Have you seen this telemovie?

Cafe Society
1

My name is Patrick Moffatt, I live in Australia, and I am searching for an American comedy telemovie about a fictitious female country singer, her band, her jealous PA, and her cheating husband/manager.

I saw the last 15 minutes of the movie in 1991 on late night TV in Australia. A year later I thought I’d try and find it. I have been looking ever since. I have spent a lot of time and money doing this. I have searched extensively - I even flew to Nashville a few years ago and door knocked at studios, stores, and the Nashville Musician’s Union - but nothing.

I think the movie was made in the late 80’s early 90’s and was taped live in front of a studio audience. It looked like a theatre play filmed. I think the woman who played the lead was a Broadway performer. I know the musicians were from Nashville. When the cast took a curtain call, it is revealled that the band is actually a group of actors miming, and the real musicians, playing live from behind the set, are Nashville session musicians. They come out and take a bow too and the camera pulls back to reveal the audience.

Here is a précis of those last 15 minutes:

The lead character is a ficticious famous country singer. (She looks a tad like Dolly Parton). Her husband is her manager and he is having an affair with her personal assistant. The personal assistant is envious of her famous boss. So the husband and the personal assistant kidnap the star just before a huge concert, locking her in the trunk of a car. The personal assistant, now dressed like the singer, goes out on stage and starts the show. Nobody notices, not even her jaded band. But the star escapes from the car and storms on stage. In an emotional outpouring the whole plot is revealled. With her heart breaking, she pulls her blonde wig from the personal assistant’s and puts it on her head. Then she grabs the microphone and to the crowd says:

Country music’s all about pain and suffering, pain and suffering, and when people hear me sing that’s what they hear… pain and suffering.

She then sings this beautiful sad song.

It seems to be a beautifully balanced dark comedy with some incredibly funny one-liners.

This is all I have, really. If you can help me I would be extremely grateful. I am a musician and I’d love to know who wrote and performed those amazing songs.

Kind regards and thanks for taking the time to read this.
Patrick Moffatt

2

This is better suited to Cafe Society than GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

3

The TV show doesn’t ring a bell.
But my feeling is that the only TV networks in the US that could have produced something like that are PBS or one of the premium cable networks like HBO.

PBS is composed of a group of non-profit independent TV stations around the US. You might try calling some of those stations and see if you can manage to talk to an old-timer on the staff who might have a recollection of what you are talking about.
You might want to start with the Nashville PBS station WNPT.

Other station that often do independent productions are WNET New York, WGBH Boston,
WTTW Chicago,
KQED San Francisco.

And good luck. You will share with us if you find out, won’t you?

4

Might this be Country Gold with Loni Anderson?
/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083761/

5

Looks like Abby_Emma_Sasha beat me to it, but I’m going to go ahead and post so you can take a look at the clip if you want. I haven’t seen Country Gold, but the plot summary sounds similar. It’s described as a Nashville All About Eve and originally aired as a CBS tv movie. I can’t find enough of a synopsis to tell if there’s a kidnapping.

Excerpts on youtube: Excerpts from CBS TV movie 'Country Gold' Lonnie Anderson Earl Holliman Linda Hamilton Huckabee - YouTube and a NY Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/23/arts/tv-drama-of-country-music.html

6

Will do thanks.

7

Thank you for all the info. Am following it up now. Cheers. P