"Good Night and Good Luck" Live on CNN

Woot!

Jesus. Somebody needs to shoot CNN in the head and just end its suffering already. Seriously, it’s melted down into such a calamitous hot mess that I’m often stunned that the company’s board just doesn’t step in, clean house and reboot the damn network.

Why, R2?

I think this is a kind of cool idea for a news network.

I'll definitely be watching, especially since I would probably never attend the performance in person.

Beats paying hundreds of dollars to watch it on Broadway.

Thanks, CNN!

Hope this means it will be on HBO shortly after.

It'll be streaming on MAX, as well as CNN.

Clooney did a live broadcast of Fail Safe years ago. He must like the rush.

Who dat

[quote] Clooney did a live broadcast of Fail Safe years ago. He must like the rush.

Just like the rush he gets from sniffing poppers, while he's banging an Italian Twink!

Not watching CNN after Jake Tapper and Clooneys gang up on Biden. Fuck ‘em!

Fake Tapper gurgling on red nuts?

I thought that the whole idea of a Broadway show, was seeing it in person?

It's LIVE theater, and not a TV show FFS.

[quote] Fake Tapper gurgling on red nuts?

Huh?

This should be good.

I might make an event of it, with my friends.

A viewing party!

What's this movie about?

1. It's a play, not a movie.

2. It WAS a movie. Watch it.

Play not doing well at b.o.?

I love this Hollywood icon. Love him.

It's setting all kinds of box-office records, but it's a limited run and this is the penultimate performance.

Bump

7pm ET on CNN, CNN International and CNN.com with no cable login required. The show will also air live on Max.

Abe Vigoda looks rough

Abe had a late night

Present!

Anyone watching? It occurred to me at 6:54 pm that the 7 pm time I saw might be Eastern time (I'm in the Central time zone), so I did a quick check. Lo and behold, it started at 6, so dinner is being delayed.

How many of the male cast members did Clooney bang? 🤔

Can one stream this on HBO Max?

Impressive staging.

R26 Yes, one can

R26, yes

Tony and Emmy for an evening's work

God, this is tedious. I loved the movie.

R31 - attention span of a goldfish.

Ha ha! Isn't it hilarious how Liberace pretended to be straight?

[quote]I thought that the whole idea of a Broadway show, was seeing it in person?

That's like saying you won't buy the cast recording of a B'way musical because it was meant to be heard in the theater.

Just posted on ATC. It breaks my heart a bit.

[quote]I just wanna say as someone who can’t get to Broadway (and doesn’t feel safe travelling to the States right now) I’m very grateful for the opportunity to see a Broadway show “live” tonight.

Clooney seems more like David Strathairn's understudy here; he should have retained his role as Fred Friendly.

Will CNN keep the viewers engaged during intermission? Chances are many will not return after the break.

Is this really the first live broadcast of a Broadway show? Some queen here should know.

Not by a long shot..

^^ should have reprised his role.

R37: I may be mistaken, but did "The Sound of Music" and "Once Upon A Mattress" stream live?

Those were live broadcasts of network-produced shows, not Broadway productions broadcast live from a Broadway theater. I believe this is a first...and historic.

Live From Lincoln Center

If they were to do this with any show it should’ve been Jodie Comer’s seminal Prima Facie

They all sound/look like they're lip-synching. George looks deflated.

Lincoln Center isn't a Broadway theater.

R44, part of it is. The Vivian Beaumont is classified as a Broadway theater.

The ketchup is being flung tonight!!!

Wow! Didn't see "that" coming

I only could last for 15 minutes and got bored.

They're doing a panel on the impact of Edward R Murrow with Connie Chung?! Where's Maury?

Way to completely miss the point CNN.

I'm crying. It was wonderful. Damn.

Amal, is that you at r47?

Watched with my MAGA mom. LOVED his final speech.

I feel very lucky to have been able to experience that. The live applause after his commentaries was wonderful.

Where is our Edward R. Murrow? Our Guernica?

R35 grow a back bone.

R49 see a psychiatrist

Clooney’s really hit the wall hasn’t he?

