Celebrity (1984– )

Follows the life of three friends, T.J., Mack and Kleber. When they were young something happened that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. And they would each achieve notoriety in... See full summary »

Stars:

Michael Beck, Joseph Bottoms, Ben Masters

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Michael Beck	...	T.J. Luther (2 episodes, 1984)
Joseph Bottoms	...	Mack Crawford (2 episodes, 1984)
Ben Masters	...	Kleber Cantrell (2 episodes, 1984)
James Whitmore	...	Clifford Casey (2 episodes, 1984)
Tess Harper	...	Susan French (2 episodes, 1984)
Karen Austin	...	Ceil Shannon (2 episodes, 1984)
Ned Beatty	...	Otto Leo (2 episodes, 1984)
Claude Akins	...	Uncle Bun Luther (2 episodes, 1984)
Dinah Manoff	...	Missy Craymore (2 episodes, 1984)
Debbie Allen	...	Regina Brown (2 episodes, 1984)
Jennifer Warren	...	Martha Dalton (2 episodes, 1984)
Hal Holbrook	...	Calvin Sledge (2 episodes, 1984)

Storyline

Follows the life of three friends, T.J., Mack and Kleber. When they were young something happened that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. And they would each achieve notoriety in their own way. Kleber would become a journalist. Mack would get by on his looks and would become a movie star. And T.J. who has a dark side would run all sorts of scams and would somehow become an evangelist.

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Plot Keywords:

tv mini series | dark secret | secret | murder | rape | 

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Taglines:

Bound by a solemn oath. Torn apart by a devastating secret. [Australia video]

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 February 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Celebrity: Der Ruhm

Filming Locations:

Dallas, Texas, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

NBC Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

313 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

Long and stale.

"Celebrity" is about three childhood friends who are bound to each other for life due to a tragic event which occurred when they were teens.

Each one of them gains a certain amount of notoriety as adults and the viewer just sits around waiting for the other shoe to fall. You wait and wait and wait...and wait. Finally, their past comes back to haunt them and leads to another predictably tragic event.

This mini-series actually got quite a few good reviews when it first appeared on TV. Evidently, it was a lot easier to be entertained back then. At around five hours, the length of the film is excruciatingly long and it easily could've been stuffed neatly into a two hour TV movie.

Aside from the horrid pacing, the fatal flaw in this mini-series is the lack of viewer empathy for the three main characters. You keep getting introduced to interesting supporting characters only to have them completely disappear or pop up only every hour or so. The three men in the lead roles all come across as being dishonest and shallow to varying extents.

"Celebrity" is not a mini-series which has stayed in the public consciousness for good reason. It is bloated and tedious. 1/10