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How ‘The New Edition Story’ Made A Band of Brothers

Hollywood wanted no parts of it. For television vet Jesse Collins, the whole idea of the project was as perplexing as it was frustrating. After all, the improbable rise of New Edition—a group of unpolished and brazenly raw African-American kids hailing from Boston’s notorious Orchard Park projects who would go on to become one of the ‘80s most impactful vocal acts—seemed ripe and ready for the big screen.

“We developed and pitched it, and then a lot of people passed on it,” says Collins, the executive producer of the much hyped, ambitious, big budget BET three night mini-series The New Edition Story. “It was a big leap of faith because when we started [the process] we didn’t have a deal. I didn’t have a deal and the writer that I got to do it, Abdul Williams, he didn’t have a deal. It could have very easily been all for naught.”

Indeed, one has to wonder just what exactly studio suits were thinking? Any script chronicling the dramatic careers of New Edition’s Ralph Tresvant, Bobby Brown, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe and Johnny Gill, practically writes itself. An over-the-top shady music producer plucks a band of rambunctious lads out from obscurity and robs them blind (millions!) during their ascent to R&B, chart-topping success. From there, the group finds superstardom, battles drug addiction, captures solo glory, loses a fortune, reunites, suffers paralyzing tragedy, literally implodes onstage during an actual concert, and finds redemption.