Editing Quiz Show (film) (section)

=== Writing ===
''Quiz Show'' is based on a chapter of the book ''Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties'' (1988) by [[Richard N. Goodwin]],<ref name="Iconwithafew"/> who also was one of the film's many producers.<ref name="FlawedCharacters">{{cite web|author-link=Bernard Weinraub|last=Weinraub|first=Bernard|date=September 12, 1994|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/12/movies/flawed-characters-in-the-public-eye-past-and-present.html|title=Flawed Characters In the Public Eye, Past and Present|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 20, 2020}}</ref> [[Paul Attanasio]] began writing the screenplay in 1990, joining immediately for the subject matter's "complex ironies," such as with its main characters.{{sfn|Rose|1994|loc=1:24–2:19}} Completing many drafts over the course of three years, Attanasio wrote the script by watching clips of ''Twenty-One'', reading old articles about the scandal, learning about the 1950s television landscape at the [[Paley Center for Media|Museum of Broadcasting]] and meeting with Goodwin.<ref name="FlawedCharacters"/>{{sfn|Rose|1994|loc=3:25–3:58}} Redford researched the topic by reading [[Dan Wakefield]]'s book ''New York in the Fifties'' and brought Wakefield to the film set as an advisor who also was given a cameo appearance.<ref>{{cite web|last=Wakefield|first=Dan|date=August 21, 1994|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/21/magazine/his-50s-then-and-now-robert-redford.html|title=His 50s, Then and Now.; Robert Redford|work=The New York Times|access-date=July 24, 2020}}</ref> Redford had known Goodwin since appearing in ''[[The Candidate (1972 film)|The Candidate]]'' (1972), and he helped Attanasio integrate Goodwin's personality into the script.{{sfn|Rose|1994|loc=4:59–5:17}}

Because the story lacked a [[protagonist]], Attanasio employed "shifting points of view" while maintaining a [[through line]], which complicated the writing of the screenplay.{{sfn|Rose|1994|loc=2:37–3:16}} In depicting the themes of ethnic conflict between [[White Anglo-Saxon Protestants]] and Jewish characters, Attanasio borrowed from his experiences as a member of an [[Italian Americans|Italian-American]] family. His relatives were outraged by the stereotypical depiction of Italians as loudmouth gangsters in the media.<ref name="FlawedCharacters"/> He also integrated the duplicitous personalities of those with whom he had worked in the film industry in order to incorporate themes of disillusion.<ref name="FlawedCharacters"/>