GBH Openvault
Frames of Reference; Bruce and Babe; Bruce Cronin and Babe Sargent
Part of New Television Workshop.
In "Bruce and Babe," Bruce Cronin and the star of several of his works, Babe Sargent, travel to Warner, N.H. to screen one of Cronin's films. Cronin assumes the role of narrator as he humorously describes members of the audience, while Babe entertains the audience from the front of the stage. Approximate date: 1979
License Clip
- Series
- Frames of Reference
- Program
- Bruce and Babe
- Title
Bruce Cronin and Babe Sargent
- Series Description
“Frames of Reference” was a series that began circa 1978. Half-hour shows were produced to showcase commissioned and already created works. It was around this time that the focus of the Workshop shifted, to concentrate more heavily on creating works for broadcast. During its time, “Frames of Reference” was the focus of the Workshop’s national arts programming effort. In an attempt to raise funds and foster collaboration, Workshop personnel approached and visited several public television stations nationwide. The major collaborative relationship was with WGBH’s “sister station,” WGBY (Springfield, Mass.). Among the featured artists were Meredith Monk, Remy Charlip, Trisha Brown, and Peter Campus. In 1981, “Frames of Reference” was packaged and offered to PBS, during what is known as “flex time” and was broadcast by WGBH, WNET (New York), and WGBY (Springfield, Mass.). “Frames of Reference” ended as a series ca. 1983, because of a lack of funding. Series release date: 1978
- Program Description
In “Bruce and Babe,” New England filmmaker Bruce Cronin and the star of several of his works, Babe Sargent, travel to Warner, N.H. to screen one Cronin's films. Cronin assumes the role of narrator, describing his career and showing highlights from several works. In “The Game,” an early black-and-white film, young boys playing dodge-ball are interrupted by still images of soldiers. In “16 Summit Street,” a woman comes face to face with a man’s bloody visage in this send-up of the horror film genre. “The Wild Goose” features Babe as a feisty nursing-home inmate, teasing his fellow inmates, who nonetheless rejoice at his attempt to escape, and cheer him on as he is pursued by nurses. In “Henry Phipps Goes Skiing,” Babe plays a worker in a show factory who wins a three-day skiing trip to nearby Snowflake Lodge. The film follows his antics and pratfalls as he tumbles through ski slopes and cocktail parties. While Cronin and Sargent take a humorous approach to the presentation of these works, their audiences’ appreciation of them is fully evidenced by the response to their screening in Warner. “Bruce and Babe,” written and directed by Cronin, takes the form of an autobiographical documentary.
- Asset Type
Clip
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Sargent, J. W. (John W.)
- Documentaries and factual works
- Cronin, Bruce
- Parodies
- Drama
- Motion pictures--Production and direction
- Topics
- Film and Television
- Publication Information
- WGBH Educational Foundation
- Citation
- Chicago: “Frames of Reference; Bruce and Babe; Bruce Cronin and Babe Sargent,” GBH Archives, accessed December 22, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C5DFF8F7741D4F26A42F8F310D886756.
- MLA: “Frames of Reference; Bruce and Babe; Bruce Cronin and Babe Sargent.” GBH Archives. Web. December 22, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C5DFF8F7741D4F26A42F8F310D886756>.
- APA: Frames of Reference; Bruce and Babe; Bruce Cronin and Babe Sargent. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_C5DFF8F7741D4F26A42F8F310D886756