| The Temptations | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Allan Arkush |
| Produced by | Jay Benson |
| Written by | Robert Johnson Kevin Arkadie |
| Narrated by | Charles Malik Whitfield |
| Starring | Charles Malik Whitfield D. B. Woodside Terron Brooks Christian Payton Leon |
| Music by | Smokey Robinson |
| Distributed by | NBC |
| Release date(s) | November 1, 1998 |
| Running time | 240 min. |
| Language | English |
The Temptations is a four-hour television miniseries broadcast in two-hour halves on NBC, based upon the history of one of Motown's longest-lived acts, The Temptations. Executive produced by former Motown executive Suzanne de Passe, produced by Otis Williams and Temptations manager Shelley Berger, and based upon Williams’ Temptations autobiography, the miniseries was originally broadcast on November 1 and November 2, 1998. It was filmed on location in Pittsburgh, PA in the spring of 1998. Allan Arkush was the miniseries’ director.
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The miniseries starred Charles Malik Whitfield as Otis Williams, Leon as David Ruffin, D. B. Woodside as Melvin Franklin, Terron Brooks as Eddie Kendricks, and Christian Payton as Paul Williams. Also featured were Charles Ley as Dennis Edwards, J. August Richards as Richard Street, Obba Babatundé as Berry Gordy, Vanessa Bell Calloway as Johnnie Mae Matthews, and Mel Jackson as Norman Whitfield.
As the miniseries was based upon Otis Williams’ book, it came from his perspective: the focus of the story tended to be on Williams and his best friend Melvin Franklin, with David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks seen as antagonists for much of the second half (although Kendricks was still given a more sympathetic portrayal than Ruffin - Kendricks was even shown scolding Ruffin and later joking with the other Temptations about Ruffin's chronic lateness when they were preparing for their reunion tour, only to be surprised when he showed up early). Dennis Edwards was not heavily focused upon, nor was much said of the problems he later had with Otis Williams. In fact, the voice-over narration that introduced Edwards flatteringly stated that Edwards was much less trouble than Ruffin had been, although his infamous angry reaction to the first verse of "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" was featured. Nevertheless, the miniseries gave a general overview of both the history of the group and that of Motown, and, thanks to de Passe's connection, the film was able to use authentic props and locations.
A number of liberties were taken with factual events for dramatization purposes. For example, in the film, Melvin Franklin apparently dies in the kitchen of his mother's house. In reality, he died in the hospital after a long bout with diabetes and other diseases. As Franklin's death was still fresh in the minds of the miniseries’ creators (he died in 1995), it was decided that the miniseries would not present Franklin's death as it actually occurred. Smokey Robinson did not sing at his funeral, as he does in the film. Also, David Ruffin was not found dead in the middle of a random street. Instead, he had died from a drug overdose and was taken to a hospital by his chauffeur. Another inaccuracy is the depiction of Ruffin, Kendricks and Edwards performing together before the 1982 reunion tour, when in reality Ruffin and Kendricks did not start performing together until 1985, with Edwards joining them in 1989 after the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone", Dennis sings the whole song in the film. In reality, he only sung the entire first verse and the first part of the second. Richard Street sung the rest. On "Ball of Confusion", David sings all of Dennis' lines, and Dennis never sings lead at all; however, that song was recorded after David had been fired from the group.
Although the movie is set mostly in Detroit Michigan and Los Angeles, the Producers chose to shoot the film in Pittsburgh, presumably to take advantage of the many different architectural and geographical looks that Pittsburgh offers. De Passe Entertainment had, some six years earlier, shot The Jacksons: An American Dream in Pittsburgh as well.
The story begins in 1958 when Otis Williams, at the time a teenager, is running to meet his friend Elbridge "Al" Bryant at a musical performance by The Cadillacs, where Otis and the singer lock eyes, which he credits as the moment he devoted his life to music. After the concert, Otis and Al go to a barber where Otis gets a Tony Curtis style haircut and Al gets a New Yorker style haircut. Later, Otis arrives home for dinner, where his father is angered by his hairstyle and pressures him to go to work at the assembly line instead of going into music, which Otis heatedly rejects. Six months later, Otis, Al and two new band members, are singing on a street corner when they see another group of singers across the street, and are impressed by one singer's bass voice type. The next day after school, Otis spots the singer leaving to walk home, and decides to follow him. The singer sees Otis and begins to run away, thinking him to be a gang member. Otis eventually catches him and introduces himself, finding out that the singer's name is Melvin Franklin, and invites him to join his group, Otis Williams & the Siberians. Melvin agrees, on the condition that his mother approves. After talking her, Otis convinces Melvin's mother to let him join.
