"The Reagans" uncensored

[onehandle]

Read the script for the movie that was too hot for CBS to handle.

Nov. 7, 2003 - When CBS announced that it would not air its miniseries "The Reagans," the network denied that it was caving in to conservative protests. Instead, its statement declared that the show it had produced "does not present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience."

How balanced is "The Reagans"? Salon has obtained a copy of the 213-page screenplay for the miniseries, and we present it here to our readers to allow them to review the primary evidence in this controversy and reach their own conclusions.

Conservative critics have protested that the show offers a caricatured portrait of a pill-popping, astrology-obsessed Nancy Reagan and dwells too heavily on her troubled relationship with her children, while portraying President Reagan as a disconnected, puppet-like simpleton and ignoring his economic and foreign policy record. Liberals argue that conservatives aim to protect Reagan's iconic status by airbrushing his story and maintain that the network should have stood by the work that it had planned as the centerpiece of its November sweeps offerings.

Even before deciding to pull the miniseries, CBS had agreed to cut one scene in which Reagan displayed indifference to people with AIDS, saying (in a line that the screenwriter admits Reagan never uttered), "They that live in sin shall die in sin." Some media observers have argued that CBS's decision not to show "The Reagans" represents a low point in the history of the network once considered TV's most fearless and independent source of news.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/11/07/reagans_script/index.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. I'm ready to buy the video.

I'm serious. If they make it available to the public I'll buy a copy of "the Reagans, uncensored."

[livinontheedge]

2. Republicans don't care if lefties view it. They just don't want

impressionable independents to view it.

[Gin]

3. The description sounds like them to me....right on target...

I had enough of them for 8 years...go away raygun..already.

[kentuck]

4. How could anyone make a movie of the Reagans and it not be unflattering?

If they were honest? Because they were very unflattering and unsympathetic people. To pretend they or he is some kind of heroic icon is being downright dishonest.

[spindoctor]

5. Did I mention the series will be shown on Showtime?

And I am sure it will be available on video shortly after.

I wasn't interested in watching it first, but all the publicity finally made me curious enough to try an episode or two.

[RamboLiberal]

6. Drudgie has posted on his site the Golden Globes

will reopen submissions so "The Reagans" can be considered. Wouldn't that be a hoot if the foreign press gave it a Globe?

[Snellius]

7. "The Reagans" will be the new "Rocky Horror Picture Show"

I can't wait for the Broadway musical. Maybe Barbra will return as First Lady instead of Funny Lady.

[GSCNEWS]

8. LOL!