Wild Palms

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Wild Palms
Genre Sci-Fi Drama
Running time 270 minutes
Creator(s) Oliver Stone, Bruce Wagner
Starring Bebe Neuwirth
Angie Dickinson
Dana Delany
James Belushi
Kim Cattrall
Robert Loggia
Not Shown:
David Warner
Ernie Hudson
Ben Savage
Bob Gunton
Country of origin USA
Original channel ABC
Original run May, 1993–May, 1993
No. of episodes 2-part miniseries
IMDb profile

Wild Palms is a six hour mini-series, which first aired in 1993 on the ABC Network in the United States. From its beginning, "Wild Palms" was conceived as an Event Miniseries, with a limited amount of episodes.

Produced by Oliver Stone, and Bruce Wagner - who was also the writer - Wild Palms was a sci-fi drama about the dangers of brainwashing through technnology and drugs. It was based on a comic strip written by Wagner and illustrated by Julian Allen first published in 1990 in Details magazine.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the year 2007, Harry Wyckoff (James Belushi) is a lawyer and family man. His wife Grace (Dana Delany) runs a clothing store, his daughter Deirdre has been a slow developer, yet to speak a word, and his son Coty (Ben Savage) - a television addict - has just got an acting job on a new sitcom, Church Windows, alongside famous actress Tabba Schwartzkopf (Bebe Neuwirth). However, Wyckoff is plagued by strange dreams - of himself being pursued by a rhinoceros, and of a strange tattoo of a palm tree.

Things begin to unravel one day when Wyckoff is visited by a former lover who he hasn't seen in fifteen years - Paige Katz (Kim Cattrall). She needs his help in tracking down her son Peter, who disappeared five years earlier. But Paige works for the Wild Palms Group, which Wyckoff's firm is going up against in court, and his meetings with her invite suspicion from both sides, leading to a promised promotion being removed, and Wyckoff leaving his job.

Luck comes Wyckoff's way when Paige introduces him to her boss - Senator Anton Kreutzer (Robert Loggia) - the founder of the Synthiotics religion, and the inventor of New Realism -- a philosophy which is not well described but has something to do with a form of virtual reality which Kreutzer has developed at his company Mimecom. Kreutzer's plan, he claims, is to use this technology at his television station - Channel 3 - the same station where Wyckoff's son is now acting. Church Windows will be the first show to air in this method, where the action will take place in living rooms across the country, and people will be able to interact with the reality. Out of nowhere, the Senator offers Wyckoff a job as head of the business department at Channel 3, which he accepts.

However, all is not well in the world. Dining with his old college friend Tommy (Ernie Hudson), Wyckoff sees another patron of the restaurant dragged away by a group of men, but no one else pays any heed to it. Then, Wyckoff sees similar things happening with police around town. However, he has no feelings of empathy for the victim, but agrees with the attackers - although he does not know why. When Coty goes to stay with Grace's mother Josie (Angie Dickinson), she asks if he has had the rhinoceros dream to which he responds that he has. She tells him to keep it secret, since it means he is special.

Then, in Grace's presence, Deirdre utters her first words: "everything must go". The peculiarity of this is furthered when Senator Kreutzer tells Wyckoff of a group called the Friends who killed his father shortly after the man had a fire sale, with a banner saying "everything must go". At a dinner party, Grace and Wyckoff run into Tabba and her "consort" Tully Woiwode (Nick Mancuso), whose sister Maisy is the woman who was dining with the man in the restaurant that Wyckoff saw, although she denies this.

Wyckoff continues to be stunned by the bizarre occurrences that begin going on around him - Grace sinks into depression over what she fears is a relationship between her husband and Paige; she and Wyckoff separately learn about the two political groups: the "Friends", and their enemies, the pseudo-fascist "Fathers", who would often steal the children of their enemies. Grace herself fears that Coty is not her son, but one who was switched.

Wyckoff slowly discovers that the Fathers - led by Josie, the Senator and Paige - are developing a grand plan involving the Mimecom technology, while the Friends - one of whom is Grace's incarcerated father Eli (David Warner) - are trying to fight back.

From this start, a deadly web of intrigue, betrayal and murder surrounds Wyckoff.

Wild Palms also stars:

[edit] Episodes

Originally designed to air over five weeks, complications resulted in the miniseries being screened as two installments.

  • 1. Everything Must Go (90 minutes) - directed by Peter Hewitt
  • 2. The Floating World (45 minutes) - directed by Keith Gordon
  • 3. Rising Sons (45 minutes) - directed by Kathryn Bigelow
  • 4. Hungry Ghosts (45 minutes) - directed by Keith Gordon
  • 5. Hello I Must Be Going (45 minutes) - directed by Phil Joanou

[edit] Trivia

  • Cyberpunk author William Gibson has a cameo appearance as himself.
  • Oliver Stone has a unique cameo, in which he appears as himself - being interviewed on television - after the release of files pertinent to the assassination of John F. Kennedy reveal that Stone's film, JFK, was right.
  • The soundtrack was created by Ryuichi Sakamoto
  • Stone hired musician, body-modification pioneer, and occultist Genesis P-Orridge as a consultant for the series.
  • Opinion was, and remains, divided on Wild Palms. Some saw it as too similar to David Lynch's cult series Twin Peaks - to the point of which it is known by some as Twin Palms. To some it is fondly remembered, while it came fourth in a British Broadcast magazine poll of the worst American television shows of all time.
  • Wild Palms is considered by many to be a veiled fictionalized criticism of the Church of Scientology. The miniseries includes a number of parallels of L. Ron Hubbard to the character Sen. Anton Kreutzer, of nautical imagery to Sea Org, and of Synthiotics / New Realism to Dianetics / Scientology respectively.
  • References to the 'Go chip' and several phrases in the miniseries including 'Everything Must Go' are a reference to the Chinese strategic board game Go. The character of Anton Kreutzer is seen at one point playing a game of Go. "Hello, I Must Be Going" is a reference to Groucho Marx and his song from Animal Crackers (1930) - Kreutzer sings the song as he is dying.

[edit] Poetry

[edit] The Production design

  • The Japanese influence, Charles Rennie MacIntosh
  • 50’s/60’s open top cars (in the Wild Palms Reader - all non-electric cars have been banned after a severe emission bill leaving no smog)
  • Victorian suits

[edit] Wild Palms Reader

A book published to coincide with the mini-series supposedly featuring writing from the “world of the series”. Contributors included

[edit] DVD release

Wild Palms was released on Region 1 and Region 4 DVD in October 2005.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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