Stu's Show Review - Cinema Scholar

"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...This is accomplished via careful editing, solid use of humor, and Shostak’s often overbearing yet unrelentingly positive personality!"

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:

Stu's Show Review - North Shore Movies

"3.5/5....A riveting and ultimately uplifting film!"

Stu Shostak loves television, especially the vintage shows of the ’50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. The documentary STU’S SHOW revels in this, both in exploring his own unusual career and presenting a parade of veteran actors who have become his friends. Then the film shifts from Stu’s love for the stars of TV’s past to a love story between him and a fellow fan, Jeanine Kasun. What makes this a riveting and ultimately uplifting film is that it’s because of him that she’s alive.

Stu's Show Review - The Movie Club

"81%....No goal is too far out of reach. Ultimately, this is the message you’ll walk away from after watching “Stu’s Show.” Not a bad place to be when you first sat down to watch a documentary about Lucy!"


When settling down to watch “Stu’s Show,” a documentary about TV historian Stu Shostak, a collector of everything old television, you might be preparing to watch a documentary about him and his relationship with his idol Lucille Ball. That’s how it’s presented anyway.

However, set that thought aside and prepare for much more than a movie about Stu and his friend Lucy. Their knowing one another comes up, of course, but this movie is much more than super-fan Stu getting a chance to be on the show of the legendary comedians. It’s also about how he meets, gets to know and proposes to his wife, Jeanine Kasun. She, too, loves all things related to old TV shows, particularly the 1950s and 1960s.

By bringing Jeanine into the mix, what director C.J. Wallis has created with this film is, very much, two different worlds. The one that television has created for Stu and the one that Stu has created for himself.

Stu's Show Review - Forces Of Geek

"Educational and perhaps surprisingly entertaining considering the dark places it goes, in Stu’s Show, Wallis successfully documents a deep, abiding love story in which all of the diverse aspects of one man’s life come into play under some of the most harrowing circumstances one can ever imagine!"


I just watched this great new fairy tale movie.

It’s about this boy named Stu who has all these imaginary friends. He grows up to love a beautiful princess but she falls under an evil spell and it looks like she might sleep forever. But Stu doesn’t give up on her! He harnesses the strength and power he learned from his imaginary friends, and the friends become real, magical beings whose love helps revive the Princess!

Then, Stu and his Princess are married, with all their magical friends in attendance, and they live happily ever after.

An oversimplification, perhaps, but that’s the way I saw it.

Stu's Show Review - Impulse Gaming

"3.75/5....In the doom and gloom of a post Covid-world “Stu’s show” is like a technicolour burst of life and an enthusiastic love letter to pop culture!" 

Stu Shostak knows there’s no business like show business. This TV archivist and historian has been working in Tinseltown since offering tickets to live tapings and playing the warm-up guy. His love of TV is infectious, as the documentary “Stu’s Show” proves. The film is warm and bubbly look at love, loss and a lady named Lucy.

Stu's Show Review - MovieHole

"...it’s clear that Shostak has more than left his mark on the game...And with “Stu’s Show”, so has director C.J Wallis. Bravo"

A delightful companion piece to Paramount+’s “The Offer”, Upstream Flix and director CJ Wallis have “Stu’s Show”, another showbizy-yarn chronicling a story you likely haven’t read about in EW or Variety.

While the former concentrates on household names like Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, “Stu’s Show” turns its spotlight on a lesser-known but no less influential industry figure: Stu Shostak.

Stu's Show Review - Film Threat

"8.5/10…boundless energy and excitement jump off the screen..."

Stuart Shostak, the subject of director C.J. Wallis’ Stu’s Show, reminds me of a much livelier and entertaining version of Marvel’s The Watcher. The titular super fan collects reels, Betamax, VHS tapes, and DVDs for everything from the Golden Era of television and on. I can relate a bit on a much smaller scale because I used to record Late Night with Conan O’Brien every night on VHS. There was a certain magical feeling in being able to rewatch a tape in the days before DVRs and streaming when you never knew if something special you saw would show up again in a rerun.

Stu's Show Review - RedCarpetCrash

"You may recognize many of the faces interviewed here, but you’ll surely recognize the love Stu showed for Jeanine!"

Greetings again from the darkness. We tend to pay little attention to historians and archivists until we need them. By then, their importance cannot be overstated. If you know the name Stuart Shostak, it’s likely you assume this documentary from CJ Wallis will be about Stu’s internet talk show and his commitment to preserving ‘classic’ TV shows. If that’s your assumption, you will be partially correct, but also in for quite a surprise. Much of the film is dedicated to Stu’s personal life … a life that sets a strong example on how to hustle and how to care for loved ones in need.

Stu's Show Review - BattleRoyalWithCheese

"It’s clear that nobody should get in between him and the love of his life"

Stu’s Show: Review

Stuart Shostak is probably the biggest Lucille Ball fan you’re ever likely to meet – besides his wife that is. As a young man he was obsessed with the golden age of American television and would spend hours going through clips that he would painstakingly put together, in order to create a documentary about his favourite era.

Stu's Show Review - Vocal

"Stu’s Show is more than one documentary and they are both pretty terrific."

Documentary Review: 'Stu's Show' is a Documentary about Showbiz, Love and Healthcare

Stu’s Show begins as one kind of documentary and ends as something completely different, richer, and more thoughtful. What looks like the story of a Hollywood outsider who became an unlikely ally and friend to the stars of the Golden Age of Television, slowly morphs into a harrowing story about our modern Healthcare system and the people on the fringes of society who are forced to struggle and risk death to get the care they need from an often uncaring and indifferent healthcare system.

Stu's Show Documentary Releasing May 2nd!

 

Courtesy Upstream Flix, the brand-new trailer for CJ Wallis’s comprehensive new film on TV historian Stu Shostak.

The pic, premiering May 2 on digital, features screen-legends Tony Dow (“Leave it to Beaver”), Michael Cole (“The Mod Squad”), the late Ed Asner (“Lou Grant”), Butch Patrick (“The Munsters”), Academy Award Winner Margaret O’Brien, Geri Jewell and many, many more.

Shostak got his start handing out tickets to Norman Lear sitcom tapings to people in Hollywood and parlayed that into doing audience warm-ups prior to tapings for shows such as “All In The Family” and “One Day At A Time”.

The film also indirectly tells the story of television legend Lucille Ball who, contrast to popular belief, was an extremely kind and generous person who treated those around her like family. Ball is hired to hold Q&A’s at a Los Angeles based College which provides a window of opportunity that alters the course of Stu’s life. Shostak’s encyclopedic knowledge of Ball’s career earns his way into becoming an essential part of her small inner circle as her archivist and assistant to her husband Gary Morton.

After Ball passes away, Shostak pioneers what we know now as “podcasting”, hosting internet shows interviewing celebrity cast and crew of the golden age of television. He also co-produces the widely successful LOVING LUCY conventions which welcomed prior cast, crew and superfans from around the world to come together for a few days to celebrate their love of I Love Lucy.

At one of these Loving Lucy conventions Stu meets Jeanine Kasun, a music teacher and Lucy super-fan, who noticed Shostak hosting game shows, events and trivia contests. The two speak on the phone at length and eventually begin dating until Jeanine suffers a brain aneurysm and the two, alongside the legends of television, enter into a war with the medical industry to keep her alive.