I know there’s been some talk about a Beatles biopic or mini-series, which, believe me, I’d still be glad to see. But the story of the Beatles is so rich and full of interesting side stories and details that I think it could be done more justice by a multi-season cable series (HBO/AMC/BBC America or something of the sort).
It could have short seasons as many of these cable series do (10-13 eps per season as opposed to 26), but they could do:
-a season on the boys’ childhoods/young adulthoods, dealing with the loss of John and Paul’s mothers and the effect it had on them and ending with the naming of the Beatles,
-a season on the Cavern Club/Hamburg period (even though the movie Backbeat did it so well), ending with Brian Epstein visiting the Cavern and meeting them for the first time,
-a season on their rise to fame, Beatlemania, and the touring years, touching on incidents like the “bigger than Jesus” kerfuffle and lesser-known ones like their dust-up with Imelda Marcos,
-a season on the Sgt. Pepper/Maharishi period,
-a season on the Apple/White Album/breakup period, with emphasis on the factors pulling the boys apart and leading to the breakup, and finally
-a season on their solo careers during the 70s ending with John’s death (the moment that put an end to fans’ hopes that the boys would ever reunite–I mean, there was the Threetles in the nineties but it wasn’t quite the same).
So what do you think? (If they did do something like this, I’d like them to do it while Hugh Laurie is still young enough to play George Martin.)
I’d rather see a focus on one part of their Beatleness: The post-tour portion. The opening credits could be them leaving the stage at Candlestick. Then the series would feature them in the studio stage of their Beatle careers-- working on the songs, dealing with their egos and girlfriends and fame, the drugs, the experimentations, etc.
Yeah (yeah, yeah), I think Anthology is regarded as the definitive video account of the Fab’s career.
Ron Howard’s recent “Eight Days A Week-The Touring Years” is sort of an Anthology-lite…it isn’t popular with purists, but it’s definitely worth watching if you’re a casual fan.
And of course there’s always Let It Be…it might never get an official release, but you can see most of it on youtube.
Well, of course (though I’ve got more of a soft spot for The Compleat Beatles, seeing as it was the first Beatles documentary I ever saw), but I’m thinking more of the biopic/fictionalized biography angle.
I don’t know if a 7-to-10 year series is my favorite approach, but yeah, something could be fun if done correctly. See HBO’s Vinyl for how not to do rock music correctly. And yeah Backbeat was fun.
I’d love to see a single-season event - an episode for each year of the band, plus an episode or two for Before and same for After. Not too long, and captures the brief, incandescent arc of their art and careers with a more up-close feeling.
The two most highly regarded bio’s are the 900 pager by Bob Spitz, and the first of three volumes out from Mark Lewisohn, who pretty much must be involved in any production given his research, scholarship, and published material on them.
Yes, the Beatles certainly haven’t had their history documented very much. I hear they had disagreements and even had a different drummer at one point. It would be nice to finally get some insight into this band that broke up a mere 45 years ago.
More or less. I’d like to see their career dramatized, which has only been done a relative handful of times and only to certain segments of their career. But it’s just so full of interesting side stories and characters that it would be nice to see it taken on as a whole, and it’s so rich that I’m not sure a biopic or miniseries would do it justice.
Even if much of it is well known, it’s possible that a screenwriter/director could make us see aspects of it through fresh eyes. And there are elements and characters who AREN’T quite as well known that it would be fun to see brought to life.
Like “Magic Alex” Mardas (who passed away recently). In 1967 or thereabouts he managed to convince John that he was a technological genius and borderline magician, who could create such wonders as an artificial miniature sun made out of lasers, a force field made of compressed air, electric paint that would light up when you plugged it in (turned out that it had to be put on a metal plate first, and you’d have to coat a room with this metal plating before you painted it!). John was utterly taken in by him (isn’t it amazing that the most “streetwise” of the Beatles was so easily taken in by BS artists?) and put him in charge of Apple Electronics and a new studio for them–which was a total fiasco and they had to go back to Abbey Road.
Or the aforementioned set-to with Imelda Marcos. Near the end of their touring career, they played Manila in the Philippines. Imelda tried to “invite” (read “command”) them to come to a palace tea party, but Brian was adamant–it was their policy never to do official political functions. Ferdinand and Imelda decided to make an example of them for daring to turn them down, and made a big deal out of the disappointment of the children who’d been invited to the party and had been expecting the Beatles. (They played it as being “stood up”, when the invitation had been politely refused.) This whipped up public sentiment against them and they had to get to their plane through a melee of angry citizens and police.
Eta: In case it isn’t obvious, all I mean is that I can’t see you not being able to get enough enjoyment/knowledge of the Beatles from what’s already out there. I’m not a superfan but I got plenty of love for them.
Have you ever seen the book “Beatle Gear” by Andy Babiuk? It documents just about every piece of equipment they ever used. It would be a great supplement for any Beatle film.
Perhaps the link didn’t go where it was intended, but I think the reference is to The Beatles 1, which was the best selling album of the decade. From Rolling Stone 12/2009:
