(narrator) john cassavetes came of age as an actor in live television. as a filmmaker, he brought to the screen an edginess and improvisation he learned in the tv studio. hey, i got the money! i got the bread! yeah, i got the twenty. wait a minute... (charles champlin) in the early '60s movies began to show the influence of television itself. there was almost a proscenium feeling of being very close and not -- the film was no longer necessarily larger than life, but maybe the film was the same size as life. that was one of the things john cassavetes pioneered in, going against conventions, going against the norms, just saying that life is chaos, life is strange. life is full of ambiguities and maybe there's a way to get that on film as well as boy-meets-girl. we talked facts and figures until we went out of our mind. losses, gains, ratings, schmatings. you can lose your mind if you keep analyzing things. is that so? i think it's dishonest. it's honest, but it's a good piece itself. and so, we're a little nervous about hitting you with this. no, i have in