Robert Redford's brilliant direction and a quartet of expert performances make "Quiz Show" a highly interesting, thought-provoking experience. The real-life story of Professor Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), son of a famous scholar Mark Van Doren (Paul Scofield), is told in a lively and detailed way with many sights and sounds of the 1950s making the atmosphere look very authentic. 

The American quiz show scandals of the 1950s were a series of revelations that contestants of several popular television quiz shows were secretly given assistance by show producers to arrange the outcome of a supposedly fair competition.

By October 1958, the story was everywhere and the Nielsen ratings for quiz shows were dropping. The networks denied everything and canceled the now-suspicious shows. Reactions were quick and powerful when the quiz show fraud became public. The 86th Congress quickly saw the political opportunity the scandals offered. In October 1959, the House Committee on Legislative Oversight, under Representative Oren Harris's chairmanship, began to hold hearings investigating the scandal.

The entire matter was called "a terrible thing to do to the American people" by President Eisenhower. After concluding the Harris Commission investigation, Congress passed a bill signed into law by President Eisenhower in 1960 prohibiting the fixing of quiz shows (and any other form of contest).