I promised myself I was going to
post some content on the Cultural
Blender pages tonight, and as
usual it is extremely late, and I won’t
really have time to write anything much of merit, but I tend to
write way too much as it is, so
for the sake of argument, I
wish to say a few things in this
column about a television show I
enjoy on CBS Sunday nights at
8:00pm. The show is “The Education of
Max Bickford” new this season,
starring Richard Dreyfuss and
Marcia Gay Harden. Both actors
have won the Academy Award.
The writing is incisive. Although
the cinematography is not “painterly”
but sort of pedestrian (lots
of close-ups and over-the-shoulder
shots,) the acting and scripts
make up for it, and until last
Wednesday, this was my favorite
new television show this year.
When I first heard of this show, I
had an immediate need to see it.
Richard Dreyfuss has always been
one of my favorite actors
(even though it might be argued
that he constantly plays the same
irascible character) and Marcia
Gay Harden is always enjoyable.
Both invest their characters with
acid and a sharp edge.
And therein lies the rub.
I have chosen my Chop page in the
Cultural Blender to talk about this
show, because I read last week
that the original creators were
leaving over the dreaded “creative
differences”, and the network was
going to soften up the character.
The
L.A. Times postulated a new title for the show “Mr. Bickford’s Opus”
The integrity of a well written
series is about to be seriously undermined.
“Skyler was not feeling well.
He was counting the revised pages
of the script, and feeling a mite
schizophrenic. The pages were
talking to him.
You aren’t the same anymore.”
to quote Max’s literary narrative device, as he might
remark when he becomes the “kinder, gentler Max.
Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin,
the creators, have left the series
after executives at the network
expressed an interest (after only
five or six shows) to soften the
character of Max, and the tone of
the show in general.
Sadly, this might serve to
decapitate what I firmly believe is
One
of the most astute series, because the acerbic wit, and general
Humanity of the character, however
flawed, is what makes
This series stand out for me.
Richard Dreyfuss, like Michael
Douglas, can make an unlikable
character, if not likable, at
least tolerable, and although I don’t like
some of Max’s decisions, I admire
the way in which (up till now,
anyway) he is true to his set of
morals.
Max is introduced as a history
teacher at an all girl’s college, but
takes over as Chairman of the
Department when the current
Head dies.
Max’s specialty is the Vietnam War
era, and his colleagues tend to think
he is stuck in the seventies, with
memories of his subversive past
Always present on his mind. He is
an idealist and at the same time
a real asshole, and Dreyfuss pulls
the trick off, although he has proved
grating to a number of critics.
Perhaps it is the critical response alone
which has caused the show to get a
retooling.
The show hasn’t even had time to
cultivate a following, but in the 21st
Century, shows can actually be
cancelled after a couple of showings.
The television industry, like the
movie industry, seems to go for the
“instant hit”. If the numbers
aren’t monumental opening weekend,
then the film goes to video
quicker, and the occasional television
series is cancelled, put out to
pasture, killed.
Funny thing is, “Max Bickford” was
renewed for next season.
So the Nielsens were okay, but the
network just couldn’t “take a joke”
as it were.
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Max, with his children, Nell (Katee Sackhoff),, and Lester |
Max strolls the campus with
fellow teacher Erica Bettis (Helen Shaver) who used to be “Steve.” |
I am using this subject as the
first “Chop” article, because it is about to be
chopped beyond recognition, I’m
afraid. Both Max and Andrea Haskell, played
by Marcia Gay Harden, who joined
the staff of the History Department
in the first episode, taking a valued
and expected chair away from Max,
are at opposite ends of the
subject they teach.
Whereas Max is overly sentimental
but objective about history,
(He’s a man who truly believes
that those who cannot remember
history are doomed to repeat it)
he is constantly at odds with
former lover Andrea, who teaches
“Pop Culture.”
Watching “Max Bickford”, one is
acutely aware that Pop Culture
Will eventually supplant history
in schools.
Perhaps Popular Culture is the
study of recent history.
Perhaps we can learn about
ourselves by studying our iconography
Throughout the past thirty or
forty years, as I hope to prove
In the Cultural
Blender website as soon as I write the content.
Max doesn’t believe Pop Culture is
history. He has a lot to learn.
Here’s hoping his “Education”:
doesn’t end after five or six episodes.
CAST
Starring:
Richard Dreyfuss
(Max Bickford)
Marcia Gay Harden
(Andrea Haskell)
Regina Taylor
(Judith Hackett Bryant)
Helen Shaver
(Erica Bettis)
Katee Sackhoff
(Nell Bickford)
Eric Ian Goldberg
(Lester Bickford)
EPiSODE GUIDE
courtesy of TVTome.com
Official CBS
Website (a very meager tribute, if you ask me.)
PRODUCED BY: CBS Productions and Regency Television,
in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Nicole Yorkin, Dawn Prestwich, Rod
Holcomb
The Education of Max Bickford, one
of the better series on television,
will soon lose it’s bite. The
photographs on this page are video captures
taken from the Tivo, recorded on
VHS., and then input to the computer
as stills. I am inspired in these
endeavors, such as my DVD review/essay
of “The Stand”
miniseries, by the FilmBooks written by Forrest J. Ackerman
in Famous Monsters of Filmland
magazine when I was a child.
I was “turned on” to many a horror
or science fiction movie
By “Dr. Acula’s” prose. The
filmbook was a detailed synopsis of
The movie, and the articles were
illustrated with stills from the film.
It is relatively easy these days,
to capture the stills from
the Tivo, and to create a page as
soon as the program airs.
Michael F. Nyiri Nov. 11, 2001
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