Jac Venza Trailers
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Jac Venza was a public television producer who was directly responsible for most of the theatre and music programs that have been seen on PBS since its creation in 1970. From the early 1960s until his retirement in 2005, Venza brought such programs as NET Playhouse, Live from Lincoln Center, American Playhouse, American Masters, and Great Performances to millions of viewers. He won a Personal Peabody Award in 1998.
He began his career on CBS in the 1950s, where he began to notice the scarcity of programming devoted to the fine arts on television. It was his dream to bring more of it to the home screen on a regular basis, but he did not receive a full opportunity to do so until the creation of National Educational Television, where it soon became possible, thanks largely to Venza, to see great dramatic literature regularly performed by some of the world's most renowned actors. A then-unknown Dustin Hoffman made his first major television appearance in a play - Ronald Ribman's The Journey of the Fifth Horse - on NET in 1966. NET Playhouse was perhaps the first television anthology to present commercial-free, full-length productions (rather than one-hour or ninety-minute adaptations) of theatrical classics such as Arthur Miller's adaptation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. When NET became PBS, Venza quickly launched Great Performances, which is still running today.
Upon his retirement from PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting awarded Venza the Ralph Lowell medal. He held the record for the most Emmy nominations for an individual - 57 - until 2010.
Most Popular Jac Venza Trailers
Total trailers found: 55
02 April 1975
London society matron Lady Sneerwell loves to gossip and spends her free time engaged in manipulation.
31 May 1978
Donald Moffat stars in Moliere's classic comedy about lovable scoundrel Tartuffe, who befriends the wealthy Orgon and then attempts to seduce both his new friend's wife and daughter in this TV presentation from the Broadway Theatre Archive.
09 February 1981
This drama tells the story of Irish insurgents and the captured British soldiers whom they are assigned to guard.
18 June 2002
Mary Haines's life falls apart and her social circle shatters after her husband's affair is revealed.
02 December 1966
Set in a Norwegian hamlet, an idealistic physician discovers that the town's hot springs are contaminated.
17 July 1975
On a Connecticut farm, James Mayo's two sons both love Ruth Atkins. Robert, the younger son, is sickly and dreams of escaping to a romantic life somewhere "beyond the horizon.
27 March 1974
Oscar Wilde's five years at hard labor in Reading Gaol where he was imprisoned for being a sodomite.
13 March 1988
Lauren Bacall tells the story of her late husband Humphrey Bogart, presenting clips from his movies and interview clips with his peers.
11 October 1982
Ken Talley, a Vietnam vet who lost his legs in combat, lives in a farmhouse in rural Missouri with his lover, Jed.
23 November 1994
In this episode of PBS' Great Performances, the history and legacy of puppeteer Jim Henson is explored, from his six-second commercial beginnings to a five-season run on ABC of The Muppet Show to several theatrically released films, including five Muppet movies, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth.
26 June 1989
A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was founded in 1931 by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg, who were strongly influenced by the naturalistic acting of Konstantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre.
30 November 1958
Ruth Sherwood and her sister, Eileen, have moved to 1935 Greenwich Village. They're surrounded by colorful Village characters (including an out-of-work football player known as the Wreck, and Mr.
26 May 1976
This absorbing 1976 production of dramatist Sidney Kingsley's historical play centers on the formative days of the United States and the disputes between founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
28 November 1969
Fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm come to vivid life in this innovative production. Taking classic narrative stories — such as "The Golden Goose," "The Clever Gretel," "The Goose Girl," and "The Bremen Town Musicians" — Paul Sills eliminated the customary use of elaborate sets and costumes and relied instead on the transforming talents of his gifted actors.
24 October 1979
An affluent suburban couple's empty and gin-fueled lives are observed through the eyes of their neglected, eight-year old daughter.
01 November 2002
An intimate portrait of Suzan-Lori Parks, featuring actors Don Cheadle and Jeffrey Wright. The film shows the playwright’s process and how a play gets produced in behind-the-scenes footage of Topdog/Underdog in rehearsal and performance.
20 March 1974
This charming musical comedy, set in turn-of-the-century Paris and based on George Feydeau's classic romp, "Tailleur Pour Dames," turns on a case of mistaken identity, chance meetings and deceptions big and small.
11 October 1971
A young Irish ward boss has a chance to be elected mayor, but the disgraced current mayor makes sure the candidate's wife learns about his affair with a just-deceased rich girl.
13 April 1982
This musical adaptation of the Studs Terkel book examines the average worker's viewpoint--showing that he or she is anything but average.
03 May 1978
Henry Flipper is the first black West Point graduate. Assigned to serve at Fort Davis in Texas, Flipper becomes the object of a conspiracy by his fellow cadets to rid the base of its only black graduate.
13 March 1987
Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
12 January 1982
John Cheever's wry comedy of errors comes to the screen in this filmed presentation from the Broadway Theatre Archive.
