Gary: The Television Documentary

 

GARY

The history of Hollywood is filled with child stars who fell once they became adults. There are to be fair more successful child star stories than people are willing to admit. Everyone from Shirley Temple to Elizabeth Taylor, Roddy McDowell and Jackie Cooper down to Jodie Foster, Kieran Culkin and Dakota Fanning have managed to carve out careers post-puberty or in Temple's case, a successful second act as an ambassador. However, it is the disastrous post-fame lives of child performers that we remember, or perhaps gleefully enjoy. Karl "Alfafa" Switzer. Natalie Wood. Sal Mineo. Anissa Jones. Brad Renfro. 

Among that unfortunate list is Gary Coleman, who delighted America as Arnold Jackson on television's Diff'rent Strokes. The travails of his post-Diff'rent Strokes life are probably well-known. Gary, the documentary about his life and career, gives us more insight due to the participation of many of those who ultimately harmed Coleman, intentionally or not as they might assert. 

Gary covers his all-too-brief life, mixing in interviews with his estranged ex-wife Shannon Price and his parents, Sue and Willie. While health issues eventually stunted his physical growth and would plague him the rest of his life, it also gave him a unique look that got him into commercials for a local bank. From that, he found his way to being on Diff'rent Strokes, a new television comedy about a white widower with a daughter who adopts the two black children of his late housekeeper. The show was an instant hit and Coleman became a star.

However, things show that work was hard, aggravated by his health problems that eventually resulted in him requiring dialysis. At eighteen, once Diff'rent Strokes ended, he really wanted to retire from showbusiness altogether, down to trying to find exile in Hawaii. There were, unfortunately, too many meal tickets riding on Coleman, so back to the grind with having less and less to show for it. The career was not the only thing faltering. Coleman's finances had been wildly mismanaged by those he trusted. 

Coleman kept going. In a curious turn, his job as a security guard was not a comedown in Coleman's eyes. It was instead something of a dream job, him having a long-held desire to be in law enforcement. An ugly encounter with a fan killed that hope. However, did his once-wife Shannon do more than kill Coleman's hopes? Their relationship, which by Price's own admission involved slapping, was tempestuous at best. Ultimately, the exact circumstances surrounding Coleman's death will never be confirmed to everyone's satisfaction. 

One may know the details about Gary Coleman, everything from how he had to sue his parents to how his altercation with a fan became physical. Gary, however, delves more into the circumstances that ultimately showed how awful the public was to someone they had once adored. While many, for example, saw his security guard job as the greatest fall from grace in former child star history, Gary reveals that he was actually quite enthusiastic and eager about it. He was looking forward to living out his hopes for something akin to law enforcement, so to see his dream job collapse because of Diff'rent Strokes was devastating. For all the mockery he got, Coleman was deeply hurt about his actions, and more so by the response.

A surprise revelation was how he wrote stories about spaceships and had a lifelong fascination with space travel. That love found an outlet not just in astronomy but in guest starring on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. 

We also see footage of Coleman and Price's wedding. We see in his reciting the vows how he really loved Price. Whether she felt the same is hard to know. The idea that Price was not as enamored of Coleman as Coleman was of Price is brought to the forefront right at the beginning, when we hear her say, "I slapped him a couple of times. I mean, nothing major, nothing like red flag". It is a startling confession to make right off the bat. Gary closes with the selfie Price took with herself and a comatose, intubated Coleman. It is as tawdry an image as one can find. Price continues to defend the picture, but others in Gary find it as I did: an appalling spectacle.

Interviews with Coleman's family and friends reveal the struggles physical and emotional and financial that he went through. Of particular note is hearing about how so much money was coming in but not going to Coleman. $18 million was what he earned through Diff'rent Strokes run, but so much was being cut into by his parents, managers, agents and lawyers that there was less and less for Coleman himself. Add to that how people were diving into what were meant as blocked accounts and the whole thing is sad, so terribly sad. 

Gary is more than a cautionary tale, which I think Todd Bridges, the sole surviving Diff'rent Strokes cast member, calls it if memory serves right. Gary is a tale of how greed and the wrong people wrecked a genuinely talented person who would have been happier pursuing dreams of outer space than dreams of Hollywood stardom. Gary allows everyone say their piece, and sometimes the end results boomerang back at them. It lets the viewer decide what to make of all this. Hopefully, Gary will be an example to future young performers of what not to allow to happen.

7/10