WHAT ABOUT RUSH?
Still No Major Film or TV Series for Conservative Radio Giant Limbaugh
By Paul D. Colford, July 6, 2022
In the sixteen months since Rush Limbaugh’s death from lung cancer last February at age 70, a bevy of video productions about talk radio has taken flight.
A feature documentary is in the works based on the 2019 book “Talk Radio’s America,” by historian Brian Rosenwald. Published by Harvard University Press, the book is subtitled “How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States.”
Expected in theaters next year, under the banner “Titans of Talk,” the film comes from Original Productions, known for the popular cable series “Deadliest Catch,” about the king crab fishing fleet in the treacherous seas off Alaska. Two other companies, Deep Cut and Anchor Entertainment, will join Original in exploring the history of the talk format and its expanding power, as practiced by conservative personalities such as Sean Hannity, a mainstay of the Fox News Channel who also broadcasts to 670 radio stations, according to his syndicator, and Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent heard on more than 200 affiliates of iHeart Radio.
In addition, two other cable players are getting in on the act. Brooklyn-based VICE Media Group, is preparing a new series called “Radio Hate,” though no run-date is set yet. (Full disclosure: I received a fee from VICE for the use of video that I donated to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, at the University of Texas at Austin.)
And the History Channel will present another installment in its series, “Rebels Who Built America,” including two nights on Limbaugh and radio vulgarian Howard Stern, loudmouths who broke the mold. (I was interviewed for the Stern episode.) Look for it in the fall or early next year. BlackFin, a production company known for nonfiction, long-form content, is executive producer.
What, No Rush?
Which is all well and good, but where’s the deep dive into the life and times of Limbaugh, the undeniable king of conservative talk radio? Why isn’t there a series or a documentary feature dedicated solely to the man who started it all?
I have a personal interest here. My book, “The Rush Limbaugh Story,” was published by St. Martin’s Press in 1993 and optioned twice by screenwriter James Sclafani. It’s believed that his script is the one director Betty Thomas was referring to when she told The Associated Press in 2012 that she would be at the helm when actor John Cusack starred as “Rush,” as the film was to be known when it went before the cameras, which it never did. (Thomas directed the 1997 film adaptation of Howard Stern’s 1993 autobiography, “Private Parts.”)
In 2011, the year before Thomas briefed the AP about Cusack’s intention to play Limbaugh, the signs of a mismatch were already present. Sclafani’s script struck me as a down-the-middle rendering of my book. A letter from Cusack to Sclafani (which the screenwriter shared with me) made it clear that the actor, a well-known liberal in Hollywood, wanted more – a tougher portrait. “The tension in the story is ultimately Rush vs. Rush – the price he pays and will continue to pay, and it is a heavy one indeed,” Cusack said. “Towards that end, the thoughtful study and investigation of Rush’s lack of public grace, vindictiveness and clownish performances could be used even more to undercut his pedestal among his supporters.”
A Country Divided
Left/Right tensions in the entertainment industry may be one reason that no big Limbaugh project has gotten any traction. Money may be another. “The answer is probably political/financial,” said John Anderson, who reviews television and film for The Wall Street Journal. “The people who fund documentaries are left-leaning, unless they’re spending Dinesh D’Souza money, and if they are, why would they want a Limbaugh movie? Too many skeletons, too few virtues.”
Ethan Goldman, of Anchor Entertainment, told the entertainment news site Deadline: “With the death of Rush Limbaugh, we were reminded yet again of the stark contrast between two Americas: the one that believed he was a tireless devotee to American freedom, and the America that will remember him as a repugnant, racist, homophobic misogynist.”
Goldman added: “Whether you loved him or loathed him, there is no denying Limbaugh’s power and influence in transmuting American conservatism over the past three decades.”
True enough. And whether you loved him or loathed him, perhaps a balanced examination of the radio giant’s career will help us understand how we became the divided country we are today.
Paul Colford was a New York newspaperman for nearly 30 years, at New York Newsday and later the New York Daily News, writing columns about the radio (“AM / FM”) and publishing industries (“Ink”), as well as the emerging internet. He joined The Associated Press in 2007 as vice president for global media relations. He retired in 2017. He has written two biographies, The Rush Limbaugh Story (St. Martin’s Press, 1993) and Howard Stern: King of All Media (SMP, 1996).
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Why isn’t Hollywood rushing to make a movie about radio titan Rush Limbaugh? Why isn’t there a series or a documentary feature dedicated to the man who started it all? (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