R47 That makes two of us. I really wanted to enjoy it but it lost my attention.

the video montage at the end with elon doing the nazi salute was extraordinary

The after show with TV journalists is more provocative than the play. Go Abby!

I’m enjoying it very much. Better than I thought it would be, more interesting than I thought it would be, and it couldn’t be more timely.

Murrow”s speeches on this subject don’t date. And I think George Clooney is very good, his Tony nomination makes sense.

R54 see a cult deprogrammer.

R59 I was very moved by that montage, and his final speech. So great.

The most salient comments during the panel discussion, after the play, were about corporations owning the news media. When it became important to the bigwigs that news had to make money, objectivity, honor, and trust went down the tubes. Look what’s happening at CBS now, and ABC recently Both caving to Trump so they can continue making money with less interference from The Orange Man.

He really needs to play Cary Grant in a film someday, too!

Very special experience. Watched it with friends here in SF. It's about time we see something more provocative like this.

[Quote] That makes two of us. I really wanted to enjoy it but it lost my attention.

More like two million of you🥱🥱

Good Night is appropriate, as it would induce sleep within 10 minutes.

Provocative? Hardly. It was like NPR for the eyes.

I really can't stand Clooney and his pre-interview with Cooper brought on that epiphany. He was banging on about the McCarthy era and how today's political climate is worse, but once we get rid of the ringleaders, we'll get back to normal blahblahblah. Then I thought about his "Letter to Biden."

You're a fucking one-note, smug, and honestly, kinda creepy ACTOR.

I did like seeing Fran Kranz tho.

Can they fuse the Tony and Emmy together to make one big monstruous award for George and Amal to carry around once they leave town?

It was a wonderment how they kept the actors' head mics hidden. Other than the briefest glimpse of George's (and one other actor's) mic cord on his nape going down into his collar I saw no evidence of the mics near their faces.

But I assume they must have all been mic'ed. How did they do that?

[quote] 'Good Night, and Good Luck' CNN live broadcast brings George Clooney's play to the masses

Saturday afternoon out west and evening back east, as citizens faced off against ICE agents in the streets of Los Angeles, "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's 2005 dramatic film tribute to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, became a Major Television Event, broadcast live from Manhattan's Winter Garden Theater, by CNN and Max.

That it was made available free to anyone with an internet connection, via the CNN website, was a nice gesture to theater fans, Clooney stans and anyone interested to see how a movie about television translates into a play about television.

The broadcast is being ballyhooed as historic, the first time a play has been aired live from Broadway. And while there is no arguing with that fact, performances of plays have been recorded onstage before, and are being so now. It's a great practice; I wish it were done more often.

At the moment, PBS is streaming recent productions of Cole Porter's "Kiss Me, Kate!," the Bob Dylan-scored "Girl From the North Country," David Henry Hwang's "Yellow Face" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning mental health rock musical "Next to Normal." Britain's National Theater at Home subscription service offers a wealth of classical and modern plays, including Andrew Scott's one-man "Vanya," as hot a ticket in New York this spring as Clooney's play.

And the archives run deep; that a trip to YouTube can deliver you Richard Burton's "Hamlet" or "Sunday in the Park With George" with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters is a gift not to be overlooked.

Clooney, with co-star Anthony Edwards, had earlier been behind a live broadcast of "Ambush," the fourth season opener of "ER" as a throwback to the particular seat-of-your-pants, walking-on-a-wire energy of 1950s television. (It was performed twice, once for the East and once for the West Coast.) That it earned an audience of 42.71 million, breaking a couple of records in the bargain, suggests that, from a commercial perspective, it was not at all a bad idea.

Like that episode, the "live" element of Saturday's broadcast was essentially a stunt, though one that ensured, at least, that no post-production editing has been applied, and that if anyone blew a line, or the house was invaded by heckling MAGA hats, or simply disrupted by audience members who regarded the enormous price they paid for a ticket as a license to chatter through the show, it would presumably have been part of the broadcast.

None of that happened — but, it could have! (Clooney did stumble over "simple," but that's all I caught.) And, it offered the groundlings at home the chance to see a much-discussed, well-reviewed production only a relatively few were able to see in person — which I applaud on principal and enjoyed in practice — and which will very probably not come again, not counting the next day's final performance.

