01
The Comey Rule
Why this pick
Like Tanner '88, it blends scripted drama with recognizable political figures, capturing the absurdity, pressure and backstage maneuvering of a presidential election season.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE SERIES
SERIES1988 0h 30m / episode USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Shows like
Tanner '88
Mini-SeriesDramaComedy
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Tanner '88, try these.
01
02
Alpha House
Why this pick
A warm, actor-driven political satire with a loose, lived-in ensemble rhythm—more interested in flawed people navigating power than tidy ideological punchlines.
03
The Thick of It
Why this pick
Its frantic, profane political machinery and fly-on-the-wall immediacy sharpen Tanner '88’s sense that public messaging is improvised by desperate humans backstage.
04
Primary Colors
Why this pick
A campaign-road satire with intimate access to strategists, staffers and candidates, balancing media spectacle, idealism and compromise in a way Tanner '88 viewers may relish.
05
The Politician's Husband
Why this pick
This compact political drama shares the pleasure of watching ambition, image-management and private relationships collide under relentless public scrutiny.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Welcome to the Tanner '88 guide at TV Tome. Director Robert Altman and cartoonist G.B. Trudeau combined forces for this ground breaking satire following the campaign of fictional Democratic presidential candidate Jack Tanner, mixing real life politicians and celebrities with the fictional characters. In the first season, we meet Tanner as basically a nice guy who doesn't have the killer instinct of his competitors, but nevertheless forges ahead with the help of his campaign manager T.J. Cavanaugh (Pamela Reed), youthful aide Stringer Kincaid (Daniel Jenkins), ditzy assistant Andrea Spinelli (Ilana Levine), Emile the pollster (Jim Fyfe) and teenage daughter Alex (Cynthia Nixon). Other regulars include kindhearted newspaper columnist Hayes Taggerty (Kevin J. O'Connor), filmmaker Deke Connors (Matt Molloy), and Dukakis campaign head Joanna Buckley (Wendy Crewson), Tanner's secret love interest. In the second season, set sixteen years later, Alex is now a documentary maker
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Michael Murphy
Jack Tanner
Pamela Reed
T.J. Cavanaugh
Cynthia Nixon
Alex Tanner
Kevin J. O'Connor
Hayes Taggerty
Daniel Jenkins
Stringer Kincaid
Jim Fyfe
Emile Berkoff
Matt Malloy
Deke Connors
Ilana Levine
Andrea Spinelli