The Awful Truth

After the success of the TV series TV NATION, Michael Moore was provided the means to shoot his older feature film project CANADIAN BACON. Pitifully, the film was a box-office flop and only after making the documentary THE BIG ONE, Moore dared take up a larger project again. THE AWFUL TRUTH followed the pattern of TV NATION, a combination of items taking a close and humorous look at the American culture, but the episodes were limited to 30 minutes. Partly because the new producer, the American cable network Bravo, was not prepared to put as much money in the series as NBC. This time, Channel Four was the English co-producer and THE AWFUL TRUTH eventually lasted for two seasons, with a total of 24 episodes. Examples of controversial highlights this time round were the placement of a web cam opposite the house of Lucianne Goldberg, the woman who convinced Linda Tripp to publicise her conversations with Monica Lewinsky. Furthermore, the Christmas choir consisting of ex-smokers with speech prostheses singing an aubade to cigarette producer Philip Morris and the visit of anti-white-collar-chicken Crackers to Disneyland to call Mickey Mouse to account about the working conditions at Disney caused a great fuss.