The movie captured a moment in time. It was an important part of our history. The McCarthy Era. The Red Scare. Haven't seen the play. Missed it last night.

[quote] which I applaud on principal and enjoyed in practice

Oh, dear.

I guess the LA Times can't afford proofreaders anymore.

That article fails to mention Clooney's other foray into live television broadcast of a play -- "Fail-Safe" back in 2000.

I recorded it on my DVR.

I'd like to watch it tonight, and see what all the fuss is about.

Mine didn’t record R75. Interested to hear if it worked for you.

I'm not R75, but I recorded it on my YouTubeTV DVR and it worked.

R64 yes. The more I think about it the more I love it. I feel sorry for the people here who said they bailed after 15 minutes.

I was so moved by the ending. In fact, I think it was a singularly unique television experience. One of the best I've ever had. The end montage and speech was so powerful. Clooney really nailed it. It must've been quite an experience to see it live on stage

Someone posted the sensational, powerful ending.

Clooney's extended, teary pause at the end is everything.

For some reason (I guess because they both deal with CBS) I always confuse the movie with "The Insider," the one about "60 Minutes" and the tobacco industry.

R80 I know they also did a movie about Dan Rather's George W. Bush National Guard memo.

The thing is, that memo was a proven fake, so I don't see what the movie could really be about.

Thank you for posting the play's raw final scene, R79; it almost deserves its own thread.

Overnight, the streets of LA could prove crucial to the preservation of our country as we know it:

[quote]"Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light ... "

[quote] The end montage and speech was so powerful. Clooney really nailed it.

Towards the very end, George Clooney took a very long pause, and I thought it was a mistake. He was looking around making these weird facial gestures.

Was it a mistake, and he forgot his lines?

Or was it supposed to be drawn out like that? The pause really seemed to go on for forever. Almost uncomfortably so.

R83 it was a dramatic pause. I found it unbelievably effective. We're not used to it.

He's a tedious actor that ends speech is really just pandering and we've heard it a million times before in one form or another. Glad I didn't watch what preceded it

R85 Well, at least you're not bitter.

R85 Always good to get the MAGA moron perspective.

Boring as fuck. I hate being preached at and his grimacing while he pontificated away was getting on my nerves. The end especially. He’s not a good enough actor to pull off the dramatic pause shit some of you are drooling about.

And all the archival footage was lazy and predictable — no budget to get someone to actually play McCarthy? That would have been interesting.

He’s a B list actor at best. Never would have gotten in the door if not for Auntie Rosemary, who at least had some talent.

And who the fuck yaps about McCarthyism now?yes, it was relevant but it’s been done to death already on TV and films.

At least it was free. I can’t imagine waiting in line to watch this and pay mucho bucks.

[Quote] Well, at least you're not bitter. Always good to get the MAGA moron perspective.

Well, you're certainly bitter. I'll bet you have worn out the letters M-A-G-R-E-P-U-G on your keyboard

Female singer added nothing to production. Friend said she was a filler while they changed sets.

[quote] And all the archival footage was lazy and predictable — no budget to get someone to actually play McCarthy? That would have been interesting.

I found the archival footage to be powerful.

There is nothing more impactful than hearing the hateful words of someone like Joe McCarthy, from his own mouth..

[quote] Female singer added nothing to production. Friend said she was a filler while they changed sets.

The music was one of my favorite things about the production.

It totally set the mood, not to mention that her voice was beautiful.

No posting history, r88?

R73, first to be fired today are Proof Readers. What reporters type on the screen goes into the publication. Typos and all.

He's lost his looks.

Yeah it was great. Anyone who didn't like it is a moron Trump supporter, because it showed how dangerous and insidious they all are.

R92

You have started 0 threads which have received 0 replies. You have received 2806 WW votes and have posted 801 replies to threads.

Good enough for you, cunt?

R96 tell us that you have nothing to do with your time without telling us

I've seen the movie many times as I used to show it to classes. Agree that Strathairn was better. The vocalist was in the movie, too--she evokes a time and place. Loved the final montage. My students had problems with the references ten years ago. Wonder how many can follow it today.

