STU’S SHOW: A Golden Age Documentary Review

Introduction

Stu’s Show is a heart-warming documentary centered around Stuart Shostak, a lifelong Lucille Ball fan, who also managed to become her personal archivist for more than ten years. Shostak’s endearing love of the Golden Age Of Television and its iconic stars are the focal points of this documentary. Stu’s Show also shines a light on everything that is wrong with our health care system when his long-term girlfriend Jeanine Kasun suffers a debilitating aneurism.

Synopsis

Stu’s Show is a multi-faceted title as it serves as not only the name of this fascinating documentary but also as the title of Shostak’s long-running internet talk show. For more than fifteen years, Shostak has been hosting “Stu’s Show” which is described on his website (www.stusshow.com) as follows:

“What began as a protest toward the current television industry’s continual snubbing of its history, its pioneers, and its heritage has blossomed into a series of over 500 broadcasts preserving classic TV and the people responsible for it. Each broadcast contains in-depth discussion of lives, careers, behind-the-scenes memories, as well as recollections of events and programs we all grew up watching!”

Shostak takes the viewer on a guided tour of his studio and storage facilities, which also happens to be his house. It turns out that he has been on a lifelong journey of archiving and preserving television shows from the 1950s. For over 40 years Shostak has done this thru his company, Shokus Video. Shostak’s love of TV’s Golden Age, and especially Lucille Ball, eventually led to his hiring as Ball’s personal film archivist in 1981. He would hold this position until her death in 1989.

We learn about Shostak’s early days in the 1970s as an “audience coordinator” for game shows and sitcom television shows that were filmed in front of a live audience. Shostak’s job was to make sure that the audiences were amped up and that all seats were filled. He eventually would work as the “warm-up act” for shows such as Diff’rent Strokes and Silver Spoons. The viewer bears witness to all of this via clips and interviews with those that were there.

During the final years of Lucille Ball’s life, Shostak worked tirelessly with her then-current husband to preserve her legacy. He also organized some of the first I Love Lucy festivals. As fate would have it, it was at one of these festivals that Shostak would meet a woman that would forever alter his life. Jeanine Kasun, much like Shostak, was a boomer and a child of television’s Golden Age. She went to festivals and networked with its stars much in the same way Shostak did.

While the pair become close, they choose to live apart from each other because of their eccentricities. Everything changes however when Kasun suffers a brain aneurism and is hospitalized. With her life hanging in the balance and in a lengthy coma, Kasun manages to pull through. Subsequently, Shostak takes his manic energy and channels it towards advocating on Kasun’s behalf to make sure she gets the care that she needs. This proves to be quite a challenge.

Analysis

Director C.J. Wallis deftly manages to make a documentary about a lifelong fan of televisions Golden Age. Yet, he turns it into a biting narrative on the gross ineptitude of the health care system in the United States. Normally, such a narrative shift in a fairly short documentary feature would cause the viewer to quickly lose focus and tune out. However, Wallis creates a perfect balance between the two tonal shifts. This is accomplished via careful editing, solid use of humor, and Shostak’s often overbearing yet unrelentingly positive personality.   

Let’s not kid ourselves, this is a “feel good” documentary about a guy and his gal. We are rooting for them all the way and in the end, the payoff is fantastic. Wallis smartly bookends Stu’s Show with footage of Shostak’s wedding to the love of his life, replete with all of the Golden Age celebrities you could shake a stick at. The “home movie” footage of Lucille Ball is merely an added treat. Ms. Ball’s domineering yet jovial personality has clearly rubbed off on Shostak.

Shostak’s almost childlike love for old television shows, as well as his endearing love for Jeanine Kasun are what drive Stu’s Show forward. We see Shostak meeting and growing close with such TV legends as Lucille Ball, Dick Van Dyke, Tony Dow, and Butch Patrick. Subsequently, we feel the genuine excitement for him. Television and film legend Ed Asner appears with Van Dyke and is interviewed shortly before Asner’s passing. This is an added bonus, especially when Asner and Van Dyke both gush about Shostak and Kasun. 

As previously stated, the fabulous wedding at the end of Stu’s Show is a glorious way to close out Wallis’s fantastic documentary. This is especially true when we see all that Shostak and Kasun have been through just to get to this point. It’s also especially poignant to see that these icons of television’s Golden Age care enough about these two “outsiders” that they attend the wedding ceremony. It hits the viewer in all the right spots.

Conclusion

The great thing about watching Stu’s Show is that its central characters are so likable. Further, director C.J. Wallis shows us that these two central characters are both people that we all can associate with and relate to. They experience problems that we all have gone through. Additionally, Wallis drives home the point that chasing your dream is not a pointless and futile endeavor. Chasing one’s dreams is a good and attainable thing. This is evidenced by what Stu Shostak and Jeanine Kasum have achieved in their incredible lives.

Stu’s Show is produced by Mallory Kennedy and CJ Wallis. The film is directed by CJ Wallis and features Stu Shostak, Jeanine Kasun, Ed Asner, Margaret O’Brien, Tony Dow, Wink Martindale, Geri Jewell, Stanley Livingston, Betty White, and Lucille Ball.

Stu’s Show started streaming on major digital platforms on May 2, 2022.

Read more Cinema Scholars reviews!

BEING THE RICARDOS: A Cinema Scholars Review (Click Here)

The Hollywood Ghosts of Roxbury Drive (Click Here)

The Garden of Allah: Old Hollywood’s Hedonistic Home (Click Here)

Keep up with Cinema Scholars on social media. Like us on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.