What's unique about this, of course, is that it's live from Broadway and features a big star. TV in the 50s regularly televised live plays, in shows like Playhouse 90 and others. Seems only appropriate this one takes place in that era. 

mojo55 wrote:

Good Night &Good Luck the movie in 2005 actually starred David Strathnairn as Edward R Murrow.  There is a closer resemblance of Murrow to Strathnairn rather than to Clooney.

I was referring to the fact that Clooney was also in the original movie, in addition to helping write it and direct it. But you're right, it's worth pointing out, he didn't play the title role in the film. He portrayed Fred Friendly, the co-producer of See It Now. 

Just a reminder this airs live on CNN Saturday night. The fact that it's live and from Broadway makes it worth a look on its own. The fact it's about broadcasting is a bonus. 

CNN will broadcast a Broadway performance of George Clooney in ‘Good Night, and Good Luck.’ Don’t miss it

While “Good Night and Good Luck” makes for a good movie it comes up just a bit short on the factual front.
Joe McCarthy had for years been the subject of scrutiny over his assertion that communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department (assertions that would be found to be true).  
As early as 1950 syndicated muckraking columnist and all round unlikeable liar Drew Pearson was punched out in a DC restaurant by Tail Gunner Joe only to be restrained by, wait for it, Dick Nixon.  Pearson had been  going after McCarthy for quite some time, even losing sponsors of his radio broadcasts so there was little love lost between the two.  
From W. Joseph Campbell’s media myth busting book “Getting It Wrong” even one of Murrow’s Boys questioned the conventional wisdom that it was Murrow, and Murrow alone who stood up to McCarthy…
CBS News commentator Eric Sevareid observed in an interview in 1978:“The youngsters read back and they think only one person in broadcasting and the press stood up to McCarthy and this has made a lot of people feel very upset, including me, because that program came awfully late.”
So in the end it makes sense that CNN will broadcast a live performance of a show that is based on a seventy year old television program that was close to four years too late to be of any actual use.  Yes it makes sense for CNN to do this at the same time one of their own anchors is performing a mea culpa “I was lying the last four years, but you can believe me now” book tour.

Last edited by Buzzy Krumhunger (June 6, 2025 10:25 am)

I did watch it. Enjoyed it immensely. In its seven years on the air, the majority of its time was spent on Sunday afternoons. In the two years it ran in CBS primetime, Tuesday at 10:30 was its timeslot. It didn't have a great deal of competition. ABC had an early Goodson-Todman game show entitled "The Name's The Same" NBC was offering a political talk show called "On The Line With [Bob] Considine"

Although I recorded this, I did watch the first half live and thought it was really well done! The sets combined with projected imagery were excellent, and the acting was as you would expect. My only criticism was that the audio was out of sync by about 10 frames, for you old school video pros.

I think I have a workaround to watch the rest of it, play the recording on the tv and sync the audio off my iPad, going to try that as having edited for years, sync issues drive me nuts!

Without spoiling anything, that last scene with the news montage was riveting and very well edited. It deserved the applause it received. And boy, does it speak volumes about where we are today. 

I got about ten minutes in when an unexpected-but-must-take phone call arrived so that blew it out for me. I expect CNN will repeat it at some point - it hasn't appeared on their on-demand offerings yet.

I wondered the same thing. The only explanation I can come up with is they needed that time to set up another scene on stage and they couldn't just leave that space blank. So they filled it with a woman singing.