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Miniseries' praises sung Producers, actors pull together to bring Temptations' past to life Saturday, August 15, 1998 By Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Director Allan Arkush jokes that maybe he should have issued knee pads to the TV Temptations. That's because they're on bended knee backstage on the unyielding wooden floor at Heinz Hall, rehearsing and then filming a prayer that ends with their musical motto: "Temptations forever."
Their mod metallic silver suits, worn over cream-colored ruffled shirts with a fashion relic known as cuff links, leave no room for hidden knee support. But the five actors quickly nail the prayer, asking the Lord to shine his love on the Temptations and bless brother Dennis Edwards who has lifted the group higher than ever in 1969 -- right to "Cloud Nine," you might say.
Although a four-hour miniseries shoot is rarely heavenly (not when the work days are 12 hours long and the director has to sneak sandwich bites at 9:30 a.m. between shot setups), Arkush and the producers are pleased. And they tell the cast and crew that so is NBC, which will air "The Temptations" during the November sweeps when viewership counts for more than usual.
Although the decision to film the project in Pittsburgh has earned few friends in Detroit, producer Jay Benson says, "Things are going wonderfully. We're getting beautiful film, beautiful stuff."
No one wants to talk about how Detroit is miffed that Pittsburgh is playing the Motor City or how the family of the late singer David Ruffin is complaining about rights clearance. Leon, the single-named actor who portrays Ruffin, says worrying about that is not his job.
"It's my job to play the best character I can and bring it to life. When you're dealing with a true character, there's a bit of a difference. He actually did walk and talk on this Earth. He does have loved ones.
"I think he's one of the most remarkable voices of the modern pop era and also a very interesting character. For me to play him is truly an honor, and I only hope anyone who knew him would like and be proud of the performance I give."
Leon, who spent six weeks rehearsing in Los Angeles and watched footage of old Temptations, new Temptations and anything else that was pertinent that he could get his hands on, has studied the signature Ruffin split. "He would go down with both his knees together, his legs out to the floor and come back up. You're not supposed to be able to do something like that. ... I'll probably be able to do it. I'll never be able to master it."
Leon, who played a lady-killer in "Waiting to Exhale," a Jamaican bobsledder in "Cool Runnings," a statue come to life in Madonna's video "Like a Prayer" and a mysterious basketball standout in "Above the Rim," has been a Temptations fan since his boyhood in New York when his parents' radio was tuned to Motown music.
"One thing when I took on this project, listening to the Temptations anthology, this music is beautiful. It's not just good music; it's beautiful music. It's so melodic, and the words are just incredible."
As good as it was (and is), the music is only part of the picture.
"The idea of having five African-American men out there, wearing really nice clothes and being stylish and being sexy, was a very new concept to America," says Leon, folded into a seat in the upper reaches of Heinz Hall while cameras get ready to roll below. He's in period wig and virtually all-black outfit, except for the white tucks on his partially unbuttoned shirt, which enhances his long, lean silhouette.
"And during the '60s when the sound was taking over, the Motown sound, there was no song that epitomized that more than 'My Girl,' which was No. 1 for weeks. Those voices became almost the voices of America. It's an amazing situation. It's great to see a movie being made about that."
Thanks to the movie, Heinz Hall doubled as a veritable time tunnel this week, unfolding a story about music royalty that is rife with harmony, discord, success, tragedy and, always, endurance.
On Thursday morning, the clock spun back to 1969, and the concert when vocalist Ruffin leapt to the stage to sing "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" alongside the men who had bounced him from the group. That afternoon, it was 1958 and the day Otis Williams rushed into a concert hall throbbing with the infectious sound of the Cadillacs and decided this was his destiny.
The magic of that moment is palpable, even four decades and one actor as Williams later. When Charles Malik Whitfield, playing Williams, and Chaz Lamar Shepherd, as his pal Elbridge "Al" Bryant, breathlessly burst into the hall as the Cadillacs perform "Speedoo," you get a sense of what the pair must have experienced.
On the tiny monitor in front of Arkush, you can see the actors' jaws drop, their smiles explode and their joy evident as they twirl and dance down the aisle and elbow their way to the lip of the stage where Pittsburghers James R. Whittington, Robert Knowles, Tony Dixon, Marcel Curges and Thomas Ross are delightful doubles for the Cadillacs.
Girls in ponytails and penny loafers are screaming and waving their arms in the air at the sight of singers who can execute splits while wearing formal wear. The extras have mustered admirable excitement for a group working a long day. Choreographer Russell Clark has warned them not to use modern movements, and they're time traveling, too.
Williams is the sole surviving member of the original Temptations, and the miniseries is based on his 1988 book. He's not here because he's still performing with the current incarnation of the group that, through the years, boasted unparalleled chart statistics: three dozen top-40 singles and 28 R&B top 10 LPs.
The miniseries, which will include more than two dozen songs, will follow the group from the '50s to the '80s, with perhaps a nod to the present. Besides Leon and Whitfield, the movie stars Terron Brooks as Eddie Kendricks, DB Woodside as Melvin Franklin and Christian Payton as Paul Williams. Charles Ley is Dennis Edwards, who came aboard after Ruffin.
"(The Temptations) were five guys who came from nowhere and became stars," says David Picker, one of the project's executive producers. "Some dealt with it OK; some couldn't deal with it. They were the first Motown group, other than the Supremes and certainly the first male group, to cross over."
Picker saw the 1998 Temptations at Coca-Cola Star Lake Amphitheatre recently and marvels, "There were 6,000 people, 80 percent white in their 30s and 40s with kids. Everybody loves this music. They either grew up with it or they've heard it."
Picker is a show business veteran whose resume includes producing "Lenny" with Dustin Hoffman, serving as president of Paramount Pictures' movie division and, today, being president of worldwide production for Hallmark Entertainment. He is one of three executive producers, including former Motown executive Suzanne de Passe and Suzanne Coston.
"You cannot really find another group in the history of entertainment that has kept up the tradition for as long as this group has, and Otis is still playing in it. The mythology is this group has lasted over generations," Picker says. "Their story is told with this kind of style and this kind of fun and excitement and tragedy.
"In the end, it's sad. They all die for different reasons -- one committed suicide; one had a drug habit; another had a heart attack. They all dealt with the ups and downs in different ways, and Otis's determination to keep this group going is still paying off. I mean, they work 250 nights a year."
Director Arkush, who has been nominated for an Emmy next month for the dancing-baby episode of "Ally McBeal," heard the Temptations perform when he was a freshman at Franklin & Marshall College. As a stagehand and lighting technician at the Fillmore East club in New York, Arkush saw everyone from The Who and Led Zeppelin to Janis Joplin, the Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead perform.
Producer Benson says Arkush knows this music. "He has probably one of the biggest collections of music -- all music, particularly rock 'n' roll -- that I've ever seen back in LA. He is the perfect man to direct this movie."
While NBC obviously is hoping for critical approval and a large audience, Leon says he hopes "The Temptations" gives viewers "not just an appreciation for the great music, which they probably already have, but for the men who brought you that music and what they had to go through, what they had to sacrifice in order to bring that music to you.
"It's even more important to reach a whole new generation. There's going to be a lot of kids and younger people watching this movie. In some respects, they'll be seeing the Temptations for the first time. In a lot of ways, we will be the Temptations for them. I can only hope as the movie version of the Temptations, we can do them justice."
Otis Williams sustaining note that knits the group together
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