'Tanner '88' Team Going Back on Campaign Trail
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fact and fiction on the campaign trail will blur just as they did 16 years ago, when the "Tanner '88" (search) team reunites for fresh satire on this year's presidential race.
The limited series, not yet titled, will reunite "Tanner '88" co-creators, director Robert Altman (search) and "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau (search), as well as cast members Michael Murphy, Cynthia Nixon (search), Pamela Reed and Matt Malloy. It will air in October on the Sundance Channel, the cable network announced Monday.
This production follows Sundance Channel's recent re-airing of the original "Tanner '88" miniseries, a groundbreaking HBO-produced "mockumentary" that followed fictitious presidential hopeful Jack Tanner (Murphy) as he battled his way through real-life 1988 Democratic primaries, only to "lose" the nomination to Michael Dukakis (search).
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The new three-part series centers on Tanner's daughter Alex (Nixon), now a filmmaker seeking funding for a documentary about what it takes to run for president and the toll it takes on those who lose.
As in "Tanner '88," the series will blur the boundary between factual and dramatic, and will feature Tanner interacting with real present-day candidates as well as those from the recent past.
The series, which begins production next month, will wrap in July at the Democratic convention in Boston.