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

• Cynthia Gibb as Karen Carpenter
• Mitchell Anderson as Richard Carpenter
• Peter Michael Goetz as Harold Carpenter (father)
• Louise Fletcher as Agnes Carpenter (mother)
• Michael McGuire as Sherwin Bash
• Lise Hilboldt as Lucy
• Kip Gilman as David Lattimer (as Kenneth David Gilman)
• Scott Burkholder as Ted
• John Patrick Reger as Bob Knight
• Doug MacHugh as Dr. Lazwell
• William Tucker as Peter Howard
• Henry Crowell Jr. as Denny
• Josh Cruze as Herb Alpert
• Carrie Mitchum as Randy Bash
• Richard Minchenberg
• James Hong as Dr. Dentworth
• Stephanie Griffin as Dr. Brooks
• Hartley Silver as Band Teacher
• Robert Broyles as Bowl Emcee
• Howard Dayton as Park Emcee
• Grayce Spence as Nurse

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

• Tom Burris, Karen's husband, didn't have the same name in the film (he was called "Bob Knight"), nor did they divorce. Karen was still married to Tom (Bob) and was due to sign the final divorce papers the day she died. It is very likely that Tom's name was changed due to a gag order that the Carpenter family put in place to keep Burris from profiting off his brief marriage to Karen. In her divorce settlement Karen was going to give him USD $1,000,000. In her own words "He can have the million and then it's good riddance!"
• Karen is shown reacting to a Billboard article that describes her as "chubby". No such article was ever written about Karen. However, there was an article that claimed Richard to be "chubby".
• A poster for the Carpenters album Made in America is shown on various tours throughout the 1970–1972 time frame in the film, though the album was not released until 1981.
• The film also gives the impression that Karen did not record any solo material. She recorded a solo album in 1979, though it was not released until 1996.
• As Karen is walking up the stairs in her parents' house in Downey, California, to go to bed on Feb. 3, 1983, her mother, Agnes, says to Karen, "I love you." This may not have occurred and was put in the movie to attempt to have a happy ending.^[5]

References

External links

• The Karen Carpenter Story on IMDb