The Karen Carpenter Story

For the 1987 Todd Haynes film, see Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.
The Karen Carpenter Story

Cynthia Gibb and Mitchell Anderson as Karen and Richard Carpenter
Written by Barry Morrow
Directed by Joseph Sargent
Starring Cynthia Gibb
Mitchell Anderson
Peter Michael Goetz
Louise Fletcher
Michael McGuire
Lise Hilboldt
Kip Gilman
Scott Burkholder
Theme music composer Richard Carpenter
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Production
Producer(s) Robert A. Papazian
Hal Galli
Cinematography Kees vanOostrum
Editor(s) George Jay Nicholson
Running time 92 minutes
Release
Original network CBS
Original release January 1, 1989

The Karen Carpenter Story is an American television film about singer Karen Carpenter and the brother-and-sister pop music duo of which she was a part, The Carpenters. The film aired on CBS on January 1, 1989. Directed by Joseph Sargent, it starred Cynthia Gibb as Karen Carpenter, and Mitchell Anderson as her brother, Richard Carpenter.

The real Richard Carpenter served as a producer for the film as well as of the musical score.

Story

The movie begins with the collapse of Karen Carpenter in the closet of her parents' home in Downey, California, on February 4, 1983. She is rushed to the hospital by paramedics, and as the EMT is placing an oxygen mask over her face, "Rainy Days and Mondays", recorded by the Carpenters on their self-titled album, is playing. The scene shifts to teenage Karen Carpenter singing "The End of the World" as she roller skates on the day the family moved into their home in Downey (they had previously resided in New Haven, Connecticut). The film then shows the highs and lows of Karen's life from the 1960s to 1983. One of the scenes, which showed Karen fainting onstage while she was singing the song "Top of the World", was fictionalized. Also fictionalized is when Richard falls down a flight of stairs, due to his abuse of Quaaludes. The film improbably attempts to end on a happy note, with Karen smiling after her mother says "I love you." The details about her subsequent death are superimposed on the screen before the closing credits.

Cast

Production

The idea for a movie based on Karen's life had been floating around after her sudden death in 1983. However, it was impossible to find someone to write the script for it. Once it had been approved by the studio and Richard Carpenter, there were daily script "rewrites or entire scenes were removed" according to co-stars Cynthia Gibb and Mitchell Anderson, in an attempt to soften the image of Agnes Carpenter by her son in real life. The final movie, in Gibb's opinion, gives a "white-washed" account of Karen's life. Gibb also said that a lot of the information in it was "watered down or removed altogether" at the request of Richard.

Richard, who was extremely responsible with anything related to the Carpenters, also requested that Gibb wear Karen's original clothing, which he supplied, and that she lose the required weight in order to fit into these clothes.[1] Gibb stated:

"I lost weight as Richard wanted and he was there watching over me in every scene. It was unnerving having to wear Karen's clothes, right down to her clingy T-shirts and crumpled bell-bottoms. I donned a wig and used Karen's make-up. By the time I was finished I felt I WAS Karen."

She also stated that "there was no time to research and I had my drum lessons during my lunch hour".[2] Even though she had starred for two years in Fame, she said it was still insisted upon her to take voice lessons to do the lip synching.

A crew member talks about the experience:[1]

"Frankly, we were very glad he (didn't play himself). He was a pain in the backside, so oversensitive and close to the action he almost screwed things up. When we spotted him on his knees praying to Karen he was saying: 'Forgive me, forgive me...'
"The misgivings he had were painfully obvious. You could almost see him wrestling with things in his mind. It was as if he felt that Karen would never have approved. He whispered to one of the boys: 'I'd give my right arm if she were here now.'
"The guy just hasn't been able to let go (and now) the film lacks an independent balance."

Reception

The movie was very popular in the ratings; it was the highest-rated two-hour TV movie of the year and the third highest rated such program on any network during the 1980s. It has never had an official United States DVD or VHS release, but was issued on laserdisc in Japan.

Richard's reaction

At the time, Richard described his feelings towards the film; "Oh, certain things were overblown. Not that I'm trying to take anything away from the importance of the event: Karen's battle with anorexia, mine with sleeping pills but it was still a little melodramatic. Like, neither of us - for anyone that watched this movie - literally collapsed. In fact, when I saw that, I told them while it was being made: "Look, neither of us fell down here. Karen didn't onstage and I didn't go down a flight of stairs..." But we're dealing with a TV movie so you have to take it with a grain of salt. And each little thing was not exactly the way it happened, that's all. But it's still a fairly accurate log of twenty years of our lives."

Richard also stated in 1988[3] that "I was in two minds about the film from the start but I knew that if it had to be made, I had to be involved. I accept that parts of the lives of all celebrities are matters of public record but for somebody else to have done this without the family's blessing, well, it just wouldn't have been as well told."

In 2004, he was much harsher about the project, calling it "90 minutes of creative license that give biopics in general a dubious tone." He also stated at the time that he considered being involved in the film one of his biggest mistakes.[4]

Factual inaccuracies

References

  1. 1 2 "Go" The People, 13 November 1988 - UK publication - written by Peter Kent
  2. Woman's Day magazine, Australia, 1988.
  3. "Go" The People, 13 November 1988 - UK publication - written by Peter Kent
  4. Carpenters Gold, liner notes written by Richard Carpenter, 2004 - A&M Records
  5. Little Girl Blue, The Life of Karen Carpenter, a biography by Randy Schmidt (2010).
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