I remember watching Murrow as a wee one. No one was like him.

Love Franz Kraus. Ilana Glazer looked homely.

Didn't recognize Paul Gross at first

I saw Buena Vista Social Club documentary years ago. It was just lovely. But I don't recall music like this. It was more Latin JAzz. Great music though.

R100 Come again?

The dramatic pause Clooney takes is part of his performance. It’s the logical emotional reaction to everything he’s experienced in the play so far — he has basically been forced out of his controversial position at CBS, and has experienced a friend and colleague being driven to suicide because he was being persecuted. The “Julius Caesar” line — which he can’t being himself to finish — was from his earlier anti-McCarthy broadcast.

Clooney gave an excellent performance in this, and deserved his nomination, which is partly for providing the service of bringing this show to Broadway and TV.

R101, wrong thread. I thought I was posting in the Tony Awards thread.

R102 Thank you. You've crystallized my thoughts eloquently.

It was very cool of them to air the next to last performance.. And honestly his final speech should be remembered as a highlight in the history of television.

R103 I figured. ; - )

Anything with Clooney unwatchable.

R92 Why is THAT important?

Interestingly, no one is talking about it today. And George thought they would be.

R87 Can't respond to a point of view that doesn't agree with hers even if we're talking about a television program. Criticizing Good Night and Good Luck makes you a racist, a Maga, a white supremacist. . .

Maybe people just didn't like the presentation or don't like George Clooney who was never a favorite of mine.

R109 notice this dummy doesn't deny being a MAGA moron.

Did it get good ratings?

R85 and R91 The original ‘’Goofus and Gallant’’ everyone.

I always hated Clooney not bitter just hated him. He has never taken his shirt off on screen-never. He must have a pathetic body. He’s just an insecure prick who made money on his face then hired the right people to advise him in his career.

He totally assumed he would win a Tony and had cleared a space on the mantle. He can put an old photo of himself there because now he is an old photo.

He has really aged and I read he’s not happy about it-even George Clooney doesn’t look like George Clooney.

I'm over Clooney. I used to enjoy his earlier work,, but the recent movie he did with Brad Pitt was total garbage. And honestly I resent him when he gets political. I'm like, "where the fuck have you been?" He hooked up with Cyndi Crawford's husband on that Tequila deal and he sold the company and he is now a billionaire. Ever since he married Amal, he has lived in Italy and t he UK. He sold his place in Italy two or three years ago and now lives exclusively in the UK A very nice estate in Surrey. And then he rolls into town for a couple of months or when he has a movie to promote and those are fewer and fewer. And he decides that he needs to write an editorial in the NYT to tell the POTUS he needs to step aside. He has a level of arrogance and self righteousness that I find sickening.

I've never given a second of thought to George Clooney in my life except when I saw him in Batman, Three Kings, and the 2005 Good Night and Good Luck, which I barely remember.

I went into Sunday night's broadcast blind, and was blown away. Particularly by the closing minutes. It was an excellent production.

I don't understand people here (or the one person posting over and over) who seem so personally invested in his personal life and motivations. "He thought he was gonna win a Tony!" How the fuck do you know that? He appeared to lose quite graciously, and I suspect he was realistic enough to understand that Hollywood people often don't win Tomys when nominated.

Better to judge the play on its merits, and not this weird parasocial relationship you imagine you have with him.

I'm glad the play aired on CNN and that more people saw it. It is an important part of our history that too many people are not aware of. It's ironic it aired on CNN because like most of the other networks CNN is part of the corporate media that enabled Trump and helped get him elected. As for Clooney, I'm not "invested in him" but I really feel he was out of line with his editorial telling Biden he was unfit, because George saw him at a fundraiser and Joe couldn't call his name. Fuck Clooney. He inserted himself into the middle of a political situation and decided to write his NYT editorial opinion, and he has as much political influence a fucking Susan Sarandon. Of course the Media loves him for doing that.

I didn’t like the movie. I love Strathairn but I dislike Clooney as a writer and director.

