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The pushy producer presses:
"Look, Barbara, the script is ready to shoot. The censors tell us that we can push the envelope here. You can have fun with it."
Barbara: "We are the censors that matter."
Barbara's dad: "My daughters know how to have fun."
Barbara: "Yeah, and it's not telling off-color jokes and wearing low necklines."
That scene from CBS' "Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story" purportedly really happened as she and her sisters Louise and Irlene prepared to launch their variety series ("Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters"), which ran from 1980-82 on NBC.
The backstage clash continues as another producer pronounces:
"No gospel - it's too religious. You have to understand, we have to program for the broadest audience."
Barbara: "And you have to understand - we know our audience. We have never done a show without at least one gospel song."
And nobody has ever done a celebrity-life TV movie more mercilessly, mawkishly maudlin than "Get to the Heart," which will gush gooey, goofy, globs of pious platitudes all over millions of small screens at 9 Sunday night on WCSC.
This CBS production is so corny it's unintentionally campy. Mandrell even appears as herself at beginning and end. Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers also have cameos.
Mandrell had script approval on this one, too - so she has nobody else to blame when she comes across as too sweet to be stomach.
For instance, when her little sisters gingerly tell her they're ready...