The group, now with five members, are practicing their singing after school one day when they notice a group of girls watching them sing. Upon seeing this, the group follows them while singing Earth Angel. The girls go their separate ways until one girl, Josephine, remains, and Otis asks her out on a date. The next Saturday, the group are making out with the girls in a milk truck when they hear for their group to come the radio station, and hastily drive to the station, which turns out to be a run-down apartment. Johnnie May Matthews, the owner of the pirate radio studio in the basement, declares herself their new manager and producer, and also changes their name to Otis Williams and the Distants. In April 1960, the group are waiting to perform at a party where they meet Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, singers for The Primes, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, Diana Ross singer for the Primettes, Smokey Robinson, lead singer of The Miracles, and Berry Gordy, founder and owner of Motown Records. Al arrives late at the party and shows hostility towards Eddie and Paul, while hitting on Diana. The Primes and Primettes perform and the Distants are impressed by their sound. After performing themselves, Otis and Melvin see Berry Gordy entering the bathroom and follow him. After some talking, Berry gives them a business card to contact him later on. Once the party's ends, Johnnie shows up in a new car, bought with the money earned from their record, while also showing off rolls of money. Awestruck, they ask about when they get paid, which angers Johnnie and she immediately fires them, kicks them out of the car and drives away. Al and two other members promptly quit the group, leaving Otis and Melvin as the only two remaining members.
Shortly after, Melvin approaches Otis and tells him that Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams recently left their own group (and thus leaving the remaining female members to become known as The Supremes) and are interested in joining them. Otis is reluctant to let them join, as he finds them arrogant and cocky, but ultimately accepts when Al rejoins the group. With this new line-up, the group renames themselves the Elgins. Eddie and Paul prove to be valuable members; Paul teaches them how to dance and becomes their unofficial choreographer, while Eddie becomes their falsetto singer. In March 1961, Otis enters Motown Studios, the headquarters of Motown Records, and meets up with Berry Gordy. After the meeting, Otis finds the others waiting outside for an answer. He informs them that Berry will sign them if they can come up with a better group name. After sitting outside the studio for hours waiting to be called in and thinking up a new name, a secretary named Martha Reeves finds them outside and calls them in to meet Berry. When they get to Berry, he asks them for their name, to which Otis replies "the Temptations".
Berry likes the name and agrees to hear them sing. After hearing them perform Oh Mother of Mine (which would become their debut single for Motown) Berry enthusiastically signs them under the Motown label. The group are now in high spirits and make a pact to never break up. Otis arrives home to find out that Josephine is pregnant, and although he is shocked, he promises to take responsibility for the baby. In a voiceover, Otis explains that he and Josephine were married shortly after and later gave birth to their son, Lamont. While making moderately successful records written largely by Berry, such as Paradise and I Want a Love I Can See, and getting real choreography from Chollie Atkins, the group start to become known as "The Hitless Temptations" as they can't seem to make a real hit in the first three years under the Motown label. The group start to doubt themselves as talented singers and Al starts to lose his passion for singing and becomes more and more negative and volatile. This comes to a head after performing at a New Year's Eve party, Al punches Paul in the face when asked to do an encore on stage. He is kicked out the group immediately. The remaining four go back on stage anyway and perform the classic party song Shout. While singing, Jimmy Ruffin and his younger brother David Ruffin jump on stage and sing as well. The group are impressed the brothers' singing, especially David's. After the party, the four, along with David, go to Melvin's mother's house to eat. While they eat and talk, the four invite David to join the group, which he readily accepts. With five members once again, they make a toast to the future success of the Temptations.
