Series: Rockefeller Artists in Television
Program: America, Inc.
Date: 1970-01-01
Subject: Drama; Travel; Popular culture - United States
Copyright Holder: National Educational Television and Radio Center

Clip Description
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. Produced by Fred Baryzk and David Loxton. Directed by Fred Baryzk.

This appears to have been broadcast as part of NET's "Playhouse." It was created when David Silver, Jean Shepherd, and the ZONE collective were Rockefeller Artists-in-Television.

The "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" materials were created before the creation of the New Television Workshop. They were processed as part of this Collection because of their relationship to video art and experimental work.

The "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" residency program was created to support artists working in television. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation from 1967 through 1970, it was replaced by "The WGBH Project for New Television."

Program Description
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. Produced by Fred Baryzk and David Loxton. Directed by Fred Baryzk.

This appears to have been broadcast as part of NET's "Playhouse."; It was created when David Silver, Jean Shepherd, and the ZONE collective were Rockefeller Artists-in-Television.

The "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" materials were created before the creation of the New Television Workshop. They were processed as part of this Collection because of their relationship to video art and experimental work.

The "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" residency program was created to support artists working in television. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation from 1967 through 1970, it was replaced by "The WGBH Project for New Television."

Series Description
The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1974 to support the creation and development of experimental video art. This experimental programming included dance, drama, music, performance and visual arts on video and film. As early as 1968, WGBH was committed to the development of video art through residency programs, with artists such as Nam June Paik, and the "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" project. Many of these early works (pre-1974) were broadcast both locally and nationally.

As an umbrella for arts related programming, the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase, " "Frames of Reference, " "Dance for Camera, " "Poetry Breaks," and "New Television," as well as acquired arts programming. Individual works were created for "Visions," a series produced by WNET (New York), and "Alive From Off Center," a series produced by KTCA (St. Paul - Minneapolis). The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund was co-founded by the Workshop and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in the 1980's, to commission works by video artists. In 1993 the Workshop ceased production at WGBH.

See also: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/America379.HTML