Thread: CBS "Reagan" Mini-Series ....

Hollywood is at it again. There's a new "made for TV" movie coming out about the life of Ronald Reagan, and it's set to air on CBS in November for the big "Sweeps" ratings period.

According to Matt Drudge's "Drudge Report", "The Reagans"is so bad that it shows Nancy Reagan slapping her daughter, and President Reagan cursing.

It gets worse from there. Drudge says that Reagan is portrayed as a doddering old man who is not in control of his administration. Nancy Reagan is made to look like a pill popping control freak who gives her busband advice on how to run the country based on the word of a crackpot astrologer. Viewers also will get to see as Reagan out of touch with day to day events, and utterly uncompassionate towards those less fortunate. At one point in a completely fabricated conversation about giving money for AIDS research, the President says, "Those who are born in sin shall die in sin."

And here's a scene in which Reagan worries that he's the Anti-Christ:

**INT. REAGANS'S BREAKFAST ROOM -- WHITE HOUSE -- MORNING

Reagan and Nancy sit in front of their breakfast. They can't eat. Can't drink. They're numb.

REAGAN: It's Armageddon... that's what it is. Armageddon. The Leader from the West will be revealed as the anti-Christ, and then God will strike him down. That's me. I am the anti-Christ.

NANCY: No, Ronnie...

REAGAN (overriding): And the Lord will strike down all of civilization, in order to make way for the new order...a new Heaven and a new Earth...

Nancy reaches out, grabs his hand, strongly. NANCY: Hold on. You've got to hold on, Ronnie.

Reagan's eyes are filling with tears. He can't help it. He's crumbling. REAGAN: I saved 77 lives in 7 years, Nancy... But I couldn't save those people in Lebanon. Nancy gets up, puts her arms around him. She rocks him slowly, silently, back and forth.**

If you had any doubt about the political agenda behind this movie, the actor playing Reagan is none other than Barbara Streisand's husband, James Brolin. And who is the president of CBS who made this project happen? His name is Les Moonves, he's a top Democrat supporter, so much so that he sat with Hillary Clinton during the 1996 Democrat Convention.

CBS is is engaging in character assassination.

Friends, they need to hear from you about this film. The entire production is a hatchet job by people who hated President Reagan when he was in office, and now see an opportunity to settle an old political score.

Don't take my word for it though. Just read this quote from the producers: "...this is not revenge. It is about telling a good story in our honest sort of way. We all believe it's a story that should be told."

And what story is that? It's certainly not a story that includes any mention of the economic ecovery during the Reagan administration, or the massive creation of wealth that happened in the 1980's, or America winning the Cold War. For some reason, those things are unimportant to the story.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/1...eut/index.html

CBS may cancel Reagan mini-series
Monday, November 3, 2003 Posted: 10:09 PM EST



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Drawing Republican fire over the accuracy of its upcoming mini-series "The Reagans," CBS appears ready to present a kinder, gentler portrait of the ailing former president than originally produced -- if the network airs it at all.

Sources close to the production said Monday CBS is considering canceling the docudrama, slated to air Nov. 16 and 18, under mounting criticism from political conservatives that the two-part series unfairly depicts Reagan and his wife.

Meanwhile, Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety reported that director Robert Allan Ackerman has quit the production over creative differences with CBS executives who insisted on numerous last-minute alterations.

Neither producers for the four-hour film nor Ackerman could immediately be reached for comment.

But sources familiar with the production told Reuters that last-minute changes demanded by CBS are being made and that there was a chance the movie could be moved to the network's sister pay cable TV channel, Showtime.

The manager for actor James Brolin, who stars as Reagan in the film, said his client was refraining from taking part in promoting the mini-series at this point.

In the dark

"We don't know what movie they're putting out there or when or what they're doing with it," Jeff Wald told Reuters, adding that Ackerman was not participating in editing the final cut.

Wald described executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, whose credits include the hit film musical "Chicago," as "absolutely dismayed" by the sight-unseen backlash.

He dismissed criticism from some that the mini-series is a "hatchet job" and denied that the filmmakers had any agenda in portraying Reagan other than to make a "fair and balanced movie about who he was, positive and negative."

While the Viacom-owned network had no comment Monday, CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves told CNBC last week that "there are some edits being made trying to present a more fair picture of the Reagans."

The only comment from the Reagans themselves has come from former first lady Nancy Reagan, who in a brief statement issued last week to the Fox News Channel said, "The timing of (the mini-series) is absolutely staggering to me. Obviously, it's very hurtful." She apparently was referring to the fact that the 92-year-old former president is severely ill with Alzheimer's disease.

Moonves is expected to decide in a few days whether to pull the mini-series from the network's November schedule, reschedule it for a later date or move it to Showtime.

However, if Moonves goes ahead with plans to air "The Reagans" on Nov. 16, as planned, the final product will differ substantially from the film that Reagan supporters have criticized, with many controversial scenes heavily edited or cut from the production, sources said.