And I forgot to watch the livestream. Oh well.

I can’t find this anywhere online. Has anyone seen a t*Trent for it?

[Quote] Fuck Clooney. He inserted himself into the middle of a political situation and decided to write his NYT editorial opinion

I agree and he doesn't really live in the United States, He's been living in Lake Cuomo for a number of years now And there are many who think that he didn't really write that editorial opinion. He just put his name to it

[Quote] and he has as much political influence a fucking Susan Sarandon

In this particular instance he had more influence than SS because he was a Biden supporter and had a fundraiser for Biden. And apparently Joe didn't recognize him and Clooney felt that Biden was not mentally fit to be president for another 4 years

[quote]He appeared to lose quite graciously, and I suspect he was realistic enough to understand that Hollywood people often don't win Tomys when nominated.

Are you Amal?

Amusing that you're doing the same thing you're trashing others for doing.

I doubt he thought he was going to win a Tony—Colewas the prediction of every pundit. And no one predicted GNGL would take Best Play—it was always Purpose vs. Oh, Mary with John Proctor as a long shot dark horse.

I think his best performance was in Michael Clayton

R122 How so?

R123 of course he knew he wasn't going to win. I imagine he was surprised to even be nominated.

[quote]He's been living in Lake Cuomo

Oh, DEAR!!!!

I've been on DL since 2003. R113 is the most stupid, most inane post I've seen on here, hands down.

Judging an actor by how many times he takes his clothes off on-screen means pron performers should receive Oscars.

It received good ratings

For CNN that’s like getting 4 viewers.

Bet CBS said “No thanks.”

R128 of course it did. It was a fantastic viewing experience, despite what the one obsessed dummy who keeps posting over and over again thinks.

I think it’s fair to say that George Clooney is not a great actor, though he can be effective in the right role, but on the basis of this, he’s certainly not much of a stage actor. He might’ve done better as a producer to have kept David Strathairn as Murrow, who in Clooney’s hands lacks authority or any charisma suitable of the period.

On stage, it looks to have been a very clumsily designed production that is certainly helped by the focus a television adaptation brings to the proceedings.

One feels sorry for Ilana Glazer and Carter Hudson, given the impossible task of essaying the roles of the married couple played with such élan in the film by world-class charmers Patricia Clarkson and Robert Downey, Jr. Their relevance to the story is minimal, other than to raise awareness of the odd morals of the time that completely subjugated women.

That Clooney himself is the butt of the joke - which he heartily acknowledges and laughs at - and his own political standing somewhat diminished due to last summer’s DNC shenanigans for which he made headlines then and now with the publication of Tapper’s mostly reviled book, makes him a weak stand-in for the inscrutable Murrow. But the history itself is powerful, never more so in the events that played out during the play’s run, which is punctuated in a final speech and montage. It’s good to see this broadcast, even if the stage adaptation adds nothing to the film and may even deliver less clarity of the facts and the ethics involved.

The ratings were good for CNN but the overall numbers are not really impressive: globally 7 million people watched it That less than the population of NYC

CNN’s airing of “Good Night, and Good Luck,” George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s play about veteran CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow, secured 7.34 million viewers globally. That number reflects U.S. and international CNN viewership, as well as the streaming numbers from both Max and CNN.com.

The presentation last Saturday marked a first for Broadway. Never before had a live play been broadcast and televised around the world. In the U.S., 5.64 million people interacted with CNN’s live broadcast of the five-time Tony-nominated play. Abroad, the play saw 1.7 million interactions.

R12 I know you won't believe this but there's an elderly woman in South Dakota who finds that she just can't can't make it to a Broadway show this season!

Or pay hundreds of dollars for a ticket.

[quote] And who the fuck yaps about McCarthyism now?yes, it was relevant but it’s been done to death already on TV and films.

What a fool you are, R88. It couldn't be more relevant now.

And R44, the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center is a Broadway house.

R88, it was about Edward R Murrow in the time of McCarthy. I guess you really do need it spelled out for you.

The entire thing screamed out of touch Hollywood. Clooney needs to fuck off with that stunt he pulled.

