GBH Openvault
Rockefeller Artists in Television; America, Inc.
Part of New Television Workshop.
AMERICA, INC. PART 2 1999 NTW Preservation master Approximate date: 1968-1981
License Clip
This program cannot be made available on Open Vault.
More material may be available from this program at the GBH Archives. If you would like research access to the collection at GBH, please email archive_requests@wgbh.org.
- Series
- Rockefeller Artists in Television
- Program
- America, Inc.
- Series Description
The "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" residency program was created to support artists working in television. It was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation from 1967 through 1970. It was replaced by "The WGBH Project for New Television." While some of the Rockefeller artists, such as Nam June Paik, were already very committed to the medium of video, others were coming to the medium for the first time or from a film background. Paik developed the Paik-Abe videosynthesizer, with Shuya Abe, while working as a Rockefeller artist (though additional funding for the synthesizer's construction was provided by WGBH). The device was used to generate special effects and color enhancements. Artists supported by this program included: Mary Feldhaus-Weber, Marie Cosindas, Lee Lockwood, Stan Vanderbeek, David Wheeler, Nam June Paik, Zone, Newton Wayland, Shoshana Dubiner, Theo Wolfe, Dick Bartlett, Tim Mayer, The Propositions, Tim Hunter, David Silver, and Jean Shepherd. Many of these artists worked collaboratively to create one or more works. Series release date: 1967
- Program Description
First broadcast in February and rerun in June. In this drama, David Silver, the host of a fairly successful public television talk show travels around America searching for something intangible, leaving his wife and their infant child behind. Disillusioned with his life in television he tries to talk things over with director Fred Barzyk who is in the middle of a studio shoot involving singing and dancing children and teenagers. He travels to New York with a friend, and the two take to the streets, dispensing a pile of free used books and eventually finding themselves at a Hare Krishna gathering and Ellis Island. Eventually, Silver journeys to Washington to be part of a giant anti-war demonstration attended by the likes of Pete Seeger and Abbie Hoffman. He returns home to his wife, and the two journey to the beach in winter, where a giant billboard of some sort is being dismantled. He inscribes a piece of it with the words “Silver was here.” This fairly straightforward story is interrupted by tongue-in-cheek advertisements for something called “America, Inc.” and narration by Jean Shepherd.
- Asset Type
Broadcast program
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Drama
- Travel
- Popular culture--United States
- Topics
- Film and Television
- Creators
- David Loxton; Fred Barzyk (Producer)
- Fred Barzyk (Director)
- Contributors
- Barron, Harris ()
- Shepherd, Jean ()
- Finnerman, Alan ()
- Barron, Ros ()
- Jordan, Edward ()
- O'Neil, Michael ()
- ZONE ()
- Silver, Karen ()
- Silver, David ()
- Robinson, Vickie Sue ()
- Citation
- Chicago: “Rockefeller Artists in Television; America, Inc.,” GBH Archives, accessed April 19, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5A04D9410D9D48A781099D77079C3BD3.
- MLA: “Rockefeller Artists in Television; America, Inc..” GBH Archives. Web. April 19, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5A04D9410D9D48A781099D77079C3BD3>.
- APA: Rockefeller Artists in Television; America, Inc.. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5A04D9410D9D48A781099D77079C3BD3