The furor over the mini-series arose after the New York Times reported last month that the film portrays the Reagans in a largely unflattering light. In one scene, Reagan says of AIDS patients, "They that live in sin shall die in sin." But there is no evidence he ever expressed those views.

Some Republicans also were incensed that Reagan is played by Brolin, who is married to Democratic activist Barbra Streisand. Nancy Reagan is portrayed by Judy Davis. Both are self-described liberals, as are Zadan and Meron.

On Friday, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie asked CBS to allow a team of scholars to review the film in advance for historical accuracy. Otherwise, he said, CBS should run a disclaimer informing viewers that the film is a fictional portrayal of the Reagans.

Some Reagan supporters have urged boycotts of CBS by viewers and advertisers.

On her Web site last week, Streisand said criticism of the film was typical of "what the right wing does when they are faced with a truth that is not 100 percent positive for their side -- they ... scream and yell until they get their way. Instead of boycotting and trying to have the movie changed, why don't they all just wait to see the film when it airs like the rest of us."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/op...05WED3.html?th

CBS Cancels 'The Reagans'

Published: November 5, 2003

(New York Times Op-Ed)

It is hard to know what CBS was thinking when it decided to order up a less-than-complimentary mini-series about the Reagans at a time when former President Ronald Reagan is failing and his wife, Nancy, is nursing him. And it should have come as no surprise that conservatives, protective of Mr. Reagan's image at all times, would launch one of the fierce assaults that have become so familiar whenever the right wants to scare the media on an ideological question. But having decided to broadcast the program, CBS was wrong to yield to conservative pressure and yank it.

The biopic, a burgeoning TV format, is a notoriously unreliable storytelling medium. Actors made up to look like famous people spout made-up dialogue that often sounds as if it had been written with the primary purpose of keeping viewers tuned in during the sweeps season. It is not difficult to see why people close to Mr. Reagan would be upset that the script quoted him, for example, on the subject of AIDS sufferers as saying, in an invented quotation, "They that live in sin shall die in sin."

But it is also hard to believe that CBS was unable to edit the series into a form suitable for broadcasting. It would not have had to be favorable to Mr. Reagan, or even rigidly evenhanded, to be worthy of running. The former president is certainly a suitable subject for public debate. His supporters credit him with forcing down the Iron Curtain, so it is odd that some of them have helped create the Soviet-style chill embedded in the idea that we, as a nation, will not allow critical portrayals of one of our own recent leaders.

CBS denies that it bowed to pressure yesterday when it decided to pull the program, but it had been besieged by talk-radio listeners and the Republican National Committee. The Republicans wanted a disclaimer on the screen every 10 minutes warning that the program contained fictional material. A conservative watchdog group urged advertisers to review the script before running commercials.

CBS's decision to hand the program off to the Showtime cable channel will leave it with a far smaller audience. Cable TV seems to have become the home of any programming with the least hint of political controversy. Meanwhile, the networks grow increasingly brave about broadcasting shows featuring lingerie models parading in the latest fashions, and ordinary people competing for cash by eating live insects.

I find this revolting. Ugh. Personally I never really cared for Regan, but he was the President and the country really did well under his leadership. Never could stand Nancy though. LOL. BUT, and this is a big but, to stoop to this kind of character assassination is abominable. The poor man is suffering with Alzheimer’s, and just think how something like this will effect his family and friends. To me this mini-series is cruel and inhumane. Just leave the man and his family alone!

I'm a registered independent and I don't care about political agendas. I usually don't get into my political beliefs because it's such an incendiary topic. But to do something like this for political reasons is just sickening.

Well if this was a movie about the Clintons no one would be screaming he was our president lets protect his memory, sorry but looking back on the Reagan years I don't have fond memories, things were much like they are now as far as the economy goes, bad, bad and bad. I remember questioning why the government was not doing more to help Aids victims during his years in office. I'm very sorry that the former president is sick but my sympathy for him does not alter my memory of those years or history.

Originally posted by mesue
Well if this was a movie about the Clintons no one would be screaming he was our president lets protect his memory, sorry but looking back on the Reagan years I don't have fond memories, things were much like they are now as far as the economy goes, bad, bad and bad. I remember questioning why the government was not doing more to help Aids victims during his years in office. I'm very sorry that the former president is sick but my sympathy for him does not alter my memory of those years or history.

I have to disagree with you. The script sounds like a fine premise for a SNL skit - but a mini-series. Pluueezz. If they were to produce a movie about the Clintons depicting Bill as some sex-crazed drunken frat boy and Hilary as the brain behind the administation - but a cold manipilating -- ahem - person - ( the stuff parodies are made of ) and tried to pass it off as a "documentary" - then yes - I would find it just as objectionable.



At least they waited until Nixon was dead before making a Hollywood version of his "history" ...