ABC movie depicts crazy Go-Go days

Having recounted the lives of Donny and Marie Osmond in a made-for-TV movie last year, ABC will next chronicle the quick rise and fall of the Go-Go’s.

“This movie will be nothing like ‘Inside the Osmonds,”‘ said Mark Sennet, who produced that movie for ABC and bought the rights to develop a movie around the 1980s all-female band with partner Alan Jacobs. Sennet and Jacobs will be executive producers on the Go-Go’s film.

Unlike the squeaky-clean Osmonds, Go-Go’s bandmates Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine and Gina Schock were frequently linked to risque parties and reports of drug abuse, including heroin use, during the early ’80s.

Quinn Taylor, ABC’s senior vice president of miniseries and movies, said the network wanted to treat the band’s history accurately.

“We won’t show needles going into arms, but we can deal with issues around drug abuse,” Taylor said. “We have to have a level of authenticity or else the viewer will know we’re shining them. We will address the band’s issues honestly.”

At their peak, the Go-Go’s were among the most successful all-female bands to emerge at the height of the punk rock era in the late 1970s. But, just three years after its debut album, “Beauty and the Beat,” ranked No. 1 on Billboard’s list of top 100 albums of 1981, the Go-Go’s disbanded.

After two brief reunions, in 1990 and 1994, the Go-Go’s released an album last year, “God Bless the Go-Go’s,” which earned scattered critical praise but ranked only No. 57 on Billboard’s top-100 albums list.

Despite a lackluster response to the group’s comeback last year, Taylor considers their story good fodder for TV.

“They were five girls with a dream and willing to sacrifice everything to make that dream happen,” Taylor said. “That’s relatable and inspirational.”