The Karen Carpenter Story
- TV Movie
- 1989
- 2h
Story of the meteoric rise and sudden fall of Karen Carpenter, who became a famous singer before battling anorexia and bulimia.Story of the meteoric rise and sudden fall of Karen Carpenter, who became a famous singer before battling anorexia and bulimia.Story of the meteoric rise and sudden fall of Karen Carpenter, who became a famous singer before battling anorexia and bulimia.
- Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
- 1 nomination total
Photos
- David Lattimer
- (as Kenneth David Gilman)
- Directors
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe movie includes the house where Karen Carpenter died in real life, and the real-life ambulance and paramedics who were on the scene.
- GoofsKaren Carpenter's husband was named Tom Burris, not Bob Knight.
- Quotes
Richard Carpenter: Hey give me the pizza.
Karen Carpenter: No it's my pizza.
Richard Carpenter: Come on.
Karen Carpenter: Richard, I...
Richard Carpenter: She said I'm in charge!
Karen Carpenter: Yeah, but not of this. Give me it back.
Richard Carpenter: Come on. I'm doing you a favor. In 10 or 20 years Mom and Dad are going to let you date and I don't want you to get fat.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Paul Williams: Still Alive (2011)
Karen's problems were partly caused by her desire to be accepted and were intensely driven by her stage-demon of a mother, Agnes Carpenter. The problems perpetuated because her family lived in denial that a problem existed. They refused outside help until the damage to Karen's heart from her abuse of ipecac (which she eventually discontinued because she feared that it would damage her vocal cords) was irreversible.
The acting in the movie is good, and the songs are well-mixed, but it takes unreasonable liberties with reality. Over half of the scenes that Barry Morrow wrote were rejected by the family (mainly by Agnes Carpenter), who didn't want any negativity. It drove Morrow to the point where he refused to work on the movie any longer. His replacement had the same problem, and a third writer was brought in to finish. The whole thing is contrived, and to anybody who knew the actual situation, the movie has very little to do with how things really were.
Anybody who wants a realistic view of how things were should read the book "Little Girl Blue" by Randy Schmidt, which offers an objective view.
- Tom_Barrister
- Aug 18, 2015
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
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- Also known as
- La historia de Karen Carpenter
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro