American Cinematographer - February 1986 - 106

The Last Page
Execution Revives Live Television
Television delivered
sional surprises last
that evening, for the

one

of its

death row, his last appeal has failed
and he prepares for the end, hoping

occa¬

November 17. On
first time in about
a quarter-century, ABC-TV presented an
original, prime time, live TV drama. It

was a

of

desperately for

last-minute miracle. It
as much dignity
as possible, he goes to his death, which
is depicted graphically but without overt

doesn't

two-hour show, The Execution

dramatization.

Raymond Graham.
To those of

us

who

Live drama is certainly the
actors' medium. There are memorable

had

grown up watching theatrical
the live dramas presented a
mixture of pluses and minuses.

movies,
curious
Visually,
they fell far short of film standards.
Generalized lighting, sometimes pon¬
unavoidable

performances from Kate Reid as the
killer's mother, George Dzundza as the
prison chaplain, Lois Smith and Josef
Sommer as the victim's parents, Mor¬
gan Freeman as the warden, Graham

gaffes that cried out for retakes, that
pervading grayness that was a blight of
TV transmission in those days - all

Beckel as the condemned man's brother
and Laurie Metcalf as his sister, Linda
Griffiths as the assistant to his attorney,

derous

camera

moves,

these were bothersome to viewers ac¬
customed to the expert photographic

techniques customary in

the
carefully
lighted closeups so beloved of
moviegoers were painfully absent.
There were no post-production refine¬
even

smaller theatrical films. The

The sound likewise fell below

ments.

Hollywood standards, with a scarcity of
musical scoring and much unwanted
noise.
And yet

there were certain
aspects of live TV drama that riveted
the attention and commanded the

re¬

spect of the viewer. Most critics over¬
used the word immediacy and cited the

similarity to watching in-person perform¬
ances on a stage. However it is hard to
get much immediacy from the fuzzy
black and white images that were deliv¬
ered

small, rounded

to

screens

of the

period.
More

probably it was the
high quality of dialogue, direction and
acting that made live shows memora¬
ble. With visual opulence out of the
question, these aspects were empha¬
sized. The acting was superior to most
of what we were getting in the movies.
The stage training, the rehearsals, the
fact that the players were able to build
their characterizations chronologically
instead of in scattered takes, the emo¬

tional

involvement that

good ensemble work
things showed.

-

comes

with

all of these

They show, too, in The Ex¬
Raymond Graham. TV

104

a

and, with

come

proved immensely since the days of
Playhouse 90, too. There isn't a clumsy
moment

broadcast

be the most pre¬

on

a

studio

delayed

the West Coast.)

The play was written
Frohman and directed by Daniel

by Mel
Petrie,

of live drama whose last work
in the medium was a memorable ver¬
sion of Joseph Conrad's Victory with
a veteran

Eric Portman and Richard Harris.
A dozen cameras covered Ex¬

ecution, which

was

televised in

one

long take (except for commercial breaks)
after four weeks of rehearsals. About
17 minutes of the show was pre-re¬
corded on tape, consisting of scenes
shot inside a real prison, an auto, a

phone booth and

nervous

question of whether capital punishment
is justifiable. It takes place during the
precise time frame of the program - a
realistic touch that Orson Welles would
have relished - and manages to stay
on the minute throughout. Most of
countdown to the time of execu¬

a

by lethal injection of a 28-year-old
who had killed a 17-year-old boy

during

a

February 1986

walked

the death chamber and

me to

strapped

me

executed

on.

robbery. After five

years on

an

die.

him

hour

down to the bed he was
stayed strapped down for

I

Fahey's spellbinding perform¬
ance is enhanced by some writing and
directorial touches. For example, he is
always seen through the prison bars,
like a caged animal. "This was very
deliberate," Fahey recalled. "They
didn't want you to really see him as a
complete man until he was taken out to

some serious trouble."
The show deals with the

equipment and techniques have im¬

just been executed the night before for
killing a jeweler in Amarillo. They

half

rehearsals. "If the weather is bad that

it is
tion

acknowledged that they had killed.
Some of them you could be perfectly
comfortable with. Others, you sense,
would kill you in a minute if they
weren't caged. I had them lock me in
the cell of Charles Rumbaugh, who had

about

night we'd be in

right

He went to Texas State
Prison in Huntsville, where he talked to
the men on death row. "They told me
what they did, how they did it. They

some

houses. "We
risking those
night exteriors," Petrie explained during
all

were

man

Cinematographer

must

the Eastern United States from
in Toronto, it was taped for

ecution of

American

in what

cisely timed show ever attempted on
TV. (We can use the present because,
while the show was presented live in

Philip Sterling, and Alan Scarfe as an
unfeeling governor.
Finest of all is Jeff Fahey as
Raymond Graham. Fahey discussed the
show with American Cinematographer,
and the recounting of his preparations
for the role lends dignity to the acting
profession:
articulate but

.

.

."

Only then do
-

and then it's

you

too

really

see

late."

Maybe there's a
the long-abandoned art of live
after all. People with talent,
say,

future for
TV drama
something
it through

strates.

-G.T.

to
are

and the guts to see
available, as this show demon¬
American Cinematographer - February 1986

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