TV Nation (thing)

Here we have a TV news magazine with a bias towards the average working man and against corporations. Created and hosted by Michael Moore (of Roger And Me fame), TV Nation ran in 1994 on NBC and in 1995 on the FOX Network as well as on the BBC (who also cofunded the show). The show's mission was to cause trouble for the "establishment" and tell it like it really is.

TV Nation was initially conceived by Moore as an idea that would be doomed to failure so that NBC would leave him along regarding a television show. Ever since Roger And Me became famous, the network had wanted Moore to create a type of blue collar Northern Exposure. Moore really wanted to make a movie instead entitled Canadian Bacon. He figured that by giving the network a horrible, doomed to fail idea they'd get off his back about television. Instead the programming executives loved the concept for TV Nation and ordered several episodes.

What are some of the topics that TV Nation covered? See for yourself...

• NBC Show 1
  • NAFTA - The show travels to Mexico to try and hire Mexicans to work on the show for $0.80 an hour.
  • Taxi - Who has an easier time hailing a taxi in New York City? Esteemed African American actor Yaphett Kotto or white felon Louie Bruno? TV Nation finds out.
  • Love Canel - Remember the toxic community of Love Canal? Well, would you believe that realtors are trying to entice people to move there?
  • Mike's Missile - Michael Moore and the TV Nation crew travel to the former Soviet Union to try and buy the missile that was aimed at Mike's hometown during the Cold War.
• NBC Show 2
  • The CEO Challenge - "Louis Gerstener, Chairman of IBM, come down and format this computer disk!"
  • AIDS Insurance Brokers - TV Nation investigates insurance brokers who make life insurance policies of AIDS patients available at discount prices. When the patient dies, investors claim the entire value of the policy.
  • Klan PR Makeover - How can the Ku Klux Klan spruce up its image?
  • Kuwait - Just what do the post-Gulf War liberated Kuwaitis think of the USA? Let's find out.
  • Pets On Prozac - Just how many pets out there have been prescribed Prozac? And does it help?
• NBC Show 3
  • A Day With Dr. Death - Michael Moore spends the day hanging out with Jack Kevorkian to show that the suicide doctor has a fun side after all.
  • We Hire Our Own Lobbyist - Find out how much democracy $5,000 can buy.
  • Amazon Avon - TV Nation travels to the Amazon where Avon Cosmetics sells products to the women of the rain forest, some of which cost up to thirteen times a daily wage.
  • North Dakota - What can the least visited state in the USA do to become a popular vacation spot?
  • Sludge - TV Nation follows the path your sewage takes when it's flushed doen the toilet.
• NBC Show 4
  • Product Placement Night - All throughout the show advertisers' products are hyped on air.
  • 1-800-Tourism - Visit a prison where inmates are used by the state tourist department as cheap labor.
  • Hot Springs - A profile on the little town of Hot Springs, Arkansas, former home of Bill Clinton.
  • Lord Mike - Michael Moore buys a British Lordhood for $8,000. "No Lord Does It Like This Lord!"
  • Health Care Olympics - Canada, Cuba and the USA compete to see who offers more affordable health care
• NBC Show 5
  • TV Nation Day - Remember when TV Nation hired their own lobbyist? It turns out that $5,000 can buy you your own holiday.
  • Millenium - Interviews with groups who believed that the world would end in the year 2000.
  • Are You Prepared For Prison? - A multiple choice quiz to find out how well you'd survive behind bars. See you in the showers!
  • Haulin' Communism - A semi truck hauls Communist propaganda across the USA for one final farewell tour.
  • Making Peace With Pizza - Former enemies sit down for pizza and sing the Barney song together. Seriously!
• NBC Show 6
  • Gun Night - TV Nation celebrates the right to bear arms and the right to shoot them, too!
  • NY/NJ Grease - The show threatens to leave New York and move to New Jersey unless the state grants the staff a tax cut.
  • Talk Show - Just where do those white trash talk show guests come from?
• NBC Show 7
  • Golf Night - Rodger Jabara offers golf help.
  • Caning - TV Nation learns the truth behind the brutal punishment of caning.
  • Sabotage - What happens with employees sabotage their workplaces? Let's find out...
  • Junk Mail - The truth behind those money solicitation letters. "If we had sent letters to every home in America, our test results indicate that Jeffrey Dahmer would have received $1,205,000, Charles Keating would have received $868,000, and TV Nation staff member Roy Sekoff would have got cab fare home."
  • Corporate Consultants - The show hires a consultant to trim the fat on the payroll.
• NBC 1994 Year End Special
  • Jacuzzi - Throughout the show jacuzzi limosine rides are given to members of the most hated groups in the USA, including landlords and telemarketers.
  • The Corp-Aid Concert - A charity benefit to earn money for companies that have fallen on hard times.
  • White House Security Guard - TV Nation hires a private rent-a-cop to guard Pennsylvania Avenue.
  • Didn't Die in '94 - Focus on the positive as the show lists people who did not die in 1994.
  • '95 Invasion TV Nation picks which country the USA should invade in 1995.
  • Meet The Republicans - Let's take a good hard look at the Republican party.
  • New Year Predictions - Steve Wright consults experts on their thoughts for the upcoming year.
  • New Jobs - TV Nation talks to people who had been promised new jobs under the Clinton White House.
• FOX Show 1
  • Bruno For President - Louie Bruno, a convicted felon runs for president.
  • We're #1 - Interviews with people in cities that have a status as #1 in various fields, such as #1 City for Playboy subscriptions and #1 for Carjacking.
  • Invading The Beach At Greenwich, Connecticut - Did you know that the public beach in Greenwich, Connecticut is considered private property? TV Nation goes trespassing.
