Unsung (TV One)

[Raja]

I can't believe that Norman Conners hasn'd been on my deserve an episode list all this time. That proto Quiet Storm style was right in my wheelhouse as a consumer and player but I didn't know about his Avant-garde and Jazz  fusion  history.

I wonder if there remains an untold story as I remember for years the original version of You Are My Starship was unavailable in new, CD or download formats, with only a new version by Peabo Bryson instead of Michael Henderson

[KWalkerInc]

On the SOLAR episode, they had a lot of interview footage of Dick Griffey though he died in 2010.  I wonder if that was left from when they made the episodes about Shalamar, Klymaxx and Phyllis Hyman or if it was taken from some other source.  I think he also talked about The Whispers, but that episode didn't air until 2013.

[Raja]

2 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

On the SOLAR episode, they had a lot of interview footage of Dick Griffey though he died in 2010.  I wonder if that was left from when they made the episodes about Shalamar, Klymaxx and Phyllis Hyman or if it was taken from some other source.  I think he also talked about The Whispers, but that episode didn't air until 2013.

Its a good bet. Like never seeing Jean Carne and then in the same clothes she was on her own feature and then Norman Connors a week later 

[Raja]

Coming off of the Aretha miniseries more so than the biopic brings Reverend James Cleveland as a nomination. I'm thinking that many in a generation must pass away for it to be aired but surely a documentorian must be recording oral histories 

[KWalkerInc]

TV One will air a marathon from 9 AM to 3 AM Eastern on Thanksgiving for the show's 15th anniversary.

I remember watching the DeBarge episode with my visiting aunt (who would die a few years later) and being surprised by how heavy it was.  I didn't know how much tragedy they had gone through.  I probably wouldn't have watched it with her if I'd known what to expect!

What I wonder is if it is one of their "longest-running and highest-rated" shows, as it says on the linked page, why weren't there any episodes from the traditional format the entire year?  I watched the "Unsung Presents" series, but it's not the same thing.

[KWalkerInc]

The Unsung Facebook page now says that there will be new episodes in March.  A video listed Chingy, Blaque, Stetasonic, Candi Staton, Bobby Caldwell and Donald Lawrence.

[KWalkerInc]

I still haven't seen an announcement about when the regular episodes will start (though I suspect the Donald Lawrence episode will air on Easter to go with their usual gospel artists marathon), but a couple more episodes of "Unsung Presents: Best in Black" are listed as debuting on February 18.

[KWalkerInc]

The new season starts March 3 (9 PM Eastern/6 Pacific) with Bobby Caldwell.  It looks like there are 8 episodes, as they listed one about a record label besides the ones that were announced earlier.

[Raja]

The very first words from Bobby Caldwell is a young Black guy not knowing that he was White. I'm thinking that maybe if you were around in 1979 you would be finding out. Not being allowed to tour for a year while the record was still selling to hide the fact from R&B and Quiet Storm radio went even further than how Motown hid Teena Marie.

And for me before they introduced his baby sister as that I thought she would be identified as his Black wife or ex wife.

[KWalkerInc]

Because Bobby Caldwell had died nearly a year before the episode aired, I was expecting it to feature some of the people interviewed reflecting on his death or his life as a whole (the latter of which they sort of did anyway because it was clear he couldn't perform or record again).  I was surprised that they just tacked on a "he died" message at the end like they do when one of the interview subjects has died, not the person being profiled.  But I guess they had completed the episode within the few months between the interview of Bobby and his death and it would have been too difficult to revise things.  I remember that Vesta Williams had been interviewed in her episode before her (unexpected) death, but it's been so long since I saw that one that I can't remember if they commented on her death more than what was done with the Bobby Caldwell episode.

In the "Cold Chillin'" episode, the manager guy basically admits he ripped everyone off, but of course it's their fault because they didn't take their contracts to a lawyer.  They should have had someone look at it, but most of the "bad manager" types in the episodes at least try to cover up their behavior a little.  Then he added that Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie didn't complain because they were the only ones selling records and did make money.  (I'm surprised they didn't have BDK comment on this although he was interviewed.  I don't remember from his episode if he had problems with management.)

