The Hollywood Reporter delivers an absolutely terrific and in-depth look at some of the maddening behind-the-scenes nonsense that ended, quite incredibly, with the History Channel’s cancellation of a $30 million miniseries, a move that likely cost its parent company, A&E Television Networks (and its owners Disney, NBCUniversal), millions already invested in production and marketing costs. This from the same network that broadcast a two-hour love letter to Howard Zinn. But it’s obvious the powers-that-be chose to lose a bundle in order to stay in the good graces of the Kennedy family (and therefore Hollywood) in the same way Disney appeases the Clintons by refusing to rerun or release on DVD “The Path to 9/11.”
In the middle of this political storm sat “24” producer Joel Surnow, whose only sin is his open conservatism and who obviously did everything he was asked of by every historian thrown his way in order to meet The Howard Zinn Channel’s lofty historical standards. In return, the goal posts were moved time and again until the inevitable came true. Here are some snips, but you’ll want to read the whole thing:
“They were down to specific words,” Surnow says. Producers, for instance, had wanted Jack Kennedy to go to Hyannis Port, Mass., before his father had a stroke, but the historians nixed that. “We had a magnifying glass over every line.”
Surnow reaches across the table, opens a computer and reveals an e-mail dated May 25 from Gillon to him, Koch and McKillop: “I have approved the latest version of episode one for historical accuracy. Congratulations.” Surnow has similar e-mails for all the other episodes.
But the fight wasn’t over. Even after shooting the miniseries in Toronto from June through September 2010, producers felt additional pressure over historical accuracy. After the project was canceled, The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, wrote that when History historians viewed the edited version of the miniseries, they complained that it still contained several scenes of questionable factuality, including depictions of the family’s sex lives.
“That’s not true,” Surnow responds. “The historians went through and asked us a couple questions, just crossing-every-t, dotting-every-i stuff, but they were just notes. Nothing of any historical substance.”
For instance, Surnow says the advisers asked producers to prove that a rifle hung on the wall of the White House. “It was literally that specific,” he says. “The level of scrutiny was intense.” …
“Because I am a known conservative, it appears that I was deemed unfit to be the person to produce this miniseries,” Surnow says, breaking his silence on the controversy during a lengthy interview with The Hollywood Reporter at his Woodland Hills home. “This is despite the fact that I’m American, and John F. Kennedy was my president as much as anybody else’s president. I am a proud American, proud of the Kennedys for their accomplishments and their place in history, but none of that was given voice. I wasn’t Emmy Award-winning Joel Surnow, I was Rush Limbaugh‘s and Roger Ailes‘ friend Joel Surnow. And that’s all that mattered.” …
Surnow believes the proof that the decision was made for personal rather than business reasons can be found in the U.K., where the History Channel, co-owned there by AETN and BSkyB, will air The Kennedys in its entirety, beginning April 7, even though the BBC offered a multimillion dollar deal to take it off their hands. In Surnow’s eyes, political pressure made the miniseries good enough for AETN to fight for it in the U.K., but “not a fit” for the History brand in the U.S.
It is incredible to believe that this actually happened in a town that takes pride in being defined by the blacklist of the 1950s. The mind reels at the irony. This is a very troubling story, to say the least; a warning to right-of-center artists everywhere that there are two sets of rules, two standards of accountability. In Hollywood, it’s just a fact that some artists are more equal than others.
In closing, let me add that while no one is harder on the entertainment media than I am, the reporting coming from the Hollywood Reporter lately has been exemplary. This well-researched, very well-written, just-the-facts-ma’am article was written by Matthew Belloni. He tells the story as he knows it, gets out of the way of his interview subjects, and leaves the conclusions up to the reader. Doesn’t get any better than that.
“The Kennedys” airs April 3rd on Reelz.
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