Analysis Of The Quiz Show

Quiz Show, set in America in the 1950s, tells the story of the scandal that took place on NBC’s television show, Twenty-One, in which the competition was rigged and contestants were given the answers to questions before filming began. The film specifically explores the story of Charles Van Doren, an American intellectual and contestant on the show, who falls victim to greed when he agrees to become involved in the quiz show scandal. Throughout the course of the movie, Van Doren struggles with the wrongdoings and remorse of the falsehood in which he lives; the actions throughout the plot, however, teach the audience that, although an untruth may seem harmless, it leads one down a guilt-ridden path until getting away with the lie is worse than being caught.

Herb Stempel is the current champion, having successfully answered twenty-one questions before each of his opponents for several weeks in a row; however, Stempel’s fame is a deliberate deception of the television audience, as he has been consistently given the answers to each question. Twenty-One’s ratings begin the plateau, and as the show’s producers find that the show is becoming predictable and boring, a decision to bring in a new competitor is reached. Charles Van Doren - a youthful professor at Columbia University and a member of a well-off and prominent family in society - makes his first cameo on the show when he defeats Stempel after the producers deliberately use the same questions that Van Doren answered during his interview for the