Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

by Pete Roberts

Throughout the 1970s and '80s, The Z Channel was a dream come true for lovers of cinema. On Z, you could see every kind of film, from European Arthouse cinema to Hollywood blockbusters. Z was essentially the first pay cable channel to run movies 24 hours a day. This was before the advent of VHS players, as well as HBO and Showtime in the early 80s. This recent documentary by Xan Cassavetes (the daughter of the legendary Actor-Director John Cassavetes) explores the life of the Z Channel and its head programmer, Jerry Harvey. We learn about Harvey's life through interviews with his friends and co-workers and also from the directors and actors Jerry's work touched. Film was his life and he truly was obsessed with the artform

He was also plagued with mental problems, most likely stemming from his abusive childhood. His father, a court judge, was an alcoholic and a very cruel man. Jerry also had two sisters that both ended up committing suicide. We get to hear outtakes from a radio interview with Jerry from 1985. He comes across as a very mellow and serious man. Film became an escape for him from his life in Bakersfield, California which he described as bleak. After attending college at USC in the late 60s, Jerry got a job as a film programmer at the Beverly Canon Theater in LA. While there, Jerry began showing many of his favorite films including the uncut version of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969). The uncut print was delivered by none other than Sam himself, and pretty soon Jerry became fast friends with him. After working as a programmer for a few years, Jerry began writing screenplays. One of the scripts he wrote was a Western called China 9, Liberty 37 (1978), which was produced and directed by Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop, 1971). Jerry was part of the production of the film and got Sam Peckinpah to cameo as an old gunfighter. This was a great time in his life as his close friends recall.

Jerry's extensive film knowledge and love showed up in Z's lineups. You could see a neo-realist Antonioni double feature one night and a John Ford Western the next. Jerry would find obscure films that had dissapeared from theaters and bring them to the forefront of pop culture in LA. It was an exhilarating and adventurous style of programming no one had seen before. For years, residents in LA got to watch cinema they never knew existed. It was a film school in itself, a celebration of everything movies straight from the mind of Jerry Harvey. Even though Jerry didn't make the films, he treated them as if they were his own, sharing the celluloid treasures he loved with others.

One film in particular that caused a huge sensation on Z was Michael Cimino's full version of his massive studio breaking flop Heavens Gate (1981). The film was an epic about the Johnson County Wars which took place in the 1890s. Jerry Harvey and many others considered the complete version of Heavens Gate to be a masterpiece. Cimino was another close friend of Harvey's but refused to be part of this documentary for personal reasons. Jerry not only worked on championing Heaven's Gate, but Bernardo Bertolucci's uncut print of 1900 (1976), which ran for 6 hours, as well as Sergio Leone's epic gangster film Once Upon a Time in America (1984) which upon its theatrical release was butchered by editors and became a critical failure. Star James Woods recalled that one critic who had labeled the film a flop in its initial run saw the the complete version years later and called it a masterpiece. In 1986, Oliver Stone's political thriller Salvador was met with no support from critics and dissapeared from theaters in a matter of weeks. Due to Jerry Harvey's promotion of the film (a huge spread in the Z Channel program guide) Salvador became a sleeper hit and James Woods and director/co-writer Oliver Stone were both nominated for an Oscar that year.

Directors Quentin Tarantino and Alexander Payne remember Z Channel as teenagers in the early '80s. Quentin was unable to receive Z Channel in his area of LA, so he ended up watching tapes of the channel's line up recorded by his video store boss Lance Lawson. QT comically declares how tortured he was when he saw the many great films Lance didn't record but were advertised. In this documentary, Payne wears the Z Channel t-shirt he was sent after writing an angry letter to the station.

By the late '80s, Jerry Harvey's beloved Z Channel was slowly beginning to be broken apart by other cable TV channels taking over LA. Z had to change its pure film lineup and add sports to survive. While Jerry's co-workers became distressed, Jerry told them all that it would be ok. One night, after a pleasant gathering at a restaurant with friends FX Feeney and Michael Cimino, Jerry Harvey and his new wife Deri went home. That was the last time Jerry or Deri would be seen again. He shot his wife, then turned the gun on himself. It was a shocking tragedy right out of one of the films Jerry would rave about. As his friends state in the film, when Jerry died, The Z Channel died. The result of Jerry's death was the end of a dream that he shared with his co-workers, friends and Z viewers. It was the end of a golden age.

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession mixes the love of film with a sad and shocking tragedy in an incredible way. Xan Cassavetes not only shows her love of Z Channel with this documentary, but her need to share with us the life of Jerry Harvey, the film obsessed wizard behind it all. As a longtime film lover myself, I really appreciated getting to see this film and learning about the days when film was an artform that meant more to a community than simple commerce.