Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

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The first Kurosawa film

I think I ever saw...

was "Throne of Blood,"

on the Z Channel.

Fellini film, "I Vitteloni."

There was a picture called

"Spider's Stratagem."

Sam Peckinpah's

"The Wild Bunch."

The "Straw Dogs"...

"Bring Me the Head

of Alfredo Garcia."

"The Story of Adele H."

"City Lights."

- "Rear Window."

- "Midnight Cowboy."

- "Ikiru."

- "Song Remains the Same."

"Johnny Guitar."

- "The Onion Field."

- "Los Olvidados."

"The Man Who Fell to Earth."

Every film that Marlon Brando

was ever in.

- Z Channel.

- Z Channel.

- Z Channel.

- Our salvation.

Uncharted territory.

Like tom-toms in the jungle.

- Jerry Harvey.

- Jerry Harvey.

- Programmer.

- Obsessive programmer.

Dark and negative.

- Maverick.

- Nurturing.

Skating that line between

insanity and genius.

What do you think the secret of

the Z Channel's success is?

I don't know.

If I told you,

then it wouldn't be a secret.

My father says there's

only right and wrong.

Good and evil.

Nothing in between.

It isn't that simple, is it?

No, it isn't.

It should be, but it isn't.

KNX News time, 6:06.

A Hollywood story with

a tragic ending this morning.

The bodies of Z Channel

programmer Jerry Harvey...

and his wife Deri Rudulph were

discovered Saturday Night...

in their Westwood home.

Police report Harvey shot

and killed Rudulph...

his wife of two years...

before turning the gun

on himself.

The motive is unknown.

Harvey had been chief programmer

at Z Channel...

which is known

throughout Los Angeles...

for its eclectic and innovative

programming.

Both Harvey and Rudulph

were 39 years old.

So it was back in 1974...

and I had just started

selling cable television...

and the Z Channel

had just started.

So we came up here

to the Hollywood hills.

And it was really great...

because these people

had terrible reception.

They couldn't see anything

on their television...

and not only were we offering

good reception...

we gave them movies...

uncut and no commercials...

in their bedroom,

in their living room...

wherever they wanted it.

They ate it up.

It was very, very successful.

It was amazing.

I had friends over

all the time...

because they showed

two movies a night...

as I recall.

And they were uncut,

uninterrupted.

It was this phenomenon

no one had ever seen.

Theta, the Z Channel, was the

only one in the major cities.

In other words...

New York did not have it

at the time.

Los Angeles was

the first one to do that.

That this actually existed,

you could see this stuff...

was incredible.

So I was like,

"We've got to get this!"

I was living in El Segundo

at the time.

And my mom called up, and, no,

Z Channel wasn't in our area.

Not only was Theta in that area

along the foothills...

but it was who was in the homes

along the foothills...

and those were the folks that

ran the movie industry.

They were films

for the whole family...

but I thought slanted to adults

a little bit.

And those were the films

I tried to get.

"Chinatown" was on a lot

in those days.

They used to run it a lot.

And that was one of

my favorite movies.

And I ended up seeing it

3 or 4 times a week...

at certain points.

I publicized the shows

that we were doing...

in the Hollywood trade papers,

"Variety" and "Reporter"...

and gradually,

word began to spread.

I think it's interesting, too,

to note that in that time...

it's hard to remember this.

I told my kids about it,

and they don't believe me...

but there was a time when there

was no Blockbuster stores.

There was no videocassettes.

None of that existed.

The thing you have to

understand...

this is before HBO, before

Showtime, before any of that...

and it was really, really

groundbreaking.

When I left, Hal Kaufman,

he took my place.

I remember he had an assistant,

who he hired, Jerry Harvey.

And that was my first contact

with Jerry Harvey.

The Z Channel hired a person...

that really made

the Z Channel...

probably put the Z Channel

on the map...

and that's Jerry Harvey.

Jerry probably is

one of those students...

that a teacher encounters

every so often and thinks...

"I think this student's probably

smarter than I am."

I had just broken up

with my girlfriend...

and so I was standing

at the Dickson Art Center...

Iooking rather forlorn,

apparently...

and he kind of

recognized the look...

and walked up to me and said,

"I recognize the look."

And so we started talking,

and we spent the entire day...

having lunch and talking about

movies, and that's how we met.

So many of my students, when

they're interested in movies...

are only interested in

the art movies, the indies.

Jerry loved them all...

and hated them all

when they were bad.

With Jerry, you always

talked about movies.

Everything that he... his entire

frame of reference was films.

I started getting these weekly

telephone calls...

toward the end of each week...

from this obviously

very young, intense young man...

asking me for a rundown of what

the good pictures...

were going to be

that particular week.

I think the first contact...

or memory, I have

of Jerry Harvey...

was when he was

booking the Beverly Canon.

I heard about Jerry's work...

long before I heard

about Jerry...

because I heard about his work

for the Beverly Canon.

I was going to Cal Arts...

an art school 30 miles north

of Los Angeles...

and everybody was talking about

the Beverly Canon...

especially when he ran

the uncut "Wild Bunch."

I mean, that was like

missile blast.

Everybody, anybody

who loved film knew about this.

And on a rainy day,

in the Beverly Canon theater...

2,000 people, or however many

people showed up...

for the screening.

I think a great coup

in his life happened...

because Peckinpah arrived

with the print.

And it certainly was momentous

because it...

his bond with Peckinpah

just extended from there.

Jerry certainly was one of the

people that looked up to Sam...

as I guess kind of

a father figure.

Jerry felt that way about

a number of creative people...

that he admired and appreciated.

He was always surprising me.

It was Sam this and Bob that,

and I thought, " Whoa!

How did you get

to meet these people?"

That he arranged a screening for

"Some Call It Loving" there...

you can't help

but respect someone...

who has taken all the time

and effort...

to educate himself,

become familiar with...

with not only my films...

ones I did with Kubrick

of course weren't obscure...

but "Some Call It Loving"

was kind of an obscure film.

I met Jerry Harvey

in my mother's living room.

She worked with Jim Harris at

the time, and they were friends.

And I came bounding

into her house...

and he was standing there.

It was kind of love

at first sight, I think.

We stayed on the phone that

night after he left my house...

for 11 hours.

He came over the next night

after that...

and I don't think he ever left

for 3 years.

He had aspirations

to be a filmmaker...

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