Tanner ’88 (1988)

During the 1988 Presidential election, director Robert Altman and cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a candidate, played by Michael Murphy, to run alongside the other real presidential hopefuls. I admittedly did not watch the entire series. The first two episodes didn’t really grab me, though its influence on future political dramedies is obvious, so I skipped forward to the last. Trying to look like a reality series, especially one in the late 1980s, makes for a very amateur looking and sounding production. Coupled really slow character development, it didn’t feel like it was going to deliver on the time investment. One prescient highlight involved Tanner’s daughter, Cynthia Nixon, being asked if she had any interest in going into politics.