johnnyb-10

Petty street hustler T.J. finds himself transported from present-day Detroit to 1822 Charleston, South Carolina. He is captured and sold at a slave auction to a plantation owner "Master Cooper."

T.J. is at first arrogant and blissfully ignorant of the struggle for freedom that African-Americans valiantly faced and overcame, and the legacy the brave souls who put their lives on the line (and who sometimes lost those lives) left to those who still fight the ongoing battle for civil rights and equal opportunity.

That all changes after T.J. unintentionally gets a young slave he has befriended beaten brutally for one of his own backfired stunts. He helps the young slave learn to read and write and then helps the young man and his wife-to-be escape the Cooper Plantation. Although it is never stated, I got the distinct impression these young runaways were T.J.'s direct ancestors.

In his humbling experience/history lesson, T.J. also meets real-life hero Denmark Vesey, a freed former slave who leads a slave revolt, and is hanged with his co-conspirators, becoming a martyr to the cause of freedom.

Gifted comic actor Phill Lewis ("City Slickers") is both funny and touching as T.J. Carl Lumbly ("How Stella Got Her Groove Back," "Men of Honor") was properly dignified as the unforgettable Vesey. Lumbley's real-life wife, Vonetta McGee, sparkles as the house slave and psychic Motilla, who turns out to be T.J.'s spiritual guide through his surreal and harrowing experience. Frank Converse, who has made a career playing corrupt cops, crime bosses and other unsympathetic types, was properly cast as Master Cooper, who despite his brutality, was probably a more compassionate slave owner than most.

This is an excellent history lesson masquerading as fantasy, and should be a staple in junior high and high schools for Black History Month.

They didn't write their own music. They didn't play their own instruments. They didn't produce their own records. But did they ever sing and dance. While the British invasion defined the new paradigm of rock and roll, the Temptations used the old paradigm of 1950s doo-wop and took it to a level no one outside the confines of Motown enterprises had envisioned. In so doing, they became THE American supergroup of the 1960s.

Otis Williams' autobiography and group bio was the basis for the miniseries.

It was as honest as self-analysis gets, chronicling the rise of a group of ambitious, talented, naive teenagers in the burgeoning Detroit R&B scene, and the inevitable decline. Paul Williams' self-dissolution from alcohol, David Ruffin's slide into megalomania and drug addiction, Melvin Franklin's death from the steroids he used to fight rheumatoid arthritis and Otis Williams' own demons of power and control are honestly confronted in the book, and translate nicely to the small screen. It is a shame that this story wasn't made into a feature film, but "The Temptations" is as forceful and honest as a network TV miniseries gets.

The cast is charming and astonishingly good physical matches, especially Leon as the monumentally gifted and commensurately tormented Ruffin. Gina Ravera manages both innocence and sizzle as Otis Williams' wife, Josephine. Jenifer Lewis, who specializes in strong women, is right on the money as Franklin's mother, "Mama Rose." An especially effective touching moment comes at the end where Smokey Robinson (himself) sings at Franklin's funeral.

The Tempts music is as vital today as it was 30 years ago and insures that this miniseries, nicely packaged as a two-and-a-half hour movie for video, is never slow or boring. Both on the up side and the down, "The Temptations" is a ride-and-a-half, big time!