  • Crime Scene Cleanup - Ever wonder whose job it is to clean up the gory remains at crime scenes?
  • Slaves - Mississippi was the last state to outlaw slavery. The stage legislature passed the amendment in 1995! Just before slavery was outlawned once and for all, Rusty Cundieff, an African American, hires eight white slaves for the week.
  • Crackers, The Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken - The debut of the McGruff of the corportate crime world, Crackers the Crimefighting Chicken!
• FOX Show 2
  • Payback Time - TV Nation gets even with people who have annoyed us all by subjecting them to their own medicine. For example, eight cars are parked outside of the house of the guy who invented the car alarm, and all eight cars are set off at once in the middle of the night.
  • KGB - Yuri, Our TV Nation Spy - TV Nation hires their own spy, ex-KGB agent Yuri Shvets, to do their bidding. Tonight's assignment: Is Richard Nixon really dead?
  • NEA - A tour of museums that are privatly funded, such as the Kentucky Fried Chicken Museum.
  • A-Bomb - When an Idaho man buys 750 tons of scrap metal, he finds an atomic bomb inside the scrap.
  • Jerusalem Syndrome - TV Nation investigates the phenomenon that causes tourists in Israel to think they're Jesus.
  • The Johns Of Justice - Correspondant Karen Duffy takes a flatbed truck loaded with portable toilets to crowded events.
• FOX Show 3
  • War Reenactment Night - Chronicles of the guys who reenact the Civil War, except this time they reenact more recent battles such as the Fall of Saigon, the Battle of Hiroshima, and the Los Angeles Riots.
  • Helltown - The Southern Baptists have a map of which counties are unsaved and therefore going to Hell. TV Nation visits the "worst" cities on the list to see just how bad things are.
  • Crackers Tour - Philadelphia - The continuing crusades of Crackers the Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken
  • Electronic Sniffer - A computerized nose is about to take over smelling duties in the security world. Can we trust them?
  • Cobb County - Newt Gingrich is against federal aid money, so why not try and persuade his home county to give up federal spending?
  • School Of The Americas - A profile of the special army schools that trained people who have grown up to be the most dangerous terrorists in the world.
  • Widgery - Meet Widgery and Associates, the polling firm that conducts all of the TV Nation Polls.
• FOX Show 4
  • Brian Anthony Harris Is Not Wanted - TV Nation comes to the aid of an African American man who has been harassed by the police for crimes he did not commit.
  • Love Night - Multi-racial choirs serenade the Ku Klux Klan, African American cheerleaders perform in front of a Nazi compound, and a homosexual choir sings to Jesse Helms as the show tries to set a good example by being friendly and loving to hate groups.
  • Aquarium - It seems that public aquariums are popular tourist sites. TV Nation investigates.
  • Mike's Militia - Michael Moore starts his own militia, one that is in favor of talking things out and trying to solve problems peacefully. He tries to get members of anti-government militias to join.
  • KGB - The Competition - Yuri Shvets returns, and this time he tries to interfere with TV Nation's competition: Family Matters and Unsolved Mysteries.
• FOX Show 5
  • Canada Night - It's a salute to Canadian products, cities, and people! All night long Canada is featured during between segments.
  • D.C. Perks - A report on the special privileges that members of Congress receive.
  • Nugent - Ted Nugent gives his thoughts on gun control and Janet Reno.
  • Crackers Tour - St. Louis - The chicken is at it again!
  • I Want To Be An Argentinean - Karen Duffy tries to convince citizens of England to renounce their citizenship in favor of becoming a citizen of Argentina in exchange for cold hard cash.
• FOX Show 6
  • Hug-A-Gov - Michael Moore embarks on a mission to hug each of the fifty governors.
  • Psy-Ops - TV Nation attemps to destabalize the media surrounding the O.J. Simpson trial.
  • Rosemont - Sections of Rosemont, Illinois, a ritzy Chicaco suberb, are closed off to the outside world and police guard booths ensure that only residents can enter. TV Nation sets up their own guard booths to prevent residents from entering Chicago.
  • Unions - A look at some unusual unions, such as topless dancer unions.
  • Whiny White Guys - Save the American White Male!
  • Brian Anthony Harris Is Not Wanted (Part 2)
  • Fan Mail - Felon Louis Bruno answers the TV Nation fan mail.
• FOX Show 7
  • Bully Reunion Night - TV Nation staffers are reunited with their childhood bullys and get a little payback.
  • Confession - Janeane Garafalo visits twenty different Catholic churches, confesses the same sin at each one, and finds out which churches give out harder penance in the "Consumer's Guide To Confessional".
  • TV Felons - Did you know that there's a group of TV Cops in Britain that bust citizens that plug in a television without a license? TV Nation spends a day on the job with them.
  • Crackers Tour - Detroit
  • KBG - The Democratic Party - Yuri Shvets returns to find out why the Democratic Party has become so much like the Republican Party.
  • Weatherman - TV Nation hires the weatherman who was fired for refusing to lie and forcasted rain on the day of the Republican picnic.

If you missed episodes of the series, never fear. Every episode has been released on VHS tape and the most popular segments have been reviewed in the excellent book Adventures In A TV Nation. As for Michael Moore, TV Nation earned him some fans in high places and he was able to make the Canadian Bacon movie. More TV Nationesque adventures can be found in Moore's next series, The Awful Truth.

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References:
Appendix B of Adventures In A TV Nation

CST Approved