TV Nation

TV Nation was initiated after the huge success of Michael Moore’s Roger & Me, when the American TV station NBC approached him and producer Kathleen Glynn to make a weekly TV show. After a 15-minute pitch, they were given the green light in November 1992 to make a trial episode with a budget of 1 million dollars. In 50 minutes, various political and social subjects were addressed with mild irony, in a combination of documentary and humour. Other (later permanent) items constituted for example actually executed opinion polls with peculiar questions and Michael Moore introducing programme items on Times Square in New York. Although NBC tested this episode various times with great success, TV Nation only got the go-ahead in December 1993, when the BBC was also prepared to put money in the project. In the TV Nation series, the subjects ranged from the American farewell tour of communism with the help of a large truck to a test to see whether New York cab drivers would sooner refuse a white criminal or a famous black actor. The screamer of the series turned out to be Crackers, the Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken, who exposed scandalous practices of entrepreneurs by standing up for the rights of aggrieved parties. On 5 September 1995, the final episode of TV Nation was broadcast in the US, one day before the show was awarded an Emmy for most remarkable informative series of the 1994 season. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)