Just a heads up that a new movie of Sybil, starring Jessica Lange & Tammy Blanchard, is airring Saturday night. In case anyone is interested.
Why?
I saw the old one once a long long time ago, and read the book to shreds, so I’m not trying to say the old movie couldn’t be improved upon. I just don’t get why everything has to be done over again.
Thanks for the heads up. I don’t normally watch regular TV movies but this sounds interesting.
I watched the original years ago but I don’t remember most of it.
Interesting… JoBeth Williams is playing Sybil’s crazy ass mother.
JoBeth Williams was very good as crazy ass mother Mary Beth Whitehead in the Baby M TV movie.
Is this version going to include Sybil’s other doctor, Dr. Herbert Spiegel, to whom she memorably said “Do I have to do the voices?”
The abuse scenes, done for TV standards almost 30 years old, still make me turn away. How the hell are they gonna top those?
No desire to see it, the first one was a classic. Tho I will admit the remake of HELTER SKELTER, the original one also being a classic, was quite interesting & dealt with additional material.
Who watched it, how was it, how did they fit it all into one night?
Sorry I missed this. Also didn’t know they’d remade Helter Skelter.
It was totally changed and almost a work of fiction. Kate Blanchard’s “acting” consisted of a different bad accent for each personality. She only portrayed Vicky, Peggy Lou, Ruthie, Vanessa, Marcia, Mary & Sid. She spoke of having sixteen personalities from the beginning, yet nobody knew about The Blonde until very late in Sybil’s therapy.
Dr. Wilbur had a colleague who did instead that Sybil was a fake, simply an “hysterical woman.”
Her mother’s activies were mentioned and some of the milder abuses were shown.
The ending stated that after Shirley Adell Mason died, her paintings were “discovered,” many in “different styles,” proving she was Sybil and the multiple personalities were real 
In short, it was pretty much fiction, and not very well done.
OK, I’m not sorry I missed it! :smack: 
I hate it when remakes aren’t as good as the original. It should be required that they improve on what’s been done, or don’t bother.
Yeah, the HS remake was pretty good. It paid lots of attention to the formation of the Manson Family & the murders- more than the first version, and ended with the trial starting. Bruno Kirby played Vincent Bugliosi. While I’d have liked to see another recreation of the trial, the first HS did it so well it was really unnecessary.
The original HS totally owned the ratings when it first ran. The remake… not so much.
I have an evil confession- some of the abuse scenes from the first movie still make me laugh. It’s not the abuse itself, but the fact that the actress playing the mother was soooooo over the top. The demonic glee when she trips the little girl and yells “Have a nice trip see you next fall!” or waits to slam the door in her face all seem like a SNL character.
Now the enema scene- that messed me up for a while. But the mom-actress herself was pure camp.
I’ve wondered if they’re going to address the controversies in general. A lot of psychiatrists today don’t believe multiple personality disorder even exists. One account of Sybil that I read stated that she probably had the same schizoaffective disorder her mother had (i.e. if she’d been brought up by Carol Brady she’d have still been severely mentally ill) and that the abuse was on top of that, not at the bottom of it.