''The Awful Truth'' (1999–2000) is a satirical

television show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed b ...

that was directed, written, and hosted by filmmaker Michael Moore, and funded by the British broadcaster

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

Format

The show emulated television newsmagazine shows (such as '' 60 Minutes'', or Moore's own previous show, ''

TV Nation ''TV Nation'' is a satirical news magazine television series written, co-produced, directed and hosted by Michael Moore that was co-funded and originally broadcast by NBC in the United States and BBC2 in the United Kingdom. The show blended hum ...

'') in that it comprised a series of documentary segments. For the first season the format involved presenting them to a studio audience (the second season moved to

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

), often accompanied by a coda and commentary by Moore as to what happened after the segment was first filmed. The show focused on exposing problems in

American government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

, business, and society. It often used outlandish sketches and stunts to point out the inherent absurdity of a situation and hint at potential solutions. At times, the show's sometimes humiliating tactics drew enough attention to cause corporations involved to rethink their policies. For example, after initially denying a man coverage for a pancreas transplant,

Humana Humana Inc. is a for-profit American health insurance company based in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2021, the company ranked 41 on the Fortune 500 list, which made it the highest ranked (by revenues) company based in Kentucky. It has been the thir ...

agreed to pay for it.

Episodes

Season 1 (1999)

Season 2 (2000)

Notable scenes

* After legislation to display the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...

in public schools, Moore interviews the bill's co-signers and asks them what the eighth commandment is; most cannot answer the question correctly.

Dave Weldon David Joseph Weldon (born August 31, 1953) is an American politician and physician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing , and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination in Flori ...

does suggest " thou shalt not steal," which is correct for most Protestants, but Michael was using the Roman Catholic/Lutheran list, as he is Catholic. (Moore was looking for " thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor".) * Moore creates an "African American Wallet Exchange" in Harlem, in response to four

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

officers who fired on and killed

Amadou Diallo In the early hours of February 4, 1999, an unarmed 23-year-old Guinean student named Amadou Diallo (born September 2, 1975) was fired upon with 41 rounds and shot a total of 19 times by four New York City Police Department plainclothes offic ...

, because they thought his wallet was a gun. Once all the wallets are exchanged, Moore deposited them in front of the NYPD headquarters. * Staging a mock funeral outside of

's corporate headquarters when a health care policyholder is denied a claim to fund a potentially life-saving

pancreas The pancreas is an organ of the digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a gland. The pancreas is a mixed or heterocrine gland, i.e. it has both an en ...

transplant. This segment became the inspiration for Moore's sixth feature film, ''

Sicko ''Sicko'' is a 2007 American political documentary film by filmmaker Michael Moore. Investigating health care in the United States, it focuses on the country's health insurance and the pharmaceutical industry. The film compares the for-profit no ...

'', released by

The Weinstein Company The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America pri ...

on 29 June 2007. Moore's original plan for ''Sicko'' was to stage ten 'stunts' like the mock funeral in front of health-care agencies, but eventually decided to scrap the idea. * A group clad in

Colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

clothing behaving in a manner reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials in protest of

Kenneth Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (July 21, 1946 – September 13, 2022) was an American lawyer and judge who authored the Starr Report, which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, know ...

, and his tactics during President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

's impeachment trial, with the idea that colonials know how to conduct an economical

witch trial A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern perio ...

. They also read parts of Starr's report on Clinton while Starr was head of the

Office of the Independent Counsel The Office of Special Counsel was an office of the United States Department of Justice established by provisions in the Ethics in Government Act that expired in 1999. The provisions were replaced by Department of Justice regulation 28 CFR Part ...

, and also highlight certain high-profile politicians own 'anti-moralistic' behavior (in particular Newt Gingrich's affair and subsequent divorce). *

Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken is an anthropomorphic chicken dedicated to raising awareness of and combating corporate crime. Crackers first appeared on Michael Moore's television show ''TV Nation'' in 1994, and later appeared on Moor ...

(a character first introduced in ''TV Nation''), played by producer Gideon Evans traveling to

Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...

to confront Mickey Mouse about unfair labor practices. * The Iowa Caucuses Mosh Pit, in which

Alan Keyes Alan Lee Keyes (born August 7, 1950) is an American politician, political activist, author, and perennial candidate who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987. A member of the Repub ...

dived onto a portable mosh pit and crowd-surfed to

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commer ...

to win the endorsement of ''The Awful Truth'' for the 2000 presidential election. * The Sodomobile, a pink van loaded with homosexual men and women, traveling across the country to U.S. states that have on-the-books sodomy laws, to fight for gay rights. At one point they encounter Pastor

Fred Phelps Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. (November 13, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American minister who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. He gained nation ...

, infamous for picketing during funerals of homosexual men. * An election special where a

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extendi ...

tree was run against the otherwise unopposed

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

incumbent

Rodney Frelinghuysen Rodney Procter Frelinghuysen (born April 29, 1946) is an American former politician and lobbyist who served as the U.S. representative for from 1995 to 2019. The district includes most of Morris County, an affluent suburban county west of New ...

for a seat in

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. In total 23 plants ran as write-in candidates for House seats. The Ficus write-in votes were later refused to be counted by the election committee, but the ones that were showed the Ficus having a 4-1 lead over Frelinghuysen. * A visit to Philip Morris (now Altria) headquarters, where a group of lung and throat cancer victims used their electronic voice boxes to sing Christmas tunes.

Location filming and DVD release

The first season of the series was filmed in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, and aired on the Bravo cable network in the US and on

in the UK. The second season was filmed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Both seasons were released on DVD on April 29, 2003. Season one had 12 episodes and premiered 11 April 1999 ending 27 June 1999. Season two had 12 episodes, and premiered 17 May 2000 and ended 5 July 2000.

References

External links

Michael Moore (official site)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Awful Truth, The 1999 American television series debuts 2000 American television series endings 1990s American documentary television series 2000s American documentary television series Works by Michael Moore 1990s American satirical television series 2000s American satirical television series Bravo (American TV network) original programming Channel 4 original programming English-language television shows Television shows set in Chicago Television shows set in New York City