Lies

Lies[1]

Series
WBAI and NPR Playhouse
Original Broadcast Date
1982
Cast
Mark Hammer, F. Murray Abraham, Barbara Sohmers, Christina Moore, Tim Jerome, Arthur Miller, Jane Hunt, Joe Frank
Format
, 1 hour
Preceded by:	Summer Notes
Followed by:	Pilot :: The End

"At some point when I was in high school I lost my draft card, and my folks changed houses, and I think there was a period of two years there, or three years, or four years, when the Army lost me. They couldn't find me."

Lies is the name of a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series WBAI and NPR Playhouse. It was originally broadcast in 1982.

Synopsis

• A guy avoids the draft by pretending to take drugs.
• A military intelligence officer at a translation center in Vietnam during the war.
• A pair of radical women screw up a revolutionary bank robbery and go on the run.
• A man talks about having been politically active.
• A man meets a woman in a deli; "it had the cadence of witty repartee without the wit;" her roommate makes bagel and cream cheese paperweights, he goes to her place later. She tells him about a rape long ago, about a marriage to a man who shits in bed.
• Joe is a social climbing night watchman, lists things he must do every night, discusses office people.
• Scenes from the office - a board room filled with terror, one with giggling idiots, a woman shouts colors against a background of machinery.
• Joe buries his boss and takes his place.

Interesting Facts

The first 30 minutes of the 1985 Martin Scorcese comedy After Hours plagiarizes the plot setup and portions of woman-in-the-deli segment from "Lies". Joe recounts learning about this plagiarism in the 90 minute version of No Show, and his decision to accept a settlement and remain uncredited on the film.

The "fugitive radical women" segment appears to have been inspired by Susan Edith Saxe and Katherine Ann Power, who committed robberies in 1970.

Coincidentally, Larry Block appears as a taxi driver in the film, a role that originates with this episode.

Music

• "Ceres Motion" - Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. (from Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co., 1973) | YouTube
• "T on a White Horse" - Eberhard Weber (from "The Following Morning", 1976)

• "Music For 18 Musicians" - Steve Reich (from Music For 18 Musicians, 1978) | YouTube
• "I Will Wait For You" - Mantovani (from To Lovers Everywhere, 1971) | YouTube

Commentary

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External Links

The Scandalous Origins of Martin Scorsese’s After Hours