Season 1 • Episode 12
LatestHaving failed to secure the Democratic nomination, TJ and company try to launch a third-party campaign; the crew hires college co-eds for telemarketing, which provides mixed results; Joanna has coffee with Kitty Dukakis.
In 1988, renegade filmmaker Robert Altman and Pulitzer Prize–winning Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a presidential candidate, ran him alongside the other hopefuls during the primary season, and presented their media campaign as a cross between a soap opera and TV news. The result was the groundbreaking Tanner ’88, a piercing satire of media-age American politics.
Direction
Altman's wandering camera finds accidental truth
Writing
Trudeau's dialogue predicted Twitter discourse
Acting
Murphy's Tanner believes his own fiction
Creators
Robert Altman, Garry Trudeau
Michael Murphy
Jack Tanner
Pamela Reed
T.J. Cavanaugh
Cynthia Nixon
Alex Tanner
Kevin J. O'Connor
Hayes Haggerty
Daniel H. Jenkins
Stringer Kincaid
Jim Fyfe
Emil Berkoff
Matt Malloy
Deke Connors
Ilana Levine
Andrea Spinelli
Veronica Cartwright
Molly Hark
Harry Anderson
Billy Ridenhour
Wendy Crewson
Joanna Buckley
Richard Cox
David Seidelman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The campaign actually registered Jack Tanner with the FEC and bought real ad time in New Hampshire. Reporters covered him as a legitimate candidate for weeks.
This invented the modern political mockumentary format—The Thick of It, Veep, and even The Office owe their DNA to Altman's chaotic overlapping dialogue.
US