What the fuck are you talking about, R138? It was about Edward Murrow during the McCarthy era. Your "out of touch Hollywood" remark is so stale by now.

GNAGL is sadly as relevant today as it was then. Anyone denying that is a MAGAt. The hatred for Clooney is just embarrassing here and completely unreasonable.

Anyone calling Clooney a B-list actor is the one who's out of touch. The reason the play was the biggest success in the history of Broadway plays is entirely due to "B-list" Clooney.

When is it going to be made into a musical?

Who was the audience for this TV special No one I know saw it or talked about it. No one at work, none of my friends or family were even aware of it.

Elder here. I saw it as did my friends. I liked the movie more.

Clooney and co and fuck off back to Italy.

The reason why people are saying Hollyweird is out of touch with this is because they’re the reason Trump is in the White House, not once, but twice. They gave him that stupid reality show. CNN was all giddy over his reelection admitting that he’s good for ratings and the NY Times fucked over Hillary Clinton with that ridiculous email story. Clooney fucked over Biden with that op-ed. He’s rich and doesn’t even live in the US. The media is completely out of touch and needs to look in the mirror. They did this and now they’re whining about it. Americans can see right through it which is why they’ve turned them off and they’re all struggling.

R143 both me and my mom watched it and enjoyed it.

In the U.S., 5.64 million people interacted with CNN’s live broadcast of the five-time Tony-nominated play. Abroad, the play saw 1.7 million interactions.

[Quote] both me and my mom watched it and enjoyed it.

So you're the ones

Amazing what you bitches bang on about.

Welcome to DL R149

Oh, I've been on DL for years, R150. It's just that sometimes some threads become so virulently, stupidly pointless.

R148 Huh? Five million plus is a fantastic number. Especially for a Saturday night.

Your obsession with denigrating this play/broadcast is creepy. Guessing you're a MAGA cultist.

Of course I'm MAGA: isn't everyone that disagrees with you one? And speaking of obsessions . . .you've worn out the letters M-A-G-R-E-P-U-T on your keyboard

[Quote] Watched with my MAGA mom. LOVED his final speech.

someone has mommy issues

R152 Watching this with your mother on a Saturday night is creepy Norman

[Quote] Oh, I've been on DL for years, [R150]. It's just that sometimes some threads become so virulently, stupidly pointless.

some!!!

R155 Peak cringe

David Strathairn was so much better than George Clooney that it made me glad I had not paid to see the play. It's an extraordinary movie and everyone should see it, particularly in light of the hatchet Paramount has taken to CBS's place in media history.

Holy hair dye, Batman!

Clooney is simply insufferable. His millionaire-agitated political bullshit isn't flying in the current climate. He's the male Goop, only he doesn't even have the decency to sell us tacky Cunt Candles first.

No, George, we don't need you to take a break from your mansion in Bellagio to make a glossy cable news appearance about the tough times in which we all live. You can't relate to us, no matter how many stories you tell about your kids' Italian tutor being better than your own, or how many practical jokes you played on Brad Pitt at the Oscars. We don't need a celebrity spokesman, and if we did, we wouldn't pick your greasy ass.

Now tell us you're not a MAGA.

R160 I'm not MAGA, but I've never cared for this clown.

The practical jokes. The mutton chops. The clumsy Italian. The everyman schtick layered between A-list celebrity schtick. He tries too hard to be several things he's not, and it's clear that he doesn't really own himself. American Dad does a good job roasting him.

Let it go, R161. You sound a little...fixated.

I'm with you R161

[Quote] I know you won't believe this but there's an elderly woman in South Dakota who finds that she just can't can't make it to a Broadway show this season!

It would be cheaper and easier for her just to watch the film which is probably better than the play anyway and save the $300 ticket cost

You are aware that the play has closed, right, R164?

Fuck Hunter Biden and everyone around HIM. But for Joe's ill advised decision to run in 2014 (and it was Hunter and Jill doing the advising) we may have had a chance to avoid another Trump presidency.

Nice typo, r166. But the reality is that had Biden run in 2016, we might have avoided any Trump presidency at all.

I believe. Miss R166 is on the wrong thread?