In 1993, producers Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, and Debra Martin Chase got Houston on board to produce the movie and to star as Cinderella. Whitney Houston was originally going to play Cinderella. So, before the clock strikes midnight, read on for some fun facts about the production, which premiered 25 years ago on November 2, 1997. But it also taught a new generation of Disney fans that the impossible is possible. ![]() With a script by Robert Freedman and direction by Robert Iscove - and a cast that included Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother, Whoopi Goldberg as Queen Constantina, and Victor Garber as King Maximilian - Cinderella gave new life to the 1957 musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The narrative around Cinderella soon changed: Once known as one of the most expensive movies in the history of television, with a budget of $12 million, Cinderella now ranks as one the most profitable TV movies of its time, per the Los Angeles Times. Later, the home-video release of Cinderella moved 1 million units in a week. The then-18-year-old also made history as the first Black actress to portray the character onscreen.īut the movie was also a fairy tale for ABC and Walt Disney Television, pulling in an estimated 60 million viewers and earning ABC’s best timeslot ratings in 13 years. The 1997 TV movie Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella was a fairy tale for its cast, especially Brandy, who has said that playing Cinderella was a dream come true. Danica McKellar Shares Her ‘Wonder Years’ Audition Story, 35 Years Later (VIDEO). ![]() 10 Best ‘King of the Hill’ Episodes: Rewatch Now Before the Revival.15 Stars Who Played Themselves on NBC’s ‘Las Vegas’.The duo shares an apparent connection both on and offscreen. Houston also pushed to cast Norwood in the lead role. Also serving as executive producer, Houston’s presence loomed over the film. Houston’s role in the film, though small, is a deeply memorable performance. While Harris points out there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s something to be said for how the film’s hairstyles - intrinsically tied to Black culture - were allowed to flourish. In the 90s, Norwood often wore her hair in braids, most notably as the lead in her sitcom “Moesha.” For “Cinderella,” producers let her wear her hair the way she liked to, which Harris says made a huge difference.Īcross media, Black girls often wear their hair straightened. Houston had voluminous honey-brown curls. ![]() The film was a huge deal back then and still is today, Harris says.Ī pivotal aspect of the film is that Norwood wore braids. Harris was 8 years old when the film came out and remembers watching it with her mother on VHS. “It very much was such a groundbreaking thing to see as a little Black girl when Disney had plenty of princesses, but none of them had been Black up until that point,” says Aisha Harris, co-host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. Others like Theuri were also enchanted to see Disney’s first Black princess on screen, long before Tiana of “The Princess and the Frog” in 2009. “To see a Black woman in this fairy tale story and just knowing that you as a Black girl could also live your own kind of fairy tale and fantasy, and you could have a really beautiful life and fall in love and be adored by the world, that's the message that I got as a little young girl watching this,” says Here & Now senior editor Ciku Theuri. To commemorate the anniversary, ABC will rebroadcast the film along with a cast reunion Tuesday. Now, 25 years later, the film remains a cultural mainstay. When Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s TV film “Cinderella” debuted on ABC in 1997, millions were enraptured by the iconic performances of Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother and Brandy Norwood in the title role. Brandy as Cinderella in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1997 film.
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