Prisoner’s Dilemma is a two-part tape of a video performance done on January 22, 1974, at 112 Greene Street, New York, as part of Avalanche’s Video Performance exhibition. The performance is structured on a problem in game theory, a “non-zero sum game,” in which both players can win or lose at the same time, one can win more than the other, and one can win at the other’s expense. Serra and Bell have used game theory as a way of dealing with genres of commercial TV -- cops and robbers in the first part, and a quiz program in the second.

The tape opens with Suzanne Harris singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” directly to the camera. The cops and robbers’ section, in which the D.A. tries to get suspects to turn state’s evidence by confessing to a murder, used both professional actors (Richard Schechner as the D.A. and Spalding Gray as a suspect) and non-actors (including Gerry Hovagymian as the other suspect, Jeffrey Lew and Joel Shapiro as officers). The actors play to the camera, making this situation more like the theatre of television. Serra and Carlota Schoolman operated an S.E.G., handling three cameras (Robert Fiore, Babette Mangolte, and Mark Obenhaus), punching quickly between the shots in a way reminiscent of early TV situation comedy.

The second half is a tape of a live performance, modeled on a quiz show, with Robert Bell as MC and Leo Castelli and Bruce Boice as participants, chosen because they are art world celebrities. In the game, the participants were pitted against each other and offered bribes by Bell. They were given a choice between A and B, the worst outcome being that one would have to spend six hours alone in the basement of 112 Greene Street depending on the other’s choice.