Celebrity

I saw this miniseries years ago but it was only towards the end of this review that I realised I had seen it before.

3 young men grow up as friends and say goodbye to each other when they leave school, one becomes a famous actor, the other a renowned journalist, the third goes down the wrong path and eventually becomes an evangelist with a dark edge, a tragedy from their youth hangs like the sword of Damocles over their lives with fatal consequences 25 years later.

The story takes a very long time to tell the life of the 3 men, in this case more than 4 hours but I didn't really mind because I like it when a lot of time is taken to develop characters, so you really empathise with what the boys and later men experience.

Growing up in the age of Judith Krantz, Sidney Sheldon and Jackie Collins, I was in love with the blockbuster novel and the inevitable TV miniseries. Thomas Thompson's Celebrity was one of the most enthralling, as both novel and TV spectacular. It was a story that stayed with me forever.

Of course, one could say it is pure schlock, but this is A-Grade schlock, a big sprawling tale of three Texan boys caught in the trap of fame, told with unapologetic bravado.

TJ Luther (Beck) becomes a charismatic preacher at the bizarre City of Miracles. Mackenzie Crawford (Bottoms) becomes a beefcake movie star after a football injury. Kleber Cantrell (Masters) becomes, like Thomas Thompson himself, an award-winning journalist. The bonds of friendship are tested by fame, betrayal and violence.

Most pulpy and fabulous miniseries of the 80s focused on female protagonists - Sidney Sheldon was famous for his strong heroines, Jackie Collins has her set of Hollywood wives, actresses and mistresses, and Judith Krantz had her impossibly romantic female leads - so it was refreshing to see the multi-character blockbuster format populated with three male characters.

Writers would do well to delve into the elements that made it so successful: a central secret, a fascinating historical backdrop, a sensational murder trial and, of course, lashings of sex and scandal. For me, Thomas Thompson was a blue-collar Truman Capote, who told his stories with vigour and without pretension. It's still a damn good story.

This miniseries had me by the throat from beginning to end. I see it is described as soapy and it may very well have been. I tend to like stories with a soapy Twists but the characters were compelling especially the one who became a preacher. I remember feeling as if I was learning something about human nature about the reality of who people really are. Also about how we never truly really k ow anyone else. I cant remember a lot of specifics at this point but I wish they would bring it back at some point. Since it's a three part series w males at its center Amazon might be the best platform? It's really more like Lifetime but like I said it's male centered. I'd also say Tubi since it does have full series it could easily have a three part movie. Anyway I'd love to see this again and see how my grown up self feels about it.

"Celebrity" is about three childhood friends who are bound to each other for life due to a tragic event which occurred when they were teens.

Each one of them gains a certain amount of notoriety as adults and the viewer just sits around waiting for the other shoe to fall. You wait and wait and wait...and wait. Finally, their past comes back to haunt them and leads to another predictably tragic event.

This mini-series actually got quite a few good reviews when it first appeared on TV. Evidently, it was a lot easier to be entertained back then. At around five hours, the length of the film is excruciatingly long and it easily could've been stuffed neatly into a two hour TV movie.

Aside from the horrid pacing, the fatal flaw in this mini-series is the lack of viewer empathy for the three main characters. You keep getting introduced to interesting supporting characters only to have them completely disappear or pop up only every hour or so. The three men in the lead roles all come across as being dishonest and shallow to varying extents.

"Celebrity" is not a mini-series which has stayed in the public consciousness for good reason. It is bloated and tedious. 1/10

as i recall, it was gripping enough to watch the two nights of it's broadcast. i remember the plot and story-line, but not much else. i'd like to get my hands on a copy on VHS, i doubt it's on DVD.if there's anyone out here who knows where it's available, i'd like to hear from you. it was the big thing in the mid-eighties, that being TV mini-series, such as The Sophisticated Gents, Cheifs, Backstairs at the White House, among a few. from the above comments, some didn't like it very much, but i found it compelling, i seem to think it began at the end, and was a backstair. i do want to see it again, so if any can help out, give me a yell.