In January 1964, the group head to Hitsville to record a song written for them by Smokey Robinson. The song, called The Way You Do the Things You Do becomes an instant hit and puts the Temptations on the map. Shortly after the song hits the charts, the group go on a tour with various other Motown artists, such as the Vandellas, the Miracles, and Marvin Gaye. And they perform The Way You Do the Things You Do live in a school gymnasium . One afternoon, while changing a tire on the tour bus, a pair of racist Southerners drive by in a pickup truck shooting at them with a shotgun, and David and Eddie try in vain to chase them down, but quickly give up. The tour eventually ends and they all arrive back in Detroit. While Josephine is waiting for Otis in front of Hitsville, she sees him with another woman, and assumes that they are having an affair, and storms off. Soon after, the Temptations go on tour again and perform The Girl's Alright with Me in the school gymnasium. In November that year, Smokey writes them another song called My Girl. The song debuts early next year and becomes a massive success, reaching number one on the charts that years. The group enjoys their newfound success and wealth, spending money on themselves and their loved ones.
With this success, however, soon comes trouble. By early 1966, David starts to develop an ego, thinking himself to be solely responsible for the Temptations' success. He also begins using drugs and starts showing up late for rehearsals and meetings, if he shows up at all. This behavior starts to take a toll on the group, and soon after recording Ain't Too Proud to Beg, Otis and Melvin pay David a visit, warning him to clean up his act or else be fired. Later, Berry introduces the group to their new manager, Shelly Berger. Shelly plans to expand the Temptations' fanbase to the mainstream white audience, which they are somewhat reluctant about, as they think their original fans will see them as sell-outs. After some consideration, the Temptations agree and are put on a month-long tour with the Supremes. The tour turns out to be a success and gets them to the Copacabana, although David's destructive behavior continues, and he declares his shady friend, Flynn, his new manager instead of Shelly. Flynn informs the group that David wants to change the group name to "David Ruffin & The Temptations" or else he will not perform, which they reject. David shows up anyway, albeit late, and performs I'm Losing You at the Copa, and leaves in a separate limo. After the show, the others take a vote on whether or not they should keep David in the group, and all but Eddie vote to kick him out. Shortly after, David shows up at Hitsville in his limo. While the four watch from a window, Shelly meets David outside and hands him a note informing him of their decision. Upon reading this, David flies into a rage, yelling at them through the window. He then gets into his limo and drives off. Melvin rhetorically asks "So now what"?
Later in 1968, the Temptations hire Dennis Edwards, an old friend and former lead singer of The Contours, as a replacement for David. It is around this time that the group enters their psychedelic soul era, started with their 1968 single Cloud Nine. During a concert performance, the group is about to sing Ain't Too Proud to Beg when David jumps on stage and steals the microphone from Dennis and sings himself. The others go along with this to save face, but then chase him backstage and get into a brief argument before getting security guards to escort him out. By 1969, Paul's drinking becomes debilitating and Melvin develops rheumatoid arthritis in the legs and starts taking cortisone shots to ease the symptoms despite his doctor's advice, yet both continue performing anyway. Around this time Otis and Josephine also get a divorce. As Paul's condition gets progressively worse, the others begin to consider whether Paul should retire, at least for the time being. Eddie is against this, as he thinks that they should stick by Paul and be with him at all times, making sure he doesn't drink. In November 1970, Eddie visits David, who begins to turn him against Otis and Melvin while giving him his first shot of cocaine. Shortly after, Paul becomes well enough to sing again, and the Temptations record a new song written by their producer Norman Whitfield called Just My Imagination. Eddie quits the group after performing the song at the Copacabana. Later, Otis and his son Lamont visit Paul at his house. Paul asks to be back in the Temptations, while demonstrating his dancing, almost falling over. Otis tell him that he will be back when he gets better. In June 1972, Norman writes another song called Papa Was a Rolling Stone, which the group are initially against recording, but eventually go along with it. In a montage set to the song, Paul is seen struggling with his addiction, while fighting with his wife, and later driving around town, ending with Paul committing suicide in a parking lot, mixed in with various solo performances by David and Eddie. Eddie reunites with the others at Paul's funeral, with Melvin telling him that while he's out of the group, they will always be family.
By 1977, the Temptations have moved from Detroit to Los Angeles and have been hit with a dry spell in their career. The group, now with Otis and Melvin as the only remaining original members, fire Shelly as their manager, leave the Motown label and start recording under the Atlantic Records label. Eddie is still under the Motown label and has made two major hits, while David, who has had some hits after the Temptations, is also under a dry spell. One day, while Melvin is helping a woman with her grocery bags, a thief gets in his car and tries to start it. When Melvin tries to stop him, the thief shoots him in both of his legs, kicks him out, and drives off in his car. Melvin tells Otis to go on tour without him, as they need the money. After the tour, Otis goes back to Detroit with Lamont to visit his mother, who tells him that she has cancer. They then have a heart-to-heart on the porch.
In 1980, Melvin's legs are still recovering and the Temptations leave Atlantic Records. Eddie's success is starting to fade and he is reduced to playing in small nightclubs. While performing one night, Eddie spots David in the audience and once he finishes the song, brings David on stage and they sing together. After everyone leaves the club, Eddie and David have a drink at the bar and agree to start their own faction of the Temptations, along with Dennis Edwards, who was fired from the Temptations in 1978. Otis and Melvin move back to Detroit and go back under the Motown label and Shelly becomes their manager again. Not long after, Motown becomes interested in setting up a reunion tour between both sets of the Temptations.
By 1982, the tour is officially underway and both sets of Temptations come together to rehearse and become reacquainted. While on tour, Josephine calls and informs Otis that Lamont died in a construction accident. After Otis gets back from the funeral, the tour starts to fall apart, as David's drug addiction starts to trigger his destructive nature.
In January 1989, the Temptations are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Otis and Melvin are reunited with David, Eddie, and Dennis. And despite their past squabbles and rivalries, for one moment, they are friends again.
In June 1991, a dead body is found in front of a hospital. After a week in the morgue, the body is finally identified as that of David Ruffin, dead of an apparent drug overdose. Eddie dies soon after of lung cancer in October 1992, though this is never shown in the film.
In February 1995, Otis and Melvin, who now uses a wheelchair, visit Melvin's mother. While preparing to eat dinner, Melvin volunteers to get short ribs from the kitchen. While he's gone, Melvin's mother thanks Otis for taking care of Melvin and keeping the Temptations together through all the good and bad times. The two then call for Melvin, but he doesn't respond. They go into the kitchen and find him dead. Many people show up at the funeral, including Smokey Robinson, who sings his song "Really Gonna Miss You".
The film ends with the "classic five" Temptations (Otis, Melvin, Eddie, Paul, and David) in their youth, singing "My Girl" on a stage. At the end of the song, they take a bow, with Otis saying in a voice-over "Temptations, forever."
The miniseries was a ratings success, and Arkush won a 1998 Emmy award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Movie. The miniseries has been subsequently rerun on the VH-1 cable television network and released to VHS and DVD. The VHS release notably omitted a few scenes which had previously aired on the television premiere. One such scene includes David Ruffin, clearly under the influence of drugs and his ego, becoming belligerent during a picnic celebration with the other members of the group. The removal of this scene is possibly due to the ensuing suit.
Otis Williams’ ex-wife Josephine, Melvin Franklin's mother Rose Franklin and, on David Ruffin's behalf, the Ruffin family, filed suit against Williams, Motown, De Passe Entertainment, Hallmark Entertainment, and NBC for use of their likenesses in the film, defamation of character, and emotional distress because of the inaccurate depictions of events. They also alleged that the miniseries misportrayed them and/or their relatives and twisted facts. The judges ruled in favor of the defendants, and the ruling was upheld when the plaintiffs appealed in 2001. Otis Williams later claimed that while his book was the source material for the film, he did not have a great deal of control over how the material was presented.
Sidney Ruffin -- Lamman Rucker ... Man in Copacabana (archive sound) (also as The Temptations)
| Year | Award | Result | Category | Recipient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Motion Picture Sound Editors | Won | Best Sound Editing - Television Mini-Series - Music | Kevin Crehan (music editor) and Tom Villano (music and scoring editor) (For episode "Night One") |
| Best Sound Editing - Television Mini-Series - Dialogue & ADR | Suzanne Angel, Mark Friedgen, G. Michael Graham, Anton Holden, Kristi Johns, Mark R. La Pointe, Michael Lyle, Scott A. Tinsley, and Tim Terusa (For episode "Night One") | |||
| NAACP Image Awards | Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series |
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| Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Movie | Allan Arkush |