Train in the Distance
Long before starving castaways voted each other off the island, before phony millionaires wooed beautiful bimbos, before gorgeous coeds ate live cockroaches, there was ‘Trash TV’. Geraldo. A Current Affair. Morton Downey, Jr. And the local news, trying its best to keep up.
1987. Reagan is in the White House. Jim and Tammy Faye are in ‘hot water’. And all three networks air the live rescue of ‘Baby Jessica’ from a Texas well. In the midst of it all, Stacy Zwardowski (fresh out of college and away from his overprotective mother for the first time) arrives at Channel 8 in Avalon, Oklahoma, to interview for a reporter’s job. But before he can introduce himself, he’s handed a camera, a microphone, and a brutal first-day assignment—an armed madman is shooting people at the local supermarket! “Welcome to television news.”
In the beginning, he’s seduced by the excitement and fame. But over time, Stacy discovers the cutthroat world behind the glamorous sets. The infighting. The luridness. The out-and-out lies. But is Channel 8 any more corrupt than its television counterparts? It’s a question he and his coworkers—Katie Powers, a beautiful reporter who longs to network-anchor; Larry Toole, a power-hungry news director who'd do anything for an exclusive; Dick Wilhelm, a money-grubbing owner with a host of enemies; and Julius Candelle, a talented, young cameraman with dreams of joining Jacques Cousteau—are forced to ask themselves.
As fires rage across Texomaland, Stacy is launched from the seen to the unseen, his gut-wrenching journey one of exposition and self-realization. Braving threats from green-eyed coworkers, crooked cops, deranged Klansmen, and an unknown assailant, Stacy searches tirelessly for the truth. The truth behind a series of arsons. The truth about the people he works with. The truth at the heart of everything he knows about himself.
But is he ready for what he finds?