''The Lady and the Dale'' is an American documentary television miniseries revolving around Elizabeth Carmichael, who launched

Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation The Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation was an American automobile company started by Geraldine Elizabeth "Liz" Carmichael, in 1974, incorporated in Nevada. The company's flagship vehicle was the Dale, a prototype three-wheeled two-seater ...

and created a car called "The Dale". It consists of four episodes and premiered on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

on January 31, 2021.

Synopsis

In 1970, entrepreneur Elizabeth Carmichael rose to fame with her creation: "The Dale", a fuel efficient three-wheeled car. As the car rose to prominence, it thrust Carmichael into media scrutiny about the car's technology and her own past. The series features interviews with Carmichael's children Candi Michael and Michael Michael; grandchild Jeri Buchard; news anchors and journalists Dick Carlson, Pete Noyes and Mark Lisheron; Carmichael's brother-in-law Charles Richard Barrett; former employees of

; and

Susan Stryker Susan O'Neal Stryker (born 1961) is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT Stu ...

, Mia Yamamoto and Sandy Stone.

Episodes

Production

In August 2020, it was announced that Nick Cammilleri and

Zackary Drucker Zackary Drucker (born 1983) is an American trans woman multimedia artist, cultural producer, LGBT activist, actress, and television producer. She is an Emmy-nominated producer for the docu-series ''This Is Me'', a consultant on the TV series ''T ...

would direct the series and executive produce, with

Mark Duplass Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996. Duplass has written and directed films, ...

and

Jay Duplass Lawrence Jay Duplass (born March 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker, actor and author widely known for his films ''The Puffy Chair'' (2005), ''Cyrus'' (2010), and ''Jeff, Who Lives at Home'' (2011), made in collaboration with his younger brother, ...

serving as executive producers under their

Duplass Brothers Productions Duplass Brothers Productions is an American independent film and television production company founded by Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass, two brothers who are also actors, directors, producers and writers. They have produced films such as ''The Puff ...

banner, with

HBO Documentary Films Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television, premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office busi ...

producing and

set to distribute.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 100% based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 8.12/10. The website's critical consensus states, "An intoxicating blend of historical footage, candid interviews, and animation that deftly captures Liz Carmichael's incredible life, The Lady and the Dale is a wild ride." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the series has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Writing for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' media critic John Anderson described the series as "A lot of stories - about fraud, flight, FBI manhunts, transgender politics, selective prosecution, bias in the media, and corruption in the courts." Anderson faulted the series for its extensive use of cutout animation, an approach described as "too flippant for the subject matter."

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lady and the Dale, The 2021 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings 2020s American documentary television series 2020s American television miniseries English-language television shows HBO original programming HBO documentary films True crime television series Television series set in the 1970s Television series by Home Box Office Television series by Duplass Brothers Productions Documentary television series about crime in the United States 2020s American LGBT-related television series Transgender-related television shows