Bridge in pop culture - TV shows

[blindsey]

I'd be surprised if there are any recent instances of bridge in TV shows, but here's a clip from the 1980s:

 

 

Dr. Ackermann was an obstetrician running an illicit adoption program. His MO was to announce during labor that there were "complications" which required putting the mother under anesthetic. While she was unconcious, he would deliver the baby and have it taken away, then tell the mother it had been stillborn when she regains conciousness. One of his victims was a friend of Karen (who rams his car in the parking lot). Although Ackerman had gone into hiding, Karen was sure he would risk showing up for an important bridge tournament because she had investigated bridge players and found they were fanatics.

 

I can remember, but can't find a clip, of an episode of McMillan and Wife in which the McMillans play bridge against another couple in their home. I remember that the bidding went to 7NT redoubled. Does anyone remember that?

[pescetom]

 

Cinema rather than TV, but decidedly pop culture for its time (1950s).

 

If you can't handle Italian I imagine there will be a subtitled version somewhere.

[mikeh]

In Killing Eve (the first season of which was, imo, brilliant with, as is often the case, the series going gradually downhill later), the husband of one of the two protagonists runs a bridge club. There are several scenes in which Eve meets her husband at the club. While no bridge is discussed nor played by any of the characters, the setting looks realistic, such that I’m sure someone associated with the show has played club bridge.

[apollo1201]

I think a James Bond movie (Moonraker?) had a bridge scene where the villain is beaten and loses heavy money against JB.

 

Also a Hercule Poirot where the detective discovers the murderer ID thanks to the bridge hand records. There was a tense grand slam and only dummy could take advantage of everyone concentrated on the play to go stab the victim, unnoticed.

 

But that is not that recent, I guess…

[pilowsky]

A quite recent documentary on professional Bridge:

 

Sunset Boulevarde:

[jdiana]

Fargo, Season 3

[thepossum]

Took a bit of detective work but I believe this is based around Bridge (2006) - fairly recent adaptation of an old book :)

 

Murder at the Bridge Table or Cards on the Table :)

 

For those unfamiliar with Agatha Christie's work and don't know how they go I have put the details in a spoiler - oops just realised I may have given part of the plot away already

 

But I am happy that it fits the specification of a TV series involving Bridge

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cards_on_the_Table

 

 

Without giving too much away I had to go first via Polish Movies to Turkish TV and Books in order to track it down "Briç masasında cinayet" with the help of Google of course :)

 

 

Available on Prime Video apparently which appears to totally lack spoiler alerts :) - as does the book title in Turkish but they don't seem to mind giving it away, and some book covers in English appear to strangely have some kind of lethal weapon lying on top of a pack of cards

 

I may even watch it now for a bit of light relief

 

CORRECTION Even though Prime claim to have it available it is not so don't waste time or money signing up at the moment. Fortunately I already had a sub so was to able to check. If anyone knows where you can watch it please let me know just in case its one of my several unused subscriptions

 

As is often the way I may end up providing too much of my time to research and help others. Apparently available on AcornTV and AMC+ via Prime but its another subscription so sorry

 

EDIT I am about half way through it. Some of the Bridge details in the plot are quite fascinating

[PeterAlan]

In Killing Eve (the first season of which was, imo, brilliant with, as is often the case, the series going gradually downhill later), the husband of one of the two protagonists runs a bridge club. There are several scenes in which Eve meets her husband at the club. While no bridge is discussed nor played by any of the characters, the setting looks realistic, such that I’m sure someone associated with the show has played club bridge.

Good to know the setting is realistic. Something I've noticed more and more in TV programmes, films and adverts are chessboards set up incorrectly (black square on the R of each back rank). Like the old end-of-reel marks, once you start to notice it you can't stop.

 

I have the first series on DVD: I must get around to watching it ...

[mycroft]

Fargo, Season 3

A reminder that that was filmed in my city, and I know most of the "players" (directors, consulting staff,...)

 

I have told this story before, but when they came in to town, the two leads followed our Tournament Chair all Saturday at the sectional; during setup discussions, buying the entry, and so on. Kibitzed most of the session, to learn how the cadence of play went. They were asked (and guided) to play dummy for the pair; and I think near the end they were given the cards and "were the pair's hands"; sorting the hand, pulling out bids as asked, playing cards as asked and so on. I was really impressed at the dedication the actors gave to their "learning time".

[barmar]

See this thread about scene in a recent episode of Family Guy that featured bridge.

[mikeh]

A quite recent documentary on professional Bridge:

 

Sunset Boulevarde:

I always get a kick out of that documentary on Wolpert and Demuy. They’re both very good players indeed and what follows isn’t to detract from that…their successes speak for themselves

 

They played on a 6 player team in the Canadian National Team Championships when the filming was being done. Their team also had L’Ecuyer, who has gone on to become successful pro as well.

 

My team played them in the round-robin…my partner and I played L’Ecuyer and Fergani. We were playing a convention since outlawed, due to it being too effective. I opened 2H, showing a weak two in a major….all pass. I went down 5 tricks, for 250. They were cold for 620 in 4H but their hands were such that neither could act over 2H.

 

Anyway, we ended up 4th in the round robin, with their team 8th…just scraping in. The top team got to chose from 5-8, and so on. We actually wanted to lose our last match, to drop to 5th, since the L’Ecuyer team was the strongest in the field and we knew that, as fourth place, we’d be stuck playing them

 

Peter Herold, a wonderful player and person, since deceased, was against Wolpert and Demuy. The film crew did try to be discreet but you can’t help noting two guys, one with sound equipment and the other a camera, hovering around, sometimes coming in for closeups. So Peter asked then told them to leave.

 

We picked up on 6 slam swings…bidding four their team missed, which made, and avoiding two they bid, which failed. That was enough, over 64 boards, to win by a small margin.

 

Strangely, none of the footage from this event made it into the documentary. I guess ‘losing’ didn’t fit the message, which is odd since even the best players in the world lose events far more often than they win them.

[pilowsky]

Stanley Kubrick explained the difference between a comedy, a documentary, and a drama.

In a documentary the news reaches the person in their office, in a drama in their lounge room, and in a comedy when they're on the toilet.

 

I found the story interesting but it seemed that it didn't really know if it was a drama or a documentary.

 

I think you put your finger on a problem that is often seen when non-experts (documentary filmmakers) try to tell a story about something they don't have intimate knowledge of.

They focus on the bits they can understand - human drama, arguments, tension and so on.

 

The arc of their story is as old as the hills - two young kids from the sticks get together to achieve the impossible, make enormous strides and then fall out because of some personal failing.

This makes it accessible to the audience but doesn't make it so enjoyable to the expert.

 

I guess they're trying to answer the "why would anyone spend so much time playing cards" question.