Wild Palms

Did You Know?

• Cyberpunk author William Gibson appears as himself, remarking that he invented the term Cyberspace and 'they won't let me forget it'.
• Oliver Stone appears as himself in a fictitious interview commenting on JFK assassination files.
• The futuristic Los Angeles has two environments: the Wilderzone for the poor and a world for the rich, with scenes shot in burned-out stores from the 1992 riots.

Plot synopsis

In the United States of 2007, the right-wing Fathers dominate politics and media, opposed by the libertarian Friends. Senator Tony Kreutzer leads the Fathers, the Church of Synthiotics, and the Wild Palms media group. Harry Wyckoff, a patent attorney, has a wife Grace, son Coty, mute daughter Deirdre, and mother-in-law Josie Ito. He is visited by former lover Paige Katz, who asks him to find her missing son Peter. Wyckoff's firm opposes Wild Palms in court, costing him a promotion. Kreutzer then hires him at Channel 3. Grace becomes alienated and attempts suicide. Harry learns Coty is actually Kreutzer and Paige's son, and that Paige's search was a plot to unite the men. Coty becomes a TV star and high-ranking Synthiotics member. Josie, Kreutzer's sister, eliminates rivals violently, but cares for her estranged husband Eli Levitt, Grace's father and leader of the Friends.

Cast

James Belushi plays Harry Wyckoff, a patent attorney who becomes CEO of the Wild Palms group. Dana Delany portrays Grace Wyckoff, his wife and boutique owner. Ben Savage is Coty Wyckoff, their 11-year-old son and child actor. Angie Dickinson is Josie Ito, Grace's mother and a connected interior decorator. David Warner plays Eli Levitt, Grace's father and founder of the Friends. Kim Cattrall portrays Paige Katz, PR director of Wild Palms and Kreutzer's fiancée. Ernie Hudson plays Tommy Laszlo, Harry's childhood friend. Nick Mancuso is Tully Woiwode, a painter and Tommy's secret lover. Bebe Neuwirth plays Tabba Schwartzkopf, an actress in the Wild Palms group. Aaron Michael Metchik plays Peter, a street urchin. Brad Dourif is Chickie Levitt, a virtual reality genius. Charles Hallahan plays Gavin Whitehope, a Synthiotics devotee. Robert Morse is Chap Starfall, a revived pop star. Beata Pozniak plays Tambor, the au-pair. Bob Gunton plays Dr. Tobias Schenkl. Rondi Reed is Eileen Whitehope. Charles Rocket plays Stitch Walken. Eugene Lee is Lt. Bob Grindrod. François Chau plays Hiro. Monica Mikala plays Deirdre Wyckoff.

Production

Oliver Stone originally planned to film Bruce Wagner's novel Force Majeure but chose Wagner's comic strip Wild Palms instead. Wagner called it a surreal diary set in an Orwellian Los Angeles. ABC financed the project on an $11 million budget and insisted on a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. Filming began in July 1992. James Belushi compared the series to The Prisoner, while Dana Delany advised viewers to let it wash over them. Robert Loggia compared it to The Duchess of Malfi and Medea. ABC published The Wild Palms Reader and offered a telephone hotline during the initial run. William Gibson later said the series fell short of the serial but produced The Wild Palms Reader, to which he contributed. The Los Angeles Times reported that Stone served primarily as a script and casting consultant once the project was greenlit.

Reception

Reviews were mixed. Bruce Wagner noted that East Coast critics loved it, but some viewers could not follow it. John J. O'Connor of The New York Times called it a wild six-hour miniseries resembling an acid freak's fantasy, rich and insinuating like a good theatrical film. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly compared it to an opera and said it sustained its length with complexity and humor, unlike Twin Peaks. Howard Rosenberg of The Los Angeles Times panned it as punishing gibberish and cosmically pretentious, comparing it unfavorably to Dune. Stephanie Billen of The Times called it intelligent designer sci-fi exploiting technophobia, while David Flusfeder termed it a gripping futuristic soap.