topherchris

Anybody remember Z Channel?

It was the first pay cable station, only available in Los Angeles, and featured a rich array of films uncut and without commercials which finally faded to black in 1989. I’ve been watching the documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, and I can’t begin to explain how much both the doc and the concept of Z Channel have impressed me.

I might write a full review of it for The Documentary Group, but for now I’ll say that if you’re a fan of film then this is something you should see (Netflix link). The doc itself is practically an Intro to Film Appreciation, with all the clips from almost every genre of film imaginable. I can only imagine what it’d be like to have the channel itself today. (HBO and Showtime, along with their Z-influenced offspring of Cinemax and The Movie Channel simply cannot compare.)

The subtitle “A Magnificent Obsession” is a reference to Z programming director Jerry Harvey, who can take sole credit for introducing incredible but forgotten films to the public and making the channel a success, but who also finally broke down in 1988 with the tragic killing of his wife and himself. Harvey had demons, horrible demons that I wouldn’t wish on anyone, but I’m left with the odd feeling that he wouldn’t have been as good at his job if he wasn’t truly obsessed with film — side-effects of this obsession be damned.

I’m not excusing the murder of his wife, who I see as an innocent bystander killed by serious mental illness, but I also believe that it’s hard to escape the fact that sometimes the best work in the creative world comes from people who don’t fit snugly into the parameters of our society. If he’d been completely sane, he would have taken no great risks, showed films based on market research, and the entire enterprise (including directors like Quentin Tarantino, who was especially influenced by the programming) would have suffered as a result.