 

[Raja]

Chuckii Booker, the behind the scenes guy I didn't know that I knew. With his life now doing the occasional gig of a "one hit wonder" who also wrote a lot for others and going out when Lionel Ritchie calls he reminds me of Ray Parker Jr without the monster hits. The Barry White was his actual Godfather and his first pro gig 😲

[KWalkerInc]

It was sad toward the end when Candi Staton was talking about the partner she always wanted to have.  However, considering everything she kept going through every time, I was kind of relieved that she hasn't gotten married for a fifth time.  I hope that, as they said, she spends a lot of time with children and grandchildren.  I didn't know she had as many hits as she did because the only one I had heard besides "Young Hearts Run Free" was "Victim."

ETA: She apparently DID have another (terrible) marriage, to a baseball player.  And a sixth marriage that is listed as current, but it didn't seem like it from the way she was talking at the end.

Edited March 26, 2024 by KWalkerInc
More marriages.

[Raja]

After no personal issues with Chuckii Booker we get Candi Staton. And was her story rough.

Musically she seems to be in that last era of regional hit makers only to crossover with her massive Disco hits. Then to Gospel where again you get regional audiences with her being more in the Quartet,  near the Southern Gospel style as opposed to the Chicago Urban Gospel world. Only to be dropped like the pop crossover artist Amy Grant was because of a divorce 

[KWalkerInc]

Considering the negative opinion she had expressed about the show--and even just about the concept of being "unsung"--I was shocked to see Stephanie Mills as an interview subject in the Donald Lawrence episode.  I did a double take when she appeared, because she was just about the last person I would expect.  I don't know how'd she feel about having an episode of her own, but she must have softened somewhat about the show.

[Raja]

I also watch the interviewees as they often show up later as the featured performer. With Candi Staton it was Freda Payne and when Stephanie Mills popped up as Donald Lawrence's first big gig I was also shocked when she was there since I also heard her comments about Unsung. I wonder if she has softened her stance with age or the treatment of a friend by the show.

What was stranger was two weeks in a row we had mention of the PTL Club's Jim and Tammy Faye Baker doing some monetary backing.

I miss the pre-pandemic days when TV ONE started to marathon all the Gospel artist they had featured and BET closed the night by broadcasting the Stellar Awards show on Easter Sunday.

So if Kirk Franklin, featured in the forth episode of  Gospel on PBS was the child phenom introducing Hip-Hop to Gospel as sort of a musical Michael Jordan then D. Lawrence was his slightly older brother Scottie Pippen equivalent adding New Jack Swing to Gospel.

Edited April 3, 2024 by Raja

[Raja]

Blaque. I spent the episode asking myself did those two women actual dress like that everyday to find out one is now a "Real" Housewife.

Stetsasonic. Frukwan, still holding a grudge that your verse did not fit an anti apartheid project.

[KWalkerInc]

Candi Staton appeared on the Disco series that was on PBS, and (I believe in episode two) gave a more detailed, harrowing account of the inspiration for "Young Hearts Run Free."  From Unsung I knew it was about one of her terrible husbands (maybe the second?), but in the Disco series she talked about him holding her over a 10th (or 20th?) floor balcony at a Vegas casino where she was playing.  She told him that the Mafia ran Vegas and that if he tried to walk out of the casino where her name was on the marquee with her body on the ground, he'd never make it out of the city alive.  He pulled her back in, but said he was going to shoot her and pointed a gun at her.  She was so tired of dealing with him that she was just like, "Okay" and went to sleep.  I will not hear the song the same way after that!  I hope that, against all odds, her sixth husband is actually not like the others (I read an interview that says they choose not to live together).

[Raja]

It seems that TV ONE has had an offshoot network Cleo TV. Both networks are running Unsung marathons on the NFL opening Sunday.

[Raja]

NFL week 2 another Unsung marathon on TV ONE but not on their subsidiary Cleo TV this week.