomes alienated from him and attempts suicide. To his dismay, Harry learns that Coty is actually the son of Kreutzer and Paige and that her search request was a plot to bring him and the Senator together. Coty becomes not only a TV star but also — due to his privileged upbringing and personal ruthlessness — a high-ranking member of the Church of Synthiotics. Josie turns out to be the Senator's sister who disposes of potential rivals with the same violently brutal means as her brother. Her only weak point is her affection for her estranged husband Eli Levitt, Grace's father and leader of the Friends.

Kreutzer plans to marry Paige and tries to get hold of the Go chip, which would enable him to become an immortal living hologram. He uses all means possible to acquire the chip, but Paige is disgusted by his methods and gives information to the Friends. Harry discovers that Peter, a boy who has connections to the Friends, is his real son who was taken away by the Fathers shortly after his birth. Kreutzer, who suspects Harry of collaborating with his opponents, has him tortured, and kidnaps Deirdre, while Josie strangles Grace.

Harry joins the Friends and uses his access to Channel 3 to broadcast a Mimecom recording of Grace's murder that causes a social uproar. Synthiotics facilities and the campaign offices of Kreutzer (who is now running for president) are attacked. The Fathers try unsuccessfully to defuse the situation by killing Eli and broadcasting a fake video that depicts Harry as Grace's killer. Josie is brutally killed by a former victim, Tully Woiwode. Kreutzer finally manages to get hold of the Go chip and has it implanted, but not before it is secretly altered by Harry and Peter. Kreutzer reveals to Harry that he is his biological father, then loses cohesion and dissolves into nothingness. Harry and Paige rescue Dierdre from Coty, and they drive into the sunset.

Episodes

ABC aired the miniseries over five consecutive nights:

Cast

Cameos

Production

Oliver Stone had originally planned to film Bruce Wagner's novel Force Majeure, but then decided to film Wagner's comic strip Wild Palms, published in Details magazine, instead: "It was so syncretic. It was such a fractured view of the world. Everything and anything could happen. Maybe your wife isn't your wife, maybe your kids aren't your kids. It really appealed to me." Wagner referred to his creation as "a sort of surreal diary […] a tone poem", set in an "Orwellian Los Angeles". ABC agreed to finance the project on a budget of $11 million, but, remembering the eventual decline of David Lynch's Twin Peaks , insisted that the series had "a complete story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end". [2] [3]

Actor James Belushi compared the series (among others) to the British TV serial The Prisoner , and stated: "It's very tough, very challenging—a lot of viewers probably won't dig it." Dana Delany suggested that viewers should "let it wash over you, enjoy each scene, and by the end it'll make sense". Robert Loggia compared it to the Elizabethan play The Duchess of Malfi and the ancient Greek tragedy Medea . ABC, bound to make sure that viewers wouldn't lose attention, had a supplemental book, The Wild Palms Reader, published and offered a telephone hotline with the show's initial run. [2] These measures notwithstanding, Stone considered the atmosphere to be more important than the storyline. [4]

William Gibson later stated that "while the mini-series fell drastically short of the serial, it did produce one admirably peculiar literary artifact, The Wild Palms Reader" (to which he contributed). Both Stone and Gibson called Wagner the creative force behind the series. [4] [5]

Production design

The United States of the year 2007 as depicted in the series shows a strong influence of Japanese culture, such as in dress and interior and exterior design. Holograms of Miss Alabama and girl group The Supremes even bear Japanese facial features.

Other interior details show the influence of Scottish designer and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928). Deliberately anachronistic elements include 1960s cars (like Studebaker police vehicles) and Edwardian fashion. Cerruti 1881 provided costumes. [6]

Supplements

Soundtrack album

In addition to Ryuichi Sakamoto's music score, a number of 1960s rock and pop songs and classical compositions could be heard in the series. On the 1993 released soundtrack album, the following songs were included besides Sakamoto's music:

The following songs and compositions can be heard in the series but are not featured on the album:

Books

A book, The Wild Palms Reader, was published by St. Martin's Press before the series aired. It included time lines, secret letters, and character biographies. ABC, concerned that viewers might get "hopelessly lost in the tangled story line", [2] arranged for the primer to be published. It also included writing supposedly from the "world of the series". Contributors included:

While the comic series was published in book form in Germany, the Wild Palms Reader was not. Instead, a novelization, written by German dime novel author Horst Friedrichs, was published under the title Wild Palms.

Reception

Reviews of the series were mixed. [3]

The New York Times critic John J. O'Connor called Wild Palms a "truly wild six-hour mini-series" resembling "nothing so much as an acid freak's fantasy, drenched in paranoia and more pop-culture allusions than a Dennis Miller monologue." He described it as "rich and insinuating as a good theatrical film, albeit harder to follow" and concluded, "You wanted something different? Here it is. And Wild Palms also happens to be terrific." [1]

Ken Tucker in Entertainment Weekly stated that "in its length, scope, sweeping visual tableaux, and over-the-top passion, Wild Palms is more like an opera than a TV show." Comparing it to David Lynch's Twin Peaks, he decided that "unlike Peaks, which started out brilliantly lucid and then rambled into incoherence, Palms sustains its length and adds layers of complexity to its characters. It also has something crucial that Peaks did not: a sense of humor about itself." [7]

Mary Harron of the British Independent suggested that viewers "forget about the message, and about what the rhino means. Wild Palms should be watched like opera; for its gorgeous images, its emotional set-pieces and its high style." [3]

Readers of the British trade weekly Broadcast were much more negative, calling it one of the worst television shows ever exported by the U.S. to the U.K. It placed fourth on their list, exceeded only by Baywatch , The Anna Nicole Show and The Dukes of Hazzard . [8] TV Guide also blasted it, offering the interpretation that Oliver Stone was condemning television while covertly lauding cinematic films. [ citation needed ]

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References

  1. 1 2 The Sunshiny Menace of "Wild Palms", review by John J. O'Connora in The New York Times, May 16, 1993, retrieved 2012-02-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Svetkey, Benjamin (May 14, 1993). "ABC's new "Wild Palms"". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Television: Never mind reality, just revel in the kitsch: 'Wild Palms' began as a cartoon strip, now it's a mini-series with a major twist, article by Mary Harron in The Independent, November 7, 1993, retrieved 2012-02-18.
  4. 1 2 Aus dem Land der Alpträume, interview with Oliver Stone (in German) by Catherine Mayer in Focus 50/1993, December 13, 1993, retrieved 2012-02-03.
  5. Where the Holograms Go, entry in William Gibson's Blog, July 22, 2006, retrieved 2012-01-29.
  6. see: the Closing credits of Wild Palms Episode 1993-05-16
  7. Wild Palms review by Ken Tucker in Entertainment Weekly, May 14, 1993, retrieved 2012-02-01. Archived 2017-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
  8. News about Wild Palms from IMDb
  9. Classification of the VHS release by the British Board of Film Classification.
  10. Laserdisc details from IMDb
  11. "Wild Palms Blu-ray".