Paper Man

Plot

"A computer can only give back what the human mind has put into it." So explained screenwriter James D. Buchanan when discussing the made-for-TV melodrama Paper Man. A group of five bright college students decide to take advantage of a computer glitch. Partly as a social experiment, partly as a prank, but mostly out of sheer boredom, the students feed phony data into the faulty computer, creating a human being who doesn't exist--complete with biographical background and credit-card history. Unfortunately, the computer spews forth the embodiment of Pure Evil--and by the end of the film, three of the five pranksters lie dead. An early example of the technothriller genre, Paper Man originally aired on October 12, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Cast

Dan Barton - Electronics Expert; Tina Chen - Lisa; Ross Elliott - Sheriff; Dean Harens - Bureaucrat; Marcy Lafferty - Secretary; James Olson - Art Fletcher; Robert Patten - Father; Stefanie Powers - Karen McMillan; James Stacy - Jerry; Dean Stockwell - Avery Jensen; Elliott Street - Joel Fisher; Jason Wingreen - Doctor; Johnny Scott Lee - Avery (as a boy); Bob Golden - Deputy; Len Wayland - Executive; Sue Taylor - Mother

Credit

Rodger Maus - Art Director, Jack Martin Smith - Art Director, Walter E. Grauman - Director, Jack McSweeney - Editor, Duane Tatro - Composer (Music Score), Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jack Woolf - Cinematographer, James David Buchanan - Teleplay By, Roland L. Austin - Teleplay By, Anthony Wilson - Screen Story

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