30 January 1974
In this rousing satire a native upstate New York clerk comes to 1920s Manhattan with dreams of making in big on Tin Pan Alley.
20 June 1979
While at an impromptu reunion lunch, five women reminisce and relive their college days at Mount Holyoke, and weigh their goals and aspirations against their lives.
23 May 1969
A scrub-woman attempts to rescue a dolphin who will talk to no one but her from a research laboratory.
20 March 1961
Helen Lester is in love with a man she has known just 24 hours, a playboy who spent time in jail for passing bad checks.
15 January 1975
Frank Chin's edgy story breaks down the stereotypes of Asian Americans and centers on San Francisco Chinatown tour operator Fred Eng.
23 February 1982
The powerful tales of seven diverse African-American women are woven together in this 1982 performance of Ntozake Shange's Obie Award-winning landmark play.
20 October 1966
The Star Wagon is a play in black and white starring Dustin Hoffman.
14 October 1966
Dustin Hoffman stars in this television adaptation of Ivan Turgenev's tale about Dmitri Zoditch, a simple manuscript reader at a publishing house whose grand dreams don't square with his dead-end job and miserable apartment.
28 January 1971
Workers in an auto parts warehouse in 1933 New York City inhabit a bleak, dead-end world in the depths of the Depression where, at least, they have jobs.
03 December 1970
Producer-director Glenn Jordan brought together two Tennessee Williams plays, written twenty years apart, that examine the theme of isolation with searching clarity.
04 November 1972
Lanford Wilson's prize-winning drama about life in a played-out coal town in the Midwest. Against the background of a murder trial, the people recall their lives.
02 March 1982
Perry Miller Adato's first attempt to combine documentary techniques with dramatic re-enactment. The film uses actor John Cullum both as himself and to play the young Sandburg in short dramatic sequences.
09 October 1992
This short comedy about the love of acting features a grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter in three different eras: first backstage at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1900, then backstage at a college theater in 1956, and finally, in the make-up room of the Charlie Rose television program in 1992.
04 December 1991
Featuring music instead of any dialogue and set in a near Kafkaesque future, this loose remake of The Cabinet of Dr.
06 November 1987
In the 1930s, an aging film producer and his much younger wife live separate lives. Whenever a young starlet catches the husband's eye, he eventually manipulates her onto his casting couch.
25 February 1971
Playwright Clifford Odets' portrait of the Great Depression unfolds in the modest two-family home of Leo and Clara Gordon as misfortune strikes them and the people running with them.
18 March 1990
A broadcast of Julie Andrews' one-woman show, "An Evening With Julie Andrews," recorded live on stage at the Wiltern Theatre.
23 January 1974
In a sun-dappled garden in provincial Russia in 1905, some factory owners and their wives discuss the unrest among the workers.
24 April 1974
Cornelius "Con" Melody is an Irish tavern keeper in New England who lives in reverence of his former days as a nobleman and decorated officer in the British army during the Napoleonic wars.
08 November 1978
A writer (made to resemble Russian playwright Anton Chekhov) narrates a collection of his stories, all of which are written in the style of Chekhov.
07 October 1966
A collection of ten vignettes by Tennessee Williams offering various viewpoints on life, love, and death.
07 November 1979
An advertising man, emotionally estranged from his wife and those around him, has seduced and then fired and discarded his secretary.
11 May 1971
Documentary about radio comedies primarily focused on Burns & Allen, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, The Jack Benny Program, Fibber McGee & Molly, The Bob Hope Show, and The Fred Allen Show.
27 October 1989
A stage production of the classic musical, videotaped in front of a live audience at the Paper Mill Playhouse, New Jersey.
06 January 1972
David Storey's adaptation of his award winning play for the BBC's Play for Today series.
05 February 2002
Fosse is a three-act musical revue showcasing the choreography of Bob Fosse. The musical was conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr.
20 October 1999
Crazy for You is a romantic comedy musical with a book by Ken Ludwig, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin.
24 January 1985
This very special program-hosted by Judy's daughter, Lorna Luft-is a loving tribute to the life and timeless popularity of superstar Judy Garland, who began as a small-time vaudeville act and grew up to be one of the greatest entertainers of all time.
03 October 1983
From the elaborate Broadway revival of the 1932 Eva Le Gallienne/Florida Friebus production comes a whimsical retelling of the Lewis Carroll classic.
31 October 1979
Cash Bentley and his wife Louise lead an average upper-middle-class life in suburbia, with a nice home and two fine children.
01 March 1995
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the Royal Swedish Ballet perform two works by choreographer Ulysses Dove, "Vespers" and "Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven.
11 September 1999
Released in 1999, the album, featuring music composed in traditional Christian styles, is not only Bocelli's most commercially successful classical album to date with over 5 million copies sold, but also the biggest selling classical album by a solo artist in history.
01 January 1999
1999 biographical documentary PBS film about the life and death of Jackie Kennedy Onassis
