Karen Carpenter Story (1989)
"A Song For You" Made-For-TV-Movie

The Karen Carpenter Story - (officially titled, A Song For You) - originally aired on CBS-TV in 1989 as a made-for-TV movie about Karen's career and battle with anorexia nervosa. Written by Barry Morrow, it stars Cynthia Gibb as Karen Carpenter, and Louise Fletcher as her mother.

Not many people outside of the production team were aware of any tension on the set of The Karen Carpenter Story, but the actors certainly felt it in terms of the number of script revisions that were handed out on a near constant basis.

It wasn't much of a secret to those close to Karen and Richard Carpenter that Karen's relationship with her mother (Agnes) was, at best - somewhat strained.

When Barry Morrow arrived at The Carpenter's house to interview Agnes as part of his research for writing the film, the first thing on her mind was to insist that she did not kill her daughter.

Understandably, there was a great deal of concern for how Karen's mother would be portrayed in the movie and how the audience might react to some of her -- 'shortcomings'.

All of the key family members who were interviewed for The Karen Carpenter Story were extremely guarded and protective, despite the fact that the movie itself was their own idea.

Once Barry began interviewing some of Karen's closest friends, Richard Carpenter started to exercise his editorial control - negotiating modifications to the script by re-writing, or even deleting, certain scenes.

This created a lot of tension, and proved to be extremely hard on the actors. After all, they had diligently learned their lines, only to have them completely changed (or eliminated) the following day.

Karen Carpenter Story - Emotional Eating Disorders, Physical Effects

During filming of The Karen Carpenter Story, Cynthia Gibb was well aware of the fact that anorexia is among the emotional eating disorders that have serious physical effects and complications.

In fact, she felt that the constant script revisions to the story hindered her ability to effectively portray the complex range of emotions that Karen must have endured throughout her short life.

The movie was filmed in The Carpenter's own home, and I think it's safe to say that every lead actor on the set was aware of what was happening, as well as the many factors that possibly could have contributed to Karen's illness.

The problem was that the family remained in total denial, and simply could not come to grips with the fact that anorexia is an emotional illness and not just a "weight problem".

When The Karen Carpenter Story finally aired on New Year's Day in 1989, 41 percent of everyone watching television were tuned into this movie. It ranked first place for its ratings week and remained one of the most-watched television movies for all of 1989.

Read a summary and review of the latest Karen Carpenter bio called, Little Girl Blue.

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