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*The Beach Boys: An American Family*
The Beach Boys: An American Family
Genre	Drama
Written by	Kirk Ellis
Directed by	Jeff Bleckner
Starring	Kevin Dunn; Fred Weller; Alley Mills; Nick Stabile; Matt Letscher; Emmanuelle Vaugier;
Music by	Gary Griffin
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	2
Production
Executive producers	Neil Meron; Craig Zadan; John Stamos;
Producers	John Whitman; Alan Boyd; David Mace;
Cinematography	Brian J. Reynolds
Editors	Geoffrey Rowland; Bryan M. Horne;
Running time	175 minutes
Production companies	Storyline Entertainment; Columbia TriStar Television;
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	February 27 –; February 28, 2000

The Beach Boys: An American Family is a 2000 American miniseries written by Kirk Ellis and directed by Jeff Bleckner.^[1] It is a dramatization of the early years of The Beach Boys, from their formation in the early 1960s to their peak of popularity as musical innovators, through their late-1960s decline (and Brian Wilson's beginning battle with mental illness), to their re-emergence in 1974 as a nostalgia and "goodtime" act.

Production

The miniseries was shown in two parts on ABC, on February 27 and 28, 2000. It featured a good deal of original studio and session material by the band, which forms the backdrop to the story. Music that couldn't be licensed for the production, but was important to the story (such as the Smile album sessions, and music by criminal Charles Manson, who had collaborated with Dennis Wilson), was filled in with sound-alikes, reminiscent of the original recordings.

Reaction

In 2000, Brian Wilson stated of the film: "I didn't like it, I thought it was in poor taste. ... And it stunk. I thought it stunk!"^[2] He elaborated further: "I didn't like the second part. It wasn't really true to the way things were. I'd like to see another movie if it was done right. But I just sort of turned my back to this one, or my other cheek, or whatever you wanna call it. It was best just to ignore it because it really wasn't true to life."^[3] Wilson also felt that he was poorly portrayed by actor Frederick Weller ("He was a little more rough than me") and that there was too much coverage of Charles Manson ("That was a commercial fuckup").^[4]

Cast

Kevin Dunn as Murry Wilson
Fred Weller as Brian Wilson
Alley Mills as Audree Wilson
Nick Stabile as Dennis Wilson
Emmanuelle Vaugier as Suzanne Love
Ryan Northcott as Carl Wilson
Matt Letscher as Mike Love
Ned Vaughn as Al Jardine
Dublin James as David Marks
Jesse Caron as Bruce Johnston
Amy Van Horne as Marilyn Rovell
Jad Mager as Nick Venet
Eric Matheny as Chuck Britz
Harris Laskaway as Voyle Gilmore
Clay Wilcox as Tommy Schaeffer
Anthony Rapp as Van Dyke Parks
Erik Passoja as Charles Manson
David Polcyn as Phil Spector
Tera Hendrickson as Carol Kaye
James Intveld as Hal Blaine
Jessica Shannon as a concert girl
Elliot Kendall as Glen Campbell
Steve Stanley as Barney Kessel
Trevor St. John as Jan Berry
Jacob Young as Dean Torrence

Awards

The Beach Boys: An American Family was nominated in nine individual categories at different award ceremonies.

It won three out of those nine categories that it was nominated in. Listed below are the categories that the movie was nominated in as well as for what award:

2000
- Emmy Awards
  - Outstanding Mini-series^[5]
  - Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Mini-series, Movie Or A Special
  - Single-Camera Sound Mixing For A Mini-series Or A Movie
- Artios Awards
  - Best Casting For TV Mini-Series
2001
- Eddie Awards
  - Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Commercial Television (won)
- Excellence In Production Design Awards
  - Best Television Movie or Mini-Series
- C.A.S. Awards
  - Outstanding Achievement In Sound Mixing For A Television Movie-of-the-Week, Mini-Series (won)
- DGA Awards
  - Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Movies For Television (won)
- Golden Satellite Awards
  - Best Mini-series (nom)